The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High

Chapter Fourteen: Dark Hair, Dark Destiny

SHE WAS WARM, fluffy and comfortable. Norah sighed contently, sniffing the air that weirdly felt so good. She snuggled further into the warmth, and a rough, amused chuckle resounded. Norah frowned but stayed put, another satisfied sigh escaping her lips as she tried to fall back asleep.

That was when the barrage of facts hit her. One, she was snuggling into warm, lean muscles. Two, the chuckle was masculine. And three, Austin and Norah had fallen asleep talking to each other. Which meant...

Norah withdrew with a sharp gasp, her eyelids fluttering open. "Morning," Austin smiled at her, covering his eyes with the back of his forearm. "Holy shit, I'm so sorry," she replied, rubbing her cheek where the headboard cut into it. "It's okay," Austin said with a slight shrug, and a teasing smile came on a moment later. "You mumble in your sleep."

Norah was not a morning person, and everything irritated her in the morning. And Austin was clearly a morning person, judging by his soft smile and relaxed demeanour.

Norah needed something to be annoyed at, and Austin's morning happiness just got fixed as the centre of her target.

"Shut up," Norah gasped, hitting his arm. He actually flinched, rubbing the sore spot. "It's kinda cute," he continued with an amused smile that angered her further. "You drool in your sleep," Norah replied snarkily, narrowing her eyes at him.

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"Nope."

Norah sighed, touching her disarrayed hair. "No, you don't," she conceded, "I thought you'd get defensive."

Austin's amused smile grew as he got up from the bed, stretching his hands. "People get defensive when they're guilty of the said things, Raves. I'm not, and you were. You knew you talked softly in your sleep. And it's nothing to get defensive about. It's adorable," he patted her hair, and Norah groaned, throwing a pillow at his stupid, gorgeous face before burying her face into her bed. "Shut up," she yelled at him again. He snickered.

She muttered something rude about him in Spanish, and she watched as his lips tilted upwards and a knowing glimmer twinkled in his eyes. "What?" she snapped at him. "Nothing," Austin shrugged, "It's rude to scold me right in front of me. Something about me being a smiling smug bastard, isn't it?" He smirked. Norah's eyes widened. It wasn't exact, but he was kind of accurate. "You understand Spanish?" Norah gaped at him.

Austin shook his head with a little smile, "Not exactly."

"Then what?" She snapped again, impatient. Austin chuckled again, seemingly amused with her. "I'm half-Italian from my dad's side, remember? Both languages are kind of similar. If I understand one word, I kind of get the entire sentence."

"Oh," Norah whispered, at a loss for words.

She wanted to talk more, but at the same time, she wanted to sleep again. Her eyes fluttered again, ready to fall back asleep but a knock at the door interrupted her, and Norah groaned again. Austin seemed to be endlessly delighted by Norah's irritation, which got on her nerves again. Norah was easy to annoy in the morning, something everyone took advantage of. Deep down, she knew she was being too moody, but she didn't care. She wanted to sleep, and the whole world wanted her up.

"Go away!" she shouted at the door sulkily. Again, a barrage of facts hit her in the face. "Shit, shit," she murmured, taking Austin by the shoulders and pushing him into her closet. It was funny and irritating how her day today was a repeated, cliché scene in novels. The female protagonist wakes up near a warm presence, snuggling into it to realise it is a warm, human wall of muscles, then hiding the presence of the said human in case the main character's parents come in.