salvia. [h.s. AU]

Chapter Two

2 hours of sleep.

This must be my new record - going to bed at 4, tossing and turning till 7, then finally fall to a restless sleep that lasted only a couple of hours before a loud noise in the kitchen wakes me up.

I feel like I should be angry for being awakened like this, but as this point I don't even think I care anymore. My body is slowing starting to get used to the lack of sleep and my mind is too numb to care.

Wrapping a robe around myself, I leave my room, dragging my exhausted body to the kitchen so I can find out the source of the noise who woke me. I'm almost wishing it is some boggler with a baseball bat, maybe if he hits me in the head hard enough  I'll get a few more hours of sleep.

But no, of course it isn't a boggler. It's Marcos, laying over his belly on the floor, face snapped to the side while he looks at something under the tiny crack between the floor and a cabinet. He is wearing the same clothes from yesterday, still barefoot and obviously not in the class he was supposed to be right now. There's a kettle over the sink with smoke coming out of it, the smell of fresh coffee filling the air and mixing with the lightened cigarette pending on the corner of Marcos's lips.

"What are you doing?" I ask loudly, at the same time that I stomp on his back with both my feet, using his body as a footstool as I open the cupboard over the cabinet, taking two mugs out of it.

"Porra, Maria!" Marcos huffs, his use of the curse word in Portuguese showing off how startled he got with my presence. "Are you seriously using me as a stool?"

"Are you seriously skipping class?" I ask back, nonchalantly. "Thought you had to be there at 8 today." I get down from his back, resting the mugs over the sink and going to the fridge.

What can I cook today?

"Yeah, m'sorry... I completely slept in, but in my defense, there was no alarm to wake me up." Marcos stands from the ground, a lighter on his hands. "I dropped this and it rolled under the cabinet." He explains.

"What was that noise?" I decide not to give him the earful he deserves for skipping class, only because I don't think I have the energy right now. My hands works fast inside the fridge, grabbing everything I need to make a nice omelette for breakfast.

"I stomped on the chair and it fell over, did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll try to take a nap in the afternoon." I lie to him, completely aware there's no way I'll manage to sleep with the noises and clarity of the day. I just don't want Marcos to focus on the wrong stuff, he tends to get super worried about me if he knows I'm not sleeping well. "Will you stay for breakfast?"

"If that's OK..?" He throws me the puppy eyes, taking a puff from his cigarette.

"Of course it is. Just don't smoke here, you know about Dani's allergies."