Fix me

Chapter 23

I'm woken up by a sharp kick in the back of my leg. 'What the f*ck...' I groan, turning around, squinting through the darkness.

All of a sudden I am wide awake. Cheryl's moaning in her sleep, thrashing around. And she's getting louder.

'Cheryl!' I kneel up and start shaking her. 'Stop it. Wake up. Cheryl!'

Cheryl flings her arm up and smacks me right in

the nose. 'Agh, f*ck!'

She wakes up then, sitting straight up, gasping. 'K- Kimba?'

Ignoring the throbbing in the centre of my face I turn my attention to her. 'Are you ok? You were...moaning.'

There are tear tracks down her face. 'I was... having a bad dream.' She whispers.

'Aah, Cheryl. What about?'

She shakes her head. 'N-nothing, don't-nothing.'

'Cuddle?' I ask, holding my arms out. Cheryl half smiles and shuffles into my arms.

'Was it Andrew, Chez?'

I feel her nod, and hold her tighter. 'I just opened a gate yesterday, I think.' She sighs.

'Sorry.'

'It's fine. Hang on...' Cheryl pulls away to look at me. 'Did you just swear?'

'Yes.' I admit.

'Why?'

'Well... you punched me in the face.' I tell her, raising my hand to my nose again. 'In your sleep, you were thrashing about so I tried to wake you up and you belted me.'

'Oh.' Cheryl leans back, pressing her lips tightly together. Our eyes meet, and she can't hold it in. She snorts with laughter and rolls back on the bed, burying her face in the pillow.

'Hey, it's not funny, it really hurt!' I hiss.

'S-sorry...' Cheryl giggles. She tries to keep a straight face but can't hold her laughter in.

'Right. That's it.'

I lunge, and start tickling her. Cheryl squeals, then the more I do it the louder she gets. 'Stop it! Agh! Please, Ok ok, you win, I'm sorry!'

'Sshhh! Keep it down, you'll wake Adam up.'

'I doubt it, he's right on the other side of the corridor. And it'd be your fault!' she says breathlessly. Neither of use seems to register the fact that I am lay on top of her, both of us panting. Cheryl starts stroking my hair, and I end up with my head on her chest with my eyes shut, enjoying the feeling. 'I can hear your heart beating.'

'Wow, really, do they do that?!' she gasps. I poke her in the ribs, making her jump. 'Sorry I woke you up babe.' She says.

'I don't mind, as long as you're ok? D'you wanna talk about it?'

'Nah, I'm ok babe, honestly.'

'I'm going back to sleep then.' I roll off Cheryl and lie on my back next to her. It crosses my mind that maybe now would be a good time to ask her about when she said she loved me. But I'm scared to. Because sometimes the answer you get isn't the answer you want.

**

When I wake up in the morning, Cheryl is watching me. 'Hi.' I groan, stretching. She starts to smile. 'Morning.'

'What're you doing?'

'Watching you sleep.'

'Why?'