Quint doesn't show up for dinner or afterwards. Flora and I didn't know where Miles was so we ended up playing with her dolls for a bit as we got to know each other.
"So what's your favourite dessert?" Flora asks me as she puts her doll called apple cinnamon twig into bed.
"Probably mint choc or cookies and cream ice cream, what's yours?"
"Mrs Grose's apple pie or chocolate Ice Cream," Flora replies thoughtfully as she leans down and kisses the doll on the forehead and smiles to herself.
"Where's Miles?" I ask Flora who is undressing a little doll with curly golden locks and creepy blue eyes.
"Probably with Quint," She replies.
"Doing what exactly?" I try to inquire further. I kind of miss Miles and his stupidly smug presence.
"I don't really know what they do but Miles comes home super late and acts all weird most nights," Flora says all innocently. What does she mean by he acts all weird. I can feel my hatred towards this Quint guy grow stronger by the second.
A couple hours later I went to Flora's room and tucked her in since Miss Jessel had accidentally fallen asleep a bit earlier.
"Good night," Flora smiles and closes her eyes.
"Good night," I say softly as I walk out of the room, closing the door gently behind me.
"Well hello there," A gravelly voice says from behind me, QUINT? I freak out and quickly turn around.
"hi," I say awkwardly as I practically run to my room before turning and saying "Um...goodnight."
"Sleep well," Quint says. I know I'm just feeling extra tense due to the change of location and the fact that a creepy scruffy looking man roams around this said location. I lay in bed with my eyes open. I sometimes forget to close my eyes and end up not being able to go to sleep since they had been open the whole time and I simply didn't realize.
Some point in the night, I awoke with a bit of a shock. I think I had just had a nightmare about my Mom or something else scary but the memory of it was quickly disappearing. I lie in the cold sheets and contemplate getting out of bed. For some reason the idea of checking to see if Miles is here makes me feel better but at the same time I feel childish to have to have someone comfort me after having a nightmare. I move the blanket off of myself which makes parts of my leg cold therefore giving me motivation to get up and just walk to Miles' bedroom. What if I bump into Quint again? I feel my heart racing and my eyes dart around the nearly pitch black corridor. I can't see where I'm going but I keep trying to walk to Miles' room anyway. As I finally reach a door which I am pretty sure leads to Miles' bedroom, I feel around for the handle and turn it. The wooden door and its rusty hinges seem to echo in the quietness of my surroundings.
"Miles," I whisper as I step into the room gingerly.
"Yeah?" I hear Miles whisper back although the voice had come from behind me, huh weird. A hand gently touched my shoulder making me gasp. A shock went through my body causing my eyes to widen and a massive intake of oxygen to burst through my lungs.
"Shh," Miles hushes me as he grabs my shoulders and steers me further into his room, he stops quickly to flick the lights on. My eyes strain painfully even though his light was actually quite dim. I shake his hands off my shoulders and turn to face him.
"Hi," I say, not quite knowing what to say to him since I am in a state of tired but scared confusion.
"Hey," Miles says as he flops down on his bed.
I squint my eyes at him before complaining about the lights being on, he just ignores me.
"So what do you want? It's like two in the morning," Miles questions as he rests his head on his skinny arm and dangles one leg off the side of his bed.
"I guess I'm not really used to sleeping in a new place," I say sheepishly as I realize how weird this situation is.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Miles sits up, looking at me casually, his forearm resting on his knee.
"Uh yeah," I hesitated, how did he guess that? Maybe he gets them too and just noticed similar signs or something.
"I get them too, usually leaves me pretty shaken," Miles replies as if he knew what I was thinking. I was probably staring at him with a concerned expression on my face.
"Did you want to lie down here for a bit?" Miles asks when I give him no reply, mostly because I am tired and forgot to.
"Um..." I frown lightly and look to the spot next to him. The bed was big enough I guess but it still felt wrong. Who am I kidding it's not like anything is going to happen. He pats the spot next to him.
"You know what, sure," I reply as I crawl over him and lie next to him, my heart pounding every second of the way. I can't believe this is happening. I would never have believed that I would be sleeping in the same bed as Miles Fairchild as irritable as he is.
"Comfortable?" He asks as he turns his body and head to face me.
"Yeah," I reply. He looks at me before quickly jumping up to turn the lights off. The darkness surrounds us but I feel safe in it. His footsteps come closer until I feel the bed dip down to where he lay. He tugged the doona so that it covered himself, leaving me slightly cold. Slowly I began to pull some of it back to cover me since It was actually freezing in his room. I turn around and frown at him as he tugs all of it off of me. I aggressively grab at the doona and pull it over me in turn now exposing Miles to the cold of his room. After a while we both stopped and just fell asleep since we were tired of silently arguing and the on and off coldness was getting extremely agitating. I know I shouldn't but I move closer to him and rest my head against the side of his arm. I feel him shift slightly to look at me but I pretend that I am too sleepy to be aware. I feel him inch closer to me as his arm slings over my stomach. After a while he moves away from me again, although he makes sure not to move his arm so that he doesn't wake me. I feel myself drift to sleep quicker than I ever have before since his body warmth and sound of his steady breathing felt comforting to me somehow.
I slowly open my eyes. Its light in the room which means that it is probably the morning. As I look beside me I notice that Miles isn't there. I wrap myself in the blankets to warm myself as I hear some quiet noises rattling around in the little ensuite attached to Miles' bedroom. A tap or shower goes on. After a while the bathroom door opens and a bit of steam can be seen from the inside. Miles walks out of the shower only wrapped in his towel which drapes uncomfortably low on his waist. My eyes widen as I hurriedly turn around and close my eyes, hiding under the covers so that I don't see anything scarring.
"Morning?" Miles says as he rips off the doona and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. Beads of water drip down from his neck and down his body which is glistening from half dried dampness.
"Morning," I say casually, trying not to look at his slim, lightly toned body. I am failing miserably since my eyes seem to be accidentally taking in every single inch of him.
"You done?" Miles says.
"What do you mean?" I ask nervously.
"Are you done sleeping? Obviously," He says slyly. Oh? Ok thank go-
"And checking me out, it's quite obvious you were, don't try to deny it," Miles smirks as he leans his weight on his hands which are on either side of me on the bed.
"No, I'm just surprised at how skinny you are since you seem to be pretty strong in certain cases," I reply.
"I'm stronger than you in MOST cases," Miles corrects annoyedly.
"Mhm...and I didn't beat your ass literally yesterday?" I retort.
"Lets have an arm wrestle then," Miles proposes seriously.
"No," I replied shortly.
"Coz you know I'd beat you," Miles attempts to egg me on.
"Exactly," I agree.
"What?" Miles asks, confused.
"My arms are weak as shit," I say, laughing much to his ongoing confusion. I mean it's true, I used to challenge people to arm wrestles but I would lose every time as a child so now I avoid them altogether to preserve my ego.
Miles stands up straight and walks over to his wardrobe which has a small collection of oversized graphic shirts and knitted jumpers which honestly all make it look like it's owned by an old man. He grabs a pair of jeans and a brown jumper. He throws the jumper on and then goes to drop the towel, I scream and shut my eyes tightly.
"You can open your eyes," Miles says flatly, definitely judging me but I honestly don't care.
"Don't scare me like that," I say as I get up and walk over to his drum set which I had been set on playing since I first saw it (not that I know how to.)
"Don't touch that," Miles says firmly. I would say why not but I feel like there is some sort of emotional connection that he has to it since I remember Flora saying something about how he plays them when he is upset.
"Ok, my bad," I say kindly as I think through all the things he has gone through. I mean we have both been through horrible stuff but I guess it's just a dick move to cross the line for no reason, especially in terms of someone's emotional outlet.
"Wanna go down for breakfast," I ask since I am suddenly in the mood for eggs or toast.
"Sure but maybe get changed first so that we can go out later on today, I want to show you something."
"Ok," I replied. I leave his room and walk to mine.
I get out a pair of green jeans and black boots which I accompany with a loose black tank top.
"Hi," Miles says, startling me as I open the door.
"Hi?" I replied.
"Your clothes are very...bright," Miles compliments me in his own special way.
"Thanks," I say.
"Wasn't a compliment," He replies expressionlessly. Ok, rude.
"I'm literally wearing a black top and black boots!" I say defensively.
"And bright green pants," Miles says, raising his eyebrows at me and switches from staring into my eyes and then to my pants.
"Well at least I don't dress like a grandpa," I retort.
"I do not," Miles says offended.
"You definitely do, what teenage boy wears knitted jumpers and beige in general?" I say.
"A cool one, also they are sweaters," Miles corrects me. I shoot him a look and we keep walking to the lounge room that has a little table which Miles says he usually eats at.
"So where are we going later?" I ask.
"Not telling," Miles says mischievously.
"Location at least?" I say, intrigued.
"Nope," He replies. We enter the room and see Miss Jessel and Flora at the small round table eating jam on toast with juice. Quint is sitting at the corner of the room in a big armchair reading the newspaper. He is drinking a coffee and staring at Miles. He smirks at Miles and Miles smiles back at him. It sickens me to know how much Miles admires this filthy man. I sit over at the table next to Flora.
"Good morning," Flora sang energetically.
"Good morning to you too," I say back as I smile at her and then nod politely at Miss Jessel. Miss Jessel smiles back with a look of mild discomfort or maybe hidden discomfort. I look at Miles who has been talking to Quint and taking small bites of his toast. I glance at Miss Jessel and from the corner of my eye I see her adjusting her morning robe so that it covers her shoulders and chest. She is anxious, I can tell why. Quint. I guess he makes everyone uncomfortable. I should talk about it to her. No, what if I'm wrong and she tells him that I think he is creepy. I sit at breakfast, half engaged with the conversations and mostly occupied with trying not to run out of the room since Quint was starting to freak me the fuck out. He wouldn't stop smirking and being really weird. Although it was subtle in a way that wouldn't attract anyone's attention, I could see that it was making Miss Jessel uncomfortable since she definitely noticed.