Rock, Paper, Scissors

25: Good Morning Sunshine

I woke up from the light coming out of the window. I stretched or tried since a weight on my waist wouldn't let me move. I looked down to find a hand pulling me towards warmth. A hand attached to a strong harm that was itself attached to a hot body. My eyes widened in realization: Nick Belisario was spooning me.

Heat flushed through my body. Part of me wanted to get up and run, but another wanted me to stay and be enveloped by his warmth, cuddled by his arms. But then I would have to face him when he woke up. How would that play out? Certainly not like what happens in those romantic books and movies. So, I made up my mind.

I slowly freed myself from his grasp to make sure he wouldn't wake up. I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I succeeded and got up, glancing back at his peaceful, sweet, sleeping face before stepping out of the room.

I walked down the stairs to get my bag from the car. Once I was back, I walked through the maze of rooms until I found a bathroom. I took a warm long shower, that felt cold compared to Nick's body. Maybe I should actually take a cold shower.

Rummaging through my bag for underwear I found the bottle that held my sleeping pills. It completely slipped my mind last night. Still, I had been able to have a long, good night of sleep, free of nightmares. I thought for a moment that maybe I didn't need them anymore, but remembered last week when I had to take two doses. It always gets worse as the anniversary gets closer. So, I would rather believe it had been the alcohol in my system than admit it had been because Nick held me.

I shouldn't go there, I couldn't. Nick was a friend, and I was just being infatuated by his looks. That's it. It wasn't a crush, it wasn't love, it was simply hormones. So, I thought that if I slept through the night once I could do it again and decided to try it again today. If it didn't work, I'd have Sunday to recover.

Once I was dressed, I went looking for my other friends. Micah was plastered on the big modern grey couch in the living room. I explored the house -- or at least the rooms whose doors were open -- taking in all its beauty. It was decorated in a very simplistic way –- a statement piece, an abstract painting, a sculpture here and there –- very harmonized. The high walls married the dark-shinny wooden floor perfectly, flowing from a room to another like a calm river.

I found Tyler sitting on the kitchen's isle, drinking water. He stopped and smiled when he spotted me. He looked tired.

"Hungover?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm good. I know when to stop."

"It sure didn't look like it, you couldn't even help Nick out of the car. I had to pretty much carry all of his dead weight to his room." I exaggerated a bit, It hadn't been that hard since Nick had recovered a bit.

"Oh I could, but if I did I wouldn't have this," he said, showing me his phone.

I got closer to see what he could possibly mean and felt my face flush once I realized what I was looking at. In Tyler's phone was a picture of me and Nick sleeping together, cuddling. And from what I could tell the picture had been taken at night. I tried to snatch the phone from his hand, but he was too quick.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He waved his finger in front of me. "This is mine. My precious," he added, trying to imitate Gollum from the Lord of the Rings.

Why would he do that? I really hoped he would keep that picture for himself. I didn't want to deal with Noah's and Micah's mockeries. But Tyler knew how to mess up with me, so when everyone was up, he started having fun.

We were all splattered around the living room. We were eating pizza, talking about how Noah couldn't handle his alcohol, when Tyler turned to Nick, "Hey man, look at this picture!" He basically shoved his phone at Nick's face. I stopped eating to look at Nick wide-eyed. Shit.