You Have My Attention

Eleven

« Winter's POV »

I wake up in the morning feeling like a total zombie. Like I can physically feel the dark bags under my eyes.

Just beautiful.

I sigh and wince at the pain in my arm. It hurts so, so badly. And I desperately want to go to the doctor, but I'm scared to leave the apartment after what happened. Where did Kason even put Vincent anyway?

I tiredly smile at Bailey, who's sound asleep in between me and the back of the couch. I was careful not to smash her mashed potato body through the night apparently, because she's sound asleep. She nuzzles her head closer to me when I shift slightly, and I pet her head softly.

So cute.

When I hear footsteps lightly padding down the short hallway, I look up to see Emily holding a teddy bear closely to her chest and tiredly gazing at me. Her eyes land on the dog, and she smiles, walking over. She grabs the notepad from the table and sloppily writes down the words, "Good morning."

"Morning," I say, voice scratchy. "Did you sleep well?"

She nods and yawns, rubbing her eye. She softly smiles at her puppy, and I trace circular patterns on Bailey's head.

"I like your dog. Is it a boy or a girl?" I ask quietly.

I don't know if Kason is up or not because I'm not sure what time it is. If it's near seven, I'm sure he's gone to the gym. But I'm speaking softly regardless, because loud voices aren't meant for morning times.

Emily writes, "girl," onto the notepad and I smile. She's a cute little pup.

I watch as Emily continues to write. I'm not good at reading upside down, so I wait for her to finish before she hands the notepad to me and curls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin atop of them.

"Kason gave Bailey to Sam a long time ago. But she's our dog now."

I furrow my eyebrows together and tilt my head a little. Sam? As in, the person Kason was screaming about in his nightmare? Who is this girl?

"Who's Sam?" I ask.

Emily gestures for the notepad. She's about to continue writing when the door to the apartment opens. Kason walks inside, his expression emotionless as always. He heads straight for the kitchen and opens the fridge, grabbing milk and pouring it into a glass.

As he drinks it, no one says anything. Emily and I watch him curiously as he downs the liquid, and Bailey even jolts awake at the sound of the refrigerator door shutting.

When he stops chugging his milk down, he lazily puts the glass in the sink and crosses his arms, leaning against the counter...shirtless and brooding. His eyes bore into mine for very, very skeptically long moments before he suddenly turns and leaves, slamming his bedroom door behind him.

My eyebrows raise. What was that about?

Emily taps me, and I glance at her. She's holding the notepad out for me.

"Kason gets angry about the things he cares for most."

I frown a little, my eyes scanning over the words repeatedly. That doesn't even make sense. Why would you be angry over things you hold dearest to you? And what is Kason so angry about? What does he care so much about? He literally just walked in the door, and somehow is in one of his dark moods, which appear frequently anyway.

"Hm," I hum. "Well, let's not let that bother us. Do you want to play a board game or something?"

Emily smiles and nods, setting the notepad down. I'm relieved to have something to do, because sitting around in this apartment is really old. But it's not like I have much of a choice now — not until my arm gets better anyway.