Ember Kate

Chapter:: Twenty One

It would be cheesy to say that after that event, everything was perfect. But it was true, so I would stick with the statement. My parents freaked out when they realized what happened in their sleep. I told them that they couldn’t have helped even if they were awake, surely Tom would have done something to them. The thought made me shudder, and I was really glad that they were sleeping through the whole thing.

Things have definitely changed sense then and only a week has passed by. My parents made me eat dinner with them, and my father made my mother go see a therapist about her ‘bad habits’. In all honesty, I was just happy that he was finally acknowledging it. After I confessed the thoughts that have occupied my mind since freshmen year, I have started seeing a therapist too. It was hard to describe, but since Dr. Maine put me on these meds I stopped feeling the urge to jump. In turn, I also regretted my stupid decision of not applying to any college.

After our kiss in the barn, Locklan and I have been dating again. There wasn’t really a discussion to it; it was just like old times. He would come and wake me up in the morning, and we would do something random but fun. My parents pretty much loved him for being the one who called the cops.

“Do you really think this can be like old times?” I ask Locklan as we lay in my bed in the middle of the night, the covers around us. He had a flashlight pointing in a random direction, we were just telling scary stories like little kids.

“Do you mean this?” he asks me as he grabs my hand and holds it between his. After I nod, he continues. “Honestly, no. It’s going to be better than before, because you’re better. And instead of that weird relationship where I try to save you and you don’t want to be saved, cat and mouse really, we can have a more normal one.”

“I just don’t want to mess it up again,” I whisper as I stare at our fingers intertwined. I missed how easy our conversations were. I believed Locklan when he said this time around would be different. I was dealing with whatever issues I had before, and I didn’t have to depend on him to save me against myself. Now that I was thinking about it, it was really selfish of me.

“Don’t worry so much about it, okay?” Locklan reassures me easily, and before I have time to answer he leans in and kisses me. It starts off soft and makes me miss him even though he’s right in front of me, so I wrap my arms around him and hope it’s enough to keep him here.

“Why don’t you spend the night tonight?”I break the kiss and smile at him. He gets this smirk on his face and I rethink my sentence. So I blurt out, “No double meaning is hidden in there, by the way. I just want to cuddle.” I can’t fight the blush that appears on my cheeks.

“I was waiting for you to ask that,” he whispers to me. We could be talking in normal voices and my parents wouldn’t notice, but for some reason our voices were still whispers. “Why do you think I’ve been staying over so late? Do you really think I want to go home after midnight?” the look on his face is cute. He realizes what he just admitted so his cheeks flush pink. His curly hair is still dark and he’s still the same band tee wearing guy I could see myself with.

“Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted to stay over?” I ask as I get out of the blanket and start to lie down, realizing how tired I am.

“I don’t know,” Locklan ducks his head after he moves out of the blanket. He kicks his shoes off which causes two loud thumps on the carpeted floor. “Oops,” he lets out a breathless laugh as he takes off his shirt to throw on his shoes.

“Oh Locklan,” I sigh as he wraps his arms around me. I can feel his chest behind me, moving up and down as he breathes. “You just know exactly how to charm me.”

He moves his head to where he’s setting it in the crook of my neck. “Stop embarrassing me. It’s not like I do it on purpose.” His joking tone makes me laugh as I grab his arms and wrap them tighter around me. We mumbled to each other while we were half asleep until Locklan started snoring first. I stayed up a few minutes after him, listening to him. With August ending soon, that would mean that Locklan is leaving soon. As I push it out of my mind, I fall asleep.

~

“Ember,” I hear my name being whispered and I roll over, moving my arm behind me to stretch out. “Ouch, you don’t have to swing your arm at me. I was just waking you up.”

My eyes snap open. “What the hell are you doing here?” I squint because for some reason light is shining through my curtains instead of it looking like midnight in here.

Locklan gives me a look. “You don’t remember you inviting me to sleep in your bed? I would think that would be the kind of thing you would remember . . . “

I nudge him with me elbow, trying to wake myself up fully. “Of course I remember you’re the only one I want sleeping in my bed.”

Locklan gives me a look before his face breaks out into a big smile. “That’s so sweet of you to say! Want some cereal? I’ll go make you breakfast.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me before kissing my cheek.

“Of course I want some, especially since I don’t have to make it!” the idea of cereal is enough to wake me up and I wonder if my parents are around.

I wake up and take a quick shower as Locklan makes his way to my kitchen. After showering in record time and coming out with my hair soaking wet, I watch Locklan hum while he pours milk into two bowls of cheerios.

“Ember, breakfast is ready!” Locklan throws his head back and shouts before going back to humming again.

“Thanks for making me breakfast,” I joke to him after I tip toe to where I’m right behind him.

I watch him jump before he slowly turns around. “Way to scare me, jerk.” He feigns hurt as he drags his bowl over to the table where we eat in silence. After he finishes with his, he starts playing footsies with me.

“So what are we doing today?” I ask him before I shove another mouthful of cheerios in my mouth. He looks down at the table in thought for a minute.

“I’m not sure. Is there anything you want to do? I didn’t plan anything.” He looked worried for a second, because we always have something to do even if it’s walking down to the gas station for a coke.

“We can just hang around here. I’m not sure where my parents are, but we can play some video games or watch movies.” I reassure him.

“Sounds perfect to me,” I never understand why girls thought crooked smiles were cute until I saw Locklan lift half of his mouth up in a smile. I swear I swooned a little bit before I took another bite.

I hurry up and take at least four more bites before I put our bowls away and drag Locklan to the living room by his hand. “We have plenty of movies, you can pick one.”

I settle on the couch and wait for him to pop something into the DVD player. I watch his shoulders blades extend and move around while he bends over to look at the collection. “Let’s watch Inception.” He tells me as he comes and sits next to me on the couch, immediately wrapping his arm around me and bringing me closer to him.

“I think I could get used to this,” I say to him while the previews are flipping through.

“Me too,” he agrees.