You Found Me ➳ ft. Peyton Meyer

Chapter 21: I Only See You, Even When I Close My Eyes

I was snapped awake when I heard a loud crack of lightning outside followed by thunder booming.

I looked over to find a peacefully sleeping Peyton lying down next to me on the couch, his arm draped lazily around my waist.

I laughed to myself thinking how we both must have gradually fallen over since I last remember us sitting upright on the couch with Peyton's arm over my shoulder.

Peyton and I had continued to watch a movie after our, um, kiss—still really crazy to think about—since he didn't want to leave me alone and wanted to wait until my mom came home.

Little did he know majority of the time I was alone since Mom was working, but I didn't mention it because I love his company and didn't want him to leave.

I slowly sat up and stealthily replaced myself with a pillow under his arm.

I was about to get up from my seat and creep away to another room to call my mother since she wasn't home yet when the door pushed open.

Peyton immediately was sitting up, putting his body as a shield in front of mine protectively since he was closer to the door.

"Gee it is raining cats and dogs out there!" I heard a familiar voice say.

I craned my neck to peek above Peyton's broad shoulder, "Mom!" I said, smiling and getting up to give her a hug.

"Hi baby girl!" She said embracing me after putting down her coat and leaning her umbrella by the doorway.

"Why hello Mr. Peyton!" She said, brightly smiling at Peyton who must have gotten up from behind me.

"Hi Ms. Flore, it's nice to see you," he said, moving around me and giving her a light hug.

"You too, honey." She turned back to face me. "I know I wrote in my note that Dan would talk to you when we got back, but it's so bad out I sent him home so he'll probably just call you tomorrow."

"Okay, sounds good."

"So what have you kids been up to?" She said smiling as she began walking to the kitchen, expecting us to follow.

"Well I'm pretty sure we just finished watching Revenge of the Bridesmaids since we both ended up falling asleep, despite it being such a good movie." I replied.

"Sorry, that's why I didn't mention Peyton was over. And we were busy earlier with his hurt jaw—" I stopped automatically, looking apologetically at Peyton since my mother's back was still turned and I just blurted out something we both wanted to not draw too much attention to.

I just felt obligated for giving my mom some explanation for having a boy over alone so late without notice. I wouldn't want her to get the wrong idea, which I'm sure she wouldn't, but still.

"Oh dear, what happened?" My mom said, now turning around to gently examine Peyton's jaw. The swelling and discoloring had gone down since before thankfully because of the ice he kept on it for majority of the movie so it didn't look as bad.

"I slipped on some ice earlier in the parking lot today and fell, which is why Ang brought me back here to take care of it. We were actually hoping you would be home to look at it, but Ang took care of it since you were out." Peyton said, but I could tell he felt extremely uncomfortable having to somewhat lie to my mother since he kept looking at basically anything else in the apartment but her.

"Uh huh," My mother said, giving me a knowing look and causing me to turn a little pink.

I figured she knew it wasn't exactly what happened, but she thankfully dropped the topic in front of Peyton. I braced myself knowing she'll end up questioning me about it later.