“Emily?” Claire said. She noticed Emily spacing out like she had done on a few occasions before. She tried not to read too much into it.
Emily felt herself snap out of her head. “Sorry," she said. “Um, a movie sounds good.”
“Where were you?” Jeremy asked.
“I’m sorry. I just zoned out,” Emily said. “You can ignore me.”
Jeremy looked at Claire. “You wanna watch a movie?”
“How can I say no to that face?” Claire said. She put her hands on his cheeks and gently clapped her hands on his face on either side of his giant close lipped smile. She scratched his beard. She looked into his eyes and squinted. They knew each other well enough by now that she knew when he was manufacturing a situation. He knew that she recognized what he was doing, and he smirked at her.
They all took a seat on the couch and Jeremy pulled up Netflix on the television. Emily and Claire sat on the far sides of the couch on either side of him. He knew they both felt a little awkward and he was having a good time with it. Everyone else deciding to leave made the situation much better. He had tried to talk to Claire and she didn’t seem to register what he told her. He hadn’t talked to Emily yet. With Emily preparing to join the coven, it put him in a position of leadership. He was an equal with Claire. But there wasn’t any way he could bring up Emily’s relationship with Claire to Emily in a way that would be appropriate. But he felt that forcing them to have a cozy night together was perfectly appropriate.
“Do we want Horror?” Jeremy said.
“Ugh, Jeremy, really?” Claire said. “With our best friends being murdered you want to watch a horror movie?”
“It was just a suggestion!” he said. “Plus for all we know the killers aren’t even around anymore. We might be out of the woods, so to speak.”
“Ugh,” Claire said.
“Rom-Com?” he asked.
Claire crossed her arms and didn’t say anything. Jeremy looked over his shoulder at Emily and she shrugged. There was no way she was going to make any suggestions.
“Come on you guys.” Jeremy said. “Help a guy out. What do you want to watch?” He scrolled through the available movies and they all watched the options flash across the screen.
“Ohh. Let’s watch Rocky III,” Emily said.
Claire leaned forward and looked around Jeremy at Emily. “You like Rocky?” Claire asked.
“I love Rocky,” Emily said. “It was my favorite movie growing up. They were my favorite movies I should say. All but Rocky five.”
“Well yeah. Rocky five doesn’t count,” Claire said. “We don’t talk about Rocky five.”
They laughed with each other and Jeremy leaned back into the couch. He smugly pressed play. Emily and Claire tried not to look at each other as they both stared at the television and smiled.
Jeremy didn’t make it through the movie. He fell asleep in the couch in between them, and they only noticed because he started snoring. They each stifled their laughter, not wanting to wake him up. The movie ended and the credits rolled. Emily felt her heart beat faster as she wondered what to do next. They were alone, almost. And all she wanted to do was tell her everything. Tell her about the dream she has had, over and over. About how she saw them together, and after feeling what she has felt there was no way anything else could ever compare. She wanted to be with her in this moment and every moment from now on. But she couldn’t say any of that.
“Well, it’s pretty late,” Claire said. “I should get you all set up down here so we can go to sleep.” Claire wasn’t tired, but she wanted to hide away in her bed.
“Okay,” Emily said. She was disappointed. She didn’t know how she was going to be able to go to sleep. “Should we wake Jeremy up so he can go to bed?”
Claire poked Jeremy in his side. “Jerrrrrremmyyyyyy," she teased.
Jeremy flinched and pushed her hand away. He groaned and leaned over, pulling his feet up onto the couch. His arm hung off the couch and he started snoring again.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Claire said. She screamed at Jeremy inside her head. He knew he was going to pass out on the couch, and she knew he was immovable once he fell asleep.
“Is he not going to move?” Emily asked.
Claire sighed. “Honestly, probably not. When he’s out he’s out." She pressed her lips and tried to figure out what to do. She needed to put Emily somewhere.
“So…” Emily said. “Where should I sleep?”
“You know, we could put new sheets on Jeremy’s bed, and you could sleep there,” Claire said.
That wasn’t what Emily was hoping to hear, but she knew that Claire inviting her into her bed was a long shot.
“Okay, let’s do that,” Emily said. “You’re sure he won’t mind?”
“No he won’t mind,” Claire said. “But even if he did, it isn't your fault he invited you to sleep on the couch and then went ahead and fell asleep on the couch he offered up to you.”
“Okay,” Emily said. “What can I do to help?”
“I’ll go get some clean sheets from the linen closet and you can help me put them on the bed,” Claire said.
Emily told herself that she could definitely help Claire make a bed without any issue. Her standing at a bed with Claire on the other side of it looking at her wasn’t going to be a problem. She was an adult who could control her primal urges. It was just a bed, anyway. It was no more sensual than standing anywhere with her at any time. Stop . She thought. Just stop .
“And his room is the last one on the right, right?” Emily asked.
“Yep!” Claire said. She walked up the stairs and down the hall to the closet. She grabbed out a set of clean sheets and brought it into Jeremy’s room. The sheets were falling out of her hands by the time she made it to his bed. Emily was pulling the dirty sheets of the bed.
“These smell clean,” Emily said.
“They probably are,” Claire said. “He is weird about how often he changes his sheets. But still, better safe than sorry. You don’t want to have any question about what you are sleeping on.”
“I guess,” Emily said. She carried the old sheets and pushed them into his laundry hamper.
Claire threw a fitted sheet onto the bed and Emily grabbed the other end. They pulled each corner on without speaking. Claire tossed the flat sheet up onto the bed and they each held an end, raising it up above their heads and making eye contact, accidentally on both their parts, when the sheet was above their heads. Emily took a deep breath and blinked, trying to stop herself from losing her head in a daze once again. They folded their respective sides and Claire went to get a blanket. Emily replaced the pillow cases with clean ones and threw them back on the bed. She walked around the other side to meet Claire at the door. Claire came around the corner into the room and the blanket was piled in her arms, covering her face. She couldn’t see that Emily was standing there and walked right into her.
“Oh God I’m sorry,” Claire said.
Emily blushed. “It’s okay," she said. She grabbed some of the blanket, trying to help Claire, and they awkwardly carried it over to the bed.
“I have it, it’s okay,” Claire said.
“Okay, sorry,” Emily said.
“A lot of sorry’s happening in here right now,” Claire said. They chuckled.
“I do think I have a problem with saying that I’m sorry too much,” Emily said.
“I think we all have that problem,” Claire said. “We live in Minnesota.”
“True,” Emily said. She arranged the opposite side of the blanket on the bed and looked up at Claire. She wanted to do something. She wanted to kiss her. In real life. She had kissed her in her memory and she wanted that so badly in this moment. She felt like she had to show Claire how amazing they were together, which made her feel like a crazy person. There is no sane way to present that to anyone. Even if that person does believe in things that are slightly outside the realm of normalcy.
Claire looked around the room, looking for
anything else she might need to do for Emily before she left.
“Well, you probably don’t have a toothbrush in your bag?” she asked.
“No, I don’t,” Emily said. “I don’t have anything for staying over. I should have thought about that before I agreed to it I suppose.”
“It’s okay,” Claire said. “We don’t have a spare toothbrush, but I have some pajamas you can sleep in. Let me go grab them.”
Emily stood in Jeremy’s room and looked around. The room was dark and simple. He didn’t have a lot of decorations, and there was nothing on the walls. His clothes all hung in his closet or were folded in his dresser. She was impressed to see no piles of clothes on the floor. He was cleaner than she had imagined him to be. She looked down at her clothes and felt silly for not thinking about what she was going to sleep in when she agreed to sleep on the couch. Sleeping in her regular clothes is fine, but she assumed she was going to have trouble sleeping anyway, so she was grateful that she might have actual pajamas to sleep in.
“Here you go!” Claire said as she walked into the room. She was holding a two piece set of flannel pajamas.
Emily took them and looked at Claire gratefully. They were the least sexy pajamas she had ever seen, and she hoped Claire would be sleeping in something equally appalling. “Thanks Claire," she said. “This is really kind of you.”
“It’s no problem at all,” Claire said. “I always get these pajamas from my family for Christmas, and I sleep naked so I never wear them. They just keep getting them for me.”
Emily felt her grip tighten on the pajamas. “Cool. Cool," she said. “Yeah my dad always gets me useless stuff too. I know what you mean.”
“Well,” Claire said. “I am going to head to bed. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Emily said. “You're sure that Jeremy isn’t going to wake up in the middle of the night and come crawling into his bed?”
Claire laughed. “Oh wow. No, I can’t promise you that won’t happen. Sorry.”
Emily smiled at her. “Okay. I guess I’ll take that chance then.”
“You are a brave soul,” Claire said. “Well, goodnight Emily.”
Emily felt her stomach flutter at the sound of Claire speaking her name. “Goodnight Claire,” Emily said. “Thanks for the pajamas.”
“No problem,” Claire said. She left Jeremy’s room and Emily heard her footsteps walk down the hall to her room. The door closed.
Emily exhaled and put the pajamas on the bed. She was wide awake, but she knew she needed to go to sleep. She closed the door and changed into the pjs. She then folded her clothes, and laid them neatly in a pile next to the nightstand. She pulled the top blanket off of the bed and slipped underneath it. She relaxed on the pillow and she looked up at the ceiling. She had an urge to see the snow, so she got up quickly and went to the window and opened the blinds. The snow was still falling heavily, and it glowed an amber hue from the street lights. There were no footsteps on the sidewalk and the street had not been plowed yet. She sat on the windowsill and watched the flakes fall. She had always loved watching the snow. Everyone she knew always complained about winter, but the snowfall made her feel real. She loved how it made everything quieter and somehow slower. The cold didn’t bother her and she welcomed the internal draw that came from the snow.
Claire turned her night stand light on and thought about what she should do. She was wired and was not ready to go to bed, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving her room. She had trouble just holding a regular conversation with Emily and she didn’t want to risk anything happening as the night went on. She walked to her window and sat on the windowsill. She watched the snow fall, and she tried to meditate on it.
The house was silent. Jeremy slept soundly on the couch on the first floor, with Claire and Emily sitting in separate rooms, both looking at the snow falling outside. They were looking out at the same snow and thinking of the same thing. They both wanted more between them, but neither one of them knew how to go about it. Claire was worried about jeopardizing the coven and her role in it. Emily was worried about jeopardizing how Claire might feel about her. If she didn’t want to be with her romantically, she didn’t want to mess up her relationship with her and the coven. As distracting as Claire’s presence had been, it didn’t take away from how serious Emily was about becoming a witch. Emily needed to go about all of this very carefully.
Emily woke up the next morning to the sound of Jeremy opening the door.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” he said. “I thought maybe you had went home.” He pulled the door closed a little bit, not wanting to intrude on her.
Emily rubbed her eyes and sat up in the bed, shyly pulling the covers up to her shoulders. “Um, no Claire just put me up in here. I hope that's okay. We changed the sheets.”
“Of course, that's fine.” Jeremy scratched his beard and eyed Emily curiously. “Sorry I fell asleep on the couch. What did you and Claire end up doing?” He wasn’t expecting any exciting developments since Emily was sleeping in his bed, she clearly hadn’t went to bed with Claire.
“We just finished the movie, and then we got the bed ready and went to sleep.” Emily hoped there wasn’t a tinge of disappointment in her voice.
“Ah," he said. “Well, I’ll let you do your thing. Sorry again to walk in and wake you. Just let me grab some clothes. I need to go into the store this morning.”
“Sure," she said. She watched him walk to his dresser and grab a shirt and a pair of underwear. He smiled at her and left the room, closing the door behind him. She slumped over in the bed and looked out the window. It was a sunny day and everything looked especially bright with the thick blanket of snow from the blizzard the night before. She wondered if Claire was awake yet. She wondered if it took Claire as long to fall asleep as it had taken her. She heard Jeremy come out of the bathroom and go back down the stairs, followed by the front door closing. He was in a hurry . She thought. She felt awkward, not knowing quite what to do. Should she stay and hang around until Claire woke up, or should she sneak out before she came out of her room. She wanted to stay. She wanted to crawl into bed with her and wake her up. Kiss her neck up to her lips, and finally act out the dream that has played in her mind so many times now. It seemed so impossible. Claire wasn’t interested in her and it didn’t seem likely that she would ever be interested in her. But why did she have the dreams? What put her in Claire’s head? She decided she should go home. She didn’t want to put Claire out, or wear out her welcome.
She got dressed and made the bed before sneaking into the bathroom. She put some toothpaste on her finger and brushed her teeth. It wasn’t thorough, but it was better than nothing. She redid her ponytail and looked in the mirror, wishing she had some makeup with her. At least some eyeliner or blush. Giving up, she went downstairs and put her boots and jacket on. She opened the door and squinted painfully at the bright sun.
Claire heard Emily leave and sighed in relief. She didn’t want a repeat of the awkward tension from the night before. Now she could get up, have some coffee, and have a relaxing morning alone before she went to the basement to work. She walked to the window and looked out onto the street, where she saw Emily struggling to brush the snow off of her car. Maybe I should go help her. She thought.
“Dang it," she said out loud. She pulled pants on from the night before and left on the shirt she had slept in. She would be wearing a jacket so she didn’t bother to put on a bra.
She got downstairs and found her thick socks lying on the floor next to the couch. She rushed to put them on and slipped her feet into her boots, her arms into her jacket, and zipped her coat up to her chin. She opened the front door to the sound of shovels echoing on the street. The thick snow has muffled all sound and somehow made everything seem louder at the same time.
Emily looked up at the house and smiled at Claire, looking surprised to see her. Before Claire could step off of the porch and onto the steps, she saw a car speeding up the street. Everythi
ng seemed to slow down as she watched it unfold in front of her. A neighbor across the street, three houses down opened her door and her small dog escaped from the house, running into the yard. The dog ran down the corridor that was formed by the shoveled sidewalk and burst onto the street without any warning. By the time the driver saw the dog it was too late, and he slammed on the breaks. He lost control of the car as it slid through the snow, and tried to turn to avoid the dog. He was sliding right towards Emily. Claire thrust her hand up, aiming it at Emily, and focused all of her energy on a force field around her.
“Munio statim,” Claire whispered.
The car appeared to hit Emily and she screamed. Without thinking, she lunged away from the speeding car and into the body of her own car. Claire ran down to her as fast as she could, trudging through the snow and trying not to slip on the shoveled spots.
“Are you okay!?” The driver got out of his car and went to check on Emily, but Claire got to her first.
“Oh my God. You’re okay,” Claire said. She bent down to her and grabbed her face with both hands. Emily looked up at her terrified.
“That car almost hit me,” she said. She was trembling.
“But it didn’t hit you. You’re okay,” Claire said.
Emily looked at the broken and bent up car that was inches from them. “But it should have hit me. What did it hit?”
“It didn’t hit you, that’s all that matters.” Claire brushed the hair out of Emily’s eyes and hugged her. “You’re okay, okay?” She held her head to her chest.
“I’m so sorry! Is she okay?” the driver asked again.
Claire stood up and glared at him with an intensity Emily hadn’t seen before. “You were fucking speeding and you could have killed her or that dog.”
“I-I’m so sorry," he said.
“You better have insurance,” Claire said. “Are you calling the police, or should I?”
“I’ll call them right now,” The man said. He scrambled around in his car and came back out holding his phone to his ear.
When Witches Wake Page 15