Save Me - Joel Hokka | Blind Channel

Chapter 24: Welcome to the wolfpack

Content information: This chapter is written from Marlene's perspective again.

The next morning, I woke up to the light of Joel's phone screen. "Morning", I mumbled, still sleepy. "Oh, sorry, I didn't want to wake you up. Niko asked whether I'll be at the studio again today and I thought that since you don't have to work today, we could spend the day together. I'll just tell him that I won't come today, we can sleep a bit longer today." "Okay", I mumbled and after snuggling up to my boyfriend, I closed my eyes again and soon after, I was already asleep.

When I woke up the next time, Joel wasn't lying next to me anymore. "Darling?", I asked quietly and placed my hand on the spot next to me where he had laid before. It was still warm so I assumed that he had left less than a few minutes ago. I yawned quietly before I got up and put on one of Joel's shirts that was thrown over a chair. Although I had spent quite some nights at Joel's by now, I still didn't have any clothes at his apartment, so his shirt seemed to be a good choice now. It was long enough to cover my butt because Joel was so much taller than I was; therefore, I decided not to wear anything else.

"I'm okay, no need to worry. But thanks for checking on my, anyway", I heard Joel saying as I went to the living room. I thought someone had called him, so I tried to not make a sound on my way to the living room where his voice came from. The moment I realized that I was wrong, it was already too late. When I saw Niko sitting on his couch, I had already entered the room and he was looking at me. "Oh, hi Marlene", he greeted me. "Eh... Hi...", I quietly mumbled back. "Didn't expect to see you, here", he grinned. "But based on your outfit, I'd say that I was right back then, huh? I mean, one could clearly see that there was something between the two of you."

"No, you weren't right", I told him. "We were nothing back then", Joel agreed. "Not friends, not a couple and not friends with benefits either." "There are now two questions in my mind... Why were you at hers and we partied at hers when you didn't know each other and, even more important, why did you guys kiss after Joonas wanted us to share a kiss with everyone we had kissed before? And secondly, you said that back then you were nothing. Are you now something? Like, friends to do some... What shall I call it...? Fucking for fun?"

Before any of us could answer, Niko quickly added: "If you don't want to answer, you of course don't have to. Marlene, maybe you should know this about us: We are pretty honest with each other and we can talk about everything, even the most private details, but we are never mad when someone doesn't want to share their thoughts and feelings or simply give information on what is going on." "Yeah, that's good to know." "I think it's too early to talk about how things started and why exactly I said that we were nothing although we had obviously kissed before. When Marlene wants to tell the story, she can do that but if not, we should accept that.

And I won't tell them anything as long as you're not ready for that, it's your decision when you want to open up and even if you want to do that at all." With the last sentence, he was now talking to me and smiling softly. Eventually, I would definitely tell the boys because when they knew about my story, they also knew what to be careful with so they wouldn't accidentally make me feel uncomfortable. But Joel was right, it was too early for that. I needed to know them a lot better to show them my deepest feelings.

"But about the second or rather last question because honestly, you asked more than two... Marlene, are you okay with me answering them?" "I am", I said smiling and while doing so, I sat down next to him and leaned against him. He was cold, obviously because he was only wearing his boxers. Apparently Niko had woken him up. "We are dating. So, it's not like with the other women before. It's... Something serious." "Hey, I'm happy for you!", Niko said and I could see that he was honest about that. His smile reached his eyes and that's something no fake smile could do the way a real smile could. "Are you still on your way to call it officially a relationship or are you already sure about it?"