There's Always A Plot Twist | Wattys 2023 ✓

26| The Cocoon

Initially upon entering Lain's new home, Riley is surprised to see how quickly he settled in. Although he hasn't done any painting, leaving the walls brilliant white, he has chosen to hang a bunch of framed posters of retro movies she's never heard of.

They look dated, which she assumes is the vibe he was going for. "Interesting."

Riley tilts one of the posters back in place, aligning the black frame with the others, taking a quick glimpse at herself in the reflection of the pristine glass.

Afterwards she takes a look around, noticing there are also pieces of memorabilia that add to the theme of the home like the fancy looking sword sitting on the mantel place and the pretty looking fish tank sitting behind the sofa he had hauled in.

A majority white room with black accents isn't anything revolutionary when it comes to interior design but looking at it now she can see why its such a popular choice.

"So did you move around a lot as a kid?" she inquires once he returns with two tall glasses of orange juice.

"What gave it away?"

"I mean, look at this place. I never would have guessed that you only moved in yesterday if I hadn't been here myself."

"That's the Adler way. Set us off on a task and we'll not say a word to each other for hours until its completed."

Riley picks up a hint of cheery sarcasm in his tone, watching him wash it down with a gulp from his glass. "You got a lot done thought."

"We had some help." he utters. "Yeah, there was this sexy little gremlin who practically wormed her way in here. She sort of just appeared and snooped through my things for a while. Then I had to send her home."

Riley snorts, never having been described as a sexy little gremlin before. "You're such a troll."

"A epic romance between a Troll and a Gremlin? Sounds like a pretty bad movie idea to me."

Riley simply rolls her eyes, scratching the back of her neck when he flirtatious eye contact becomes too much for her to handle. "Anyway, I still can't believe you sorted everything out so quickly."

Lain suddenly places his drink down on the tiny glass coffee table. "Can I show you something?"

"Sure." she replies, following his lead but not before swiping up two coasters to slide under their drinks.

He takes her to a doorway on the second floor that he opens to reveal a mountain of a mess.

There are empty boxes that need to be broken down in one corner and then boxes that need to be emptied in another.

There are also stacks of paper that she can't quite read and even large cans of paint left sitting in the rubble. Plus there appears to be spare pieces of furniture from the previous owners of this place that'll probably have to get thrown out.

"Things are rarely what they seem." he says, looking at Riley carefully to read her expressions.

"Was that suppose to be a metaphor?"

"I just don't want you getting the wrong impression of me."

Riley looks up at Lain, feeling herself being swept up in the moment, currently deciding whether she should take his words as a threat of a genuine sign of faith.

"You two love birds just can't keep away from each other can you?"

Riley turns around, wondering how long Jonas has been leaning against the doorframe of the room at the other end of the hallway. "Oh you're still here."

"I had to force him to crash here. This idiot tried driving after way too many drinks." Lain explains, frowning at his brother when Jonas playfully wiggles his brows.

"Good morning to you too."

Both Lain and Riley correct him on his small mistake. "Its the afternoon."

"And you're already finishing each others sentences, nice. I wonder what Grandpa and Grandma will think of her."

"Oh are they coming to visit?" Riley inquires, looking to Lain for the answer.

"On my mothers side, yeah, the couldn't make it for the funeral but they made plans to have a reunion here." he replies, visibly tensing up at the fact.

"Tonight?"

Lain nods, looking down at his phone for the time. "They should be here in a couple of hours."

"Isaak said he'd be late too." Jonas informs his brother, swiping through his own phone as another message alarm goes off.

"So same as usual. When is he never not late?" Lain replies, tucking his phone away before taking Riley up to the third floor which is just one huge master bedroom with a low wooden ceiling.

Though the walls of the room slant inwards, giving the room its pentangular shape, there are two large windows built into the roof on the right side of the room that bring in natural light.

The bed sits underneath the windows, the backboard resting against the cream walls, sitting in-between two exposed beams made from the same tanned wood as the ceiling.

There's a third window that sits above the small grey sofa that the boys somehow managed to squeeze in here along with a wooden crate that they refurbished to become a small table along with a rocking chair made of a wood similar in colour to the rest of the room.

Heck, they even managed to get an extendable desk small enough to fit in the corner of the room for his computer set up.

The only other source of natural light comes from the tiny door to the right of the desk, leading out to a criminally small balcony that over looks the street and the front of the house.

It looks like many of the Pinterest rooms she'd dream about as a teen but never had the funds nor the effort to get her room to look nearly as good as this.

Plus he was a plant guy, which is a green flag for her if there ever was one. Riley happens to have the opposite of a green thumb, so its nice to know that if they ever started dating at least one of them wouldn't kill everything that isn't a cactus.

Eventually Lain's voice snaps her out of her surprised daze. "The bathrooms this way." he declares, opening the third door on the left side of the room to reveal the room of sparkling white tiles.

Whilst Lain pulls out a stool to sit down on, Riley gets the clippers ready, opting to use a towel instead of the flimsy cape they put in the box to cover his shoulders.

Lain phone rings but instead of answering it he throws it on the white countertop.

"You want to answer that?" she ask when it rings for a second time.

"No its fine, lets just get started."

Riley nods once, running her fingers through his thick hair, taking the chance now that it'll be gone for a while.

She feels Lain shiver when she pulls a little tighter, glancing in the mirror to see his eyes closed as he focuses on the sensation of her fingers massaging his scalp.

She stops once she hears a quiet moan escapes his parted lips, knowing that if she continues she might tempt him to keep his hair.

When the first clump of hair does hit the ground, Riley Mitchell wonders who this new guy is that she's helping to build.

And when its all done, she plants a sweet kiss on his temple, whispering even softer words into his ear.

"You're beautiful."