Treat You Better

Chapter Eighteen: Into the Den of (Rich) Lions.

Chapter Eighteen: Into the Den of (Rich) Lions.

"Hey," A voice said, echoing into the depths of my dream which was basically my brain on screensaver mode.

"Violet, look." It was Angelo. He tugged gently on my hand which was still in his. How long had I been asleep? Five minutes?

Gosh, it was probably time to wake up and start getting ready for school.
But it was still dark or something.
"Good morning" I murmured, letting go of his hand to rub my eyes.

"Yeah that," Angelo replied, "but your cat is the demon of sleep paralysis."

My eyes flew open and I sat up, my mind instantly concluding that something was wrong with Moo.
But she was fine, sitting right on Angelo's chest and purring and kneading with her paws with her eyes shut.

"Oh!" I gasped, a relieved giggle escaping me. "Hey she actually likes you."

"Maybe that's why she nearly scared me to death." Angelo deadpanned and I laughed out loud. "Get her off of me."

"Of course, right away, Sir."

"Meow." Moo said as I reached out to pick her and scratched between her ears.

"I know," I replied into her ear. "He is pretty hot, is that why you went to sit on him?"
Then aloud I added, "You scared the sleep out of my guest, apologize to Angelo right now, Moo!"

Angelo shook his head, staring at me. "That's cute, but I really have to know. Do you always look this damn attractive in the mornings?"

My face flamed up and I tried to say something intelligible while trying to pull the straps of my camisole back over my shoulders, but it's hard to do that when you're holding a cat.

I ended up saying something like, "Um...d- I- what?"

It's wasn't just what he said, it was how he said it, in that raspy, just-woke-up-after-a-rough-night's-sleep kind of voice. And it was not making me function well.

He sat up and helped me with the strap, raising it back over my shoulder but not touching me once.
"You don't take compliments well." He said and stood up, leaving me very flustered.

Moo launched herself out of my hands and followed him into the kitchen, Angelo's favorite room in my house.

I looked to my right and smiled at the sight of Annie and Jason on the couch under the blanket, definitely spooning.

Then I took a picture, because I was a good friend.

At six am everyone was up and bustling. Except Abbie though, she was practically a zombie from how late she slept yesterday.

But we fixed her up with some coffee which we made her believe was some kind of special hot chocolate and we were all good to go.

It was so fun getting to school together, all of us goofing around as we walked as a group into the school hallway.
The fact that Jason and Angelo were with us made even more heads turn in our direction.

"We should definitely do this again," Annie grinned, braces on full display.

"Not at my house though, I have a lot to clean by the time I get back home," I raised my free palm, the other one holding my usual cup of coffee.

"Yeah, sorry for the rug...thing" Jason apologized.

"Hey she'll get the stain out eventually, it's just red Kool aid on a blue, super expensive rug that her mother brought from Persia," Susan said, into her own flask of strawberry tea.