The Quake

Chapter 16

They ate in companionable silence. Afterward, he rinsed the dishes while she dried them. With nothing else to distract them, this was the moment to take apart the table and turn it into a bed. "This doesn't have to be weird," she promised, determined to keep pretending last night had never happened. "As you said, we've been house mates."

He unfolded a fitted sheet. "Agreed. I just hope you don't have icy toes. It's cold in here already."

She leaned into the banter, reminding herself sternly that she didn't remember the taste of his lips from last night. "I hope you don't snore as loud as Drew does."

Tyler chuckled. Erin ignored the tingle that raced down her spine. "At sleepovers he used to be the first one to sleep. And I would spend the rest of the night pranking him to get him to stop snoring."

Talking about her brother was helping. He was like a ghostly chaperone. "What did you do to him?" She asked with morbid curiosity.

Tyler shrugged, tucking the sheet around the mattress edge he could reach. "The usual."

"I've never been to a sleepover, I don't know what the usual is," she admitted.

"Never?" Tyler shook his head then started again. "I put his hand in warm water to make him pee. One time I drew a mustache on his face. When Ricky was over, we even managed to dress him up in a nightgown, and he stayed asleep the whole time."

Erin covered her face with laughter. "Why did he ever let you sleep over again?"

Tyler leaned on the now made-up mattress while Erin spread out the comforter. "Because I am vastly entertaining. He couldn't resist me." He batted his long eyelashes at her endearingly.

She plopped herself face down on the bed. Allowing the unfamiliar softness to engulf her. She breathed deeply, relieved. Even though the mattress smelled slightly of mothballs, it was a comforting smell, like a hug from a grandmother. "Tell me more." She said into the mattress. She'd never yearned for those basic growing up things that friendships brought, like sleepovers and confidences. She'd been too focused on her dreams to make time for the present. Now with their future uncertain, she had nothing else to focus on. Side by side on this mattress with Tyler was actually her first ever sleepover. She wanted to know how it should go.

"We held flashlights under our faces and told ghost stories. Truth or Dare, and Pillow fights. We also played Hide and Seek. Well, you were there for that." Tyler described.

Erin sighed. "But not the ghost stories or the Truth or Dare." She'd been so aloof that she'd purposely kept herself separate from the fun that was happening beneath her own roof.

Tyler got up from the mattress, it shifted jostling her with the movement. She was too tired to lift her head to watch what he was doing. He came back quickly then nudged her with something cold and hard. Erin twisted her neck, so she wasn't eating comforter, "What are you doing?" she asked seeing that he was holding out a flashlight to her.

He clicked the button on the end, switching it on, then shined the light up to his chin. The creases in his eyes and the dark circles around his nose elongated spookily with the altered light. "Velcome to your haunted sleepover Erin." He gave a rehearsed evil laugh and spoke in a horrible eastern European accent.

She rolled over so she could give him her full attention smiling broadly. When he was being silly, it was hard to worry about finding him attractive. She just wanted to bask in this friendship. She cocked her elbows out and rested the back of her head in her hands. "I must warn you, I don't scare easy."

"That's alright," he said. "I do." He flicked the flashlight a couple of times to announce the beginning of something. It was very theatrical. Erin liked it. If this was what a sleepover was like, she definitely had been missing out. "This is the tale of the girl with the green ribbon." This time he shook the flashlight.