Witch (Supernatural #2)

25: The Go-Ahead

To relax, verb.

1. to make less tense, rigid, or firm; make lax.
2. to diminish the force of.
3. to slacken or abate, as effort, attention, etc.

***

I hadn't exactly turned into Jell-O, but I was definitely relaxed.

After our lunch, we had watched a movie, a Netflix original about ghosts that weren't actually ghosts. Then we had gone up to Ken's bedroom, where we had taken a nap. I had pressed myself up against him as tightly as possible, meaning we didn't need the covers. Between the heater in the corner and Ken's own supernatural heat, we were plenty warm.

Ken was awake before me, his groggy movements were what woke me. He tried to reach over me but he obviously was still half asleep as his arm dropped without delicacy across my stomach. Which was what woke me, to be exact. I heard a faint buzzing before Ken rolled away.

"Hello?" came his groggy voice. "Mom?... Wow, slow down. My brain is still half asleep... What are you talking about?... Wait, they called you?" Ken's voice changed as he became more and more awake. It also became louder. I groaned at the noise, and rolled over, trying to bury my face in the blanket, which made perfect sense to my sleeping brain. Burying your face in the blanket keeps your ears from hearing any noise. Total sense. "Hold on," Ken muttered. Then, he proceeded to perform from kinds of acrobatics to climb over me.

He landed softly on the floor next to the bed and left the room. The door didn't close completely behind him, I noticed, which I suspected was so that he could keep an eye on me. Like the witch hunters were going to climb in through the window and kidnap me. I didn't expect them to since they had only cowardly attacked me when I was alone, but they might grow desperate.

"I'm at home. Isla was in no state to be at school and there was no way I was going to let her go home alone... Yes, Mom, we skipped." That was followed by a long pause after that. I could imagine his mother, as a dedicated parent, giving him a speech on how he shouldn't be skipping school and all that. "Yeah, we're at home. We took a nap... Yeah, probably... Unless she really wants to go, we'll probably stay here." Another pause. Then more whispered talk. I didn't catch any of that.

At that point though, I was awake and there was no point in pretending otherwise. As I waited for Ken to finish his phone call, I turned my attention to the pictures on his wall. I had already taken a moment to look at them over Christmas, but now I had a little more time.  Then, on a whim, I took out my phone, put it on camera and pulled a funny face as I pressed the button. Satisfied with the result, I texted the picture to Ken.

I should be in these pictures too. Start with this one.

As I hit send, I glanced at the door. When my boyfriend didn't appear, I turned my attention to the rest of his room. While I was curious to see what I could find among the mess of his desk, I didn't want him to think I was snooping either. So, I settled for reading the papers on top of piles or pinned to the wall. There were papers and tests with varying grades - he was apparently terrible in English but excellent in algebra. Post-its in all available colors were on the wall with things he needed to Google, ideas for papers he had probably handed in a long time ago, dates - birthday dates, when a certain book was coming out, when a movie was coming out,  the dates for winter break, spring break, and summer break.

A number of post-its held what looked like coordinates. Coordinates of what? No idea. Maybe his different hide-outs in the woods. Maybe he was into geocaching and these marked his own caches. Oh, geocaching might be something we could do together. Not now, what with the foot of snow covering everything, but when the weather got a little warmer.