Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Eighteen

Landon

I had been awake for about thirty minutes, not daring to move. Cassie's face looked peaceful with her head resting on my chest, breathing steady in her deep sleep. Admiring the way she looked, I traced the soft skin of her leg that was lazily wrapped over my waist. Every now and then, she let out a snore and I struggled to hold back a laugh every time she did.

My shoulder had lost all feeling when I first went to sleep, probably past a point of recovery, but I didn't care. She was comfortable and I wasn't going to disturb her.

Hearing her screams last night terrified me. Luckily, I was still awake, but she was still audible over the other side of the apartment and I was adamant someone was killing her. When I finally pushed open the locked door, she was shaking, drowning in her sweat and tears. It took a few yells and me shaking her, but when I eventually managed to wake her up, she clung to me like I was the only thing left in the world.

As selfish as it may sound, I loved the feeling of being her saviour.

I could get used to her being here, more importantly, me being there for her. Sighing to myself, I was about to roll over to hide my stupid grins from the world, then remembered she was still sprawled across me and stopped myself.

When my ring tone blasted through the room, my arm shot over to grab it and silence it, but Cassie had already slipped onto the pillow, eyes widening at the sudden movement and huffing.

"Sorry," I whispered, then she mumbled incoherently and closed her eyes.

It took me a second to adjust to the brightness, reading Hailee's name on the screen, I accepted that I couldn't ignore her without being bombarded with more calls. "What's up, Hails?"

"It's officially November, do you know what that means?" He loud excitement forced me to pull the phone away from my ear.

November? I searched for the date on my phone to confirm that it was, in fact, November. She was three days late for this phone call, and I still had no idea what November meant.

I heard her sigh on the other end of the phone like I was stupid, but nothing ever happened this time of year.

"I find out the sex of the baby. Aren't you excited?"

Of course. She had only told me every single time we had spoken and forced me to mark it down on a calendar. A calendar that I didn't own until she gave me one for that sole purpose. Sure, I was happy for her and she was thrilled, the details of it simply weren't that interesting to me, at least not to the obsessive extent she wants. Updates were fine, not the calls so early in the morning to remind me of what I already knew.

"Who is that?" Cassie lifted her head up from the pillow once more and her glassy eyes narrowed from the sleepiness.

My sister, I mouthed, covering the mic on my phone.

"Landon, who is that?" Hailee's voice blared once again, either with happiness or general concern, I couldn't tell.

After Cassie scooted to lay back on me, I told Hailee I would call her back later and hung up before she could object. Then, my phone started vibrating every couple of seconds, all of which were questioning messages from her. You'd think I was one of her clients trialled for murder.

Turning off my phone, I felt a hand reach up and grip my shoulder. I couldn't tell if it was a subconscious action or if she knew what she was doing, but I enjoyed it. We didn't move much more for another twenty minutes and I was content. Until a phone disturbed us again. Hers, not mine.

Could I not enjoy the little moments in life without the most vexing sound interrupting? Apparently not.

"What?" Cassie groaned, evidently just as frustrated as I was. "Yeah? Alright, see you later."