Graceful Deception

8. And Here I Thought You Hated Me Then

Chapter 8

And Here I Thought You Hated Me Then

 

 

It was about an hour or two that Elena and I left my room to go back downstairs.  She’d been showing me all of the clothes that she somehow managed to pack into the suitcase, including my leather jacket and boots from our last trip.  Everything else was brand new, the price tags still attached, though the designer labels were pretty much flashing bright neon dollar signs at me. 

Instead of being in the kitchen, Paul and Rosaline were in the office, sorting through papers on Paul’s desk. 

“John still not up yet?” Paul asked with an eyebrow raised when he saw me and Elena.  “He does know that you guys are leaving in a little over an hour.”

“I haven’t been up to see if he was or not,” I said, shaking my head.  “Elena and I have been in my room.  I’ll go see if I can wake him up.”

John’s door was still slightly opened just how I left it when I’d gone downstairs.  And when I peeked inside, it looked as if he hadn’t moved much. 

He was lying on his stomach, still holding onto the pillow with one arm while the other cushioned his head, but I could see his face.  You would have thought that he would hear me come in, especially since I might have deliberately opened the door more forcefully than I had before, but no.  He didn’t even crack open an eyelid. 

If that didn’t wake him up, what exactly would? 

I decided on being quiet, stepping lightly over to the foot of the bed before crawling onto it and over him.  With my knees resting on either side of his hips, I pretty much just dropped my entire body right on top of his…while somehow managing to ignore those little tingles that spread all over my body at the skin to skin contact, just like it always did.  Our bodies were completely aligned, shoulders level, chest pressed against his back, my legs resting on top of his.  

But did the sudden weight dropping on top of him wake him up?  No. 

It seemed that I was pretty much trying to wake a bear out of hibernation now.

I sighed, rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms on his shoulders, my chin resting on them as I looked at his profile and that bedhead of his.  Any movement?  Again, no.  Not even the smallest sign that he was awake. 

Forget waking the bear…it was like he was dead. 

But feeling that strong heart of his pounding in his chest as I laid on his back, he definitely wasn’t. 

So it was time to resort to another way of waking him up.

Annoying him. 

Moving up a little more, I positioned myself so that my face was right above his.  I reached up then and poked a finger to his cheek, grinning. 

“Psst,” I whispered in his ear, poking his check again.

Still nothing. 

“Hey, John, you want to wake up yet?”

Movement!  His hand twitched ever so slightly, just enough to notice. 

“Well, at least I know you’re not dead.  But why won’t you wake up?  Even for me?”

I poked his cheek again, but nothing happened this time.  Maybe freaking him out would wake him up…?

“John, I think those mean Knights are here,” I whispered.  I was trying to sound a little scared…but that really didn’t happen since I was trying to hold in my laughter.  “You need to wake up and go kick their butts!”