Sweet. | J.Bellingham

25

'All you'll ever be is my eternal consolation prize'

Laura's fingers tapped on the keyboard as her eyes made back and forth between the letters on the buttons and the one plastered on her white computer screen. A background jazz music coming from the turntable and a vanilla smell emanating from the candle on the table. The flame dancing in the jar, marking the edges with dark traces of carbon.

Laura had just started translating a new book her boss had sent to her the morning before. When she woke up earlier today, next to her boyfriend, her eyes wandered on his asleep silhouette. She did not find the courage to wake him up, so she stayed there laying and admiring the teenage boy.

Something about people sleeping always fascinated Laura. Not in a creepy way but more in a poetic one. How human would sleep with the people they loved. Like a husband slept next to his wife, or like a child sneaking in their parents bed. How people would tangled their legs, sharing their most vulnerable moment of the day. As if you needed to be with the people you loved to really rest.

Laura's heart warmed at the idea of being this person to Jude. the one he allowed himself to be vulnerable with because he needed to be next to her to really rest.

The clock hit 9am and the young girl knew that she couldn't stay in bed all day and decided to leave the boy. She moved the arm that he had wrapped around her waist unconsciously and heard a slight groan from him. Jude changed his position and the frown that had formed on his sleepy face disappeared soon enough once he fell back into deep sleep.

The brunette always wondered how he could sleep this much, he never seem to be tired of it. The boy would aways ask her for them to nap and when she'd say he didn't need her autorisation, he'd answer that he needed her to fall asleep. He would never fail to maker her smile and give in, but she could not complain once his face fell on her chest and his slight snore were heard.

Once showered, the woman slipped in a tracksuit and some fresh out the laundry shirt that belonged to Jude.She headed towards the living room, lighted a candle and chose a vinyl like she always did when she needed to dive in a new novel. She opened her computer and then there she was, back in her mind, in her own world.

When Laura was younger and dealing with the ups and downs of being her mother's daughter, she would always go and hide in books. Fantastic ones where she would dream of being different, having powers and attention from people. Sometimes she would read dramas, to try and convince herself that life sucked for everyone, that she wasn't all alone. But Her favourites were romance ones. She had read so many of them that she was able to close her eyes and create new ones, with herself as the main character.

Before 14 year old Laura would go to bed, she'd close her eyes and go to secrets gardens in her mind. Where she would be beautiful in everyone's eyes, no problems existed there, it was just her and a boy that was desperately in love with her. If she closed her eyes hard enough and put her hands on her hears, sometimes she'd feel like it was all real. Maybe life was just a really big nightmare and soon she'll wake up and see that it was all fake, that she was safe now. Maybe her mother would dry her tears and whisper that she was gonna be just fine, she'd kiss her tear wet cheek and murmur "Calm down baby, I'm here'.