Becoming Kelly and Ben

6 / bed head and no bra

Emma woke up with a very stiff neck. She sat up and rubbed at a particular spot that was aching, blinking furiously at the bright sunlight coming in the living room window. For a second she panicked, not totally recognizing her surroundings. But the ugly beige walls and the faint sound of Paul's snoring brought her back to reality.

She looked at the clock above the doorway leading into the kitchen: it was only a quarter past seven.

"Well that was a surprisingly restful sleep." Emma said aloud to absolutely no one.

Paul's snores continued. Other than that, there were no other sounds in the house besides the clock ticking and Emma's heart beating at a rather relaxed pace. It had been so long since she'd woken up in a real house; she could get used to this.

A low rumble came from Emma's belly. She had neglected to eat anything yesterday, since it was so busy with all the moving and shit. However, now her stomach was letting her know that she is, in fact, a human being that needs nourishment. With a deep sigh, Emma ascended from the couch and started towards the kitchen to make some breakfast. Of course, there wasn't anything to "make", per say: just that flipping box of Cap'n Crunch.

Oh, and some pudding.

"I survive the apocalypse, just to die of diabetes from this shit." Emma groaned. Growing up with a dentist and a nurse practitioner as parents, she had constantly been reminded of the dangers of sugary cereal. Stories of heart disease and rotted teeth plagued her childhood, so she preferred to stay away from junk food if she could.

She opened up all the upper cupboards to find some dishes. Almost the entire kitchen was empty, except for the cupboard above the sink. It contained just three bowls, five plates, five glasses, and two mugs. There were also a couple pots and pans and maybe some other things on the very top shelf, but as Emma was a little over five feet tall, she would have to pull out some serious Spider-Man maneuvers to get up there and retrieve them.

After pulling open some of the drawers in the lower counters, she found only one non-empty one. It had one of those plastic containers for organizing your silverware, and it was full of five of each cutlery; spoon, fork, knife.

Emma pulled out two spoons and two bowls and poured out the cereal. It was only then that she realized she had never checked the fridge to see if there was any milk. She walked over to it and yanked open the door; inside was a half gallon of milk, a dozen eggs and a bag of grapes. In the freezer there was a single bag of frozen green beans. She grabbed the milk with a frown.

"First thing on today's itinerary is to go shopping." Emma said whilst dramatically slamming the fridge door. "Then maybe I can get some stuff to make this house seem less dead."

Going back to the bowls of cereal, Emma poured milk into them equally and then returned the jug to the fridge. She left the cereal box on the counter, since she was so starving she could hardly imagine not going back for seconds and maybe thirds.

It was only as she was depositing the bowls onto her dining table that she realized she would have to now wake up Paul. Sure, she could let him sleep but since she'd already poured him some cereal it would probably be soggy by the time he woke up. She could eat his cereal as well as her own, but that'd be a waste of a bowl; she didn't even have any dish soap to wash the two she'd already used. In the end, she decided to be mean to Paul and wake him up.

She tip toed towards her bedroom; she didn't know why, maybe she just wanted to let him sleep an extra ten seconds. Paul's snores grew louder, but by Emma's standards after living with her dad, these snores were very mild. Emma cracked open the bedroom door and peered in.

Paul was very neatly sleeping on his side, both his hands placed underneath his head like he was praying or something. His hair looked exactly the same as always, and there was no sign of any drool to be seen. His blanket was barely even messed up. Of course, Paul was the type to look perfect all the time.

Emma was suddenly conscious of how hideous she must look at that moment. Her hair was down and was probably very frizzy. She always had puffy eyes in the morning, and her breath was always terrible too. She looked down and saw that her pajamas were wrinkled and that because of her lack of bra, her boobs were definitely not looking their best. She really did not want Paul to see her like this, but she had left all her clothes and her hair pins in her room, so unless she was going to undress right next to her sleeping almost-kind-of-sort-of boy.....person, she would have to suck it up and wear her messiness proud.

She knocked softly on the door, hiding most of her body behind it. Paul stirred, but seemed to fall back asleep immediately.

"God, Paul, you really want me to have come in there?"

Emma sighed and walked into the room slowly. How was she supposed to do this? Shake him? Yell at him? Poke his face? She had only ever woken up her sister before besides rushing into her parent's room on Christmas morning, and usually when she woke up Jane for school it involved some form of screaming and/or a bucket of ice water.

Emma sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed Paul's shoulder. She shook him a little, afraid to wake him up even though that was literally her only reason for being there. "Paul, I made you cereal."

Paul's eyes cracked open. He looked forward at Emma's legs which were right about his eye level, and then slowly scanned upwards towards her face. "Wha....who....huh?"

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Emma chuckled; he looked like a toddler, with his matching pajamas and his confused puppy dog expression. "You're at my house, remember? You broke in last night and stole my bed."

Paul looked at Emma. His face changed as he remembered what happened, and he broke out into a hearty laugh. "Oh my God, Emma, I am so sorry. I don't know what got into me last night."

"That's okay, I really don't mind." Emma said, scratching her shoulder nervously. Why the hell was she so nervous around Paul? Damn, she must really have a thing for him. Her appearance came back into her mind, and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to play it off like she was cold. "Anywho, did you sleep well at least?"

Paul stretched his arms above his head with a moan. Emma tried to ignore how sexy he looked. "Yeah, I slept great. You? You look pretty tired."

"I slept okay, I'm just a little hungry, that's all." Emma said. Paul still looked really good, and she was using all her power to not stare at how his pajama top just barely fit over his biceps. She might have just been hypersensitive, but she felt like maybe he was checking her out too. And that was just making it worse.

God, what the fuck was wrong with her?

Emma cleared her throat and stood up quickly from the bed."That's actually why I woke you up. I made some cereal for us."

"Oh, that was nice of you." Paul said, also clearing his throat to match Emma. Maybe they were both nervous.

"I'll meet you out there." Emma was already rushing out the door. She needed to get out of there before she exploded from awkwardness. "I'll be the one with the bed head and no bra on."

Emma closed the door and fought to not forcefully slam her face into it. What the hell was that? "I'll be the one with the bed head and no bra on"? How in the fuck was the supposed to be a smooth line?

She sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. She was absolutely screwing everything up. Why would Paul even want to be with her?

———

Paul watched as Emma closed the door. Her weird bra thing made him decently uncomfortable, but that was nothing compared to his feeling that she was absolutely the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

a/n oof so there ya go, a little look into our favorite bean Paul's mind. He's perfect <3 but will Emma realize that she's already got Paul in the palm of her hand? Anyways, would you guys like to see some more of Paul's POV? I'm not sure if I'll write a ton like that unless you guys really want it (I like writing it tho lol) so let me know what you think! Byeeeee :)