Don't Hold Your Breath

Chapter 10

Dinner with Zeke's family had me missing my own, however I didn't mention anything to him as we got settled in for the night.

"I like them." I told him, feeling almost a little shy.

Zeke smiled at me, bending down to kiss me from where I lay on the bed before pulling off his shirt and pants and joining me.

"I'm glad, they seemed to like you too."

"Your dad seemed...." I trailed off, trying to find the right words. Suspicious was close, but even that wasn't quite right.

"Just ignore him." Zeke said instantly, waving his hand. "He's not reacting like that because of you."

I looked over at him, a little startled, but didn't respond.

"How's your shoulder feeling?" Zeke asked, reaching over to pull my shirt down a little to let him see the bandaged wound.

"It's fine." I shrugged. "Doesn't feel like anything's broken, so that's good."

His hands brushed over it slightly, an odd look in his eye as he stared at the bandages.

"I'm so sorry for bringing you into this mess."

"That's alright." I shrugged.

He smiled but it seemed like he was avoiding looking me in the eyes.

"Is something wrong?" I asked him, feeling slightly uneasy.

"No, nothing." He said, leaning in and giving me a soft kiss. I tried to deepen the kiss, leaning into him and propping myself up slightly, but he broke away from me.

"We shouldn't do anything while you're injured." He told me. "I don't want to hurt you anymore."

That uneasy feeling in the bottom of my stomach lurched and seemed to swell, but I just bit my lip and nodded.

"Night." He said, reaching over and turning off the lamp by him.

"Good night." I responded, turning over onto my good side on the bed.

It seemed to take Zeke some time to fall asleep, but it seemed entirely impossible for me. I tossed and turned until my shoulder began to ache. Zeke had given me some pain killers earlier and now that they were wearing off, it wasn't just the anxious pit in my stomach keeping me up. Finally, when my eyes were burning and I still couldn't sleep, I finally decided to go grab some more pain killers if only to go walk around for a bit.

I tried to silently get out of bed without alerting Zeke. He turned over in his sleep but didn't wake up, so I relaxed a little and slipped out of the room. The hallway was dark, so I tried to use my limited memory of the layout to feel my way down the stairs and turn on the light in the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of water and quickly downed the meds. I filled the glass up again and was about to take it upstairs when a shadowy figure in the doorway made me jump.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Tim said, coming out of the dark hall.

"No that's alright." I said, gripping my shoulder slightly as I tried to ignore the pain that my startled jump had elicited from my injury.

He opened the fridge and said casually with his back to me, "I'm just here to get some late night food. Care to join me?"

I hesitated slightly, but felt it would be rude to refuse so ended up agreeing. He grabbed some crackers and cheese and spread them out on the table. We sat across from each other and he handed me a cracker before speaking.

"I'm... glad you're with my son. This is the happiest I've seen him in a long time."

I was surprised at his words, they were not what I had expected to hear from him.