Amidst the Misery

Chapter 7: Someone to Hold

You were alone left out in the cold

Clinging to the ruin of your broken home

Too lost and hurting to carry your load

We all need someone to hold

Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Jennie turns her head to shield her eyes from the light coming in through the bedroom window. She groans, they had forgotten to close the blinds again.

Her mind's still foggy so she can't quite recall what exactly had prompted their lack of due diligence this time. Was it exhaustion from a night out with their friends? Exhaustion from a good-and-long-and-deep fucking? Daze from slow lovemaking? Or just general laziness?

"Baby, it's really bright out," Jennie says as she blindly reaches to nudge the sleeping form next to her, hoping to provoke a resolution.

She receives an answering groan but no words or movement accompany it. It's unusual for silence to greet her so it must've been an eventful night. Peeping one eye open reveals the familiar mess of curls splayed across the adjacent pillow. Their sides are pressed together, with Lisa lying on her front. Jennie can feel the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest as light snoring filters the air.

The murmured sounds harmonise in tune with the polite chirping coming from the sycamore trees, as if the critters too were observing the sanctity of Sunday mornings and allowing the inhabitants of the quiet street a few more blissful moments. She can imagine the cardinals and blue jays trying to perform their soliloquies in hushed tones, and wonders if her girlfriend will drag her out later to go winter bird watching with the Urban Park Rangers.

Jennie smiles and closes her eyes again, something to look forward to in a few hours. For now, though, she's lulled back to sleep by the gentle motion of rubbing Lisa's back.

-

The next time Jennie wakes up, there's an arm around her waist and warm breaths hitting the back of her neck. She would press back closer, always enjoying being the front spoon, if it weren't for the body heat that had awoken her in the first place. The moisture collecting in the small of her back had started to become uncomfortable.

Not wanting to soak Lisa's front with her sweating, and not wanting to wake up the notoriously light sleeper, Jennie tries to wiggle her way out of the tight hold. It's a carefully coordinated effort of lifting Lisa's fingers one by one and shifting herself forward by micro movements. Just as she thinks she's created enough of an opening to roll away, the same hand she had painstakingly pried off stops her, landing on her hip this time.

"Five more minutes, love."

Lisa whisper-negotiates still half-asleep, and makes her case by pulling Jennie back in, effectively undoing all of her progress. Jennie is about to protest when she feels the graze of lips against her neck, then a firmer press and a gentle lick of tongue. Her counterargument dies in her throat.

"Mmm, salty. You must be hot," are the words mumbled before Lisa disengages from Jennie completely, rolling onto her back and thoughtfully granting Jennie the relief of cool air.

It's a practised routine and Jennie is all the more grateful for it, needing to tend to her insistent bladder. She turns herself around to tug the blanket closer to Lisa, knowing she'll need to compensate for the missing warmth.

She's about to go alleviate herself but then feels heaviness sit on her eyelids again and thinks Lisa has the right idea of five more minutes.

She scoots forward to wrap around Lisa and be the back spoon this time.