Between

The muted colours from the alleyway outside the pub are replicated in the lounge room, as if I’m in a black and white version of the house. I’m the only person here now; besides a strange whooshing noise in my ears, I can’t hear anything. Alek and the girl have vanished and I’m no longer cold. Bed. I need sleep. Dreaming about going to bed? Weird.

 

I climb the stairs, step by step, and pause when I get to the landing outside Alek’s room. The greyness darkens around me and the whooshing becomes a humming, voices clamouring in my head. I know I should go to bed, but my dreaming self wants to look in mysterious rooms. Not Alek’s, the one next to it where the girl came from that day. As I step closer, I notice light beneath the door, which relieves me because I didn’t want to walk into a dark room, even in my subconscious. I step closer to the door, hand outstretched. I know what’s behind the door: peace and quiet, away from annoying guys in leather jackets and freaky girls with red hair.

 

Am I in the shower? I jerk awake and open my eyes. Alek looks down at me, holding an empty glass. Cold water trickles off my face and soaks my hair.

 

“What the hell?” I yell at him, sitting up.

 

“I said don’t go to sleep!”

 

I want to push him, throw something at him, scream, but surprise prevents me. I blink at him. Never mind he threw water at me, he’s luminescent. “Are you glowing?”

 

“Am I?” He says it as if he doesn’t realise or thinks I shouldn’t notice.

 

“Yeah. I’m dreaming again, aren’t I?”

 

“Where did you go?”

 

“When?”

 

“When you slept just then.”

 

“Nowhere, I was in the house.”

 

He tenses. “This house? Where?”

 

I wipe water from my face and smooth back my damp hair. “Just upstairs. I was going to bed. In my dream. Which is where I’m going now. In what I hope is a bad dream.”

 

I get to my feet and wobble slightly, grabbing the sofa arm for stability.

 

“Rose, if you sleep, you won’t wake up.” Alek says the words quietly, like a doctor trying to soothe a patient.

 

“Don’t be stupid.” But his words trigger goosebumps across my skin.

 

Alek faces me and I shiver; from the water cooling my neck and shoulders, and from his proximity. His expression holds a frightening intensity, darkened eyes filled with concern and something unknown. An unexpected desire for his touch shudders through, the arousal edging out the fear.

 

“I’m going to kiss you,” he says.

 

“I don’t think so!” But the image flies into my mind, igniting heat into my weak body. A body telling me what a great idea it would be to feel those full lips I’ve stared at more than I should pressed against mine.

 

Alek rakes a hand through his hair. “But I don’t want to.”

 

“Wow, thanks. I’ll give it a miss then.” Heat of embarrassment replaces the desire, and I turn away.

 

“But I should. I’m not going to force myself on you, but I’m trying to help you.”

 

“Help me what? Understand how unbelievably arrogant you are because you think I want to kiss you?” I snap, spinning back to him.

 

“No, to help you stay here.” There’s an earnestness at odds with the usual Alek.

 

“Honestly, when I wake up tomorrow, I’m gone.”

 

“No!”

 

I jump in alarm at his vehemence, eyeing the front door. “Jeez, you’re weird.”

 

Alek rubs his nose and fixes his eyes on my mouth. He inhales and tenses, as if preparing to do something stupid and dangerous, like jump off a cliff. This strikes me as odd. I mean, a lot about tonight is beyond odd, but the Alek I’ve got to know doesn’t seem the type who would deliberate these things.

 

“Okay, I’m going to do this. If you want me to stop, just push me away.”

 

Before I can respond, Alek takes hold of my shoulders. His lips tentatively touch mine and static arcs across my face. The lightning-struck feeling spreads as he takes advantage of my parted-mouthed surprise and crushes his mouth to mine. I try to pull away, the intensity of the charge spreading into my body frightening me, but Alek has one hand in the small of my back and another at the nape of my neck, holding me steady. At every point our bodies are in contact, heat of a kind I’ve never experienced flows; with each passing second, the stronger the urge to have Alek hold and kiss me like this until I can’t breathe overpowers. I close my eyes; in my mind’s eye, white light blinds my thoughts, tripping the switch on a desire so strong I fight against pulling my clothes off, and then starting on his.

 

I grab Alek’s head in return, digging my hands into his scalp, and delve my tongue into his mouth. I want this. Him. Touching, kissing, tasting, everything. All I can focus on is the powerful energy flowing from his lips to mine, drawing away the exhaustion and filling me with vigour. Alek loosens his grip on my head then disentangles my fingers from his hair.

 

I stagger backward as he moves away and rest against the wall. “What the hell was that?”

 

“Do you feel better now?”

 

I do, but Alek is pale. Not only has he lost his luminescence, but his skin and eyes are dull. My body feels as if somebody injected me with a drug like the ones used for pain when I was in hospital, the world a brighter place in my eyes and in my mind. “What did you do?”

 

Lisa Swallow's books