by Maria Xystra
*****
I can feel the heat of the morning sun creeping into the room and refusing to open my eyes I try to uncover myself. The duvet is not moving an inch and I find myself trapped inside like a cocoon. In my second attempt I realize that a mass is lying on the bed right next to me.
My eyes dart open and turning to my side I face a naked torso. With extreme difficulty my eyes travel upwards to see who this beautifully carved and elaborately tattooed body belongs to. As if I don’t already know the answer to that!
Cole’s face lies on the pillow, slightly turned away from me. His left arm is over his head and his hair is fanned out around him. I resist the temptation to run my hand across his face and his exposed neck. And even if I wanted to, my arms are still trapped under the duvet.
I consider not waking him up, but my bitterness won over kindness.
“Hey! Psst! Sleeping…beast! Wake up….”
Cole stirs and inhales deeply as he gradually comes out of his sleep into consciousness. He turns to me and gives me a lazy smile. Full dimples!
“Do you mind…?” I start and try to move again.
“Not at all…,” he mumbles and turns towards me draping an arm over me, locking me completely in place.
For no apparent reason I can feel my pulse rising, in anger. Could be the restless night I had filled with dreams, could be the fact that I woke up next to him, could be both.
I take a deep breath to avoid unleashing my bad temper towards him.
Before I get the chance to say anything, Cole releases me and pulls the duvet to untangle me.
“Why did you cocoon me?” I demand.
“I thought you wanted to turn into a butterfly! You kept tossing and turning and squirming all night!”
“I did? …Why are you even here?”
“You fell asleep on the porch and I brought you upstairs.”
He pauses, and I press.
“And you couldn’t find the way back downstairs?” I ask him slowly in a pretty sarcastic tone.
“You clung on to me and wouldn’t let me go?” he replies in the exact same pace and tone.
I blink once in surprise but dare not challenge him.
“You took advantage of the situation,” I accuse him as I climb out of bed.
“I-! For Christ’s sake, Lex! I cocooned you!”
I find the way he says this hilarious and I burst into laughter. ‘Cocooned’! –Hey, Lex. What did you do last night? –Cole cocooned me!
Cole jumps out of bed and starts ruffling through his bag.
I can’t wipe the grin off my face.
I start finding my stuff for the bathroom.
“Why are you mad? Is this because we cocooned last night?” I tease him, and he can’t stop a chuckle escaping his lips.
“I bet I’m the only woman you’ve ever slept with,” I get an eyebrow raised for that, “and actually just slept!” I finish my comment.
“Even if we bet on it, there’s no way to prove it.”
“If I get proof, I get to drive the Beast.”
Cole does a double take on me and his penis.
“Tsk! I meant your car!”
“No way! It ain’t happening. Not now. Not ever. That beast is not driven by women. Now, if you wanna have a go with the other beast…,” he leaves the sentence open ended.
“Oh my God, do you ever?” I skip the ‘stop’ bit since it goes without saying.
“I never,” he replies casually.
I turn and head towards the bathroom door. I hear him picking up his pace and I do the same. We reach the doorframe and spreading our arms we try to stop the other from entering.
“GET! OUT!” I shout at him.
“NO! ME FIRST!”
“LADIES FIRST, ASSHOLE!”
“Oh, OK that was very ladylike!” he retorts.
“Get out!”
“You get out!”
After several blows and grunts we hear Sam calling.
“Are you guys OK up there?”
“YES!” we answer together still fighting in the bathroom entryway.
“I don’t mind you being inside with me, Lex.”
I relax my body stance and take a step inside the bathroom.
“Yeah, I don’t mind either.”
“Really?” he relaxes his own body.
“Nope!” I slam the door to his face and turn the lock.
“You know there are two sinks in there!” he shouts from the other side.
“And your point is?”
“Oh, well, I don’t know- Can I have one?”
“Well, I can’t just rip it out for you!” I joke.
He mumbles something inaudible.
“Don’t you have a phone call to make?” I shout at him.
He walks away and moments later, he’s on the phone.
By the time I finish my shower, I realize I haven’t brought any clothes inside the bathroom. I wrap the towel around myself and put my ear against the door. No sound comes through and I slowly open the door and tiptoe towards the bedroom.
As soon as I reach my bag, a boxers-only body comes into view from the balcony.
I slowly straighten up and the way he lets his eyes travel over me makes me feel like I’m not even wrapped up in the towel.
“That’s the most naked I’ve ever seen you,” he says and drops his phone on the bed.
“That’s the most naked you’ll ever see me,” I shot back.
“I wouldn’t bet on that.”
Well, me neither.
“Your sinks await you,” I point towards the bathroom.
His phone starts ringing, and Toy’s name appears on the screen.
Right when he answers it I walk to him and start bugging him.
“Let me talk to him! Is it Roy? Toy? Roy? It’s Toy, right? Let me- Letmetalktohim! Come oooooon!”
Cole tries to keep me at a distance and his hand accidentally lands on my boob. I freeze, and Cole does the same. The absolute silence is broken by Toy’s beastly scream through the phone: “Give her to meeee!”
Cole hands me the phone and quickly turns towards the bathroom.
I recover from the discomfort – and the fact that this whole morning was so awkward and so not awkward at all –, and talk to Toy.
About ten minutes later Cole comes out of the bathroom and I’m still on the phone with Toy. He’s been telling me what happened in last night’s episode of the series we both watch.
“Are you guys serious? You’re still on the phone with him? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Shhhh!” I scold him and focus on what Toy is saying.
Or try to. Especially after getting a glimpse of Cole’s wet body and hair. Yeap, I’m officially not able to register anything Roy is saying right now. What were we talking about again?
Cole drops his towel right in front of me and offers me a full view of his privates. Om-myg-god! Even my thoughts stutter and I feel a clenching between my thighs. My nipples harden in an instant and my mouth dries. My core tightens, and I find it hard to swallow.
A myriad of emotions swirl within me. The one that settles though is rage. In an instant, I become so pissed at him for doing this, I don’t even want to look at him. I grab my shoes and head out the room.
“Gotta go, Toy,” I hang up and toss him the phone as I pass by him.
My furious mood didn’t last long. Why can’t I just stay mad at him?
When Cole joins us in the kitchen, seconds after I greeted the happy couple, Eric casts the spotlight on him.
“Did you sleep well last night?” he muses pointedly.
“Huh?” Cole hesitates. Well that’s a first!
“Last night?” Eric prompts. “Upstairs…? Imagine my surprise when I woke up and found your bed,” he points at the living room couch, “empty!”
Eric’s tone brings back bitter memories. Memories of him and Cole talking about me, the latter referring to me as ‘fuckable’. Great.
“Nothing happened!” Cole su
ddenly slips into the defensive.
Eric turns to me for confirmation.
“Yeah, he cocooned me don’t worry,” I inform him.
“He what?” Sam jumps in. “You cocooned my friend?!?” she scolds him. “What does that even mean?” she says, and we giggle.
“He wrapped me in the duvet,” I explain.
“Why- Did you…were you hav-?”
“Yeah,” I simply confirm her suspicion of me having a nightmare. Having her as my roommate in college means she’s well aware of my occasionally disturbed sleep routine.
“Well, congrats Lex! You are the first woman Cole has ever simply slept with!” Eric says.
“I should be the one you’re congratulating!” Cole sounds offended.
Eric turns to him in mocking sincerity. “Well done, my friend. You did a very good job. You are a step closer to knighthood!”
“Yeah, right,” I retort. “Keys,” I demand from Cole extending my hand.
“You want a kiss?” he converts my words to his liking. “Here, in front of everyone?”
“I won the bet, I want the keys. To your car.”
“The keys to my heart?” he jokes again.
I hold my hand stretched in front of him, expectantly.
I can sense he wants to refuse me. He takes a deep breath, though, and letting it out, he hands me the keys to his car.
Eric’s surprise is obvious as he climbs over an armchair to get to him with animated movements.
“Dude! Are you OK? What is wrong? What has she got on you???” he speaks in a dramatic tone and grabbing Cole by the T-shirt, he shakes him back and forth.
Cole remains silent and reverting his eyes from Eric, he locks his gaze with mine.
“I’ll take this as an apology for what happened in the bedroom,” I state.
“WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BEDROOM???” Sam blurts out.
“Come on, Sam, we’re going for a ride,” I take her by the wrist and drag her outside.
Driving the Beast was exhilarating. Taking it off road was even better. And knowing that it belongs to Cole, I had to take ‘good’ care of it. And, so I did. But the car is really a monster, nothing gets to it. I drove it to its maximum, Sam gripping to her seat during the whole ride, and there were some beautiful muddy waters I just had to pass through. The Beast is no longer black.
Sam and I are engaged in a loud conversation about everything that happened with Cole, with her insisting I should just give in, and me denying I even like him. Of course, she knows better than that, but she picks up my foul mood and eventually lets it go.
“You know he’s just teasing you,” she says after I told her about the flashing incident.
I open my mouth to get into my arguments against his ‘teasing’ but she stops me.
“Look, you two have come a long way. You know he’s not someone you can simply avoid. And I see you two together… and…it’s… there’s something there, Lex. And it suits you, both.”
I exhale in exasperation and shake my head.
“Now, come on,” she goes on, “let’s get you a booster to change that grumpy expression and head back home. We have a funfair to get to!!”
She offers me her wrist and I use one of my fangs to gently slit the skin. I let her blood pour into my system and like a drug, it lifts off the edge and takes me to a whole new state of mind.
CHAPTER 27
“Wooooh! Cotton candy!” Eric exclaims with the excitement of a five-year-old. Cole gives him a sideways glance and Eric’s enthusiasm fades in a moment.
“Wooooh! Funnel cakes!!!” I shout in the exact same way Eric just did. Sam follows my stretched arm to the kiosk and offers me a kind smile. I turn to Eric who’s nodding eagerly at me. I lock his elbow in mine and we start striding purposefully towards the candy vendors.
“Let’s go, dear. The adults can just stay here and sulk!” I state loud enough for them to hear.
“Don’t get lost,” Cole shouts as he and Sam start moving towards a bench.
“OK, dad!” Eric throws over his shoulder.
A few minutes later we join them again and we walk around the fair. Eric and I share our delights and giggle uncontrollably, commenting on every little detail we see. He keeps taking pieces of cotton candy and putting it on his face, decorating his features with a moustache and a beard. Sam nearly fell for his ‘give me a kiss’ attempt the first time. Now she walks away from him using Cole as a shield every time Eric approaches her.
When he’s had enough, he offers the rest to me and I give him the rest of my funnel. Walking while looking the other way is never a good idea and I end up bumping into Cole – cotton candy first. The sticky substance stuck to his t-shirt and I nearly started crying; about the candy that is. Cole’s look of shock made it impossible to keep a straight face and I burst into laughter while trying to apologize to him.
“I’m sorry…See? You can be sweet! OK, wait, I’ll fix this! Just give me a second!” I blab on and without waiting for an answer I leave them all behind and roam in the fair to find the kiosk I spotted earlier on.
‘Tee-sh up’ the sign reads, and I march to the vendor.
“Hello, sexy lady, sexy t-shirt!” the tiny man greets me with a mexican-accent. “You wanna t-shirt, no? We can put picture, photo, letters, anything you want on it! Enrique here can take your picture, and put it on t-shirt! Good idea, no?”
I smile and explain to him exactly what I want. He immediately shoots some commands in really quick Spanish to the second man at the back, and a while later I leave with a t-shirt in hand.
I find the trio next to a roller coaster and from the looks of it, it seems that Eric and Sam are trying to convince Cole to join them on the ride. Exasperatedly, he tries to cross his arms over his chest, but the stickiness of the candy prevents him from doing so. I flinch as I approach them.
“Dude, it’s called a funfair! You are not being fun at all!”
“Why did we even bring him here?” I join them with a grin. “Oh, he’s got the car. Right.”
“You can all go ahead and I’ll just make a phone call,” Cole replies. Three sets of eyes roll heavenwards.
“I’ve got your new tee!” I tell him, wiggling the black, folded piece in front of him.
We start moving away from the crowd to a more secluded spot.
“Come on, take off your t-shirt and give it to me,” I order him.
Cole chuckles and says, “That’s what she said!”
Eric joins him with an acknowledgment howl, Sam turns to me with the ‘seriously?’ look.
Cole looks around to see if anyone is watching and pulls his t-shirt over his head. The shock from his carved torso makes my breath catch in my lungs and I turn around in my spot to look the other way. Yeah, as if I haven’t seen everything already!
A group of women spot him from afar and take a detour from their original destination to join us.
As they come closer I start shouting: “Move along girls! Nothing to see here!”
“Oh my God! Nothing to see??” They start cheering.
“Take your jeans off!”
“Have you got a girlfriend?”
“Let’s see the rest!”
I try to hold the mob in place. “Yeah, yeah, too bad he’s gay!”
“Noooooooo!!” the scream together.
“Go on, move along,” I repeat.
“Can you give him my number?” one of them shouts as I gesture for them to go away.
“Can I have my new t-shirt now?” Cole asks me, and I realize I’m still the one holding it.
“Oh, right. Sure.”
He takes it and unfolds it. He nearly missed the print as he hurries to put it on. “What’s this? I’m not wearing this! No way in hell!” he sputters.
Sam and Eric step behind him to see what he’s talking about and they burst in laughter. Cole holds the t-shirt open in front of him and Eric reads: “Keep calm and call Cole! Brilliant!”
“You have to wear it! It’s either that or to
pless! Come onnnn!!” I plead.
He eventually gives in and puts it on.
When the sun drops, and after we’ve done everything there was to do at the funfair, we get a spot on the grass and wait for the fireworks display.
Cole and Eric left us with a ‘be right back’. That was about an hour ago.
The two of them disappeared and we couldn’t find them anywhere. Sam kept calling Eric but got no answer. Then she texted him a couple dozen times, but still got no reply.
Her spirits fell and nothing I said could change that. The fireworks were amazing but did nothing to lift her back up.
“I’ve got Cole’s keys in my purse,” I realize after a while.
“Then we’re going,” she states and taking my arm, she leads me to the parking area.
“I can’t believe this, I just can’t!” she mumbles.
“Is there any chance something might have happened to them?”
“No! And even if there is, I don’t fucking care!”
“Maybe we should wait a bit more…,” I suggest, already climbing into the car.
“They’re the ones who left us, Lex! We’re going home!”
Still hesitant, I turn the switch and the Beast roars to life.
“Is everything OK with-”
“That’s the third time he’s gone AWOL on me! In just a month!”
“So, this has happened before?”
“Yeah! The other day, we were having dinner when one of them rang him and he just left. He was gone all night!”
“Did he say where he went?”
“He just changes the subject and he keeps giving me these bullshit, vague excuses!”
“I don’t buy it, but do you think there’s any chance… he might be…I don’t know, cheating on you?” I emphasize my disbelief.
“Well, if he is, Cole is covering for him. And I don’t really think that’s the case. I mean, they’re always together. Every single time he’s gone, he’s with him! So, he’s either covering for him, or something else is up. Or they’re both gay!”