Stay Close, Don't Go

The next morning, I woke up to Tom holding me and lighting brushing his lips over my shoulder blade. “Morning.” He whispered, lips touching my skin. “I knew yeh had to be home soon, sorry for wakin’ yeh.”

I rolled over, moving closer into his embrace. “Don’t want to wake up.” I mumbled into the pillow. “Too comfy.”

“I know, me too, but I don’t want your mum finding out or anything. She’ll be pissed if you’re not home in time.” He tried to reason with me, still planting small kisses on my shoulder.

“Fine,” I gave in, “but can I shower first?”

Ten minutes later, I was fully showed and dressed, and still very reluctant to go home. I just wanted to stay where I was, curled up on top of Tom’s bed with him holding me. It was as perfect as perfect could go at the moment, but the clock was nearing closer to eight and I knew I had to get home soon.

“Am I goin’ to take yeh, or are we goin’ to have to find SJ?” Tom asked, also making no attempt to move again now that we had resettled on his bed.

“You can just take me.” I replied, “I honestly don’t feel like picking through rooms, and accidentally walking in on people, this early in the morning.”

Tom laughed but didn’t respond. Still, we sat there melted into each other for another few minutes before I actually glanced at the clock. I only had ten minutes to be home, with a six minute drive to go.

“Alright, I give in.” I muttered and pushed myself away from the comfort of Tom. “I really need to go now, or I’m never going to be able to.”

Tom smiled. “I’m fine with that.” He assured me, but none the less, stood up also and watched as I grabbed my bag from the floor. “Ready?” He asked, placing a hand on the small of my back and leading me towards the door.

We trudged down the stairs together, holding hands until reaching the living room. Still piled on all the couches were Matt K, Matt N, and Lee. On the floor, and who we had to tip toe over, was a tangled together Curtis and Sam. SJ and Oliver were no where to be seen.

“Yeh leavin’?” Lee’s raspy voice asked as he leaned up on one arm and looked over at me. “Didn’t yet just get ‘ere? What time is it?”

Both Tom and I brushed Lee off with a wave and exited the house, not having enough time to explain to Lee that it was already the next day.

Tom parked three houses away from mine, just to assure that my mom wouldn’t see or anything. We wasted a precious minute just sitting quietly in the car before I finally made an attempt to get home.

“I’ll see you later, maybe?” I asked, more as a statement than a question, but Tom nodded anyways and leaned over the inside of the car and captured my lips in his.

“Bye.” He whispered and kissed me once more before I unbuckled the seat belt and opened the door, stepping out of the car. Right as I was about to slam the door, Tom spoke up. “Hey!”

I managed to hold the door and peaked back into the car. “Yeah?” I asked, not sure what was going on.

Tom started to blush madly and shook his head. “Nothing, never mind.”

Not having enough time to question him, though I really wanted to know what he was going to say, I had to give him one last confused smile before shutting the car door and darting to my house.

&&

Like I promised, I was home just in time for breakfast. I walked into the house right as my mom set two plates of food on the kitchen table before sitting herself down. She smiled at me and patted the chair next to her.

She was looking much better today, not as tired and her complexion was back to normal. I liked this better, her smile was shining.

“Morning.” I greeted happily, hoping her good instincts of guessing things wouldn’t come out right now.

“Hey Buggie. Have fun last night?” She asked, taking a bite of toast. I simply nodded, trying not to blush or give anything away, and took a big bit of fruit on my plate.

We finished the rest of our breakfast with small talk until I finished. “I’m going to go up stairs and take a shower.” I informed her and rinsed off my plate in the sink before heading up the stairs to take my second shower of the morning.

While waiting for the shower water to become hot, I stripped down into my underwear and stared at myself in the mirror. It was hard to pinpoint the last time I looked this happy. Everything about me was bright, happy, calm. I have Sheffield, the new group of friends, and Tom, to thank for all of it. Turning away, I discarded the rest of my clothes and got into the shower.

I took a long, thirty minute hot shower before my pruney fingers decided I should probably get out. Once dressed, and my wet hair brushed flat, I headed back down stairs to see my mom.

I entered the kitchen as my mom pulled a pan out of the oven and set it on the counter. She filled another pan up with a thick batter and placed it into the over where the other one was before as I took a seat at the counter and stuck my finger in the bowl before licking off the sweet mixture.

“Hungry for brownies?” My mom asked with a smile, taking off her apron.

That’s when I realized, that I was eating chocolate.