Little Miss Innocent

Chapter 12-Stress & Silver Boxes & Stress & Chats & Stress Part 1

TREVOR

I yawned and wearily rolled over, shifting to sit upright in the bed.

The clock read 6:58 am.

I groaned and kicked off the covers.

The night I actually get a full night's sleep will be the same night bloody hell freezes over.

I rolled out of bed and ruffled my hair, stretching my arms above my head.

I glanced around the room looking for the sweats I'd been wearing the night before, picking them up and slipping them over my boxers.

I ruffled my hair again and quietly opened the door, slipping into the hall, careful not to wake anyone else in the house up, as always.

I drifted down the hall to my familiar room, reaching into my pocket for the key. I slipped it into the lock, twisting and squeaked the door open, peeking into the room before entering and swiftly shutting it back silently.

I stood there, looking at Natalie, sleeping peacefully in my bed, her leg hanging off the side uncovered.

I sighed and walked over to her, lifting her leg back onto the mattress and tucking it softly under the blankets.

She was like a little girl.

And while she annoyed the hell out of me and I couldn't wait to get her home, a part of me didn't want to have to drag her through all this shit in the first place.

It was like I wanted to protect her and keep her innocent or some dumb shit like that.

Oh bloody hell, I don't even know.

But the punishments were unavoidable because while I had sympathy for her, she still had to know who was in charge.

I just wanted her home and out of here.

Back to where we both belonged.

She wasn't supposed to cross paths with someone like me and I was done babysitting her.

It was fun to mess with her because she was so clueless and it amused me.

But at the end of the day, she was just another thing on my plate.

Another fucking thing to worry about.

"Do you ever sleep?" She said groggily into the pillow.

"Sorry I woke you." I said, walking over to the walk-in closet and pulling a shirt off the hanger, slipping it over my head.

She didn't say anything as she rose up in the bed to look at me over her shoulder.

"What?" I asked, leaning in the door frame of my closet, looking at her expectantly.

"I don't know." She said as she shrugged. "I just wanted to see if you looked as tired as I expected you to."

"Do I?" I said as I rolled my eyes, walking across the room to my dresser.

"Not really." She said.

I looked at her through my mirror, my back to her while she played with a strand of her brown hair, staring at the ceiling.

"Wonderful. I'm going to take a shower." I said dully, grabbing the clothes I'd dug out of my dresser and shuffling toward the bathroom. "The door is unlocked, but I don't want you to go downstairs without me, clear?" I asked, looking at her tiredly.

"Okay." She said as she nodded. "I won't."

As the steamy water rained down my body, I couldn't help but think of all the ways this whole Marc thing could go wrong.