Miss, Do I Know You?

24 - Friday, January 15

"Mikayla! Out!"

"Huh?" I muttered, my bleary eyes struggling to focus. The world spun as I rolled off the couch and landed unceremoniously on the floor, struggling to gather my wits and to desperately make sense of what was going on. "What the—"

"I swear to god, I will smother you with a pillow one night!" Alex pushed herself up on her elbows, eyes barely open. "Blanket snatcher."

"That's why you shoved me onto the floor?" I groaned. "This is my bed! No one asked you to be here."

"It's my couch you're sleeping on, you hobo. I sleep wherever I want."

I stared at her wide-eyed, amusement slowly taking over my features. "You did not..."

"Too soon?"

I shrugged. "Can't argue with the truth."

Alex tossed the blanket over herself and flopped back down on the couch like a marionette whose strings had been cut. "Sleep on the floor," she half-heartedly declared into the pillow.

"I'll just go to your bed."

"I'll just drag you out."

"Oh, so you can sleep in my bed for a whole week, but yours is off-limits? If I'm not sleeping anymore, you're not either." I pouted and grabbed her by the leg. Alex didn't even make a sound as I dragged her off the couch. Just let me have my way and dropped beside me, the blanket and pillow accompanying her descent. "Here, just like old times. But you weren't half as grumpy then. Or this heavy."

A small huff-like laugh broke through her facade as she turned her head and cracked an eye open to look at me. "You know what, Kay? Sometimes I honestly have no idea why I'm still friends with you."

Smiling, I propped myself up on my elbow and looked down at her lying on her stomach with arms buried under the pillow. At how she kept trying to blow this one strand of hair away from her face, only to have it fall back into place every time. My fingers itched to reach out and brush it away, a bit hesitantly since I feared my hand might get burned the moment I touched her like that, so intentionally. She didn't seem to mind though, for she rolled over onto her back and gazed up at me with that sleepy stare and that warm smile.

I really had to command myself to maintain a respectful distance, to keep the established boundaries, but I loved those stolen moments that seemed to occur more frequently than expected lately. We might've even remained there, rolling around the floor and stealing glances through any possible minute of the morning, if the rumble in her stomach hadn't played as loud as it did and made us both laugh in the end.

These things were becoming a new kind of norm that both of us creatively avoided acknowledging. But there was also simplicity that needed no questioning. When sleep was harder to come by, she'd often keep me company until we'd drift off together. And even when sleep came easier, there'd been a couple of mornings I'd woken up to find her beside me, and I knew she had been the one struggling then. I couldn't even recall if one of us had initiated it that night, or if we had subconsciously ended up in one bed.

But I did know that rest was sweeter and doubly welcome when shared, and the slight awkwardness that came after couldn't possibly outweigh that.

The mornings always passed quickly, filled with familiar routines. I made breakfast and lunch for Alex before she took off to usher Benji to school and then head to work, while I remained at the apartment and tried to catch up on some schoolwork. And by the time the sun had relinquished itself to wintry twilight, she returned from work and extended the same invitation she had for quite a while. On this day, I finally chose to accept it.