The Truth Untold

46

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I noticed was that I was still stark naked. I opened my eyes and looked directly into Leo's face. His eyes closed tightly, his hair was as fuzzy as ever and his mouth was open again. He lay on his stomach and one arm rested on my shoulder. The blanket that lay over both of us went just over his hip and exposed his bare back, which was covered with red stripes. Frightened, I gasped for air and got a grumble from Leo, as an answer. While Leo continued to sleep deeply and firmly, I put his arm off my shoulder and sneaked out of bed. I waltz to the closet and quickly put something on. With fabric shorts and top I went back to bed and looked at the clock. It was already half past eleven. I remembered that the last time we had breakfast we wanted to go, but we wouldn't make it today if we stayed longer in bed.

"Leo", I said quietly and bent over his face.

The lack of reaction did not surprise me. It was damn hard to wake him up.

"Baby", I meant a little louder this time and stroked the strands from his face.

This time I got a reaction, but not the one I had hoped for. With a weak movement of his hand, he tried to knock my hand away while half asleep and turned his head in the other direction. Thoughtfully I pinched my lips together and snorted. Apparently I had to put up hard guns. I laid down on his back, one leg on each side, and leaned down to his face while holding on to his shoulders.

"Good morning", I breathed sugar-sweet into his ear and began to kiss his face. His cheek, his closed eyelid, his eyebrow and temple, his forehead, his nose and his corner of his mouth. Every place I could find. I heard him grumble again, but as I raised my head I saw a smile stealing from his lips.

"That's how I always want to be woken from today," he said, mumbling halfway into the pillow and with his deep, scratchy morning voice.

"Waking you up is almost impossible," I said and put my head on his shoulders.

"I'm awake, aren't I?" he asked and moved his head in the temptation to see, what didn't work.

"I thought, how could we finally put our planned breakfast into action," I said and now put my lips on his skin. I took a deep breath and absorbed his very own smell.

"I don't want to get out of bed", he said again with closed eyes and pout. You could think he was a boy who didn't want to go to school, but rather spent the whole day in bed.

"I don't know if we have anything to eat here," I explained, but I knew inside that we weren't going anywhere for breakfast today.

"Never mind', he just grumbled and I gave up.

For a few minutes I continued to lie on top of him, wrapped in the silence of the room.

"My back is on fire," Leo suddenly noticed and I straightened up in horror.

"Oh... Uh... I'm sorry," I stammered grudgingly as my gaze fell on the red stripes.

"What are you sorry for? What's there," Leo asked irritatedly.

"Well, apparently I scratched your back a little yesterday," I said and was delighted that he couldn't see my red face.

"Really? I want to see that," he said and raised his head, but immediately dropped it back onto the pillow.

"I take a picture," I said and grabbed my cell phone.

Still sitting on him, I took the photo and showed it to him.

"Good work, Kathie," he said approvingly, hissing the air through his teeth as he saw the scratch marks.

"I am so sorry, honestly. I didn't want to hurt you," I said, still crumpled and climbed down from him.