Lean on me

Chapter 14

Grayson gets up early the next morning to go to the bathroom. When he's walking back to his room, he hears a gasp from Sloan's bedroom. He walks up to the door and puts his ear against it, hearing the sound of muffled cries coming from being the door. He slowly pushes the door open to see Sloan sitting up in her bed, her body covered in a light sheen of sweat, her hand to her mouth to quiet her sobs. 

"I'm sorry." She says, lowering her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." Grayson shakes his head and walks over to the girl, sitting on the edge of her bed. 

"You didn't. I was already up." He tells her. Sloan simply nods, wiping at her teary eyes. "C'mere." Grayson says, pulling her to him. Sloan grips the front of his shirt as he holds her to his chest, running his hand through her hair. "You're okay. It was just a dream." Sloan shakes her head. 

"No it wasn't." She says, her grip on him tightening. "It was real." Grayson sighs and rests his head against hers. 

Once Sloan has finally calmed down, Grayson lays her back in the bed and stands up, about to walk away when Sloan grabs his hand. The boy turns and looks down at her. 

"Stay with me?" She asks. Grayson gives her a small smile and nods. 

"Just let me close the door." He says. Sloan nods and releases her hold on him. Grayson closes the door before returning to the bed. Sloan moves to the right and Grayson slides into the bed next to her. 

Sloan moves closer to him and rests her head on his chest, surprising Grayson. Anytime they've had to share a bed before, they always kept a little bit of space between them. Now, Grayson can't ignore the way his heart quickens as he wraps his arms around the girl, who immediately feels safe in her friend's arms. 

Sloan wakes up again the next morning to find the bed already empty. She sits up and rubs her eyes before getting out of the bed and getting ready. She pulls on an oversized red hoodie sweater and a pair of light blue skinny jeans with dark blue patches. She slips her feet into a pair of brown lace up leather boots, leaving them untied as she walks into the bathroom and brushes her teeth, grabbing the hairbrush before going back downstairs, finding everyone in the living room.

"Can you help me?" She asks Jensen. He looks up from his phone and nods. "Can you brush and braid my hair and tie my shoes?" 

"Yep. Sit." He instructs, patting the couch cushion before standing up and walking behind the couch. He runs the brush through her hair a few times before he starts to do a dutch braid down her back. 

"How do you know so many braids?" Grayson asks, watching the actor twist the strands of Sloan's hair together.

"I raised a little girl who only wanted to wear her hair in braids until she was six years old. I had to learn." He says, making Sloan laugh quietly. "I watched videos on how to do different braids and practiced on the barbie dolls Sloan never played with so I wouldn't ties knots in her hair." 

"I didn't wear braids every day." Sloan says.

"Yes you did." Jensen insists. "And you could never wear the same braid two days in a row so I had to learn to do a lot of different braids so you could wear a different one each day." He finishes the braid and ties it off with the hair tie that was wrapped around the handled of the brush. Jensen walks back around the couch and crouches in front of Sloan, reaching for her shoe laces.  

"Wait." She says, making him stop and look up at her in confusion. "Let me try." 

"Sloan, I don't mind." He tells her. 

"I do." She replies. "I want to try. I can't live the rest of my life asking other people to tie my shoes like a child. I want to do as many things as I can on my own. I want to try to tie my own shoes. Please. Let me try." Jensen nods and sits back on his heels.