Three Weeks [COMPLETED]

Chapter 24 - "I just miss them."

Kit didn't make it through half the movie before the comfort of the couch pulled her into sleep. When she woke, the room was dim. The television was off, and soft, gray light filtered in through the window.

She yawned and looked around, finding Edison asleep on the other end of the couch. His head was resting on the armrest, and his deep breathing filled the quiet room.

She gently sat up and reached for her phone. It was almost four-thirty in the morning. She looked back at Edison for a moment. Sleeping, he looked younger. His lips weren't turned up in his sardonic smile and his cocky attitude was nowhere to be found.

She smiled to herself and quietly got up. She was extra cautious leaving the room, and Edison was still sleeping when she reached the front door. She paused for a moment, to look around the neat, homey rooms and make sure the house was still deep in sleep, before she cracked the door open and slipped out.

A mist had settled in the night, leaving water drops on everything. The sun was beginning to break through, turning the mist yellow. Kit crept to her car and climbed in. The drive back to her house didn't take long and sleep still lingered in her eyes as she unlocked her front door. As she shut the door behind her, it created noise for a moment, but then the usual deep, haunting silence fell again. The silence that always greeted her in the morning. Hollow and suffocating.

She walked into her family room and looked around at the empty space. The stark white walls and wooden floors. She moved to the next empty room, and then the next, the white walls feeling lonely compared to the warmth Edison's home had held. A familiar overwhelming weight began to creep into her chest.

Suddenly, she felt as if she hadn't slept in days, and she slowly trudged up the stairs. She pulled the curtains shut in her room and fell into her bed. She threw her keys onto her night table, pulled the blankets up to her chin, and slipped back into sleep.

She didn't stir until the early afternoon, when a loud pounding sounded from downstairs. Sleep was reluctant to let her go, and her brain was slow in waking. By the time she had fully comprehended that the pounding was coming from her front door, it stopped. She didn't move as she waited to see if the pounding would start again.

But it didn't. Instead, it was replaced by a heavy tread on the stairs as someone climbed them in a hurry. A moment later, Jaxon burst into her room.

"Kit!" he shouted, rushing to her side and shaking her.

"Go away," she groaned, her voice muffled by her pillow.

He let out an audible sigh of relief and she felt her bed sink under his weight as he sat. His breathing was heavy. She pulled her blankets closer, her eyes still shut.

"Why are you still in bed?" he asked after a minute. He tried to pull her blankets back. She didn't answer. "Kit-Kat, is something wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice. "What happened?"

She reluctantly rolled over, pushing her hair out of her face.

"What's wrong, is that you woke me up by pounding on my door," she grumbled. "Don't you have any decency?"

"It's almost two in the afternoon. How was I supposed to know you were still sleeping?"

"I don't know? Maybe by the fact that I didn't come to the door."

"I was worried something had happened," he argued.

She let out a loud sigh, but didn't continue the argument.

"Well, now that you have seen that everything is fine, you can leave."

"We're playing golf, remember? I'm already dressed so get up."