Off Limits (Christoffer Schistad - Skam)

Part 12

That night, Chris didn't get much sleep. He remembered closing his eyes several times but whenever he opened them again to check his phone, he saw that barely ten minutes had passed. The clock on his wall above his desk ticked away every goddamn second, and in the middle of the silent night, it made ten times the noise it did during daylight. Somewhere between two and three in the morning, he thought he would lose his wits if he had to suffer one more minute of this infernal tic tac tic tac, and he got up and opened the window to throw the damn thing out.

"Chris?" Mara's sleepy voice called his name.

Whether she was awake due to him leaving the bed or the cold gust of wind that come in through the opened window he could not tell.

"What did that poor clock do to you?"

"It was so noisy! Didn't you hear it?" He complained, slamming the window shut.

"No, I was asleep," she said, leaning on her elbows to look at him though it was pitch black expect for the faint moonlight. "Why are you still awake?"

"I can't sleep," Chris groaned as he climbed back in bed, under the comforting warmth of the sheets and beside Mara.

She shifted position and laid across the bed so her head could rest on Chris' stomach while she faced him. Without thinking about it, they intertwined their fingers.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked in a hushed voice, although there was no one else but them in the entire two floors, suburban house Chris lived in.

"I'm not sleeping if you don't," she simply declared, her eyes never leaving his.

Chris chuckled and smiled fondly before directing his gaze upward.

"You're just as stubborn as him," he said, knowing that Mara would know he was talking about William.

"Yes, but I'm cuter than him which means I can get away with it."

That earned a huff and a frank snort from Chris who apparently wasn't convinced.

"That only works with parents, and it's because you're their only daughter. If Will were the only child – or even the only son – he would be the little Magnusson prodigy."

Mara was about to say something to demolish his argument but she bit her tongue before accidentally saying the wrong thing. Family in general was a rather touchy subject for Chris. Therefore it would have been insensitive of Mara to object that he was an only child, and yet he wasn't anywhere near being the prodigy child of his family.

Actually, it would have been terrible to say this out loud. Even thinking the words made her feel like a horrible person. It wasn't Chris' fault that his parents never gave him the time of day – or the time of year. Though she knew, without having to ask, that he blamed himself for his parent's lack of interest in him. That's why he pushed himself so much. He was one of the best students of Nissen, though he might deny it if someone asked, and he excelled at an impressive number of extra-curricular activities too, including a large panel of sports and playing a couple instruments. Surprisingly enough, he was also an excellent cook – mainly due to the fact that he lived alone.

"You should try to sleep," she told him, bringing their joined hands on her neck to place his hand here, where she knew she was warm. "I'm upset too, Chris. But we have to sleep on it, and tomorrow it won't feel as dramatic anymore."

He nodded slowly, distractedly rubbing circles with his thumb on Mara's neck.

"What have you been thinking about all night if you haven't slept?" She questioned as she returned to her initial position – that is, with her body pressed against Chris'.