Sleep Forever, Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 2

Seán grabbed me suddenly to stop me and told me to be quiet.

I didn't know what he was doing, and it was really cold. I was just about to ask him why we were sitting hunched up behind a bush in the darkening Central Park in the absolutely freezing cold when up popped a bunnies head from the snow blanketed ground.

I was about to express my excitement when Seán raised a finger to his lips to remind me to be quiet. I did my best to suppress the rising excitement and joy filling up in my chest. Maybe I was crazy for getting so excited about seeing a bunny, but I didn't care. You'd have to be there to fully understand it. It was like magic, magic at Christmas, even though it wasn't yet Christmas. That was in another few days. This could be my Christmas though. My little Christmas, and the bunny my gift. I wasn't going to be awake on Christmas anyway.

Suddenly I felt like hugging Seán so tightly, but I really had to hug myself extra tightly to stop myself from doing so.

"You cold?" Seán mouthed at me, looking genuinely concerned.

A shook my head and kept my eyes on the bunnies.

Eyes on the bunnies India, keep those eyes on the bunnies.

Suddenly I heard two 'snaps!'

I jumped at the surprisingly loud sound in the quietening park.

I turned to see Seán with his camera up to his eye. He let it down again. When I turned back to the bunnies, they were gone. Then Seán spoke up, breaking the silence we had kept for quite a while.

"They won't be coming back now, I don't think."

"Why not?" I questioned him.

"They've been out long enough, and besides, they don't come out after dark," he explained to me.

I nodded interestingly at this, and then became all of a sudden less serious.

"So what, do you like watch them every night? Are you one of those nature people or something?" I teased, grinning ever so slightly.

"No!" He retorted. "Anyway, you were the one with the look of pure amusement and excitement on your face when you saw them. I should have taken a picture of your face...oh right, I did!" He grinned back with a gleam in his eye, daring me to say something more, so he could just come back with a cheeky answer.

I looked away from him, knowing I couldn't win, and pretended to be in a huff.

"You're not really mad at me, I know you aren't," The cheeky bastard dared to say.

"I am actually!" I protested, trying to hide the smile pushing its way up.

"No, you're not. You're a terrible actress, India, and now you're smiling too, so you can't be mad!" He argued, looking pleased with himself.

I couldn't argue that, although I did the best I could.

"Nearly smiling, I was nearly smiling!" I argued.

"OK, OK, you were nearly smiling then," He was laughing softly now, his body moving in small, jerky motions from his laughs.

I smiled at him like I had just won something, which I guess I kind of had.

"Oh, all confidant now, are we?" He teased.

I protested at this, but he didn't care. He just kept insulting me. He tried to take a photo of my apparently 'overly confidant' face. I hid my face from him and ran away hearing my footsteps thread lightly through the snow, crushing it softly. The snow was really deep here. I was lucky I had good leather boots on. Not the fancy type, but more the old, brown, worn type that never gave you any trouble.