Decoding You *Watty Awards 2012*

Chapter 29

I wake up with Ryder wrapped around me. His legs tangled up with mine, one arm off to his left, and his other hand tangled with my own. His head laying on my chest as he breathes heavily. That's when I notice the dampness of his forehead, he had been having a nightmare.

"Ryder baby wake up."

He groans and clutches the sheets with his free hand. I take my free hand and run it through his hair, "Ryder you need to wake up."

He sits up with a sharp breath and looks around frantically, "What?"

I stroke his cheek, "You were having a bad dream."

He looks at me his blue eyes clouded and shakes his head, "We were fighting."

He gulps and I cup his face, "It was just a dream."

He shakes his head, "Fighting with you is a nightmare. It was a nightmare."

He sits up and climbs off of me, "Ryder it was a dream. It's not happening."

He gulps and looks at me sadly, "But it could."

I shake my head and brush the hair out of his face, "It isn't going too."

He stares at me for a moment before looking out the window, "I think I'm going to go make some coffee."

I nod and watch him stand up and pull on his t-shirt and jeans, "It's in the cabinet above the coffee pot."

He nods and leaves the room.

After getting up and peeing and brushing my hair out I head downstairs. I hear the coffee pot working and see no Ryder. But when I look out the window I see him sitting on the porch, head in his hands. I glance at the clock on the microwave and see it's only nine, we'd only been back to my house for six hours.

I pour us each a cup of coffee and carry it out to him. When I've sat down on the small couch I take his hand and pull him over to me. He lays his head on my chest as I rub his back, "Ryder it was just a bad dream."

He nods and buries his face into my stomach, his voice sounds choked as he says, "I know but you were mad at me. You were so mad. I kept telling you how sorry I was and you just wouldn't listen and then you left. You just left and I couldn't find you."

I kiss the top of his head and whisper every soothing word I can think of until he finally falls back to sleep. It isn't long before I fall asleep too.

When I wake up this time I'm sitting in someones lap. I look up to see Ryder smiling down at me, "Good morning baby."

I frown and look up at him, "I thought I was the one holding you."

He sighs, "You were. I'm sorry about that."

I sit up and stroke his cheek, "You don't have to be sorry. I'm just glad I was there to wake you up."

He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and kisses me, "Me too."

I look toward the doors and see Audrey, Abigail, and Sammi in the kitchen.

"What time is it?"

"About a quarter after eleven."

"Hey you two."

I turn to see Harper walking up onto the deck hand in hand with Preston, "Hi," I mumble.

Preston frowns, "What's wrong?"

Ryder gulps and I shake my head, "Bad dream that's all."

Preston nods and looks at Ryder, "Which one of you had the bad dream?"