Staying Grounded [BXB]

Turn Around

CRAIG:

I don't immediately register where I am when my eyes crack open to the invasion of daylight, but I'm warm, and I'm comfortable, and a subtle scent of lavender envelops me like a hug. Those few blinks-worth of incomprehension are a blessing I fail to appreciate nearly enough.

Gingerly rolling my head, I take in the overly bright bedroom I've awoken in once before. The stack of covered canvas' leaned up against one turquoise wall and the five towers of boxes lining another. The flimsy grey curtains pulled over a wide window, letting through way too much light.

I must still be sleeping. There's no other sense that can be made of this checkpoint re-spawn...

Except, it's at this point a steady throb starts up in my temples.

I've burrowed my face back into the soft hill of pillows when a thunderous rapping bolts me upright, and a brusque demand sharpens the throb into a skull-lancing pain.

"Get up!"

Teeth clamping, I hiss as my mind fractures into jagged shards of accusing eyes and damning words; a shove, a fall, a struggle. The savage impact of rock bottom. The crushing weight of defeat. Strong arms wrapping under my arms, hoisting me roughly up against a warm, solid body smelling of earth and sweat and soap; Sebastian's voice at my ear...

Fierce as it is now. "Rise and shine!"

In the time it takes me to turn toward the door, it's swinging open, and I stare, dumbfounded, as Sebastian stalks in. That same raw aroma wafts in with him, his wild copper hair looking wind-ruffled and his cheeks chilled ruddy. He sets a glass of water down on the bedside table, directly in my line of sight but just out of easy reach. Then, sparing me no leeway to catch up with what's happening, never mind consider an act of disobedience, he rips the duvet from my body.

"What the...?" Too late, I realise I'm dressed in only my boxers. "Hey!"

A smirk twists his lips at my desperate lunge for the stolen cover. It's tossed to the floor at the foot of the bed. "Weren't so shy about yourself last night."

My prickling skin can be attributed only in part to the sudden blast of cold, the knot in my chest tightening at the flick of his keen hazel gaze. Tugging a pillow around from behind me, I hug it protectively to my exposed torso. "Get out."

"Get up."

He makes no move, so neither do I. But the upper hand, here, is not mine to take. Once again, his pointed scrutiny seems to absorb my every vulnerability like a sponge. No effort is made to mask the distaste from his face.

"Clothes?" I crack.

Something flumps down on the mattress by my feet, something I hadn't noticed him carrying. "You're welcome. I want these ones back, though. If that won't put you to too much trouble."

There's a tense beat of silence before I manage to tear myself free of him, glancing down at the faded navy hoody and grey sweats he's deposited. I then proceed to frantically scan the hardwood floor.

"Where's my stuff?"

Sebastian snorts. "In the dryer."

"My phone?"

"On charge. Inebriated strays get nothing but a full five-star service at this halfway house.""Wallet?" I cut over him, searching across the room's few furnishings. "And you've pocketed my car key again, right?"

"No. Your brother has."

My eyes unwittingly snap back to his. "Al?"

"You think I might mean the baby?" The curve of his mouth becomes ever more scathing. "Alex wasn't convinced you'd stay put. He also wasn't all that keen to spend the night here as your carer, so..."