His Wild Blue Air

Day 8

Monday

Licking. Someone was licking Skylar's face. She frowned and groaned, blocking them away. And then as she touched that pointy thing with the wet thing with the two holes, she realized it wasn't a someone. She reluctantly peeked open an eyelid and saw Dog panting at her happily. She grunted unhappily and faced away from him. Not three seconds later, he was back to licking, except it was her feet this time.

She yelped in a very ungraceful way, leaping up, wide awake. She retracted her feet and tucked them under her thighs as she glared at Dog. She was about to

give him a good scolding before she realized that she was not in her room. She looked at the cushion in her lap and then back at the cushion propped against the arm of the couch.

Couch. Her eyes traveled around the room and then she remembered that she ended up crashing in the living room last night. And then she saw the blanket curled unruly in front of her. She didn't remember bringing a blanket with her last night. She glanced at Dog who was still panting happily, tail wagging, and voted against the idea that he would be the one who brought the blanket.

Well, there was only one person left. And he was upstairs in his own room.

Skylar looked upwards at the ceiling as she pondered the idea for a moment before she caught a glance at the clock and realized she was late. She scrambled out of the couch and stomped upstairs to her room to get changed.

By the time she'd tied her hair into the usual neat ponytail and slipped on her glasses, she could already hear Ethan belting out yet another pop song in his bedroom. But she had no time to amuse herself because she still had to prepare breakfast before she had to go to work.

Since she was running out of time, she came up with the simplest breakfast she'd ever pulled off which required literally no effort: oatmeal, banana and orange juice. Ethan could just stuff it if he didn't like it. She was just pouring kibble for Dog when he came into the room.

"Are you apologizing to your dog?" Her head whipped up to see him standing by the table, frowning down at her.

She looked him straight in the eye, serious as ever. "Yes, because I woke up late and he didn't get his morning walk." She patted Dog on the head as he went wolfing down his breakfast. She stood up and brushed her hands on the thighs of her pants. "Do not mock me."

He held his hands up in a surrendering gesture and sat down at the table. "How late did you wake up?" he asked, seconds after frowning at the breakfast she'd laid out on the table.

She refused to answer him. She sat down opposite him and picked up the spoon. She pointed at him with the spoon. "Make your own breakfast if you don't like it." He dutifully took his spoon and fed himself oatmeal. She smiled smugly. "What time do you have to be at the supermarket?"

"Ten. Can I hitch a ride with you?"

"You've been doing that for the past seven days, haven't you?" she said dryly.

He smiled sheepishly. "Did you -" She stopped herself. He waited. She shook her head and looked back down at her bowl. "Never mind."

"What is it?" he pursued.

"Doesn't matter," she muttered. When he said nothing else, she assumed he knew not to dog her on this. They continued eating their breakfast in silence. "Did you put that blanket on me yesterday?" She just wanted to know.

He looked up in surprise. "What?"

She raised her brow. "Last night, on the couch, did you bring me that blanket?"