Reverie

Chapter Ten

Okay first of all story-wise we're just gonna pretend the Christmas Chapter never happened so

Also Maddie I'd just like to let you know everything you do in this story is because of your mom and that's why you're so out of character.

My apartment is dark, and it's easy to let my imagination take me elsewhere.

Not in that way.

Okay, maybe a little in that way.

Sometime in the next few hours, I fall asleep on the couch. Not out of exhaustion. Just out of boredom.

I'm in the dark room again. I've almost gotten used to this.

I look up to where Seth always is, and he's not there. I pause.

I decide on waiting, half in the shadows. This was a dream, after all. Maybe he wasn't asleep yet. It may or may not have been six in the evening. If Elizabeth wanted me over for dinner again, she'd be disappointed.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed until something in the air changed.

Seth steps out of the shadows, clearly a little surprised at me already being there, across the room from him.

I smirk a little.

He gives me a weak smile. Something's wrong.

I step forward, unsure of what to do.

And, all of a sudden, he wraps me into a hug. I hug back. I can feel his breathing and his cheek brushes against mine.

I'm not sure how long we stood there, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I'm not sure what he was thinking about, but I'm the kind of awkward person who needs to plan out everything they say and do. So, of course, I was planning, programming possible beginnings and replies into my brain.

"My parents were being assholes to me," he says, without letting go. It's not his usual, confident voice.

"What happened?"

He pulls out of the hug, making a small smile with his mouth but not his eyes. "They tell me I'm sleeping too much, getting nothing done and I'm a shame. Also I need to get myself sorted out."

"..oh," I say, like I understand. There's about 18,952 different things "get myself sorted out" could mean.

"My life is already pretty well sorted out, I think," he says, giving me a quick glance.

"Me, I couldn't care less whether my life was sorted or not." I raise my eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Organized chaos," I say.

"Not chaotic, but not organized?"

"Chaotic, but I know where everything sits in my priorities." I raise my other eyebrow.

He gives a small laugh. We both know exactly what is going on here.

"And what might your priorities be?" He teases.

"Oh, y'know," I say, rolling my eyes and dropping into my most sarcastic voice. "Do well in school, get a job, have a kid, get rich, the usual."

"Wife?" He asks playfully. Both of us clearly know the answer to this.

"Girls are gross," I reply in a whiny first-grader voice.

"Same," he says.

We both grin knowingly at each other. He is even more beautiful when he's smiling.

I pull him back into a hug, and he doesn't try to stop me.

There's still something wrong. Other than his parents, I mean.

I manage to tackle him playfully without pulling too far out of the hug. I squeeze my eyes shut as we go tumbling onto the hardwood floor. I've always hated the feeling of falling. When I open them again, Seth doesn't seem upset at all about his parents. He grins and rolls himself, along with me clinging onto him, so that my back is on the floor and he's pinning me down.

Oh, this could go one of two ways.

I push him up off of me, inadvertently planting both my hands on his chest and wriggling out from underneath him. He stops me halfway, putting one arm on either side of my head and one knee on either side of my hips like some sort of warped wrestling move.

Falling asleep in old sweatpants was a bad idea.

"Watcha doing?" He teases.

"Watcha think?" I reply as I push him over. As he falls sideways and rolls onto his back, he somehow manages to take me with him, so that I'm lying flat on top of him and our faces are less than an inch apart. Should I do it?

I'm gonna do it.

Here we go.

I quickly press my lips to his, just for a second. He freezes and stares at me, stunned. I smirk.

At that moment, we both hear a strangled noise come from the outside the circle of light. It's vaguely familiar to me. Obviously it's familiar to Seth too because he panics and jumps up, dumping me on the floor.

A noise like a dying pig pierces the air, followed by a slap and muffled whispers.

I know exactly who that is. How have they managed to keep quiet all the other times we were here?