He's Got a Love Like Woe - [Slash]

Chapter Eighteen - Sleepovers and Chewing Gum

     I stare at his face for a few more moments, wondering if I have heart problems or something. It positively aches, watching Theo all un-snarky and quiet and...vulnerable. Like he needs to be looked out for just as much as I am. 

     But his dad doesn't know how to be one, his stepmom's a bitch (who, apparently, is going to be his ex-stepmom soon) and he hasn't told me about any old friends that he talks to, with the exception of Dalia. And she's an adult. 

     Well, that's all right, I suddenly resolve. Now he has Jesse, and Caleb, even if all they do is snark at each other most of the time, and Rebecca, and my mom adores him, and he might even be growing on John, and Benny definetly likes him...

     And he has me. Even if this entire...whatever this is...goes to shit.

     ...I'm such a chick.

     Shoving the thought away, I carefully lay back down and scoot closer to my...lover, he called it. His heartbeat is calm beneath my palm, relaxing. It helps that the bed is softer than anything I've ever felt.  

     Don't you have to love each other, to be called that? Or is this enough? Boyfriend just makes me cringe. It seems too weird, I think, for this thing that we're having.

     All right. Lover it is.

     And with slightly red cheeks and the awesome firefly things twinkling on the walls (I really need to ask about that), I fall asleep. 

Sunday comes and goes, with my mom's permission to hang out with Theo for the day. We woke up early, he let me borrow some clothes, a toothbrush, and his shower, and we spend the day fooling around, exploring the house, eating good food, and fooling around some more. Mr. Frost had left that morning with Candace--trying to suck up to her with a trip to Milan, Theo informed me with a careless shrug.

     I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around his family being rich.

     Rita took pleasure in making a huge breakfast of all of my favorites, then a lunch of things I'd never tried before and an enormous dinner. She watched like a hawk while I ate every bit, so full that I could hardly move. Caleb would be green with envy, had he been there.

     I spoke to him for a few minutes, after lunch, and told him that Theo and I were cool and I'd broken up with Kimi--the girl who was my fake ex. without even knowing it.

     I felt bad, lying to him all the time but if he knew the truth his head would explode. Not to mention the foundation of our bro-hood.

     No, it was better without him knowing.

     I wake up Monday morning to Theo's hand on my shoulder. I blink sleepily up at him , my own faces from his own. The warmth beneath his sheets (which I'm going to be smuggling into my room, by the way--they preserve that lovely early morning heat, and they smell like him, not that I'd ever admit that in a million years) keeps me drowsy.

     Which is why I must be still half asleep, dreaming, when he pecks me lightly on the nose and murmurs, "You're cute when you're all sleepy like this."

     Because Theo Frost doesn't think people are cute. Especially not me.

       "Time to get ready for school." He says in a louder voice. His hair is still wet--from his shower, I assume--and he's wearing a long sleeved gray v-neck with dark jeans.  "You can raid my drawers--I've already set out a smaller pair of jeans." It's endlessly amusing to him, that I'm shorter and had to roll up his pants.