Be Free, Be You

Currently I was half asleep half awake on Artie’s sofa while he went and grabbed popcorn from the kitchen. He let me change into his sweatpants and tee shirt when we arrived here and I seriously couldn’t describe the amount of comfiness I felt being swallowed by them. I still had my makeup on and my hair was holding in the frizz pretty nicely so it wasn’t like I was being a total lazy ass but I was pretty darn close.

“If you’re tired, you can go to sleep upstairs or go home..” i heard him mumble from the doorway of the den.

I let a soft smile cross my lips as I looked at him in his pajama pants and muscle tee. To say I was surprised to see that he had faint abs was an understatement. Okay, that sounds terrible, its not like he can go and exercise like I do, but this kid was seriously toned and to say that it was a little bit of a turn on was also an understatement, it was severely affecting my teenage hormones. “Can I stay over? Are your parent’s okay with it?”

He nodded, “Yeah, my mom was just interrogating me in the kitchen about you being in the house so much now.” He wheeled himself over and I helped him on the sofa with me. I put my head on his thigh and he reached down and started to play with my blonde hair.

I turned so that I was looking up at him when I asked, “What did you say?” He blushed and tugs at the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Uh, well...” His face burned a heavy scarlet as he tried to find anything to look at except for me. “I told her you and I are dating but not to say anything to you to make you leave.”

I leaned up and took his chin in my fingers, “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

His blush deepened as he looped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “I really like you, Valarie.”

I smiled and let out a sigh, “Oh my god, can you please just ask me to go steady with you already? It’s killing me.”

He let out a loud chuckle before quickly pressing his lips to my own for a deep kiss. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

I smirked at him and looked into his eyes, “Yes.” He kissed me again and the butterflies in my stomach ran uncontrolled as he softly bit my bottom lip, asking me to let his tongue in. I pulled away and smiled at him, “Didn’t I come over to watch a movie?”

He chuckled and let me go enough so that I could slide back down to rest my head on his thigh and look up at his beautiful face. “Yeah, but you picked the worst one I had.”

“The Wizard of Oz is not the worst movie you had! It’s my favorite,” I let my lip pout as I said the last part and he instantly smirked at my attempt.

“Couldn’t you have picked Star Wars or something?” He asked exasperated, even though he brought it to the movie menu.

“Obviously not,” I said smugly as I turned my face to the television.

* * *

The movie had just ended and I turned to talk to Artie only to find that he was asleep. I shook him awake just enough so that I could move him into his chair with little struggle. I moved to roll him to his room to find his mother in the hallway, she was a kind lady with Artie’s matching eyes. “I put out an air mattress with clean sheets for you in his room. He has a tendency to talk in his sleep, just as a warning.” She whispered before kissing Artie’s half asleep form and embracing myself. “You seem like a sweet girl, but please be safe with each other? I remember being a teenager.”

She let me go and I knew she could see my now blushing cheeks, “Yes ma’am.” Was all I could choke out before practically sprinting down the hall with Artie. I tried to shake him awake again but he refused to wake up, “Artie come on, I can’t lift you myself and you’re obviously not going to do it yourself.” I whispered with a hint of attitude.

He opened his eyes sleepily and gave me a look, “Go wash your face, I bought girl face wash for you the other day, I’ll get in bed.”

I couldn’t help but feel my stomach go tingly before I stupidly smiled and said, “You bought me my own face wash for your house?”

He chuckled and playfully pushed me in the direction of the bathroom, “IYou’re alread going through my closet, soon you’ll have your own drawer.” I let my smile get a bit bigger and he chuckled again. “Just go you goof.” I let a laugh escape before heading to the bathroom, I made it to his bedroom door before turning back. “There’s a pink toothbrush for you too.” He stated with a smirk as he lifted himself into his bed.

I bit my lip trying to hold back a huge grin as I turned again and went to the bathroom. I took my phone out of the sweatpants pocket as I brushed my teeth with the cute toothbrush. I had a text from Steph: ok it’s like 1 in the morning, you didn’t give it up already did you?

I rolled my eyes and responded, really Steph? no i’m staying over, and it went great btw. i’ll tell you tomorrow. and why are you still up? go to bed you hermit!

After I finished my teeth and my face was fresh and smelling like grapefruits I got a text from her, no babies!(;

I rolled my eyes again and got to Artie’s room to see that he was already dead asleep with the bedside lamp still on. I shut the door, but left it cracked enough so that his mom wouldn’t get the wrong idea and snuggled into the air mattress and the quilt his mom laid out for me.

I woke to a pillow being thrown on my face and the sound of Artie annoyingly singing my name and for me to get up. I groaned and threw the pillow in the general direction of his bed only to have it plop back down on me. “What time is it?”

He chuckled and I could hear the tires of his chair come closer. The pillow was lifted from my head and I looked up to see his smiling face, he was still in pj’s but his hair was damp and he smelled freshly of his luring body wash. I swear keeping my cat in my pants is twenty times harder near this kid. He motioned to the bedroom door with a smile, “Mom made us pancakes, so lets go eat then you can shower and we can get Steph over here for lessons.”

I groaned again and sat up, I had totally forgot about Steph’s hopeless singing and dancing lessons. He pulled me up the rest of the way by my hands and putting himself on the brakes. “Do we have to have lessons today?”

He laughed and lead me out to the kitchen as I pulled my hair into a bun to try and hide my inevitable bedhead. “Yeah, we do.”

As soon as we turned the corner to the kitchen and dining room my nose was smacked with the brilliant smell of pancakes cooking and maple syrup. “It smells so good in here.”

“Good morning,” Artie’s dad said from his seat at the head of the dining table. He had a creamed coffee in a little Best Dad mug resting in his hand and a fork full of pancakes poised and ready to be devoured. I tried my best to send him a smile but found myself yawning instead. “I’m guessing you didn’t sleep well..?”

I quickly shook my head as a response as Mrs. Abrams set three pancakes the size of my face on a plate for me. “No, I’m just not a morning person is all. I slept wonderfully, thank you.”

I sat beside the place setting that was missing a chair, correctly assuming that Artie would join me once he received six giant pancakes on his plate.He poured on the maple syrup and began to devour his breakfast. “Artie, we have a guest, slow down.” Mrs. Abrams warned but Artie and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t worry about that around me, Mrs. Abrams. I’ve grown used to Artie's lack of manners.” I smiled before I took a small bite of the breakfast. “Oh these are amazing.”

“Homem made, my mother taught me.” She said with a smile as she sat down with her own plate of three. “Maybe I’ll teach you one day.”

I couldn’t hold in the blush and Artie almost choked on his mouthful, “Mom!” He whined and gave her a look.

“I’m just saying maybe one day I’ll teach Valarie, what’s wrong with that?” She whined back but her eyes glinted with feigned innocence, she knew what she was doing.

This’ll be fun. I thought with a hidden smile as I continued to eat my pancakes with only a hint of my bulimia breaking into my thoughts. However as soon as that thought crossed my mind Artie put a drop of syrup on my nose and I was instantly in a little war with him laughing while his mother playfully scolded us and his father laughing just as loudly.