The Veil

Chapter Twelve

I didn't have another nightmare that night, and I was thankful. 

When I woke up, it was because I turned over and found another body there, I gasped and jumped back slightly.
It took me a second to realise it was Tom.
I took a deep breath, my heart rate slowed back down to it's normal rate.

"I'm not that frightening am I?" Tom mumbled, his face in his pillow, he was laid on his stomach, one arm under me, one arm over his head that faced the wall.

"I forgot I was here." I whispered before I laughed at myself.

I moved my arm from underneath myself and started to trace shapes into his bare back, tracing the tattoos he had there.

"That feels nice." Tom whispered through his pillow, almost falling back to sleep.

"What took us so long?" I whispered back.

It felt like I'd been waking up next to Tom for years and I should wake up next to him forever. 

"I know exactly what you mean, I've wanted this for years, and I was worried it would be weird if I ever got it. But it just feels like it's supposed to be." He was still mumbling into his pillow, like he was trying to stay awake. 

I didn't have anything else to say at that moment so I just continued to trace shapes into his bare back, tracing a few of his colourful tattoos.

It wasn't until I got to his feather tattoo that he tensed up, it was a simple tattoo, just a single feather, no colour, not much detail, kind of alone in the middle of his shoulder blades.
I started to trace it, his muscles tensed even more. 

"What does this one mean?" I asked. 

I wasn't expecting the reaction I got at all.

"Nothing." Was all he hissed at me before he jumped out of bed without warning, he started walking towards his bedroom door, "I'm going in the shower, you best leave before Jade checks on your room." 

He didn't look at me once, stood with his hand on the doorknob and when he was finished he left without another word, slamming the door behind him. 

I sat up for a minute, shocked at what had just happened. Tom had never spoken to me like that before, even when we were mad at each other, he'd always tried to keep his tone civil, and just moments before he was fine.
I'd seen him lose his temper plenty of times, he was sort of always angry deep down, but he'd never unleashed it on me.

I shook my head and got out of the bed, Tom was right about one thing, I did need to leave his room before Jade or Andrew came to check on me.
One of them did most mornings, even the last few mornings when I wasn't talking to anyone, I'd still heard them outside my room.

I grabbed my t-shirt from the floor and put it back on, a flashback of the t-shirt coming off making me smile.
I opened Tom's door, checked both ways before walking down the hallway to my bedroom, as I passed the bathroom, the shower wasn't running.

I wanted to talk to Jade or Andrew about it, ask them what they thought could have happened, but I couldn't tell either of them about last night.

As soon as I closed my door, I heard Tom leave the bathroom, returning to his own room. 

I frowned to myself and sat down on the edge of my bed, Sky had jumped up in the night and was taking up most of the room.
She sensed something was bothering me and stood up, moved her head to my back and laid back down, sighing like she understood. 

"I know little one." I sighed back and moved my hand behind me to stroke her. 

I decided to text Tom, 'I'm sorry.' Simple yet to the point. 

I didn't know what I'd done, but something about that tattoo had triggered him.
He'd never had a problem talking about his other tattoos, shit, I was there for most of them.
He always booked his tattoos for when I was working.