Pieces of the Past - [Danona] Book One ✓

09. sleeping next to you

"What?" the word dropped as his jaw fell. Like a massive splash of water hit his face, he was wide awake and any exhaustion had completely dissipated. Quickly rushing over to her side, he peaked his head into the bedroom... the only bedroom. 

"Uh, um," he shook his head, trying to clear his head enough to find a solution to the problem. "I mean... y-you should take the bed. I can sleep on the couch," he asked cautiously, somewhat fearful of looking in her eyes.

"No!" she retorted, staring at him as if he was out of his mind. "That couch is so small it probably wouldn't even fit me. You're like 6'3, you'd be uncomfortable for days. Take the bed, I'll take the couch!"

"I'll be fine on the couch!"

"Not if I take the couch first!" she fired back. 

He couldn't help but stop and chuckle as he took a moment to examine the situation. Only she would argue to take the worst half of a situation. "What if we switch on and off? You take the bed tonight, I'll take the bed tomorrow, and so on."

"We're making this way more complicated than it needs to be." she threw her hands down at her side, snorting under her breath. As soon as the next idea crossed her mind, her heart began to speed up just a little bit. "I mean... we could—"

He watched as her lower lip puffed out while she searched for the right words, buckling her shoulders as a way to get the message across without having to say it. 

"We could... share it," she whispered the second half as if it were a deadly sin as the Pope was listening in from down the hall. As soon as the words left lips, his head jutted to the side, awkwardly staring at her. 

"Wh-what do you mean?" his voice had dropped to nearly silent levels, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull with shock and confusion. 

Her hand weakly lifted, gesturing at the bed they were both staring at. "Share it. We could share it. I mean, it has to be at least a king-sized bed, we'll both have a decent amount of... space." 

Maybe she didn't want space.

Maybe he didn't either. 

"Y-yeah, yeah okay. We'll share it." he paused, averting his gaze to the floor as she walked away to grab her bag. "Hey—uh, I'll try not to snore too loud." he chuckled, hoping it would break apart the tension in the air. 

He could see the smile blossom on her face as she reached down to grab her luggage. "Great." her reply reminded him eerily of Katie and her signature sarcastic voice. "I'll try not to kick you in my sleep."

Within an hour of arriving, they had both grabbed a shower, changed into pajamas, shared a snack, and brushed their teeth. Both of them could tell that the other was trying to procrastinate going to bed for as long as they could. The closer the clock ticked towards two in the morning, the more their attempts began to fail. They were practically falling asleep as they sat on the couch, waiting for the fireplace to crackle louder and heat the cabin.