Atlas

Twelve

Atlas 

"Atlas, wake up."

When his eyes fluttered open, sunlight was streaming outside. He frowned. That was weird. Usually, he was up way before dawn.

He rubbed his eyes. The girl stood over him, looking pretty even in her disheveled hair. "I was just leaving." She said.

"What's the time?"

"9 am."

That caused his frown to deepen. He had slept for nine hours straight?!

"Why do you look so lost?" she laughed.

"Just....nothing."

He had never slept for nine hours straight. Ever.

"Anyways, I'll see you later." She said. She leaved forward and gave him a small hug. "Thankyou for last night." When she pulled away, he found himself wishing she hadn't.

When she was gone, Atlas sat back. He knew why he had slept for so long – not because he was insanely tired, but because she was next to him.

It was almost as if her warm body was perfectly comfortable. The thought was a little scary to him at first, but Atlas tried his best to convince himself that all the exhaustion from the past week had finally caught up to him.

He knew he had to be careful around the girl. She wasn't like other people Atlas had met. She was, in every way, a vessel of happiness. The complete opposite of him.

He thought about her over breakfast. He thought about her when he did his chores, when he wrote another essay, even when Adrian called.

"I need a wife." Adrian said dramatically.

Atlas's eyebrows tucked closer together. "No you don't. You can cook, do laundry, take care of Luna. All by yourself."

"Yeah but it's hard."

"So is having a wife." He said dryly.

"It's not that, Atlas, it's just... Luna needs a mother figure in her life."

"She's barely a month old, Adrian. All she needs is milk. I don't know why people like babies. They don't even pay taxes, they're leeching off of our economy."

"Why are you always so bitter?" Adrian asked. "Anyways, I'm need to go buy milk and diapers. Oh wait, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"I want you to meet Luna."

Atlas blinked. "No."

"Yes." Adrian chuckled. "How about over winter break?"

"I'll think about it." Atlas said grudgingly. "Bye, Adrian."

He cut off the call and decided to go for a walk. But then he sat back down, realizing walks weren't going to be the same anymore. He needed a distraction, anything to get his mind off of Grace.

He worked on his Lord Tennyson poems for a while. Delved a little into ancient Europe literature. Then got bored and decided to go out and buy beer.

The great thing about being an adult was the fact that you could go out and buy anything, anytime you wanted to, and nobody could say a word.

By the time he was walking back, the sun was setting. He heard his shoes tap against the ground, the wind rustle by his ears. It was going to rain tonight, he was sure of it.

When the elevator dinged upstairs, he heard a familiar giggle. His eyes turned to Grace, standing by her doorway, with a bouquet of flowers in her hand.