Books & Flowers ≫ septiplier

Ch. 4 ≫"I can't sleep by myself."

M A R K

Sean and I laid there for quite sometime before Sean had started complaining about being bored. He then requested to play a board game that he had brought over. I accepted it and he jumped up from the bed to the ground to get the rectangular box. I move to the floor with him, sitting legs crossed and back against my bed.

Once he has set up the board and stacked the cards the best he could, I examined the rules and instructions.

"Monopoly isn't that hard, you should be able to get. You have played this before, right?" I say, scanning over the slim paper then looking at him.

"Of course! Well, no actually. I've only played this by myself and I never read how to play it."

"But, I thought you had lots of friends where you lived?"

He moves his eyes away from my gaze and to the board instead before speaking, "They never came over. Can we play now?" I notice the slight aggravation in his voice, but I decided not to comment on it and proceed to explain the game to him.

After ten minutes of trying to explain how to get around the board and how you earn the places on it, I think Sean finally understood.

So we started the game, Sean getting frustrated with himself when forgetting what to do next.

"This is so stupid! You've passed 'go' two times already!" He exclaims, crossing his arms.

"You have also." I laugh and I see him look away with embarrassment.

Twenty minutes later, Sean had won. I may or may not had let him win purposely just to make him happy, since he has never played it with anyone. And it did make him happy.

He jumped up from the ground, sending a high pitched scream with victory. I laughed when hearing my mom yelling at us to keep it down, which made Sean fall on the floor with laughter.

It was just the two of us, laughing like goofballs, not giving a care in the world, not having just met each other that day, it felt like we were friends since forever.

After calming down from our highs of laughter, Sean had exclaimed being tired and wanting to go to bed. It was only past eight and he had a nap earlier, but I guess the moving situation wore him out.

"You can take my bed, I'll sleep on the floor." I go to my closet and grab two blankets. I lay one near the foot of the bed and leave the second one bundled next to it.

"Are you sure? I can sleep on the floor," Sean offers, but I politely decline.

"You can change in the bathroom, it's just down the hall on your right."

He nods while taking out his pajamas from his bag and scurrying into the hallway. I do the same and grab a pair of pajamas out of my dresser and quickly change into them before Sean walks in.

I do manage to put them on when Sean comes walking in with Spiderman themed pajamas that honestly make him look incredibly adorable. I see him turn red from me staring at him.

"What? I like Spiderman."

"I just prefer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

We both chuckle as we make our way to our temporary sleeping spots. Before sitting down, I turn off my lamp, making my room pitch-black, but the light from the moon helps illuminate parts of it. I carefully find my way to the end of my bed.

"Oh, I forgot a pillow, can you spare me one?" I ask, sitting down on the rolled out blanket.

"It would be a lot easier if we slept in your bed, together," Sean says, sliding under the covers and sitting up so he can still see me.

I think for a moment, but my bed is only single-fitted and there would be no personal space for us to sleep. With that in mind, I make up my decision.

"It's fine, just past me a pillow, yeah?"

I see him nod his head slowly, before throwing me a pillow towards the end of my bed. I grab it and place it behind me and put the extra blanket on top of my body before laying down.

I try closing my eyes, but I know that Sean is still sitting up in my bed. With this aggravating me, I sit up and look at him.

"What?"

"I thought you were tired?"

"I... I am. I just can't sleep in complete darkness." Even though I can barley see him in the dark, I see him looking down to avoid contact.

"Well, why didn't you just so?" I say, getting up and turning on my night light that is plugged in near my book shelf. It lights up half of my room, but not too brightly.

I get back on the blanket and pull my other one over my body. I close my eyes with content as I hear Sean shuffling in the covers, indicating that he is finally laying down.

But to my surprise when opening my eyes, I see him standing over me.

I go to ask what he is doing, but he speaks before I can, "I can't sleep by myself." He messes with the end of his shirt as he spoke and I sit up.

"Do you want me to sleep with you?" I ask, looking up at him.

He shyly nods and I can't help but to do so. I get up and grab my pillow, moving to my bed. I get under the covers and Sean follows, leaving not much room to not touch each other.

Even though it is crammed, I'm happy to know that Sean will be able to sleep.

"Hey Mark? Thank you." I here Sean mumble, and I smile to myself.

"You're welcome, sleep well."

And then we both fell asleep.

≫≫≫

thank you so much for +1k reads! that's incredible and i'm so grateful. thank you again.