Altered Futures

Chapter 26 - Mom

Wednesday, January 11 --- 9:21a.m.

Edward sat on the couch, not having much of a clue what to do. It still hurt a lot to move around much, so he was stuck there unless Nafratearie helped to take him somewhere else. He had already seen and heard Grace leave. There was the TV, but he couldn't reach the remote from where he was. A few seconds later, he heard footsteps behind him. When he turned around to see who it was, he saw Naf and slowly tensed up.

Great. She's probably still mad at me from last night.

Nafratearie continued to walk towards him which did not help his fear. When she got near the couch, she looked around as if contemplating whether to sit down there or not before settling for sitting on the edge of the nearby coffee table in front of him and crossed her right leg over her left one. It was her house and her rules, so she was fine doing things like this.

"Hey," she said before giving a small pause. "I wanted to apologize again. I really should have at least tried to help you escape sooner. If you're still mad at me, I understand."

Edward's jaw felt like it was going to fall from his face, but somehow his mouth stayed shut.

I didn't expect her to actually apologize! 

"No, Nafratearie, if anything, I should apologize. I shouldn't have blown up at you last night."

"No, you had every right to get mad at me."

"Even if that is true, I shouldn't have taken it out on you as much as I did."

"It's okay," Nafratearie said, walking towards where he sat on the couch and sitting down next to him on the left. "Grace probably won't let me leave the house for a couple more days, so I'm stuck here until she quits nagging me to stay home."

"Is that a bad thing?" asked Edward.

"Not entirely," Naf said, scooting closer to him. "I can spend more time with you."

"That sounds nice."

"It does," agreed Naf. "Hey, I know yesterday was hectic, but I don't have anything planned for today. What would you like to do?"

"You're letting me pick? Really? Especially after I got mad at you last night?"

Excitement radiated from him and Naf knew she had made his day, at least for the time being.

"Yes really. We can play games, watch movies, do craft projects, talk, cuddle, window shop online, play with slime or play-dough, do karaoke or listen to music. Oh, speaking of which, I need to show you some K-pop music videos sometime."

"What about coloring?"

"Sure, that sounds great! We can't leave the house though or do anything that hurts you or breaks the law, but beyond that, I don't really care what we do."

"Naf, can we do more than one thing?"

"Absolutely!" Naf smiled. "What did you want to do first?"

"Can we do all of them?"

"That would be great. What would you like to start with?" she said, wrapping her right arm around him.

"How about we just talk and cuddle a little bit first. I'm still not used to actually having another person to talk to, much less one that isn't Grace or my parents. Not that there is anything wrong with them, it's just..."

"I know what you mean," Naf softly whispered, giving him a gentle squeeze. "It's okay. There is nothing wrong with that."

Edward looked to his left side at her and couldn't stop a smile from growing on his face. He laid his head on her shoulder and she pulled him closer to her, placing her left hand to rest on top of his head.