Barefoot, he hurried out
of his bedroom and down the hall. The door was cracked and he pushed the door
all the way open. Still asleep, Everly wailed again, flailing this way and
that. East ran to her bedside and touched her arm softly.
“Everly?” When he said her
name once more and she still did not awaken, but continued to thrash about, he
called out more loudly and grabbed her shoulders to shake her. “Everly!”
Her eyes shot open, and
she looked up to see East staring down at her worriedly. Her breathing like she
had just run several blocks, and a look of confusion on her face, she whimpered
his name, “East?”
“It’s okay,” he told her
gently, rubbing her shoulder. “That must have been a horrible dream.”
She sat up, worry written
on her face. “I...I’m so sorry—I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“No, no…I was still awake
actually—on my way to bed.”
“Oh,” she replied, looking
relieved. “Well, sorry for disturbing you. And thank you for saving me from
that nightmare.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said,
looking concerned. “What was that awful dream about anyway?”
She swallowed. “The…fire,”
she muttered with some difficulty.
East felt instant regret. Of course she was having a nightmare about
her parents and twin sister dying, you idiot! “I’m sorry, Everly. That was
thoughtless of me.”
She shook her head, but he
could see the tears that had already reached the edges of her eyes, threatening
to fall. Reaching out, he pulled her into an embrace, stroking her hair.
With her head on his
shoulder, she wept for a couple minutes. When she drew away from him, he looked
down at her longingly, and before he could stop himself, bent down and kissed
her delicately on the lips. It was brief, but it was fire.
He sat back again, his
expression just as stunned as hers. He gathered himself and before exiting her
room managed a ‘goodnight, Everly.’
No comments:
Post a Comment