Flower Crown (ON PAUSE)

Chapter 10

"What?" I say sitting up and looking down at Dylan.
"As a friend" he says, but he blushes and looks away from me. Since Dylan and I have been friends since we were kids I started being able to read him like a book. I sometimes knew when he was nervous, sad, angry, or lying. He usually tries to hide his emotions, he tries to be happy all the time. I lay back down next to him, feeling my face burn because I knew he was lying. He looked away from me and he put his hand into a fist.

"Okay," I say turning to look at his blue eyes.

"Then I love you too." I say pulling the covers over my legs. Why did he Lie? Maybe he didn't, maybe he did mean as a friend. Don't get cocky. I reach over Dylan's stomach to get the cup and hand him the glass of chocolate milk. He sat up and took the glass from me.

"Thank you again for giving me a ride home." I say sitting on my knees.

"Anytime." He says and then took a drink, avoiding my eyes.

"Do your parents know you're here?" I say.

"No they think I'm hanging out with Michael." He said still avoiding my eyes. I took this moment to look at he's face, he did have beautiful blue eyes. When I was younger I remember always looking at them. They weren't the kind of blue eyes Andrew had, Dylan's eyes were blue but faded into a green lake color.

"Hey Tabitha?" He says sitting the glass on the nightstand. He turns and lays down again with his arms holding his head like a pillow.

"Yes?" I say but then I here a door open, the door I dreaded to here open. I hop up and grab Dylan's hand holding my other finger to my lips as I open my closet door and push him in it. I sprint to my bed as quiet as possible and hop in it grabbing my book from my nightstand table.

Then I heard the knock.

"Come in." I say still focusing my eyes on the pages in front of me.

"Sweetheart?" I hear my mother say. I look up from my book seeing her shut the door to my room.

"Yes?" I say to her.

" I just wanted to make sure you were okay and still here." She says walking up to my bed.

"I'm okay mom." I say sliding my bookmark in my book and sitting it down in my lap. My mother leaned down and kissed my forehead.

" I love you, okay?" She says.

"I love you too" I say reaching up to squeeze her hand. She finally turned and walked out of my room closing the door behind her. I sigh in relief. I waited a couple minutes until I heard their door close.

I get up from my bed and walk over to the closet opening it slowly and I look down to see Dylan laying on the floor, sleeping. I sit down next to him and trying shaking him awake. Nothing. I groan and try pulling him out of my closet floor.
"Are you dead or something?" I mostly say to myself. I try poking him in the stomach. Nothing. Then I have a idea.
I get up from the floor and walked down stairs. I open my freezer and grab a handful of ice to put in a cup. I walk quietly upstairs and open my door.

Dylan still was laying where I left him. I walk over to him and sit down by his side. I reach my hand in the cup and grabbed an ice cube. I slowly put it on his forehead. I wait a couple seconds, but still nothing. Then I pull his shirt up to reveal his chest. Damn. He had a chiseled stomach that I don't remember him having when we were freshman.

I then slowly start putting ice on his stomach. Nothing. I finally pull his shirt down and walk over to my bed. I grabbed a blanket and a pillow and bring it over to where Dylan was laying. I gently lift his head up and put the pillow under it. I grab the blanket and laid it over his body.
I walked back to my bed and crawled under the warm covers and shut my eyes.
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I walked through Jess's bedroom door. I turned and saw a bottle of liquor next to her with an empty pill bottle.

I screamed and ran to her, I pulled her up onto my lap checking to see if she was breathing. Nothing.

Blood started to drip from to corner of her mouth. I started crying, I didn't get up. I just sat there screaming and crying.

I wake up with cold sweat plastered on my forehead. I felt someone shaking me, their hands around my hips. I open my eyes to see Dylan.

"Tabitha!" He says picking me up, crushing me with a hug.

"It's okay, it's gonna be okay." He whispered in my ear. I couldn't hold it back anymore, I was tired of having no one. I wrapped my arms around his torso and cried into his shoulder.

After a while of hugging Dylan, I let go of him. He then reaches his hand up and whips a tear with his thumb.

"Are you okay?" He says holding his hand against my cheek. I reach up and hold his hand and nod. I finally look up and meet his eyes. They were filled with what looked like worry.

Dylan turned and picked up his coat. He was about to open the window to leave.

"Wait!" I say hoping out of bed and grabbing his hand. He turned and looked at me, surprised.

"I uh. Could you stay with me?" I stutter.

"Just for a little bit." I say letting go of his hand and looking up at him.

"Yes." He says taking his coat off. I smiled and walked back to my bed. Dylan started to fix the pillow on the ground.

"You ca- Can you sleep by me, on the b-bed?" I stutter. He turned and looked at me, surprised, but then a smile grew on his lips.

"Yeah." He said running his fingers through his hair. He was nervous?

I then run to the bathroom and put on shorts so I didn't feel naked in front of him. I came out to see Dylan taking off his coat. Then he started to pull off his shirt. I gasped and took a step back. He must of worked out a lot after freshman year. Dylan then turned and saw me staring, his cheeks turning a light pink against the lamp light.

"If your uncomfortable I uh I can put my shirt back on." He said grabbing his shirt off the floor.

"No it's um fine." I say feeling heat rush to my cheeks. I slowly started to walk over to my bed where Dylan was standing. His eyes started to drift looking up and down my body. I suddenly felt self Conscious about myself. I brought my arms up to wrap around my waist.

"So how should we um do this." He said pointing to my bed. I sighed and gently pushed on his bare shoulders making him sit on my bed.

"Now lay down." I say as I lift the covers up for him. I then turn the lamp off and crawled in next to him, shutting my eyes and drifting to sleep.