How to disappear

9

         How To Disappear - Chapter 9

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Hannah thinks she’s dreaming. That’s the only logical explanation, really. This morning she woke up and Grace was there, curled at her side, breathing softly through pink lips. There’s a brief second where Hannah tells herself that maybe it was all a dream – maybe there’s a logical, platonic explanation for why Grace is laying naked beside her. As the idea starts to sink in, Hannah recognizes the bruises lining Grace’s throat from where her teeth once were and – oh, this is real.

It’s so real it makes Hannah’s chest ache.

Grace wakes up with a groan and covers her slow-forming grimace with her hand.

“Good morning?” Hannah questions cautiously, internally freaking out at the idea of Grace regretting what they did last night.

“We’re going to have to tell Mamrie, aren’t we?” Grace frowns, peeking through her fingers at Hannah.

Hannah exhales in relief, “I thought you were going to bolt on me for a second, Helbig.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Grace waves a hand to dismiss the idea, “I don’t get out of bed before eight for anybody.”

“Noted,” Hannah laughs and tightens her grip around Grace’s shoulders, “But to answer your question, we don’t have to tell Mamrie. At least not yet.”

“You’d be okay with that?”

Hannah shrugs, “It’d be kind of fun, having a secret girlfriend. And it’s not like I’d have to hide in the closet or anything – that’s all you.”

Grace rolls her eyes, “I… I do want to tell her, just not yet. I want this to be our thing for a little while.”

“I’d like that, too.”

“Oh God,” Grace suddenly exclaims and sits upright in bed, not bothering to clutch her sheet to her chest, “Hannah.”

“Yes?” Hannah raises an eyebrow.

“Do we have to tell the Internet?”

Hannah laughs, loud and clear, and reaches out to grab Grace’s wrist in comfort, “When have any of the three of us ever told the Internet who we were dating?”

Grace nods and falls back onto the bed, “But don’t you think they’ll figure it out?”

“Last I checked, they already have. But don’t worry about it, alright? If they figure it out, they figure it out. We can worry about that when we get there. We have bigger things to worry about right now.”

“Like?”

“Like how you’re not wearing any clothes and I have nothing to do today,” Hannah grins and before Grace can say that she has a meeting at nine, she’s disappeared beneath the sheets.

—

“Question,” Sergei holds up a hand, signaling Hannah to pause so he can interrupt, “Grace makes daily videos, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, this is probably unrelated to the part of the story that you’re at, but you mentioned telling the internet about you two and it got me wondering… does Grace still make daily videos?”

Hannah shifts nervously in her seat before shaking her head, “I don’t… I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You have a computer – do you not watch her channel?”