Anonymous

Louis’ arm was warm around my middle as we lied down together on his couch, watching One Tree Hill together that weekend. I’d tried to ask Elena during the week how the conversation had gone, but she refused to say a word to me. It made me kind of scared at first, since I almost took that as a bad sign, but she finally cracked and said she thought Louis was great for me. But I still wondered what they’d talked about that she was hiding so securely.

“Hey,” I questioned as it went to a commercial, tilting my head up so I could see Louis’ face, “what did you and Elena say when you went to her house?”

“Nothing much,” he shrugged. “I just told her that I’d take care of you, and she said she could tell, and then I told her she could kick me in the balls if I ever hurt you.”

“Ah, a real heart-to-heart.” I laughed and leaned up to press my lips against his. “You know she’ll actually do it, right? And she’ll probably wear steel toe boots with spikes.”

He winced, unable to hide his smile completely. “Maybe I should have spelled out the conditions more clearly.”

“Yeah, probably.”

We turned back to the television when the show came back on, and I snuggled closer to Louis’ torso. His arm tightened around me in response, his thumb rubbing small circles on my side, just above my hip.

I could feel his heart beating through his torso, slow and steady, almost as if he was about to fall asleep. And sure enough, when I looked up at his face, his eyes were fluttering shut. In that moment, he looked so much like a little kid, a toddler who had struggled so hard to stay up past his bedtime, only to fall asleep anyway.

“Hey,” I breathed, reaching up and pressing my palm against his jaw, “are you tired?”

“Kind of,” he agreed with a small smile, closing his eyes tighter for a second before looking over at me. “I’m sorry. This week has just been so busy.”

“It’s okay,” I responded. “If you want to sleep, I can go. We’ll just hang out another time.”

“No,” he whined, wrapping his arm tighter around me so I was pressed right up against him. “I’ll stay awake. Just lie with me.”

I snickered and shook my head, but I agreed. If it had been later, I would have insisted, but it was just closing in on nine o’clock. I had plenty of time before my parents would be looking for me. Plus, they knew I was at Louis’ anyway. Granted, they thought I was at Louis’ under the careful watch of Louis’ parents, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Or him, actually.

Just as I had figured, when I looked back at Louis ten minutes later, he was sleeping. His breath was deep and even, his eyes already moving under his eyelids to show that he was dreaming.

I didn’t know whether I should stay or leave. On one hand, what would be the point of staying with Louis while he slept? What if he started to snore or something? I flushed thinking about it. He’d probably be embarrassed if he found out that I heard him snore when he was supposed to be watching television with me.

But on the other, he’d made it pretty clear that he didn’t want me to leave. It was possible he was just napping or something, and he’d wake up with plenty of time to spend more time with me before I had to go home.

Sighing, I decided to stay for a while longer, but if he didn’t wake up within forty-five minutes, I would just leave.

I watched the television, taking special care to keep from moving much at all. I didn’t know how he normally acted when he was woken up, and if he turned out being a bear, I didn’t want to have to deal with that.

It was hard to ignore his heavy breath and focus on the television, so soon enough, I started to ease my way into a seated position to leave.

And just as I was about to climb over him to grab my shoes, he started to mumble. At first, I thought he had woken up, so I turned around and opened my mouth to respond.

But he was clearly still sleeping. He took a sharp intake of breath before starting to mumble again. And it came out like a long, drawn out moan.

I felt my face flush like mad as I reached for my shoes. There was no way I wanted to hear the real-world interpretation of what was happening inside Louis’ sex dream.

Scrambling for my shoes, I slipped one black Converse with mint trim onto my foot and tied it in a flourish as Louis made another noise and said, “Jess. JESS.”

I swallowed and blushed further, shaking my head. Holy shit, I needed to get the fuck out of that apartment. I really didn’t want to know that Louis was experiencing that in his head. For some reason, him picturing exactly what would happen was creepy, while him actually trying to go there with me wasn’t.

I wondered if that was how all the boys felt when they read X-rated fan-fiction of themselves.

“JESS, WILL YOU JUST GET ON THE FUCKING UNICORN?”

Um. What?

Trying not to laugh, I looked up at Louis again to find his sleeping face drawn together in anger. What the fuck kind of dream was that?

He didn’t give me any more clues, though, instead turning over and resuming the deep breathing he’d been doing earlier.

I thought about waking him to find out what, exactly, was running through his head, I rummaged through my purse and found a pen and some paper. After scribbling down a fast note for him to find when he woke up, I dropped it on the coffee table and left the flat, closing the door and locking it behind me.

I waited until I was safely inside Elena’s car that I started snorting in laughter at the whole ordeal. It was just bizarre and awkward and strange, and I wouldn’t have had our relationship any other way.

Part of me was glad to have such a relaxed evening. One so chill that Louis couldn’t help but fall asleep. It was just as important to have those kinds of events with one another as it was to kiss and talk about taking everything a step further.

Still smiling, I pulled onto the street and started home, hoping that Louis wouldn’t be too angry when he woke up and found that I wasn’t there like he’d asked me to.