The Best Mistake

"Alright, I'm done," I said, throwing the bloodied wash rag in the bathtub.

"Hmm?" Nash said, tiredly lifting his head to look around. "Oh, okay."

"It looks like there's a big bruise on your hip, though, so it might hurt a little walking," I said, pointing to his right hip that had a bruise peeking out of his boxers. "If you want, I can go downstairs and get some ice for your eye."

"I'm fine," he said, standing up and hissing slightly in pain, as he held onto the sink to steady himself. I wrapped my arm around his waist and helped him toward the bed, ignoring his protests and "I don't need your help"'s. He fell onto the bed and immediately closed his eyes. I pulled the blanket over him as he got more comfortable. I began to walk back to the bathroom when his fingers hooked around my wrist. "Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom, I need to clean up the mess," I answered.

"How long will you be?" he asked, his voice slurring a little as he let go of my wrist.

I shrugged. "Hopefully not long, I'm tired," I said. "Just go to sleep, you don't have to wait for me."

"Don't take too long, okay?" he mumbled, already half-asleep. "The nightmares aren't as bad when you're here."

"Nightmares?" I said.

"I'm not talking about it anymore."

"You know I'm going to bother you about this tomorrow, right?" I asked. He sighed in annoyance. "I'll hurry." I walked back into the bathroom and filled the bathtub up with a little bit of hot water. Once it was a couple inches high, I turned it off and threw the second wash rag in there. I put everything away and quickly washed the blood off of the floor and sink. I stood up, looking the bathroom over. It wasn't completely clean, but it'd have to do until tomorrow.

Yawning, I walked out into my room. I stopped when I saw Nash already asleep, but tossing and turning. I slowly walked over next to the bed, watching him curiously. "No," he whimpered. I felt my heart clench at the sound, but I stayed put, my curiosity getting the better of me. His hand shot up to his neck, causing me to jump slightly. He started scratching at his neck, almost like he was trying to remove something that wasn't physically there. His breathing sped up and the whimpers came from his mouth quicker and quicker. He mumbled a few things, but nothing I could really identify.

I reached my hand out to touch him, but paused as I remembered Levi's words. "And when Nash has bad dreams, trying to wake him up from them or disturbing him is a terribly fatal idea." I stood there, chewing on my lip. What if he didn't wake up for awhile? I didn't want him to suffer through his dreams while I just stood there and watched. Suddenly he shot up, his chest heaving up and down. His eyes opened and he looked at me. "Nash, are you-"

"Shut up," he growled, in a low voice. "Just lay down. Please."

Not wanting to argue with him, I quickly nodded before crawling into my bed and getting under the blanket. Not even a second later, Nash had his arm around my waist and pulled me against him. It took a few minutes for his breathing to get back to normal, and only another couple of minutes before his breathing was so steady I knew he was asleep. It took me a little longer to be able to fall asleep, because my thoughts were racing. What the hell has this boy been through?



I woke up the next morning with my head on Nash's chest and my arm around his waist. I felt him stroking my hair lightly, and it almost made me want to fall back asleep or just lay there silently because I didn't want this moment to end. But I had too many questions.

I lifted my head to look up at Nash and his eyes fluttered open a second later, before closing. "Nash," I said, sitting up. "We need to talk."

"I know," he murmured, his eyes still shut.

"Can you at least look at me?" I asked him.

"The sun's too bright."

"How long have you been awake?"

He shrugged. "Maybe an hour or so."

"The sun hasn't seemed to bother you for that long then," I said.

His eyes opened, only to narrow into a glare. "My eyes have been closed. I was enjoying the peacefulness before you woke up and started running your damn mouth."

I sighed, losing patience. "I'm not trying to argue with you," I said.

"Then don't say dumb shit," he said, rolling his eyes. "Think before you speak. Could you close the blinds? I have a pounding headache."

I got up and closed the blinds before walking over to my nightstand and pulling out a bottle of Advil. I grabbed a water bottle from on top of my night stand then handed them both to Nash. "The water's just from yesterday, and I only took like two drinks of it," I explained, examining his face. His black eye looked like it hurt- but he wasn't saying anything about it so I didn't bring it up.

He didn't say anything, but swallowed two pills before drinking all the water. He stood up and patted all of his pockets before pulling out a box of Newports from his back pocket. "If we're talking about this, I'm gonna smoke," he said, walking over to the window and opening it before dropping to the ground.

I took a deep breath. Here goes everything.