I wake up with a hypnic jerk from a drowsy memory of a dream I saw a few minutes ago. A little space between the curtains pour in a blinding ray of light straight from the sun into my dilated pupils. I cover my face and turn around. I look beside me to see a silhouette under the sheets beside me on the king-sized bed. He is still sleeping like a baby.
"Good morning sweeth..." while I slowly pull the blanket to uncover the face of the other inhabitant of the bed, to realise that it is- Natasha.
It takes me by surprise and clearly snaps me out of my beautiful dream. Sawyer is still miles away, in the hospital and I, on the other hand, am lying next to Nat after she played real-life tongue twisters with a weirdo from the club.
A memory suddenly hit me with the details of last night, I reached home at around midnight or so. I was tired and a little dizzy, so I simply came home, changed my clothes and went to sleep after placing Nat beside me. God, carrying her from the car to the bed was a complete nightmare! I need to start working out again and gain some more practical strength to satiate the basic needs of everyday activities. Saw is not even here to provide me with any kind of physical support with his naturally broad shoulders.
I was happier asleep than awake, living in a dream world of my own. Dreamworld is a better place to live in these days, than reality.
I let out a sigh as I fall back on the bed with force. I do not want to leave the bed. It is just so cold outside, both in my life and in the northern hemisphere during February. I raise my head to check the time on the digital wall clock. It read –
10:06 24/02 SUN
Now I have to get up and make breakfast for myself and my guest who is probably going to be asleep till lunch, but anyways. I am also supposed to visit Saw, as it was Sunday. I could stay with him longer on weekends and holidays as per the rules of the hospitals.
As I sit up and turn to check out my pillow, I observe a little makeup on it, consequential to my caked and dolled up face last night. I remember coming back and simply just crashing after dressing down to a gown. This is what happens when you drink. I am so sick of being a mom to such irresponsible kids since I was in high school. Being the one to think about staying sober myself so I can ride them back home, taking care of their belongings, holding their hair back when they vomit, while they randomly hook-up with a creepy horny guy that they don't even know from a party or a bar. It was the first time Natasha has crashed someplace that did not belong to a rando.
But even if she was a habitual drinker, she usually had her shit together.
But I was still worried about her, wondering what all she was going through at the moment, alone.
I walk towards the kitchen to poach up some eggs for both of us.
I think back to what happened in the drive back to my place last night, those things Natasha murmured while sleeping. Who was Natasha dreaming about, hence resulting in the murmurs "Why didn't you tell me? You left me alone..."
Who did not tell her what?
Who left her alone and why?
Who exactly was this 'you'?
Was it an old boyfriend that she had from high school?
I had an array of questions popping up in my mind, filled with both concern and curiosity. Anyways, she might tell me the details and the answers to all of these questions when she feels comfortable enough with me.
Surprising, how even those people who treat us, have issues to deal with themselves. She always seemed so sought after as a person. These people are humans too, after all. They all cry the way we do and try to hide it under their fake masks. Maybe, they are better at doing so as they can know what others can and would notice. They hide behind the façade of their own made-up self to not be that easily readable by the common people, just the way they read the rest of us. They help us deal with our issues and cure us while dealing with their own issues in the dark.
I wanted to help her. Get her through whatever she was going through. Like she had been my agony aunt since the day I walked in her room for a session. We could have a switch over where I could listen to her just vent out her heart. Who could relate to her more than I could at the moment?
I suddenly hear a scatter from my bedroom, startling me. With a pan in my one hand and a spatula in the other just above the burning stove, I peek up to as much as I could see from that position.
Natasha appears the next second with my bedside lamp in her hands with the cover unscrewed from its neck, trying to somehow get it back on, in her dazed and unoriented sleepy self. She strides in the dining room, still wearing her dress from the last night, her blonde curls now tangled up in a web, brown bags under her eyes, her mascara and lipstick spread across her face.
I laugh out loud with a snort, as I look at her from across the dining room still in Sawyer and my light blue open kitchen. She looks up at the source of the sound of a weird laughter with still a dazed, confused and innocent look on her face with squinted eyes.
"Nikita? What happened last night?! Did we do anything?" She asks in disbelief and shock on her face, still in a weak low-frequency voice.
I guffaw out now, " No hon. This might be the first time that you are waking up with your dress on at a chick's house, a night after a glorious trip to the bar. Hence, I understand the confusion."
She stares at me with an annoyed look on her face, squinting her eyes further and wrinkling her lips.
"What? Did you want to do me, huh?" I tease her again as I giggle.
"Oh, shut up. My head hurts and here you are, early in the morning, with your quick banters," She responds while she slowly makes her way to the kitchen to where I stood with her weak knees.
I turn the eggs on the pan to let it cook from both sides and settle the pan down on the stove. The sweet smell of vanilla and sandalwood hits me suddenly as she enters the kitchen. No wonder men are irrevocably and mindlessly attracted to her. The amount sprayed on was in a perfect amount, not so much to hit straight in the throat, whereas enough to rise someone's curiosity.
She comes in and places her elbow on my shoulder, transforming a little of her weight on me. I feel the uneasiness rise up once again in my abdomen, while my nose is completely filled with the sweet fragrance. It makes me think about what I would have for dessert after the eggs.
"You're making eggs for the both of us, right?" she inquires while she looks at me and her acidic breath filled falls on me, suddenly switching the mood.
"First things first, go and brush. Your breath stinks like shit," as I push her away. "The bathroom is just beside the room you just came out of. You will find a new toothbrush inside the cupboard, which is behind the mirror in the bathroom, just above the washbasin."
She laughs cheerfully, blows the last breath of air on my face before she struts away towards the bathroom.
I wave the air in front of me as I grin, going back to my eggs.
After breakfast, I am also going to visit Sawyer in the hospital. We might have lunch and dinner together, depending on how he feels that day.
I poach two more eggs for her after I was done with my own. I still am not able to get the mystery of her muttering those words about an unnamed deadbeat person who 'left her alone'.
After I was done with the cooking, I realise that Nat still is not back after brushing from the bathroom. Considering her current hungover condition, she must have probably fell asleep in there.
I place our plates with breakfast on the table and cover both of them with a turned over plate. Then walk over towards the bathroom to check out if everything was alright with her. I walk towards the door of the bathroom and notice that the door was left open ajar towards the inside. No voices were coming from the inside, so I push the door while I enter the bathroom with the opening of the door.
I see Natasha in the shower, applying soap to her butt naked tanned body from the side!
I was about to say something, but my mind is just frozen. Her wet lathered hair and skin sparkles in the sunlight that peeked in through the small ventilating window on the top left corner of the bathroom wall. I noticed a drop of lather sliding through her hair, towards her throat in the front to her perfectly formed round breasts and settling on her average sized nipples that got hard as soon as she turns towards me and saw someone at the door.
"Oh sorry, I used your soap bar. I was pretty sweaty after last night and I stank like hell, so I NEEDED a shower real bad. Would you like to join? You haven't had a shower today yet, right." She normally turns towards me to reveal all of her perfect naked form while speaking to me.
She literally has no embarrassment on her face and does not even try to hide herself. She keeps applying the soap in front of me like this incident does not mean anything. She legit looks like a form of Greek Gods and I feel strong uneasiness and tension building up in my stomach. My face started feeling hot and my throat starts choking as well.
I simply go out without saying a word and close the door shut behind me.