What Does This Mean?

Alone In A Room

Hope sat at the table for a few more minutes as she thought over what she and Freya talked about. She knew she had to go back upstairs. She had abruptly left Josie in the room by herself probably thinking she did something wrong. Hope couldn't leave her to be thinking that, no matter how badly she wanted to avoid facing her.

Hope let out a small sigh before she pushed herself onto her feet and headed back upstairs. She opened the door to her room to see Josie laying in her bed with a book.

"Hey . . . " Hope said.

Josie glanced over at Hope and gave her a soft smile putting down the book she was reading.

"Hey, you okay?" Josie asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Hope replied. "Just uh . . . had to talk to my aunt."

It was partly true. She did talk to Freya, but it wasn't necessarily intentional.

"You sure? You left pretty quickly." Josie responded.

"Yeah." Hope replied with a shake of her head as she took a few steps into the room and closed the door behind her.

Josie's nerves immediately spiked when she saw this. For some reason being alone in a room with Hope always made her nervous.

"My aunt . .  . she told me about your plan." Hope spoke.

"Oh. Yeah. I figured she would at some point..." Josie spoke as she looked downwards with a guilt stricken expression.

"Were you going to let me in on this plan of yours or?" Hope asked as she sat down against the foot of her bed.

"Well yeah, but I knew you weren't going to like it. I also assumed the plan would be obvious. I mean . . . i'm the one who put the magic there, I should be the one to take it out. And besides Lizzie, I'm the only siphoner who can..." Josie replied.

"You'd be right in assuming I wouldn't like it." Hope answered.

"I've handled the dark magic before, i'll be fine." Josie spoke.

"Jo. You locked away your magic so you wouldn't have to handle it again." Hope replied.

"If it means helping you then I don't care." Josie responded sternly.

Hope stayed silent for a moment before letting out a soft sigh.

"It doesn't seem like I'm going to be talking you out of this." Hope spoke.

"No. I have Freya on my side too. So, two against one." Josie replied, a smug smile on her features.

"Mhm . . . " Hope muttered.

"We'll try it tomorrow." Josie stated before she patted the bed beside her. "Now come on, we gotta finish that movie."

Hope couldn't help but smile in response to her. Something about Josie always made Hope smile. Hope then got up and took her spot next to Josie. Josie hit play and they began to watch in comfortable silence.

Hope was soon focused on the movie, but she was all too aware of how close Josie was. Every shift of her movements, her breathing, Hope was aware of all of it.

After a few minutes of Hope being painfully aware, she felt Josie rest her head against her shoulder. The weight of it was actually comforting to Hope, but her heart slammed against her ribs nonetheless. It was such a simple action on Josie's part, but it carried much more weight than either of them knew.

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The movie went on for another hour and Hope didn't even realize Josie had fallen asleep against her until she went to grab the remote and realized Josie's eyes were closed. Hope shut off the TV and thought out her next move. She didn't want to wake up Josie, but she also didn't want to sit with her head on her shoulder the entire night.

After a few moments of contemplation Hope slowly backed her shoulder away from Josie's head, slipping her hand around Josie's cheek to hold her head up. Hope then slowly guided Josie's head to a pillow at which time she saw Josie's eyes open.

"Hope?" Josie asked in a bit of a daze.

Shit.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up." Hope spoke.

"I fell asleep?" Josie asked, rubbing her eyes and turning over to look at the clock. It was right around 1am.

"Oh shoot, I'm sorry." Josie apologized.

"Huh? No, don't apologize, Jo. It's fine." Hope assured her.

Josie slowly sat up running her hands through her hair.

"I should go to my room." Josie spoke as she went to get up.

Hope's hand quickly shot over to take hold of Josie's wrist.

"No." Hope said in an almost desperate tone.

God. Josie was going to see right through her. She quickly retracted her hand before she spoke.

"I mean . . . you can stay. You are already here, no need to have to get up . . ." Hope corrected.

"Oh. Okay." Josie spoke.

"You don't have to . . ." Hope replied.

"No, I want to." Josie spoke as she laid back down. "This bed is pretty comfortable." She replied with a soft laugh.

Hope laughed softly in return. She always liked hearing Josie's laugh. It was a cute soothing type of laugh. One that made you feel warm and safe and happy. She was glad that awkward moment didn't last. Or maybe it was just awkward to her, but not Josie. She was really good at overthinking when it came to Josie.

Hope soon laid down herself pulling the blankets over her shoulder before turning out the light. It was weird sleeping next to Josie, but Hope also got a strange sense of comfort from it.