Perception

XLVII

Eli's room was perhaps a little bit messy, but it really wasn't that bad. Especially not for a guy. But then again, with everything she knew about his organisations skills thus far, she would actually have been surprised had he been a slob.
The room was square and quite spacious. There was a cupboard with some cooking stuff right beside the sliding door, stacked so haphazardly that she had the feeling she would only have to touch it ever so lightly, in passing, to set the whole stack crashing to the floor. She made sure to steer well clear of it, because seriously, that would be a slightly grander entrance to Eli's room than she was looking for. There was a large round table with two mismatched chairs straight ahead, with a few stacks of books and papers on it. Against the far wall was a simple IKEA desk with a desktop computer, and beside it was a wooden double bed with dark blue sheets.
Eli had tried to provide some semblance of atmosphere to the stark white room by blue tacking several van Gogh posters to the walls above the bed and above the table, and Anna guessed that he was probably not allowed to hammer any nails into the walls.

She walked over to the painting of the almond blossoms above the table and traced it softly with her fingers.
"I really like van Gogh." she said softly.
"Really? In that case we should go to the van Gogh museum at some point."
Eli was beside her and he put his hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "Hey. You okay there?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Just worried. Glad you're here."
She took her jacket off and sat down on Eli's bed as he wandered back into the kitchen. And she was just smiling, because it sounded like he was busy putting a kettle on, when he stuck his head back around the door, brandishing a mug.
"I'm even more glad I got that tea for the picnic now."
She cocked her head ironically. "I would have survived without it, you know."
"You sure about that?" he asked with his left eyebrow reaching for the heavens, just before his head and the mug vanished into the kitchen again. Anna laughed softly and shook her head.

She scooted further onto the bed and folded her legs under her. She was bone tired, now, both physically from the cycling and emotionally. Really all she wanted to do right this moment was curl up and go to sleep. Eli's bed was comfortable, too, the mattress soft and squishy under the blue quilt cover.
She sighed deeply once and then she picked up her phone to see if there were any messages from Sarah.
Nothing.
And she would have sent one herself, in fact, she wanted to desperately, but she shouldn't, she knew, because she had no way of knowing what was happening on the other end. Maybe Sarah had fallen asleep on the passenger seat by now, and would be spending some precious time not worrying about her beloved grandma? Or maybe she was driving herself, and couldn't look at her phone anyway. No, she should wait until the morning, or until she heard from her best friend. She'd simply leave her phone on tonight and wait. So she put the phone down on the little wooden night stand that lived next to Eli's bed and ran her finger over the backs of the little stack of books on it. It was psychology books, mostly, but there was also a tatty copy of  'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho and 'A New Earth" by Eckhardt Tolle.
She nodded to herself at his choice of literature and leant back into the pillows, just as Eli came back in, carrying two mugs of tea. He only took one look at her and then he walked over swiftly, silently put the mugs on the same night stand, and sat down next to her, so she could lean her head on his shoulder.

"Hey." she whispered sleepily, burrowing into him, feeling herself relax in the unfamiliar space.
"Hey." he smiled. "She'll be okay."
She smiled too, because even if he couldn't possibly know that, she appreciated the comfort of his words.
She settled a bit deeper into the cushions, her head resting so comfortably on his shoulder, the tea forgotten.
And she knew she should get up, brush her teeth, go into James' room. But she didn't want to, she wanted to lie here, with him, his arm around her, keeping her safe.
So she lay quietly in his arms, and she drifted softly off to sleep.