Sun Chasers

4: Ah hell naw

Darius left for work pretty early and since then I haven't been able to get to sleep. Everyone else in the house is fast asleep. Carlo left last night, saying he needed to get some stuff done at home before work this morning. Which means Fleur is sleeping alone. In a split second decision I roll out of my bed, landing on the floor. I waddle towards the other end of our hallway and open Fleur's door. Like I assumed she would, she opens her eyes straight away. She doesn't sleep well without Carlo. He is meant to be moving in very soon.

"Hey," She says very sleepily.

"Want some cuddles?" I ask crawling under her covers.

"Mm yes please," she gives me a lazy smile before turning onto her side. I snuggle into her back and in minutes the both of us are fast asleep.

........................

"Should I jump on her?" I can faintly hear my other two friends talking.

"No don't they look so cute," Another voice says.

"But they gotta get up eventually."

"Adley don't do it."

"Too late," and with that Adley lands on top of me and Fleur.

"Oww Adleeeey," sleepy Fleur says wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"You just had to go ruin their tranquility," Naya grumbles, snuggling in next to Fleur.

"I just wanted cuddles too," Adley shrugs getting into the covers and attaching her cold feet to my legs.

"So cold," I hiss, moving closer to Fleur to escape the iciness that is Adley.

"They'll warm up soon, just snuggle me," Adley says matter-of-factly.

"I've missed these kind of snuggles. We haven't had them in so long. We all get pretty busy in the mornings and usually at night at least one of us has a boyfriend round so we can't snuggle then either," Naya says giving Fleur a back scratch.

"Emme snuggles everyone. Sometimes Trystan will come over and you'll be at work and they'll be snuggling on the couch," Adley laughs.

"Yeah but they're cousins," Naya says looking at Adley like 'and your point was?'

"Sometimes Zaidan and I will be having sibling chat on the couch or in bed and Emme will come in and snuggle with us. Boyfriends shouldn't stop us from snuggling. They're our friends too. The other week when I got home from work Emme was making dinner and Darius was sitting on the couch and he asked me how my day was. So we sat on the couch with his arm over my shoulder while we talked," Fleur says flipping back onto her back.

"And obviously Adley and Darius cuddle all the time," I say. In no way are we ganging up on Naya. We're just coming to the realisation that the boys don't have to stop us from spending time with each other.

"True, but why does no one cuddle Carlo?" Naya raises her eyebrows.

"He just isn't a very physical touch kind of person," Adley squeezes her eyes shut. She's trying to block out the memory of seeing Carlo with bruises all over his face, from when his father beat him.

When they were younger Darius, Adley, Carlo, Zaidan and Fleur all went to the same primary school. Then Darius and Adley's families moved to the city when he was eleven. They all remained friends hence why Adley dates Zaidan. Naya moved to Hurdleton when she was 17 and we went to Walton Academy with me and Adley. She ended up dating Trystan which was totally fine with me. We've all known each other for a pretty long time. But Naya arrived on the scene after Carlo's father died. And we don't often talk about him.