Psycho Mate

CHAPTER EIGHT

   "Nope, not happening," Forest said, picking her sweatshirt up off the floor. She had pulled it on and  was starting toward the door when Nate grabbed her.

  "You need to sleep," he told her. He walked her back to the bed. He ended up climbing onto the bed and laying down on top of her. 

  "Get off me," Forest huffed, trying to shove him off, to no avail.

  "Nope! Too comfortable!" he mumbled, burying his face in the crook of her neck.

  She began to cry as she continued trying to push him off. "Please get off! You are crushing my lungs and I can't breathe." She turned her head slightly and a tear landed on his cheek.

  "Are you crying?" Nate asked, suddenly pulling himself up off her. He gently wiped away her tears with the pad of his thumb. "Please, don't cry. It makes me sad when you cry."

 Forest glared up at him.  She opened her mouth, but instead of speaking, she just rolled over, onto her side. She gave him her back.

  Nate sighed, laying back down. He turned onto his side, wrapping his arm around her.

  "What are you doing?" she mumbled, seeming to be half asleep.

  "Keeping you from getting up and wandering off in the middle of the night. Making sure you get more than four hours of sleep. Preventing you from murdering me while I sleep. Do I need to continue? Should I continue? Will I continue?" Nate teased.

  "I would prefer for you not to continue, due to the fact that that would end up being what would prevent me from sleeping. By the way, I really wish you would not do that. You pressing your chest against my back  makes it feel like my skin is burning. You are pressing the fabric of this sweatshirt into my burns." Forest tried twisting around to change her position.

  "I am sorry but I don't exactly want you to escape me while I'm sleeping." He loosened his grip on her somewhat.

  "I really wish you would not do that." she muttered.

  "You know you could just put some more bandages on it, right?"

  "Yes," she said, through gritted teeth. "But, honestly, I really do not want to, because it makes it worse. The bandages would just end up pressing into my skin, which hurts ten times worse than just the fabric of this sweatshirt." Forest rolled over and buried her face in his shirt.

  "You know, your mom is kind of intimidating. She threatened me earlier." Nate chuckled.

  "Are you telling me that a six-foot something man is afraid of my mother, a five-foot, four woman who weighs only one-hundred-twenty pounds? You're pathetic." Forest mumbled.

  "I would say something to defend myself but I can't think of anything that would make me seem any less pathetic. You win, universe. By the way, what kind of threats does your mom usually make to your boyfriends?"

  Forest giggled. "I have only ever had one boyfriend and my mom did not want anything to do with him. She hated his guts and still does. And now, I do too. The bastard broke my heart. So...in return, I beat his ass, and I told his other girlfriends what he was doing. Let's just say he is very much afraid of me now. At least, as far as I know."

  Forest laughed again. "One of these days, I am going to have to talk to him again. He is living here now, so I can't avoid him, really. Eventually, I will have to talk to him. Also, I'm pretty sure he is one of your friends. Just saying, if you really are friends with him, I don't want anything to do with you."

  "What is this ex boyfriend's name?" Nate asked, burying his face in the crook of her neck again.

  "James Adam Holt." Nate raised his head again. " Everyone back home called him Jay, for short."

  Nate was quiet for a moment. "How long were you two dating?"

  "About a week. The moment I realized he was cheating on me, I made up a plan and almost immediately put it into motion. I made sure to call him on a day when I knew he was with one of his other girlfriends. Knowing Jay, I knew he was too stupid to keep his phone with him at all times." Forest laughed.

  "What did you do?" Nate asked, interested.

  "One of his other girlfriends picked up the phone. She asked who it was, and I told her the truth, that I was one of his other girlfriends that he was cheating on her with. She gave me her phone number and we started calling each other every so often. We are actually really good friends now."

  Forest laughed. "And her name is Erin."

                                                                      *************************************

  Nate woke up alone in the morning. He was hugging one of Forest's pillows. He was about to get up, when he heard a noise from Forest's desk.  Her phone was going off.

  Forest walked out of the bathroom, in nothing but a towel. She got her phone and went back into the bathroom, as if it were completely normal.

  When she came back out of the bathroom, she was still wrapped in a towel. She had clothes set out on the edge of the bed, which she picked up and carried to the bathroom with her.

                                                                         *********************************

  Nate could hear Forest crying. He quietly crept to the bathroom door and looked in. Forest was sitting on the counter, her knees pulled up to her chest, crying. She had her face buried in her knees.

  "Forest, are you okay?" Nate asked, opening the door and walking to her. She slowly lifted her head to look up at him.

  "I'm in pain, but I honestly do not know what saddens me the most. I do not know if the majority of my pain is physical or emotional, I just know it hurts." Forest's voice cracked on the last word.

  Nate wrapped his arms around Forest, pulling her to his chest. She cried into his shirt, sobbing quietly. 

  "Forest, please don't cry so silently. Your silent crying makes me fear you are unable to breathe. You don't want me to give you unneeded mouth-to-mouth, do you?"

  This made Forest laugh. Of course, she started coughing the moment she began laughing. Nate began laughing too, unable to keep himself from doing so.

  "What is going on in here?!" a  voice exclaimed.