Songbird

Eleven: Colt

I woke up at some point in the wee hours of the morning with my head pounding and my mouth drier than the Sahara. I hadn't actually slept much, or at all really. I was too busy daydreaming (was it still called daydreaming if it was the middle of the night?) about Lennie. And in the moments I DID actually doze off, she was in those dreams, too. Man, I thought she consumed my thoughts before. It was nothing compared to this. I was like a rubber band, being pulled to its limits. The only question was: how long did I have before I snapped? Best guess? Not very much longer.

I slipped into sweatpants, deciding marching through the house in my underpants with as many guests as I had was probably not well advised, and headed for the bathroom to find some Tylenol. After the Tylenol, I moved to the kitchen through the living room and flicked on the light, and instantly I heard grumbling beneath what looked like no more than a pile of blankets on the sofa.

"Ugh. Turn it oooooff," Lennie groaned as her blanket nest started shifting.

I grinned. "What're you doing out here?" I asked, my voice still cloudy with sleep as I cracked open my water bottle.

"Travis is in our room thanks to Carter's little ménage, and I didn't feel like being a third wheel," she answered, pulling the blankets from her face. The side of her face was red from being pressed into a pillow and bits of her hair stood up with static and she still somehow managed to take my breath away. "What're YOU doing?"

"Needed water. Why didn't you just sleep in the girls' room?"

"This IS the girls' room, Colton. They're supposed to be up HERE."

"Oh, yeah."

You coulda slept in my room... Or not slept.

My brain was literally trying to kill me. "I would've shared."

Dammit, too much.

"I bet you would've." I could hear the smile and taunting grin in her voice even though I could hardly see it. "Get your water and get out, Captain Smooth. I'm trying to sleep here."

"You need anything?"

"A board to the head so my eyes stay closed?" Lennie retorted with a dejected sigh as she slumped down a bit. "I can't sleep."

"You do me, and I'll do you, cuz I can't either."

"You'll do me, huh?"

Yup. Sure fucking will. "That's not what..."

"I'm teasing, Colt. I know what you meant."

I shook my head as I went back toward the living room. "Here," I said, holding out a second bottle of water that she hadn't asked for. "You'll thank me in the morning. Night, Len." As I tried to escape before my brain came up with more stupid things it apparently wanted me to say, I heard her voice again:

"Colt?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay."

I breathed out a long breath. One little word. One little word packed so much danger and I could feel my resolve unravelling. "I don't know..."

"Please? Just til I fall asleep?"

You can do this. You're a grown man. You have self-control.

"Why do you look so nervous?" Lennie asked, glancing at me from over the back of the sofa. "I'm not asking you to tie me up, Colt."

Great. Needed that vision.

"I'm not nervous," I lied as I moved to the front of the couch and sat down, all the way up against the arm and much further away from her than my body (and my heart) actually wanted.