Right Uppercut

Chapter 8

It was the next morning and as usual I was in Ethan’s bed. Before the fight, I had planned on going home and resting so that I could visit my dad, but I changed my mind because I had some of my own tension to release. Plus, Kitty had left her mark on me, with her bite and a nice scratch on my cheek.

 Dammit Kitty.

  I rubbed my eyes open to the small rays of sunlight seeping through the sides of the window. Ethan’s arms were wrapped loosely around my torso as he breathed lightly in my ear. As I watched him sleep, in the least creepy way possible, I realized that he really was pretty attractive. I mean, that was no secret to me before, but little reminders like this, when he’s sleeping soundlessly, kind of make me feel good. We’re not exclusive, but it’s comforting that he chose… me.

My stalker moment quickly went away because nature was calling. I slipped one of his old t-shirts over my head and padded across the room and into the bathroom. As I watched my hands in front of the skuzzy mirror, I realized how much of an ugly sleeper I was. I did my best to smooth down the bird nest that I called my hair and wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

  When I got back into his room, he was awake.

  Was I gone that long?

 “Mornin’,” he yawned, stretching his arms and exposing a nice set of abs, making me smirk and hop back onto the bed and snuggle into his side.

  “Hi,” I smiled up at him.

  He returned the smile. “What’s this all about?” He gestured to my cuddling. It was admittedly out of character for me. Our unspoken arrangement was pretty cut and dry. I didn’t spend too many mornings here, but today just felt… different.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  He looked away with a grin and tightened his arm around my shoulders. We sat like that for a few beats of comfortable silence before I broke it. “Hey, you know I realized something.”

  “What’s that?” He asked, rubbing his hand up and down my arm.

  I sat up on my elbow and looked into his light blue eyes. “It’s just that we don’t really know much about each other outside of… ya know.”

  His hand froze on my shoulder and his eyes darkened just the slightest bit, but enough for me to notice. “There’s not much to know, right?”

  I started to play with a loose thread on the comforter covering us. “I think there is. Like where’d you grow up?”

  He chuckled. “That’s important?” I just stared at him expectantly. He sighed before continuing. “I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.”

 “What were your parents like?”

 He shot me another look, then sighed and sat up, running a hand through his hair. “My dad was stabbed to death in front of our house one day. He owed some guy drug money or something. I don’t know I was, like, five.”

  It was silent after that because I didn’t know how to respond. Obviously, I should be like “I’m so sorry,” but as a kid who lost her parent, I know that people don’t really mean it. Even if they do, it doesn’t feel like it. I didn’t want to be another person.

  So, instead, I shared my story. “My mom died of breast cancer when I was fourteen. My dad took it really hard and turned to the bottle. Now, he sits at home in his recliner. Well, he did. He was just diagnosed with liver cancer the other day.”

  Ethan turned to me and we just kept each other’s stare. There was just some common understanding between us. Things felt a little different in that moment because Ethan wasn’t just some guy who helped me earn extra cash and I didn’t feel like just some girl laying in bed with him on a late Saturday morning.