desiderium || Chris sturniolo

19

"Quinn wake up. It's almost 8" A voice urged, pulling me from my sleep.

I groaned and went to roll over but stopped at the feeling of cold tiles underneath me. My eyes shot open at the memory of what happened last night.

Shit.

I had an episode.
In front of Chris.

Every single time I've had an episode since my mother died, either Matt,blair,alahna nick or my father was there to calm me down.

They were so frequent for those first years that they always knew what to do.

The nightmare that triggered the episode flashed in my mind, making me shiver.

Once I sat up and looked around, I was hit with a burst of cold air.

Jeez, it was cold in here. And I had all of the blankets.

My eyes shot over to Chris to see him sitting a few feet away with raised eyebrows. He was still shirtless and had no way to shield himself from the cold. He had to be freezing.

"Shit. Here. Take this" I said tossing him a blanket.

He caught it with a grateful look.

"Um are you like better now..?" He asked scratching the back of the neck.

"Yeah all better. By the way-um, thank you" I muttered looking up at the ceiling.

"You tell anyone and I'll deny everything" Did he mean the kiss too?

I wasn't sure why that was the first thing I thought about, but it was. The memory of his lips on mine my face redden.

"What time did you say it was?" I asked after a moment.

Chris looked up at the clock, "It's almost 8" I froze.

Shit.

"We've got to go" I said shooting up from the ground.

"May I ask why?" I rolled my eyes and looked over to see his eyes on my legs which were now fully exposed. It took me a moment to clear my head before answering.

"Because my dad gets to Blair 's house at nine for Christmas morning. If I show up looking like this after he gets there, he will think that I've been attacked" I said gesturing to my exhausted appearance.

Chris pushed himself off the floor and nodded,

"Why don't you just tell him that you got stranded then?" I shrugged and grabbed my dress from the corner of the bathroom.

"He worries. I'm not going to tell him that I was attacked or followed that day let alone that I spent the night on the street that my mom's shop used to be"

"Because your all he's got."

Not a question.

But a statement.

I looked up to see a bit of resentment in his eyes..

"Yeah. I guess so" Chris was quiet for a second before clearing his throat and nodding.

"Just toss me my shirt once you've changed back into the dress" I agreed and stayed quiet until he left.

Once the door shut I quickly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled back on the blood stained dress.

I still looked as exhausted as yesterday. Splashing some cold water on myself, I walked out the door and threw the shirt to Chris who caught it and slipped it on.

The two of us then put Chris's bloody towel in the trash and all the blankets back onto the bed. I tried not to think how weird our lack of fighting was.