Kidnap My Heart

Chapter Nineteen: Emma and Will

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 19: Emma

After we ate, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV. Will wasn’t kidding when he said that was pretty much the only thing Eric and Taylor ever seemed to do together. In a situation like this, entertainment options were limited, I suppose, but it was still kind of odd.

As I’d expected, our dinner had been a little too toasty for any of our tastes, but none of us had the heart to tell Taylor that. She was too proud of the meal she’d mostly made by herself. We just let her have that one.

After way too many episodes of Family Guy, Will and I returned to his room—our room, technically—to go to bed, but things weren’t that black and white. No, no, no. We just had to make things difficult for ourselves. Instead of just going to sleep like normal people would, we both became wary of each other and refused to fall asleep.

It made sense. It was our first night sharing a room, and we didn’t exactly have a good relationship. We didn’t trust each other, and both of us had questionable boundaries. I was convinced he would try to pull some idiotic prank like cutting off all of my hair or shaving off an eyebrow or something traumatizing like that. I liked my hair and my eyebrows just the way they were; I wasn’t interested in parting with them.

Since I refused to fall asleep until Will did, I procrastinated as much as I possibly could. I did everything in the book to avoid going to sleep. I kicked Will out of the room and changed into a pair of his cotton pajama pants and a sweatshirt to start my procrastination off. The house got pretty chilly at night, and now that I had access to Will’s entire wardrobe, I wouldn’t have much trouble staying warm.

I went to the bathroom twice, but this backfired on me when Will followed me both times. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was going to follow Eric’s example and never leave my side. This was going to get really old really fast.

I got two glasses of water, but again, Will followed me. What did he think I was going to do? I wasn’t as stupid as he was. I wasn’t going to hatch an escape plan so half-heartedly.

I gave up trying to go downstairs after that. Instead, I arranged the bed to suit my needs, making sure everything was properly fluffed and looked comfortable. More importantly, I made sure there was nothing in the covers or sheets that would alert me. You never knew with Will.

“You’re not a bed-wetter, are you?” I asked, my lips twitching upwards at the question. Offended reply in 3… 2… 1…

“Of course not! Why would you even ask that? I’m twenty-one, not five.”

I shrugged. “Just making sure.”

He shook his head and continued preparing his own bed. He’d found an old sleeping bag deep inside his closet, but it was too small. His solution had been to use it for the bottom half of his body and use a blanket for the top half. I didn’t think this would work out too well for him when nighttime arrived, but whatever. It was his problem, not mine. I would be nice and warm under a big comforter.

I swear I spent at least ten minutes preparing the bed, but nothing worked. Will was still wide awake. By the time I’d given up on elongating my preparations, he was already tucked into his makeshift bed, but he was nowhere near ready to go to sleep. I was pretty sure he knew what I was trying at; the smirk on his face said it all. He was just as determined as I was to stay awake.

Following his lead, I climbed into the bed and got under the covers, looking over at him with narrowed eyes.

“Man, Rage, you look really comfortable,” Will said. “I bet it’s like you’re in a fluffy wonderland. I mean, I might be biased, but I think my bed is really comfortable. I know you’re probably used to fancy mattresses and shit, but for an average mattress, it’s a nice one. It’s like heaven on earth. Wouldn’t you agree?”