17 Things I Found In Your Bedroom

Chapter 4 Part 1

"You want breakfast?" I offer. Wynter ended up using my clothes and sleeping over last night. We ordered pizza and put on some horror movie, with absolutely no romance involved.

"Obviously. Got any pizza left over?" I raise an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugs. No comment.

"Not unless you didn't finish your half." I reply. She sighs.

"Well, that sucks. Doughnuts?"

"Wynter, let's try something a little less... unhealthy?" I walk out the door, Wynter trailing behind me.

"Well what's the fun in that?" she asks. I ignore her. When we make it to the kitchen, I pull out two boxes of cereal from the cupboard: Fruit Loops and muesli. "Wow, boring much... but I'll take Fruit Loops, please." I hand her the box and grab two bowls and spoons from various cupboards around the room. I place them on the table, grab the milk from the fridge and pour some into my bowl of cereal, made curtesy of Wynter. I hand her the milk, but she shakes her head.

"I don't do milk in cereal." She shrugs.

"What the hell? How the fuck can you eat breakfast without milk?" I exclaim, sitting down and trying to hand her the milk again.

"Surely there's more calories if you eat it with milk." She raises an eyebrow and pushes the milk back to me. Shaking my head, I nudge it back to her over the table. Wynter's now sitting across from me, devouring dry Fruit Loops.

"Okay, you're practically eating circles of sugar, and you're worrying about calories?" I point my spoon at her face as she pushes the carton back to me, and push it back. Wynter pushes it to me, I push it to her. Kind of like the Chuckle Brothers.

"Less time at th-" the milk carton tips over when I push it to her too forcefully, and spills all down the table and onto her lap. I cover my mouth with my hand. "Shit." Wynter hisses. My eyes widen; she sounds scarier than mum when I come home late.

"I'm so sorry!" I gasp, trying to hide the giggles. Standing up from the table and forgetting her cereal, she glares at me. Like, death glares. "Shit."

Wynter stands up and braces her hands on the table.

"This was a new shirt, Claire Hermione Johnson, you will pay!" she hollers, making me flinch. Her footsteps are concise as she slowly stalks towards me, but I continue walking around the opposite side of the table. She lunges towards me and I dart out the room, grabbing onto the banister as I pass the stairs to keep me from slipping on the hardwood floor with slipper socks on. "CLAIRE!" as soon as she yells, I backtrack and run up the stairs instead.

I let out a scream and run into the bathroom joined onto my room, locking the door behind me, hearing Wynter's heavy footsteps echoing around the house. I sigh and slip down to the floor, resting my back against the door. My eyes trail around the bathroom, and land on the sink.

*Flashback*

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the sink with his fingers. How we ended up in the bathroom, I have no idea. We started yelling in my room, and I guess I just paced straight in there, with Ace following behind me.

"I can't tell you about my family at the moment, I just... need space to think." He growled, his gaze still on the taps.

"It's not about your family. Heck, it's not about mine either. But this month you haven't spoken to me like normal. There's something wrong, and you're not telling me! How can I help you? Just tell me, Ace. Please." I could tell my voice sounded broken and weak. I had reasons, though. Every time something was up last year, he would tell me. And vice versa. It was something we shared, burdened each other with. Since Christmas, he'd been less... open.

"There's nothing to tell." He sounded defeated, and it made me bow my head.

"Yes, ther-"

"There's nothing to tell, Claire." He repeated, his voice louder and clearer. I didn't know what to do. Sure, we had fights like any other couple, but this one felt more... deep, than the others. I sighed and slid down the door, pulling my knees up to my chest and watching his hands on the sink. Ace lifted one hand and ran it over his face, trying to rid himself of the stress. His hair was tousled and he had light hints of stubble on his face.

"You want space to think, you said." My voice must've sounded as broken as his, and I dragged my eyes to the tiled floor beneath me, pulling my knees tighter against my chest, if that was even possible. Suddenly, worn out, black converse enter my vision.

"Not want, Claire." He knelt down in front of me and pulled my chin up to look him in the eye. "Need. It's not fair on you if it leads us to... this. This arguing. Fighting. Not for long, promise."

"You make it seem like I'm desperate." I chuckled sadly.

"Sweetheart, if anything, I'm the desperate one." He moved to sit next to me, with his knees out in front of him, one hand on the floor and the other raking through his hair. "Shall we talk more next Friday?"

"Next Friday."

*Flashback over*

I pull a shaky breath in when I realise I haven't been breathing for the past thirty seconds. I hear Wynter call my name again and I freeze in place, realisation washing over me like a tsunami.

I haven't thought about him since I woke up this morning. I haven't shed a tear for him in over twelve hours. Wynter distracted me.

So in the spur of the moment, grasp my hands together and pray to God. I pray that he's okay wherever he is, and I pray he forgives me.

And then I tell myself I won't cry, and I open the bathroom door.

And I step out into the bedroom.

And I look at the book on the bedside table.

And I tell myself that tonight, I'll open it.

And I'll find out why.

Song: All of Me cover, VIGR (Brad Kavanagh)