Weight

Part Ten

The light slanted through the bedroom window irritated me. I groaned and turned over, snuggling back lower into my covers. I felt myself slipping back into sleep, until something clicked inside of me. I snapped my eyes open, looking at the clock to see it read 7:02. I bolted upright and found myself bounding down the stairs. I burst into the master bedroom. Nate was sleeping as well. The covers bunched down around his hips, his bare torso on display. I froze for a moment, admiring his hard chest and abs, until I realized the time crunch we were under. I shook my head, snapping myself out of my little trance, and dashed to wake him up.

"Nate! Wake up!" I shouted. He stirred but made no notion of actually breaching consciousness. I grabbed his shoulder and shook him, again insisting that he needs to get up. Instead of coming to his sense, he turned onto his stomach and snuggled into the pillows, much like I had earlier. I huffed, annoyed his Nate's death-like sleeping. I yanked the covers back off his body and jumped onto his bed, violently shaking him and the mattress until he woke up.

He looked at me through squinted eyes. "Not exactly how I imagined the first time you being in my bed."

My jaw dropped in shock, but I recovered rapidly, having no time to process the comment. "Nate, it's past seven o'clock. We're gonna be late."

Finally completely awake, his eyes flicked to the clock on his beside table. "Shit!" He exclaimed, jumping up and running to the bathroom. Satisfied I finally got him up, I ran to my own bathroom upstairs. I knotted my hair up in a messy bun before washing my face and brushing my teeth. I ran to my room, pulling a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from the closet. Only now had I realized I was still in my dress from last night. Tugging off the sunflower printed dress, I pulled on fresh undergarments and tried not to be disgusted by the fact that I hadn't showered. When I successfully changed into clean clothes, I ran downstairs to the kitchen and started throwing random fruits and bags of chips into brown paper bags for our lunches. Nate joined me in the mad dash in the kitchen, throwing two slices of bread into the toaster. We both shoved everything we needed into our backpacks and slapped a thin spread of peanut butter in the toast before running out the door.

Nate sped all the way to school and we ran through the doors. We waved a quick goodbye, parting ways to get to our first blocks. I made it through the door just as the bell rang and I sighed in satisfaction. Paisley looked up at me as I fell into the seat next to hers, dropping my bag loudly on the ground.

"You look like death," Paisley commented unaffectionately.

"I feel like death. I was up too late last night," I explained, "so I overslept this morning and had barely any time to get ready. I didn't even put on any makeup this morning." I reached up to wiped the sleepiness that had fogged back over my eyes, as if just talking about how tired I was made me feel more tired. A gasp echoed into the room and classmates around us turned to Paisley and I.

I was confused as to why Paisley gasped until she snatched my left hand from my face and interrogated me. "What the fuck is this, Evie?"

Suddenly we were both staring down at the fat rock on the ring finger of my left hand. My eyes widened, realizing my mistake. I never took off my rings. I snapped my hands out of Paisley's and into my lap before anybody around us could see.

I broke out into a nervous sweat as I desperately tried to yank the rings off my finger to hide them in my bag. As I shoved them into the small zippered pocket of my bag, I felt sick, worrying about losing them. They were precious and I wished I didn't have leave them out of my sight. But I did.

Paisley was still staring at my expectantly, eyebrows arched high on her forehead and her jaw on the floor. "It'snotwhatyouthink," I rushed.

"Really? Because it looks like you got married," Paisley argued, her voice still loud enough for other people to hear.