His Badass Mute

Chapter 20: Speaking Sweetly

I worry but only because I care.

Mae

I heard the sound of crunching and slurping next to me, one of my biggest pet peeves. I wanted the irritating sound to stop, so I covered my head with my blanket but the slurping got louder. The sound prolonged and dragged for what seemed like an eternity. I sat up furious at what the sound could be and heard chuckling to my left.

"You know you mumble in your sleep?" I looked to my left and saw James eating a bowl of cereal. "Not actual words but like if you're having a wet dream." He was laughing. The sound he was talking about was something I did. When I would sleep, I would take in deep breaths of air and release my breath at once, creating a moaning or groaning sound. He brought the bowl to his mouth and slurped loudly. As if me not beating the crap out of him—not literally—yesterday wasn't enough, he does this?

"I will murder you again," I threatened, half-heartedly. My body was tired from wrestling with the boys yesterday. We had a wrestling contest. They kept turning and twisting my body in different ways, ways my body was not meant to be twisted and turned. Fortunately, nothing broke or tore, but I was still sore. I looked at the clock and saw what time it was and groaned. "Why are you waking me up at six in the morning on a Saturday?"

"I wasn't tryna way ya up, you just light sleeper," he chuckled and I groaned as I fell back on the bed. "Oou, let's watch The Walking Dead."

"It's six in the morning, James," I signed. He stopped eating, so I closed my eyes, slowly losing my hearing as unconsciousness became of me.

"Mae!" James shouted and my heart dropped. I gasped from being scared, and I looked at him. I smacked his arm and he started laughing.

"You scared the crap out of me!" I signed angrily. I put my hand on my heart, feeling the beating that could've matched a hummingbird's heartbeat and glared at him. "Get out. You're not welcomed here."

"Awe, Mae. I was just joking," he laughed. I just wanted to sleep, nothing would have made me happier. I closed my eyes, hoping to ignore him and sleep. "Mae!" He shouted again. I jumped a little and glared at him. He was laughing and laughing, tears were brimming his eyes as he laughed. He clutched onto his stomach as he took deep breaths.

"Shut up!" Zach yelled from his room. James kept laughing, not caring about anything around him. I heard Zach groaning from the other room and it sounded like he was crying. "I just wanna sleep! Is that too much to ask for?!" I looked at James to tell him to be quiet, but he was laughing too hard, his eyes were squeezed shut.

I grabbed my pillow and hit him but he kept laughing. He tried talking but only laughs would come out. "You... you shou... you should've..." he spoke through his laughs but trying to speak only made him laugh more. His laughing lifted my mood and made me start laughing loudly.

"Make it stop!" Zach cried from the other room, so I stopped laughing. I heard hard stomps approaching, and James started laughing harder when Zach walked into my room. "Why are you laughing?" He was angry and sleepy. Never a good combination on Zach.

"Ya should've seen her... she got so-so scared," James managed to say through his chuckling. His laughing fit stopped and he started taking deep breaths, trying to cool down. "Ugh, that was good." He chuckled about his laughing.

"For who? You're the only one happy!" Zach snapped. James looked at him then me and pointed to me because I was smiling. "Stop smiling!" Zach snapped at me and I laughed. He groaned and walked away. I got up and went to the restroom.

"Party time!" James sang as he walked out of my room. After I was done using the restroom I walked out.

"You spent the night?" I asked when I walked into the kitchen.