Invisible String

Chapter 6

"My bedroom is down the hall to the left, it has a bathroom to itself so you can lock the door if you want. Whatever makes you feel safe. I'll stay out here on the couch." He says looking at me, catching me taking in his house.

"I feel bad.. I don't want to take your bed."

"I insist, I won't have it any other way. Want me to show you the way?" He asks

I nod.

He leads me down the short hallway and opens his bedroom door. A lamp on the nightstand giving off enough light for us to see as we enter. A small black car raises its head and looks at us.

"Oh, that's Mango. I can take him out of here if you don't like cats, but he is a cuddler if you want that" he carefully smiles at me

"No.. I mean.. I love cats. He can stay." I say

He makes his bed up and shows me the door that leads to a private bathroom.

"That's it. The lock is on the door so when I leave you can lock it yourself."

"Thank you" I say again

He smiles and grabs my hand, lifting it to his mouth and softly kisses it.

I give a small smile back and he turns to leave. I walk back to the bed and before climbing in I notice I'm still wearing my day clothes. I let out a deep sigh and Mango looks at me with curiosity. He walks up to me and purs against my hand. I pet him while he pushes his head against me.

I know I can't sleep in these clothes so I unlock the door and walk out to his living room. He doesn't hear me, or see me. He's leaning back on the couch looking at the ceiling with his hands in his lap and his leg shaking away.

"Hey." I say softly not wanting to scare him, "I'm sorry, I don't have sleep clothes."

He looks at me and smiles.

"Elise. I was just thinking about you. Do you want to wear one of my T-shirts?"

"I would like that a lot"

He walks back into his room and he goes through his drawers. He eventually pulls out a large black shirt with nothing on it.

"It's baggy" he says as he offers it to me

"I see," I smile at him and take it, "thank you"

He nods and again turns to leave the room. As he's closing the door he turns to me and reminds me to lock the door, he also smiles and says "goodnight"

He shuts the door and I lock it. I peel off the clothes from the day before and slide into his shirt. It's definitely baggy. The sleeves are huge and the bottom touches above my knees.

I climb into his bed and Mango cuddles close to me. I lay down and set an alarm for an hour before the hospital allows visitors. Then I let myself fall asleep knowing I have a long day tomorrow.

When I wake up my heart panics and I am flooded with anxiety not knowing where I am. Then all at once every memory from yesterday crashes into me. I sit back and let the wave of emotions wash over me. Then I smell something really good, it smells like waffles? No, pancakes.

I climb out of bed and am joined by Mango as he stretches on the floor before following me to the door. I peak outside and don't see Kai on the couch. I step out into the hallway and look in the kitchen. He's cooking breakfast. He doesn't see me until he turns around to grab more batter.

"Good morning, I thought you could use some breakfast." He says

His hair hang in the front of his face, a little wet like he had just gotten out of the shower. He's wearing baggy grey sweatpants that were cut into shorts. The tank top he has on is fitted to his body, showing off all of his muscles that were hidden from me til now. Butterflies fly around in my stomach as I look him over again. He catches me. Then I watch his eyes slowly rake over my body and slowly come back up to meet my eyes, he bites his lip before saying