Llemons

Hurt

Once we got to my house we chatted about our days and just hung out in his car. Randomly in the middle of our conversation he got a nose bleed, and he quickly dabbed it away, chuckling nervously about being those nerds that got nosebleeds over everything like the weather.

I laughed and shook my head. "So what, only nerds can get nosebleeds?"

"Only nerds get them in the cartoons!" He countered, dabbing at it some more.

"Well you have one now...what does that make you?"

He glared at me, throwing the tissue away after his nose stopped bleeding. "You tell me. You're turning me into one of you. First the random nosebleeds, then my vision's gonna start going and I'm gonna need glasses, then I lose my muscles, and then"-

"You're right," I laughed, "I am turning you into me! You're so dramatic!" He glared as I laughed at his expense, but soon he started laughing too.

We stalled time hanging out in his car for a while longer, and after quickly checking a text from his phone he seemed to be a sour mood - well- more sour than usual anyway.

He cut our casual conversation short by claiming he had stuff to do but might "see me later." I wasn't sure what the sudden change of attitude was about or if "later" meant at my house or at school. Still, I didn't wanna come off as nagging or force him to spend the night with me if he really didn't want to, so I just got out of the car and said I'd see him later, too.

Even though I had insisted for Elyssa to go and spend time with her mom and assured her I'd be fine, it was definitely going to be a lot of work and paperwork to cover on my own. I quickly hopped in the shower, making sure to put on character-less underwear this time just in case, then spent the remaining hours of the day holed up in my room and sorting out the cast list and other miscellaneous.

One minute I was sitting at my desk sorting through papers while trying not to fall asleep, and the next minute my head was being softly laid against a pillow, my room dark. I fluttered my lids, trying to blink away the sleep from my eyes as I stared at the dark figure holding me in their arms. "Brandon?" I whispered, my voice thick with sleep. "Is that you?"

He chuckled, he breath lightly fanning my face as he softly laid me down on the mattress. "I would hope so. Unless you're truly this friendly to all mysterious creatures that crawl through your window in the middle of the night and carry you to bed." he spoke softly, his voice barely above a whisper. I wondered how late it was.

"Why are you..." a yawn interrupted my sentence and I stretched my aching limbs wearily. "...carrying me to bed?"

"Well I tried to call you but you didn't answer your phone." he lifted my legs slightly, pulling the covers out from under me as he spoke. "When you didn't answer I climbed up your window to see you conked out and drooling all over your desk."

I smiled even through my sleepy state of mind. "I do not....drool." a yawn escaped my mouth again.

He smiled, soft and sincere. "Maybe. But you do yawn a lot. Go back to sleep. I'm sorry I woke you." His voice sounded funny, though I was too tired to notice it before. I couldn't figure out why.

"What time is it?" I muttered feeling around blindly for my phone.

"Your phone is plugged in to the wall," he answered as if reading my mind, laying the blankets over me. "And all you need to know is it's late. You should go back to sleep."

The faint light from the lampposts outside slightly illuminated my room through the slit in the curtain, and my eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark. I blinked away my blurry vision and reached a hand up to what seemed to be a dark mark on his face. He grabbed my hand before I could touch it and turned his head muttering, "go back to sleep Lyah.."