The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

June Chapter 13

I'm drunk.

It's not entirely surprising, Shawn and I definitely drank more than the girls. And yeah, I drank about two or maybe four more after Candy and Shawn went home. I'm not black out drunk and I'm not tipsy. I'm somewhere in between. I'm at the point where I'm tired and I want to go to bed, which is unsurprisingly hard to do since Rory is awake and her light is on. Probably doesn't help that thunder and lightning are going off like some sort of nature rave outside my window.

I also feel like thunderstorms are important but I can't remember why.

I've been in bed for the last ten minutes, maybe more, I can't quite tell. The room is spinning and I'm having a hard time concentrating. It could have been hours I honestly don't know.

Rory's still up.

Yeah, that's my problem right now. I want to go to sleep but I can't because she's up and I'm thinking about her. I'm thinking about how mad I was that Shawn couldn't be nice to her but excepted her to just give him dinner. I'm mad that she's lying to me about who she's working with. I'm mad she makes me feel things because feelings things is dangerous and my pride's on the line here. I can't have spent three or more years telling her I'm not interested and then change my mind. Wait... how long have I known Rory?

She'd know. I should ask her.

I sit up and try to get out of bed, I end up fumbling and stumbling almost face planting into my door. I'm a little bit more careful once I'm in the hallway. I throw open Rory's room but she's not there. Her light is off and I'm confused because the light's still on and I can't figure out where it's coming from if not from her room.

Oh. The living room.

Stumbling over I blink my eyes so I can see clearly, the bright light isn't helping. Rory's sitting on the couch, she has a book in her lap but she's not even looking at it. She's staring straight off into space, right at the screen of our TV which is not on. The lights are setting her hair on fire, she's looks angelic and scared and I want to just hold her until she feels better.

"Why?" I ask her, unable to get the rest of the sentence out of me. I mean I'm sure I had more to say but I can't remember what it is right now.

She jerks out of her trance and those green eyes are on me now. At first she's surprised but then her face relaxes and I like that, because she's smiling and I feel like that little smile on her face is mine, all mine, and I don't want to share it. "Couldn't sleep," she answers.

I want to ask her why. Why can't she sleep but I'm too tired and drunk to string together sentences. I shake my head. "No," I say to her.

"No?" she echoes.

"No. I don't care. I'm too tired for this," I say. I'm not making sense, the look of confusion on her face tells me that I've made no sense. Or I've insulted her again, I can never really tell when I do that.

I surge forward, hooking an arm around her waist and hoisting her up over my shoulder before she can say anything. She's yelped a couple of times and now she's saying my name in that delicious shriek she uses when she's worried I'm going to throw her in the pool. Instead I throw her onto my bed and collapse down beside her.

"Don't argue, just sleep," I tell her as I wrap an arm around her and clasp her tightly to my chest.

She says nothing, staying perfectly still in my arms and I feel lighter already. I don't know if she falls asleep right away but I'm out like a light in seconds.

I vaguely remember waking up sporadically during the night. Each time I remember coming to startled that I had someone in my bed and in my arms and each time I found myself too comfortable to care and falling back to sleep. What wakes me up fully is Rory's yelping and throwing herself out of my bed.

Alright, that's a lie.

What wakes me up isn't the fact that her cell phone is ringing off in her room, or the fact that she's violently left the bed to go answer it. It's the fact that she says: "Yeah okay, pick me up. I'll meet you out front in ten minutes."

I had a feeling that Rory would be late for the Fablehaven Permit today, but I figured I'd just drive her over, I was off today anyway. I roll over, I can see her from my bed through both of our doorways. She running around her room already half changed. I should be ashamed of myself, peeping at her from here, but I'm not seeing much and I've always wanted to see what her body looks like under the baggy clothes. I'm pretty sure I spy a tattoo I didn't know she had. That and I'm so hung over right now I don't care.

"What's going on?" I ask, my voice sounds groggy and like I might be sick again.

"I'm late for Fablehaven," she says. "You took me to bed with you last night, by the way, I didn't just decide to cuddle with you after you fell asleep."

I'm slightly insulted that she think's I'd assume she didn't have permission to be with me, but I figure given our relationship that makes sense. "I know, I sort of remember... sorry about that."

"It's alright, truth be told, it really helped me get to sleep last night," she says. She doesn't look at me, in fact she's not even in the door way, she's just somewhere in her room and I know... I don't know how but I just do... that she's blushing.

I'm smiling widely, probably the largest smile I've had on my face since... well... I don't know when. "Good, I don't feel too bad then."

She rushes past the door way and I call out her name to stop her. She doesn't look too happy I've done that. "What?" she asks appearing in my doorway. There's a frown on that flushed face of hers, like she thinks I'm about to ask her to make me breakfast. "I'm in a rush Jay?"

"Who's coming to get you?" I ask.

"What? No one? Why?" she sputters. My eyes narrow and I sit up. I've forgotten that I'm not wearing a shirt and her eyes widen as they zone in on my bare chest. For some reason she's always liked my chest, don't know why, I haven't worked out in forever and I'm not that buff anymore.

"Then I'll drive you," I tell her.

She winces. "Its fine, I am getting a ride. From Milo."

"Milo doesn't drive," I remind her. Her eyes widen, as if she didn't realize I knew that. And to be honest, I'm not sure how I knew that.

"Then it's from whoever is dropping off Milo," she says. She glances to the phone she's clutching in her hand. "I have to go, I'll see you when I get back."

I lie in bed a little bit after Rory leaves. Alright, I lie in bed for a long time, I even fall asleep a little too. But I'm not as light and happy as I was during those first few moments where I was kind of awake and kind of asleep and Rory was still in my arms smiling that she woke up there. I liked the feeling of her smile on my bare chest, it just sort of felt right. Except that feeling is tainted now because not ten seconds later she's lying to me. I can't help but feel like some thing's going on at Fablehaven but I'm too hung over to do anything about it just yet.