Operation Marriage

Chapter Sixteen - Pillows and Photos

NOTE: Sorry for the little wait and the rather short, not very good chapter, guys. I've been really busy lately and have had quite a few awful moments and literally a ton of schoolwork *le sigh*. I hope this big break from writing won't happen again. If so, you must never forget that I love you all so much! x

Chapter Sixteen - Pillows and Photos

"Holland? Supreme-cool-loser? Are you awake?" Devon asked, his voice a loud whisper, waking me up from my peaceful sleep. I groaned and rolled over in my sleeping bag, very much wanting to slam my head on the floor. I propped myself up onto my elbows and looked at the butterfly boy, who was leaning off of my bed and looking down at me expectantly. Now that I was used to him with his glasses, I thought he looked rather different without. I definitely preferred glasses on him.

"Not anymore." I said, yawning. I sat up and looked at my clock on my bedside table, which indicated it was four o'clock in the morning. "Why have you woken me up at this unholy hour?"

"To ask you if you were awake. Duh." Devon answered bluntly. I grabbed my pillow and swatted him with it, as if he were a fly. "Just because I don't have my glasses on does not mean you can smack me in the face with your pi-" I swatted at him again. Devon then looked down at me, jaw slightly dropped. I smiled evilly as he literally rolled off the bed so he was lying beside me. He was uncomfortably close to me, the whole side of his body touching mine, but I didn't object. He then leaned into me so the side of his head was resting against mine, our temples touching. I could smell his breath, which was surprisingly minty and fresh and quite cool on my skin. "Have you just proposed that we start a pillow fight at four o'clock in the morning? Because I am under the impression that is exactly what you've just done."

"Maybe." I said, looking Devon in the eye, smiling evilly. Devon propped himself up on to his elbows and clicked his fingers. I shuddered. I hated it when people did that.

"Oh, dearly beloved, I would just like to let you know that I take no prisoners." He warned, grabbing his (or rather, my) pillow from my bed. "I am the freaking champion of pillow fights and I'm a lot heavier than I look, which isn't really fair, but you know, life goes on."

"But you're practically blind right now...and it's dark. So I have that to my advantage." I said, sitting upright now. Devon copied, hugging my pillow close to his body, observing me quite closely, despite his terrible vision. He then smiled. "I may be a butterfly, but I can use echo location like a ninja bat." He said, before practically leaping out at me, his pillow acting as a shield and a weapon at the same time. I squealed as Devon the whale weight made his landing, squishing me like a bug. "Come on, you're not even trying." Devon laughed. I then made a grab for my pillow and we both proceeded to wrestle about on the floor, trying to pin the other down. In my opinion, it was just as ferocious and bloodthirsty as some of the manoeuvres found on WWE...except, with a lot less muscle, body mass (although it felt as if Devon had suddenly just gained seventy five pounds) and with considerably less knuckles reaching the other's face, which was a good thing.

I must also add that despite Devon's blind-as-a-bat state, he was surprisingly good at locating the pressure points in my arms and sides, and leaning on them with his elbows or even his whole body, which resulted in me not able to flip him over efficiently. When I found myself in this position for the fourth time around, I somehow managed to unlock another one of Devon's little secrets that he hid behind his 'cool' popular dude; he seemed to be very ticklish. How I did this was simple, Devon was squishing me so I poked him in the stomach and he giggled in the most manly way possible. We both stopped what we were doing and Devon gave me a look telling me not to do that again...so naturally, I poked him again. And hence the war got more intense, with a lot of poking, (not so) manly giggling and even more wrestling as Devon and I used pillows as our weapons and defences in this ferocious battle where we seemed to be mimicking elephant seals more than anything as we flopped about on the floor, trying to pin the other down.

We were both so caught up in our little wrestling game that we didn't hear the door open outside and we didn't hear the footsteps in the landing. And, naturally, as Devon and I were literally tangled up in one another's not-so-loving embrace, my bedroom door opened. The light from the landing spilled in and we were both temporarily blinded by a flash of light, not sure whether we were coming or going as Devon and I paused, looking over at the source of light.

"Am I interrupting something?" My mother's voice suddenly sounded, causing me to groan in annoyance and Devon to roll off of me, sitting up and giving my mother a huge, dimpled smile. My mother didn't sound annoyed, more amused, because she probably knew what we were actually doing; she just wanted to savour and relish in my embarrassment like the most wonderful mother she was. As I squinted at her, I noticed that the flash of light had been a camera...which only made matters a thousand times worse.

"Mum!" I exclaimed, jumping up on to my feet. My mother wore an evil smile, her flyaway hairs visible because of the background light from the landing. "Mum...delete. That. Photo." Devon was practically peeing himself behind me, his laughter muffled as he watched this mother-daughter stand off.

"I don't want to, it's cute." She replied, poking her tongue out. I gaped at her. She was my mother. Right now, she was supposed to be telling me how it looked inappropriate and should lecture me about how I had to be careful with this sort of thing etc...not acting like a teenage girl very much like my best friend, Katie, and practically squealing over my friend and I having a wrestling match/pillow fight in the early hours of the morning on my bedroom floor.

"Mum!" I exclaimed again, not really sure what to say as Devon sounded as if he was dying from laughter behind me. My mother smiled evilly and then allowed her eyes to scan about my room. I followed them, slightly nervously, until they reached our journal, which was sat neatly on my bedside table. Oh no. "Mum, don't even think-"

It was too late.

My mother had already scurried between the strewn blankets and pillows, grabbed my journal and ran out of my bedroom, her dressing gown billowing out behind her like a superhero cape. I watched her with slouched shoulders as she scurried down the stairs and toward her computer, which was unfortunately connected to the printer.

"She's going to do a bit of journalling for us, Devon." I said in a rather betrayed and annoyed manner as Devon snorted from behind me, his giggles beginning to sound like mad cackling.

"It won't be that bad."

"Oh yeah? Well, she's going to use a whole page and she's going to annotate and she's going to explain and she's going to basically embarrass us in front of our teachers because they've got to read our jour-" Devon cut me off by throwing his pillow at my head, stunning me.

"Shut up and stop being such a stress-head, you little yellow-tipped, stressed, supreme-cool-loser of a teenager." Devon snapped. "Now, get back on the floor, give me a loving hug to comfort me from the events of dinner yesterday and get yourself to sleep seeing as we've got to get up and go to school in a few hours." Devon demanded, pointing out the obvious. I smiled and slouched over to him, lying down next to him in our little nest on the floor.

"You really are despicable." I said as Devon put an arm around me, thinking about he was the reason we were up this late in the first place. He smiled and we just looked up at my ceiling, waiting for sleep to come. I yawned. "But honestly, despicable's good."

"That's good to know, because I'm probably going to get a hundred times worse...but in the best way possible." Devon said. With that, I rolled my eyes and settled down, the both of us lying in a silence that was actually rather comfortable and, because of Devon's arm wrapped firmly around me, warm.