Atlas

Thirteen

Grace

The next morning, when I woke up, the sun was already high up in the sky – half covered by autumn clouds. I rubbed my eyes and got up, discovering that Atlas wasn't next to me in bed.

I yawned and ran a hand through my hair, slowly managing to get my lazy ass out of bed. It was already 1 pm, and my mom had left me 3 missed calls. I wrapped a blanket around me shoulders. It was pretty cold, and Atlas hadn't turned on the heaters.

Atlas was in the living room, sitting on the couch with his laptop and a mug of coffee in his hand. When he saw me come in, he looked up at me slowly and didn't say anything, like he didn't know what to say.

I walked up to him and sat down on the couch. "Morning." I murmured, grabbing the mug from his hand and taking a sip. I instantly curled my mouth in disgust. Bitter coffee.

Atlas's eyes shifted from the mug back to me. "Morning." He said back quietly.

I frowned. "Why are you being weird?"

That caught him off guard. "I'm not." He replied.

"Mhm." I looked at him. He was working on something on his laptop. I stifled another yawn. "I'm gonna go home and shower."

Atlas looked like he wanted to say something but thought better. "Alright."

I got up and he followed, opening the door for me.

Back in my apartment, I washed my face with hot water. The whole situation was awkward, and as badly as I wanted to hug Atlas in the morning, it was clear he felt weird about the whole thing. I knew what happened last night wasn't in the moment type of thing because I had wanted to long before yesterday, but I didn't know why Atlas was being weird about it.

I brushed my teeth and took a shower. By 2 pm, I had called my mom and eaten breakfast – well lunch, and then video-called Dimia.

I had just sat down and forced myself to stop thinking about the whole Atlas situation when his brother called.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Adrian." I wondered what he would say if he knew about last night. Maybe Atlas had already told him.

"I know." I laughed. "I have your number saved. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good. How are you? The cold getting to you yet?"

"It's tolerable. How's Luna doing?"

"She's great. Cries a lot, but she's good." Adrian said. "Listen, I just called to tell you, I wanna surprise Atlas in a few days, so I'm gonna come visit him and I'm bringing Luna."

"That sounds amazing." I replied. "But Atlas... isn't he still a little overwhelmed with Luna?"

"I know my brother. He's gonna love her eventually. Anyway so I'm gonna the you the details, but can you just make sure he's at home when I come?"

"Oh yeah, definitely." I said. "Alright, I'll see you then."

"Thanks. See you, take care."

When the call ended, I made myself a cup of tea and returned back to my books, only to hear a knock on my door. Damn, I wasn't going to get any studying done today.

With a sigh, I got up and opened the door.

Atlas stood there, awkwardly scratching his head. "Hey, can I come in?"

"Yeah." I tried to ignore the nervous rumbling of my stomach as I shut the door. "What's up?"

"I..." he cleared his throat. "I don't know how to do this."

"Do what?"

"Do... this." His eyebrows drew together. "I'm not good with relationships, Grace. Any kind. I don't wanna fuck it up."

I crossed my arms. My heart was dropping. "So you're saying you wanna go back to being friends?"

He took a few steps closer to me and grabbed onto my arms. "No." he said. "I don't regret last night. I'm just saying, if I fuck this up, or get weird sometimes, it's not because I don't like you enough, its just that I've never done this before."

"So today morning..."

He let out another breath. "I just didn't know what to do." He pulled me closer and kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay." I murmured. "I understand."

"Do you?"

"Kind of."

He hesitated. "Do you wanna go out for dinner or something then?"

I looked up at him and smiled. "Yes."