Who Are You

12

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Cat on Top of the Reaper's Roof

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Night fell and the horizon that was painted in a mess of pink, purple, and orange, were soon replaced by cold plum and deep black. Grim took a nap as soon as she got upstairs, leaving Lauren to do nothing but to scroll through her Tumblr app. She asked for her parents for a new phone, telling them that it suddenly malfunctioned and they didn't question her further, knowing that she had the same phone for three years already. She got it the next day she told Clara and Mike about it, and she was beyond thankful that they had decent and well-paying jobs that made it possible. If there was one thing Lauren couldn't live without, it was definitely her phone.

However, she couldn't concentrate when she was in the same room with someone who was born with the blessing of being insanely attractive while sleeping. She wasn't in the best shape because of her wounds, but that didn't mean that she turned into a hideous human being. If anything, Lauren thought that the bandage around her torso and the cuts on her face made her more alluring.

She was sitting on the other side of the counter, giving her a grand view of Grim's unconscious condition. Lauren slightly raised her phone as she opened her camera app, ignoring her awareness of how creepy she was being and taking a few photos of Grim lying flat on the bed. Once she was done, Lauren examined the photos she took. Grim's face looked peaceful except for the brief creasing of her forehead once in a while as if she was having a nightmare. Her entire body defined the art of a war from the tattoos to her wounds, each of them having a different story that made her who she was. However, Lauren noticed something peculiar as she was staring at Grim's photo. Her fists looked completely fine—no bruises or cuts—as if Grim used something else instead of her hands to fight. Lauren wondered if they used heavy weapons as well, but it couldn't be possible that her knuckles were left unscathed.

Leaving her phone on the countertop, Lauren got closer to the bed. She wasn't even able to get a good look on Grim's hands when her yes suddenly burst open, instantly meeting with the green ones. Lauren was too surprised that she froze on where she stood as she held her breath.

"Why are you still here?" Grim croaked out, pushing herself up and leaning her back on the headboard.

Subtly shaking her head, Lauren released the breath she was holding. "I . . . I can't leave."

"Why not?" Grim pressed her fingers against her temples, massaging them whilst she had her eyes closed. "Oh, right. You don't know the way back, do you?"

"You might also need my help," Lauren said, pacing back to get her phone. "Your bandage. You need to replace that."

"You know how to clean wounds? Serious wounds?"

"My mom had been training me to be a decent woman since I was seven and it includes treating injuries like the one you have and my dad's a sheriff." Lauren saw Grim wince at that. "You're still not used to my dad being a sheriff?"

"It's just funny how a criminal like me is hanging with a daughter of a sheriff," Grim admitted, swinging her legs to the side of the bed. "It feels like I'm being spied on and anytime, I'll be captured and sent behind bars."

Lauren watched as Grim reach for the drawer of the bedside table, opening it and retrieving a joint and her lighter. "You think I'm a spy?"

"Aren't you?"

The way Grim looked at Lauren as she was lighting up the joint caused butterflies to stir inside the green-eyed girl's stomach. Grim's voice was a hundred times sexier from sleep and her slumberous eyes were highly focused only on Lauren, intensifying the warmth of her cheeks.