A Piece Of His Heart

Twenty-eight

Eliza

I woke with a start, gasping for air as the feeling of legs crawling over my skin began to subside the longer I kept my eyes open for. It'd been a rather weird dream. Locked in a room full of those eight-legged monsters that humans decided to name spiders. And they'd been crawling over me, everywhere on me as I lay frozen.

Eww.

I shrunk into myself in disgust before inhaling and exhaling sharply to catch my breath. Such a thing hadn't happened and it was just a childish nightmare. I turned my head to find Waleed soundly sleeping with his hair falling over his forehead and lips parted softly as he breathed evenly.

I couldn't sleep anymore, and... and I was hungry. I checked the time for it to be a little short of three in the morning then justified my hunger by saying my stomach didn't know that it was an odd hour to feel hungry.

So I slid out of bed and shrugged on the hoodie that Waleed had discarded before bed, over my pajamas to save myself from the cold. I tiptoed down the stairs, completely aware of where I was going even with my eyes half shut.

I gathered the things to make a sandwich, humming while I assembled it as all sleep slowly but surely began to wash away from me.

"What are you doing?" A sudden, raspy voice came from behind me and I jolted in shock before swiveling on my feet to see Waleed standing there and rubbing his eyes as he yawned.

I frowned at seeing him awake when he'd clearly been deep in sleep a few minutes ago. "Why do you always wake up whenever I do in the middle of the night?"

He looked irritated by the question but it didn't faze me in the least. He'd woken up by himself, I wasn't to blame here. "Because, even in sleep, my mind is hyperaware of your presence and absence and I feel it whenever the weight on the bed from your side decreases, just like how I feel it when it dips whenever you get in."

My frown deepened. "Okay, genius. You worry too much for your own good."

But his attention was somewhere and I followed his gaze to find him staring at my plate with his nose crinkled and a grimace on his lips. "What the hell have you made, Eliza?"

My eyes narrowed at him and I crossed my arms defensively. "Don't be judgmental, Mr. Waleed. You shouldn't say anything until you've tried it."

"Like hell I'll ever taste it. And since when do we have Nutella and pickles in our house?"

"Oh, Nutella was the first item I get whenever I go grocery shopping and I was suddenly craving something sour so I got pickles too." I gathered the sandwich in my hands and took a bite than all but moaned at the taste.

Waleed was staring at me weirdly. "I don't understand how you're eating it."

I held up the sandwich in front of his mouth, causing him to reel back like I'd brought a chipkali instead. "Get this away from me."

"Try it!"

"No!" He backed away and then started running, causing me to chase after him with the sandwich in my hand.

"Waleed!"

"Eliza, no!"

"Oh, come on!" I pulled my lip between my teeth to hold back a laugh. But all the humor faded away when the pickle slid down from between the two slices of bread and landed on the floor with a splat. I stared at it and blinked, trying to process what just happened. Waleed, too, stared at it, looking like he was having too much fun. Then he snorted.