Living in Sin (On Hold)

Eleven _ Redemption

Nicole

With a completely different set of nerves, I now sat beside Rina again. The liquid courage I’d mustered up was long gone even before I got onto the bed between her and the pillow-piled headboard. With my stomach in knots, I examined the mess I had to clean up. But I had to admit, she was anything but a mess.

She’d twisted and turned in the less than 15 minutes I’d been gone and it didn’t take a genius to see that the girl was nowhere near in a comfortable position to sleep in. I knew I wouldn’t like what’d happen if I didn’t do something about it soon but I ridiculously admired her face in a stunning profile view as she was now slightly facing the foot of the bed on her right. And I couldn’t help but muse at the thought that she’d have ended up the exact same way as this, had she not come here with her mom married to my father.I am not being cocky. She would have.

She was breathing real soft and a few raven locks that traversed her features would sway with every breath she took. And I absent-mindedly tucked away a few stray dark hairs that shyly covered her eyes. And it surprised me that even after I realized what I’d done, I didn’t feel regret.

But I managed to tear my eyes away before I could really get into the same act that happened earlier and looked for a way to move her in a comfortable position. But there wasn’t much to do since all I had to do was lift her up, turn her body around and set her back down. I snaked a hand around her neck, carefully of course, and the other from below her bent knees. When I was sure I had a gentle but good grip on her, slowly, real slowly, I lifted her up, my breath held.I was expecting her eyes to flutter open the whole time (which was about 5 seconds) she was in my arms. But that didn’t happen and she easily settled down into the pillows as soon as I put her down.And without making a too hard dip in the bed, I made to get off the bed.

You just couldn’t imagine the size of the sigh of relief I had when I knew for certain that she was still in her sleep. You simply couldn’t. It was a thousand times better than what Batman had in The Dark Knight when he’d finally got the Joker disabled, hanging down the Prewitt Building (Btw, I know that movie inside out, backwards, you name it.)

And in that senseyou’d understand it was only natural that I’d almost died of pure shock when I felt a hand (her hand, of course) touch my back as I was trying to get away in the stealthiest mood practicable.Those tribal drums that always came alive in those movies just before they cut out the guy’s heart and eat it while he watchedwent wild in my heart, except while he would probably be completely bald, my short hair stood on ends.

You remember that moment in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ when Holmes and Watson met for the first time? They shook hands and Holmes knew who and what Watson was instantly. When asked how he did it, he explained the way he processed all the facts and it took like five minutes to explain but he clarified it in fact only took him a matter of seconds. Yeah, that was exactly what I did when I realized I was in deep shit.I’d already come up with a dozen ridiculous excuses to feed her as to how we got here even before I turned around,and I turned around the moment I felt her hand on me. Pretty impressive, huh?

Anyway, I turned, unable to breathe with that lump blocking my airway.But the first thing that came into my view was her knees and I followed them as I turned around fully to see she was shrinking into a ball. It was quite adorable. And those pajamas that Carol got me were pretty cute on her. Good thing I changed my mind about throwing them away.

Okay, back to what I was really talking about.While curling into a bundle, I found out that she had her hand reached out to me.To my surprise (and utter relief), she was still out.But the turning point was yet to come, as my gaze fell onto her face and I saw her lips part ever so slightly. And through the deafening noises that my heart was pounding out in my chest, I heard a whisper flow through: ‘Mom’?.