Poison

[ 19 ]

"You know, you seem pretty comfortable when this is supposed to be my nap," he comments. "I don't even sleep on my back."

"Now you do," I mumble as I rub light circles against the portion of his abdomen that is visible from his shirt riding up. It doesn't take long before I doze off.

I wake up before him, completely unmoved and undisturbed. In fact, his hand is still buried in my hair when I raise my head to look at him. I've never seen him sleeping up close like this. My eyes examine his resting face, which is relaxed and not placed in his naturally annoyed look. He can't see the sleepy smile on my face but it's there anyway. To refrain from kissing him, I curl my lips in my mouth a bit. That'd be a bad way to wake him up. Instead, I trace his face lightly with my finger. I start out at his eyebrows before trailing my way down to his nose, which he wrinkles lightly at my touch. His eyes twitch when I trace the outline of his mouth and then hurriedly move on to his jawline and then down his throat.

"Are you done?" he exhales when I come to a slow stop at his collarbone.

"That depends on whether or not you're up," I reply as I watch him blink himself awake. A cheesy grin lines his lips as he stretches out tiredly.

"Well how far down were you planning on going?" he teases and my eyes widen as I quickly flip off of him and roll myself up in his blanket. He manages to catch me before I can roll off the bed and onto the floor. "It was a joke, Ivy."

"Shut up," I hiss as I feel my cheeks warming under his merry gaze. I decide to change the topic. "Why are you even here?"

"What?" He wears a look of confusion.

"Why didn't you go home for break?" I clarify and he raises and drops his shoulders.

"We don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Fuck Christopher Columbus," he explains and I nod in agreement. "Plus my family is just obnoxious."

"Oh, I can relate," I mutter before tilting my head. "But what do they do?"

"Well, you've met my brother," he acknowledges with a shake of his head. "My mom hovers...a lot. She was never like that when I was in high school so its new, but I think it's because she misses me and doesn't know what I'm doing half the time. My dad is just...a typical dad. He likes to make fun of me because by my age, he had at least ten girlfriends and was already a year into a relationship with my mom."

"Where'd he go wrong?" I wonder teasingly as I take a second to admire Asa, who allows his narrowed brown eyes to roll.

"I couldn't imagine getting with that many girls," he speaks indistinctly as he stares at the ceiling. Suddenly, a cocky smirk overtakes his face. "I mean, I know I'd be able to but I don't want to."

"Well...yeah," I decide to agree with a slow nod. He cranes his neck to face me and I find that he looks alarmed.

"You think I could?" he all but interrogates and I offer another nod as if it's obvious. "Why?"

I contemplate being honest and complimenting him before deciding against it. "Some girls are pretty desperate," I acknowledge with a shrug. He lets out a loud laugh while bouncing his head up and down dubiously.

"Yeah, it's totally not because I'm cute or anything, right?" he continues to play along.

"I mean, that may be it but I doubt it," I reply with a half frown. I continue to admire his features but put a dissatisfied look on my face. He watches me scan his face repeatedly before his brows tug together.

"Do you seriously not think I'm cute?" he blurts in a genuinely concerned tone.

"You want to be called cute?" I retort and he purses his lips.