Sheets | ✓

FORTY

I woke to a fluttering feeling trekking across my cheeks, as if tiny feet were skipping across my skin. My face scrunched up at the feeling, which immediately stopped when I rolled over. A chuckle sounded from above me head as my head softly pressed against a hard yet comforting chest. 

"Goo-morn-ngh," I mumbled, not quite able to enunciate my words through the thickness of sleep. 

"Mhmm," Nico hummed, pulling me closer to him with the arm locked around my waist. "Morning, babe."

Smiling against Nico's chest at the pet name, I forced my eyes open to blearily peer up at my boyfriend. Through the haze of my imperfect vision, I could see that Nico's eyes were laden with sleep and his face speckled with stubble, his mouth pulled up in a lazy smile as he slowly collected his consciousness.

"You're up earlier than usual," I commented, pulling away from him slightly to rub my eyes. "Something wrong?"

"Does something have to be wrong?" Nico asked, snorting while his body flexed to prop himself up with a bent arm, head cradled in his hand. Rolling my eyes, I fumbled around for a few moments to grab my glasses, Nico's handsome face soon clear. 

"You're never up before nine, let alone before me, so excuse me for being suspicious," I said, sitting up in the bed to peer at the clock. It was only 7am, and the alarm set on my phone hadn't gone off yet. Nico just laughed at my words, inching closer to me so he could lie his head on my lap, his dark hair falling from his face to brush against my thighs. Nico's smile faded when he raised his hands up to press against my face, likely running his fingers over the darkness under my eyes. 

Despite waking up in a serene state, the night itself had not been as pleasant. My dreams had been turbulent, a relentless nightmare where I kept running and running behind the shadow of my father, my mother's wails trailing behind me and Jamie's curses nipping at my heels. When I finally reached my father's back he would turn, but before I could see his face the scene would change. I would be in the middle of the school hall amongst a sea of faceless bodies, but despite them having no faces I could feel their non-existent eyes on me. Again I was running, running through these halls as a chorus of voices screamed at me. 

"Gay," they yelled. Amongst the throng of faceless images, a few stood out from the crowd. Sofia, Parker, Leo and Rachel sneered at me from the side, disgust twisting their features. I ran and ran, my own throat raw as I screamed one word.

One name.

Nico.

And then, suddenly, the nightmare would end and I would wake up, chest panting and eyes damp. When I woke with his arms around me, his chest rising and falling steadily and his heartbeat pulsing though his shirt and into mine, the panic would subside and the fear would end. Nico had woken up the first time, my fingers clutching at his shirt enough to pull him out of his own dreams. He had murmured comforting words to me in a husky, half-asleep voice tinged with concern, his voice growing more and more distant as it lulled me back into sleep. When I woke fitfully the second time, Nico was in a deep sleep, and I didn't have the heart to wake him. Instead, I pressed myself against him, and that was enough.

He would always be enough.

But now, Nico could clearly tell that after he fell back asleep the first time, it was not the same for me. 

"Didn't sleep well after?" Nico asked quietly, making me shake my head, though a smile spread across my face at his concern. 

"I'm fine now, though," I said earnestly, hands running through Nico's hair. "Honest." Nico didn't respond, instead hooking his hands around the back of my neck, pulling me down towards him. Grinning a little, my eyes instinctively fluttered shut as our faces neared each other, his lips brushing against mine.