“Don’t worry about it.” Jack waved it aside, “Focus on tomorrow. We need a plan to get Hawthorne back, so get your sleep.”
I nodded. I was terrified and had no idea about what we were going to do. It was impossible. Part of me was fighting back tears, and just wanted comforting arms, where as the other side of me just wanted to thrash out some of the anger. I ushered the emotional thoughts from my mind before Jack noticed my expression.
He was quiet for several moments before; “I’ll sleep on the floor if you want.”
I forced a smile, “No. I mean, it’s a very large bed, so we should have enough room.”
Jack frowned. My intentions were quite honourable. I was merely thinking of my freezing toes and trying to ignore the pang in my heart.
“I guess.” He muttered, turning away.
As Jack blew out the candles around the room I got into the far side of the bed. My feet felt like ice and I curled into a ball and tried to ignore it. With my eyes closed I listened to Jack lumbering around the room, and finally felt his weight pressing down the mattress as he struggled with the blankets and made himself comfortable on the other side of the bed. It was quiet for a long time and I listened to Jack’s steady breathing, becoming very self conscious of my own unsteady breath which sounded unusually loud in the quiet room.
“Ava?” Jack’s voice broke the silence after a long while.
“Mmhmm?”
It was quiet for several moments.
“What?” I said impatiently.
Silence.
Annoyed I rolled over and faced the wall, kicking Jack accidentally in the process.
“Ow.” He hissed at me.
“Sorry.” I muttered.
“Your feet are freezing.” He accused.
“I’m cold.” I sulked
“So am I.”
“You’re taking up the whole bed!” I snapped.
“I’m right on the edge!” He defended, “I’ve only got a few inches of bed left, and I haven’t got enough blanket.” He tugged at it.
“You’re hogging it all!” I tugged back.
“Now I haven’t got any.” He said sitting up to analyse the situation, “You are so irritable all the time. Why do you have to be so hot-headed?”
I sat up too, “Well maybe if you-Jack why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”
“I’m wearing pants.” He said, suddenly self-conscious and pulling the blanket up to his chin.
I huffed and flopped back down onto the pillow. Irritable, I scowled. True, I did tend to have a short fuse. Though lately I hadn’t been controlling my emotions anymore since I had lost my Power.
Jack and I sulked for several moments, avoiding any contact what so ever that might make the situation any more awkward. So much for being reasonable adults, I thought irritably. I had never shared a bed before with anyone in my entire life, let alone a boy.
Finally exhaustion from a long, tiring day took me and I was soon fast asleep, forgetting where I was and who I was sharing a bed with. I had strange, vivid dreams which didn’t make any sense what so ever, yet seemed oddly plausible while I was asleep.
I thought I was dreaming a commotion. Loud, angry voices, arguing and yelling. They got louder, but they sounded distant. One of them even sounded familiar, yet I could not make out what they were saying. It was all just noise.
The part of my brain that was still alert was trying to tell me something. It was telling me that I should wake up. But Why? This was just a dream, and I was tired. No need to wake up, foolish brain. My body felt heavy with extra weight.
Very slowly I began to wake up. I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, though it felt like a while. I was warm now, sweating in fact. Odd. A few moments later I realised that it must be the extremely early hours of the morning. It was still dark outside, but I heard noises downstairs, coming from the bar.
Jack’s breathing sounded very close. In fact, I could feel his breath cascading down my neck. I was now aware of his arm slung casually around my waist, his face buried in my hair, and his body sprawled in all different positions across the bed. I sighed and decided to let him hog the bed for now.
Before I got too caught up in the unintended intimacy I heard the yelling voices again. They were much louder now. Very angry. So it seemed they had not been part of my dream at all.
Finally I made out one line of what was being said downstairs, “-And what bloody right do you have to come storming in here, ransacking the place?” Bludvok’s booming voice carried up the stairs.
Fear gripped me.
“Jack!” I hissed, “Jack!”
“Mhh.”
“Jack, wake up!” I tried to shake him off me.
“Whassa?”
“Jack, for god sake, you need to wake up.” I pleaded.
“M’kay.” He fidgeted and smacked his lips together before attempting to sit up. He seemed to realise the proximity between us and removed his arm from around me instantly, “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that.” I hissed, “Listen.”
“To what?”
“Shhh!”
Jack fell silent and we listened hard.