Dead by Tomorrow

Chapter 16 | 5 a.m

One thing that I can never get used to is waking up early.

One thing that I do repeatedly is exactly that.

One thing that I absolutely hate is waking up early to go to school.

And the last thing that I hate, and that is connected to waking up, is that I really hate people scaring me.

I jumped from the bed due to the loud noise outside my window. Not properly dressed, with half of my behind on full display I managed to stumble and fall as soon as I stepped out of the bed.

What a great start of the day.

As soon as I realized that the noise was coming from outside of my window, I didn't even have to look and guess who was there. There was only one person that preferred climbing up to the roof of my house and knocking onto my window, instead of using the door like every normal human being. I got off the floor and put my blanket around my bare skin. It was a chilly morning, and the fact that my windows were slightly opened the whole night didn't help me get any warmer.

"What do you want?" I asked Ace as he jumped in my bedroom.

"Good morning to you too sunshine." Ace smiled and ruffled my hair.

"Do not touch me." Morning Mia is something that not many people can take. I'm usually unable to speak normally before I drink my first coffee of the day, and Ace really knew when to show up and what approach to have. Yeah, his approach was making me want to scream very loudly.

"Care to explain why I was woken up by you, why are you outside my window again, and what the hell are you doing awake at six in the morning?" My eyes were closing while I was standing, and it took me a lot of head shaking not to fall asleep right where I was.

"Actually, it's five in the morning, and I am here purely out of being a good damn neighbor. Come with me, I need to show you something." Ace turned around and jumped up on the window palette, and then made a step towards the roof.

"What? Wait? No, I'm not climbing up that thing." I said and it took me a lot of willpower not to go back to bed and fall asleep wishing that Ace Murray would leave me alone.

"Okay, use the door. I'll wait." He said and jumped on the tree that was right next to my house. Oh, so that's how he managed to climb up. Great, we need to cut down that Silver oak now, no more Ace and his vandalism would be a great thing.

 I went outside, tightening the blanket around me, the crisp air was almost painful to breathe in. Ace was standing next to the patio, and his smile was the most beautiful dawn that the morning ever saw. What was he smiling for? 

"Whelp, I'm here so I can freeze to death and you can sell my body on the black market?" I asked and attempted to cover myself up more, but the blanket was not enough for my liking of heat. I needed at least five more sweaters and seven pairs of pants, the shivers on my skin confirmed this theory.

"Not quite, but I'll consider that. Come here." Ace said and offered me his hand, which I took with a dose of concern. I mean, what is so important at five in the morning?

 He proceeded to cover my eyes and to lead me somewhere. We took a few steps and stopped, after which Ace took his hands off my eyes, doing it so slowly that I felt his left hand brushing my jawline, and something inside of me squirmed.

"Voila," was all he said, and I didn't get it until I turned my head to the left. Catto, Mishka, and Coco were all sitting in a little transporter cage in front of me. I screamed from happiness so hard that I probably woke up the whole neighborhood, but I literally didn't care about that. I had my cats back, and I was the luckiest girl in the world. I squatted down and opened the cage, Mishka jumping on me as soon as she got a chance to get out of it. She was the wildest one, a cat that had a personality stronger than those of most people I knew. I loved her for it. Carrying Mishka in one hand, I tried to take the cage in the other one, but Ace stepped in and helped me. Once we took the cats in the house and fed them, I turned to Ace.