Insomnia

SWEETCHEEKS OLD

"So, thanksgiving break, you're all mine?" He asks, pressing another of many kisses to her lips.

"Yes." She grins against his lips.

She's used to the stares by now. She doesn't care all that much anymore. They do this nearly every morning. Cade drives her to campus, and he has to have his goodbye kisses. That's been the routine for the past week.

"I can't wait." He hums. "You and me, alone. All day."

The day goes by uneventfully. Cade forced her to take twenty dollars in cash for lunch as well as stealing her college bills and paying for them. She begged him not to and just let her go back to work. Cade, being himself, refused. He had claimed that he'd just waste the money on more bullshit he doesn't need anyway.

It's a mess.

He's a mess.

The mansion's a mess.

They're a complete mess.

It's a pretty damn good mess.

"Do you wanna go to the beach?" Cade muses as Evie walks up to his car, tossing her bag in the backseat of the convertible.

"It's 10 degrees outside." She reminds him, pulling her coat tighter around her shivering frame. "C'mon. Let's get in the car and get back home. It's freezing."

"No, beach as in Hawaii or the Dominican Republic."

"You're slurring it. Ha-wah-ee." Evie tells him. "Separate syllables. Americans don't pronounce it right."

He repeats her and she nods.

"And hell to the fucking no. You pay my bills, buy me name brand clothing on a whim - no. Just no. Quit spoiling me. I don't deserve it." She rubs her arms.

"Haha too late." Cade grins widely.

"Cade. You did not." Evie's face drops.

"I'm a terrible person." He responds.

"And that's why... Oh, dammit! I should've seen this coming! You idiot!" She pounds him on the chest angrily. "You literally asked me if I had a passport. Oh my god, I am such an idiot." She places her face in her gloved hands and groans. "You-" she punches him in the chest again. "I don't have one, so I'm assuming Hawaii?"

"Yup. C'mon babe." He begs. "Our flight's in two hours. I know you hate this cold."

"Cade." She sighs. "I don't... I don't know you."

"You know more than anyone else, sweet-cheeks. What's my favorite flavor of ice cream?" He asks.

"It-It's... That's not relevant!" He pokes her reddened nose, awaiting an answer. She huffs, looking into those gray irises. "It's vanilla, because you could easily go over to the all night cafe on Cypress and get a slice of pie or cobbler and you like that more than ice cream, and that way you could just have the ice cream on top. And I told you that if you only liked vanilla then you'd be lame and ordinary, and so you said that your second favorite was the lemon custard at Baskin Robbins - I hate myself, oh god." She hides her face in her hands.

"And yours was Heath, but that's not your favorite candy. Your favorite pieces of candy are gummy bears or worms, but they get hard if you put them in ice cream. You don't really care either way, but they still won't put them in ice cream. See? We do know each other."

"B-but- Cade that's ice cream you weirdo!" She splutters.

"It's more than anyone else knows. Plus, I got gummy bears." He pulls a package of candy out of his jacket. "It's the good kind, too."