The Catalina Touch Effect (NaNoWriMo2014)

Chapter Twelve

Myles woke with a crappy feeling, as if he’d been puking all night. His throat burned and his face was raw. His chest was heavy with both sorrow and the girl sleeping on him, and his glasses were tossed upon the floor in a careless manner. Last night was a blur, but he remembered with a shocking pain when his gaze about the living room was stopped by the orange Walgreens bottle of Clozaril that was tipped over on the floor.

As if in a dreaming state, it hit him. They had disappeared the night before in order to give himself and his lady some peace and quiet to watch a Studio Ghibli film. Spilled pills lay on the wooden floor and the cap was lodged between him and the couch cushion.

He wanted to get up, but he felt heavy like a sand bag. Not to mention, there was a girl laying upon his chest in her deepest dreaming. Looking over to the hallway, he saw someone walk out of the other bedroom. Not too tall and not too short, curled brown hair, iced green eyes like his, and a black tank top on, grey boxers, and white socks to go along with. The man looked up from the floor, a hand mangled into his hair, and saw who was staring at him.

“Myles?” he asked, his voice deep. Could it really be him? “Is… is that you?” His voice was tired, as if he had been screaming like Divide did on a regular basis.

“Bass,” Myles sighed. “I was so worried!” Bass put a finger to his lips, pointing to the sleeping girl, and walked over to the couch. His arm dropped to his side in a plopping motion, for he was defeated with tire. He took a seat on the floor, leaning his head upon Myles’ arm like a cat. “Where were you all?”

“I… I don’t know,” he said. “Someplace dark and light all at the same time. here wasn’t any noise, but I felt as if my ears were bleeding with sound. Things flashed in front of my field of vision and I was scared. We all were.”

“Where are the others?” Myles asked, instantly shushing himself when he felt Cat stir upon him. Her hands went to the side of Myles’ head and she stretched out her legs, then sighed, falling back asleep like that.

“They’re all asleep on the floor in your room,” Bass replied. “They don’t know what happened. They can’t remember.”

“Bass,” Myles said with a cry in his whispering voice, “please forgive me. I didn’t want to. I just wanted to give her some comfort in knowing-”

“I know,” Bass said, silencing him. “And I love you for that, man. I can tell that she does, too.”

Myles relaxed a bit, resting his head upon the arm of the couch, looking up at the blurry ceiling. To feel Bass’ hair and his presence made him comfortable again. Last night was blurry, demoted without them all there. He payed seldom attention to Cat and didn’t eat his dinner she’d made with the Ramen and salmon he had in the fridge.

If Bass was there, he’d convince him to eat it, and then make sure he cleaned up his placemat. Bass was that kind of a guy, always there and always attentive. He never let anything slip past him, be it Divide’s schemes or Lust’s mumbled harsh words upon someone. His glare would give them a scare and they’d apologize, not doing it again for a long while until they’d forgotten.

Bass never forgot anything, too. If Myles ever had a question, Bass would be there like a Google search with the answer. He was great for tests, when he decided to give him the answers. Lust, however, would spill everything she remembered, which wasn’t much, in hopes of pissing off Bass. And pissed him off she did.

They all tried to piss Bass off, as every under demeanor would to their boss, just to see their reaction. In a workplace, it’d be the little things so the boss wouldn’t be able to tell who did it by the tip of the hair, but in this little family, Bass knew everyone by heart and would tell any of them down in a second if they tried to pull something in hopes of getting away with it.