F.E.A.R.

Dreams And Dresses

If you're a guy, this might bore the hell out of you, I'm so very sorry.

Kali didn't wake me up after an hour; she didn't even wake me up after two hours. Nope. I woke up all on my own about eleven hours later. It was close to midnight and the girls were already passed out in their bed, Marshall was still next to me in mine, very much awake and watching an old season of some sitcom from the 1990's.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" I whined at him. He shrugged. I noticed that he was wearing his pajama pants. They were baby blue and had fluffy white sheep on them. For some crazy reason he made them look totally masculine. I got out of bed with a huff and headed to my dresser. I grabbed my brush off of it and started pulling it through my tangled hair.

"What are you doing?" Marshall asked me from the bed.

"Brushing my hair," I gave him a 'duh' look. "I know I don't do it often but you should still know what it looks like."

"But why?" The way he said it made me stop what I was doing and look at him. He had sat up in the bed and staring at me. With his red eyes glowing in the dark and the light of the T.V. making his pale skin even paler, I was a little intimidated. And a little swoony.

"I'm going to go sit with Talon." I told him as I put my brush back on top of the dresser. His face went through a range of ugly expression before he laid back down and glued his eyes to the T.V. Ignoring me to the best of his abilities.

"What's your problem?" I asked, plopping down on the end of the bed. I did it hard enough to make the mattress bounce and he glared at me for a moment before devoting himself back to the T.V. I pulled at his toes and he kicked at me, which made me giggle.

"Are you jealous?" I asked, putting on a serious face.

"What?! No!" He looked down at his sheepy pants, obviously uncomfortable. "It's just that..."

"I know, I know," I nodded in an understanding manner, patting his left leg. "I'd be pretty jealous over me too."

"I'm not fucking jealous." He growled, flipping over and pulling the thick blanket over his head.

For some reason, maybe the fact that I had gotten some sleep or maybe the fact that I knew Marshall was jealous of Talon, but I felt brave.

So I didn't hesitate to pinch his butt.

Hard enough to make him flip back over with a little batty screech. I must say, it was quite adorable, as far as bat noises coming out of fully grown men go.

"Why would you do that?!" He whined, rubbing his butt. "It hurt!"

I sat back and folded my arms across my chest, trying to look imposing and probably failing.

"Why don't we just talk about it?" I pleaded. I realized that that was probably the wrong thing to do. Throughout my preteen years I'd had several sleepovers with Artemis, which always consisted of old click flick films and old issues of girly magazines. If I had ever learned anything from either it was that you are suppose to wait on a guy and they'll come around. Oh, and guys hate talking about their feelings.

But in the situation I was in, I didn't feel that it applied. I hadn't known Marshall long, but I certainly felt a connection to him, stronger than just having conjoined dorms. To be honest, Marshall felt like family, attractive family that I might be crushing on, but family nonetheless, and I really hated to think that I let it fall apart so early.

"Fine," He rose up into a sitting position, and stared into my eyes, our noses just barely a foot apart. "I'm jealous." And then he closed the distance between our mouths with a kiss. I didn't register what was happening at first and by the time I did he had broken the kiss and had started shaking me by the shoulders. I shoved him away, hard, and he cursed. I could smell smoke.