Without a Sound

We spent hours reading after we woke up. I got him to eat breakfast first, though, so I was happy. After we ate sandwiches and potato chips for lunch, Mikey took me to the computer. That machine was incomprehensible.

I swear that thing was magic. It had everything on it. I liked the music best, though. One band he showed me had my name, Good Charlotte. The music was loud and obnoxious, something I’d never heard before. It was unpredictable and strange, but I liked it.

Mikey smiled when I told him I liked another band he showed me, My Chemical Romance. After smiling, though, he didn’t say anything about it. When I asked, he simply said it had been a long time ago and shut his mouth. I wasn’t in the mood to pursue the topic any further.

When the sun started to rise, we went out to the garden. After the rain from the night before, the roses and all the other plants were thriving and even more beautiful. We sat on the bench, stood by the fountain, or walked around. Mikey started to tell me what had gone on in the world while I’d been mostly dead.

I loved the whole day. Mikey was never far away from me. He was always holding my hand, touching my arm, or pulling me closer to his side. I tried not to make too much out of it. He’d done all those things before, only I’d been less conscious of them. That was all.

Mikey called Celia to make plans for the next day. Apparently we were going to spend the afternoon with them and then go out to dinner. I was okay with that, but I was starting to get tired. Instead of letting me go to sleep, Mikey insisted that we watch a movie. I complied only because I was too tired to argue.

I must’ve fallen asleep in the first ten minutes, because I didn’t even remember what the movie was about. I remembered that Mikey hadn’t been sleeping, though. He’d been wide awake.

When I opened my eyes, I was very confused. I knew I was on a bed, but it wasn’t Sylvia’s bed. The walls around me were sandy-colored. Then I wasn’t confused anymore. I was in Mikey’s bed.

My chest exploded with too many feelings. I looked around. Mikey wasn’t in the bed, and the smell of burning bacon wafted in through his open door. I set my head back down on the pillow and started breathing again. He was downstairs attempting to make breakfast.

If I knew what he was doing, though, he probably knew what I was doing by now. I groaned and rubbed my eyes. What was I supposed to do? Why hadn’t he just put me on the floor? He must’ve felt bad for me. That was it. He was too nice to make me sleep on the floor, so he’d put me in his bed. On Ivy’s side of the bed.

Oh, God, I couldn’t imagine how hard that must’ve been for him. To put me on her side of the bed? I couldn’t even believe the idea had occurred to him. Not only that, but it was so… intimate. Even if I did keep his nightmares away, did he really want to sleep in the same bed as me?

Come to think of it, though, I wasn’t even really on Ivy’s side of the bed. I was closer to Mikey’s side, more in the middle. I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. Knowing I couldn’t stall any longer, I got out of his bed and even made it up. Then I took a shower, got dressed, and made my way down the stairs.

Mikey smiled at me as if nothing was awry and greeted me by saying, “Good morning, Charlotte. How are you?”

Maybe he wasn’t acting perfectly normal. I realized he was choosing his words carefully. He didn’t ask “How did you sleep?” or “Did you have a good night?” No. It was “How are you?”

I acknowledged that I would have to speak cautiously too. “I feel great,” I told him honestly. “Good morning.” I didn’t ask, “Why the hell did I wake up in your bed this morning?” Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought he smirked a little bit. No, it probably had been my imagination, which had been going wild lately anyway.

“Gerard, Celia, and Adam are coming over in a few hours,” Mikey informed me when he placed overcooked bacon and a broken sunny-side up egg in front of me. Hey, at least the toast was cooked perfectly.

“They’re coming here?” I asked in surprised.

He nodded, saying, “Yeah. They haven’t been here in a while.”

I assumed a while meant since before he’d become a vampire. Attempting to lighten up the conversation, I said wryly, “You better find a way to get rid of this burning smell in the kitchen before Celia smells it. She’ll yell at you.”

He laughed. “Oh well. She already, um, offered to make lunch, which is perfectly fine with me.”

I nodded. I wasn’t surprised at all.

When they arrived, I was shocked at how hard it was to resist Adam’s pure human blood. I was thirstier than I’d noticed before then. I felt a little uncomfortable, but Adam was too cute to stay away from, so I held myself back.

Both Celia and Gerard were surprised that Mikey had figured out who I really was so quickly. When Gerard asked how he’s done it, Mikey replied, “Unlike you, I’m on friendly terms with a few police departments. Well, friendly enough that they appreciate me, and unfriendly enough that they’re afraid of me and do what I ask.”

They had both nodded their understanding, but Adam had butted in by declaring, “I want to be a police man when I grow up.”

His mother grinned. “That would be wonderful, sweetie.” Then she congratulated me on knowing who I was.

However, I did notice that Mikey kept how our pasts were unusually linked a secret. He didn’t say a word about how my family had died. He even gave me a warning glance that was meant to keep me from saying anything. Maybe he just didn’t want them to worry about us.

When we went out to dinner, we really ended up going out to breakfast, since apparently there are no vampire restaurants that serve dinner at seven o’clock in the morning.

Nothing very eventful happened except for when Adam leaned close and whispered into Mikey’s ear, “Is Charlotte your girlfriend? Will she be my Aunt Charlotte?”

I almost choked on my waffle. Neither Gerard nor Celia had good enough ears to hear the comment, so they continued on eating. Knowing I had overheard, Mikey met my eyes for a millisecond before whispering something so quiet into Adam’s ear that even I couldn’t hear it.

The expression on Mikey’s face was unreadable, but Adam giggled and didn’t say anything else.

All through dinner I knew Celia was watching Mikey and I carefully. I wondered if I should catch her alone and tell her about sleeping in Mikey’s bed, but I blushed at only the thought, so I didn’t.

When we were hugging goodbye, though, Celia said quietly, “How’s it going?”

“Not too bad,” I answered under my breath. Then they left, and Mikey and I were alone in the house, about to go to bed.