The Rules of the Red - 2014 Watty Award Winner |✓|

Chapter Twenty - Part One

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CHAPTER TWENTY

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Ethan was still asleep by the time I made it home. Collin and Addy greeted me at the door, still coming down from their high on snacks and sodas and new-couple affection. She held his hand as they each said their quick good-byes, but she hung back at the door as Collin stepped onto the porch.

“Mimi, did you get it back? Is everything okay now?” Addy asked.

“I got it,” I assured. “Go have some fun with Collin. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I made my way back to the darkened living room, where there was nothing but the muted glow of the television screen to light the room. Ethan was still passed out on the couch, snoring with his head and feet each on a pillow. With a sigh, I picked up a bowl of half-empty popcorn, grabbed the remote, and took the empty space of couch beside his head.

I made it through two episodes of the Golden Girls before Ethan finally awoke. He stirred and I lowered the television’s volume, waiting as he sat up and stretched.

“Holy… crud.” he said, scratching the back of his head, and blinking red eyes. “How long have I been out?”

“Most of the day,” I said, digging up a handful of popcorn. “You seemed pretty beat.”

“Thanks to you,” Ethan said, groaning as he stretched his neck. “I don’t get sleep anymore since you’re always so busy tossing and turning at night.”

And it was true. It had been this way since I was a kid. I’d find any and all reasons to be awake at night. Whether this meant cramming my day full of adventures so that the time would pass more quickly, or if I chose to simply lie on my bed and twiddle my thumbs at the ceiling, I was only alive for the night. That was the time when I felt most comfortable, the most secure. Which meant that I didn’t dream much, and slept even less.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning back to the screen. “I probably should have mentioned that sometimes I suffer from insomnia.”

“Yeah,” he said, squinting through one, dark, sleepy eye at the screen. “What’re we watching?”

“The Golden Girls,” I said, tossing him the remote. It landed on the cushion seat beside him, but he made no move to pick it up. “You can turn it though.”

“Nah, I like this show,” he said in a voice that was still husky from sleep. “Rue McClanahan knew how to get the D back in the day. I grew up learning the facts of life from that woman.”

“Wow, that’s not disgusting,” I said, but even so I wrinkled my nose and laughed.

“Say what you will, but the woman was a sex master.”

There was a short, confusing pause as Ethan and I gazed at each other seconds too long. The kind of moment filled with possibilities that scared me. So I looked away, breaking the moment in two.