Uncharted Territory

By the time Josh and I made it back to our room, I was feeling infinitely more drunk than I had before. Everything he said was impossibly funny, and running down the halls with no clothes on was seemingly like an amazingly good idea.

Josh pushed the door to the room open easily, making it obvious he wasn’t quite as drunk as I was. He had always been much better at holding his alcohol than I was. Most people were better than me, in fact.

“What do you wanna do?” Josh asked, guiding me into the room as he shut the door behind us.

I looked around the room, realizing we didn’t have many options, and my eyes landed on the television that was strategically placed both in front of the bed and sofa.

“Let’s watch a movie,” I said, running and jumping onto the bed with a bounce before he could say otherwise. He laughed at me and shook his head before grabbing the remote and ordering the first pay per view movie that caught his eye, which just happened to be some science fiction film with Tom Cruise.

I pushed myself up to the head of the bed, resting my head on the pillows as I crossed my legs one over the other. Josh sat on the sofa in front of the television so the only thing I could look at was the back of his head, though I had a clear view of the screen.

“Come sit with me,” I said, not completely sure whether or not my words were still coherent. “The view is better up here.”

Josh gave one quick look back at me before standing up, not a word falling from his lips, as he walked back towards the bed. I think it was the first time he’d sat on the bed since we arrived, and I smiled at him as the bed dipped down under his weight. He sat right next to me with his head against the pillow and gave me a smile that matched my own.

We were nearly halfway through the movie when a Tom Cruise clone popped up on the screen out of nowhere, and there was something so bizarre about it that had me in a laughing fit almost immediately. My cheeks were red as I giggled uncontrollably, clutching onto my stomach to try to get control of myself.

Josh could do nothing but laugh at me, because I must have looked ridiculous.

“It’s not funny!” I shouted between gulps of laughter, glaring at him as he continued to laugh.

“You started it.”

He choked on his words, which only made me laugh harder, and I fell to the side, my head landing right on his chest. He thought that was funny as well, and he laughed again as his hand moved to my hair, petting it softly in an effort to help me calm down.

“Just breathe,” he said, chuckling a bit as he ran his fingers through my hair.

All I could hear was his beating heart as it pounded against my ear while his chest heaved up and down in a soothing rhythm. It only took a few moments of me feeling only Josh’s body until I was done laughing, the only thing falling from my lips the short breaths I was still having trouble taking.

“See, that’s better, isn’t it?” Josh whispered, his fingers still running through my hair while his eyes moved back to the screen. I thought he might move for me to sit up again, or at the very least stop toying with my hair, but he continued, so I stayed with my head on his chest for as long as he’d let me and cuddled into his chest as the movie continued to play.

It wasn’t long after that that my eyes began to feel heavy, and Josh apparently noticed.

“You can take a nap if you want,” he whispered, his thumb running once over my cheek bone. “I’ll do my best not to wake you.”

I shook my head quickly, though the idea of sleep admittedly sounded pretty good. “I’m not sleepy.”

Josh chuckled, and I silently hoped this wouldn’t be the start of another laughing fit. “Erin, you can barely keep your eyes open. Just get some rest. I swear, I’ll wake you if anything exciting happens.”

I bit my lip gently, taking in a soft breath. “You swear?”

I flicked my eyes up to Josh and he looked down at me with a smile.

“I swear, Erin,” Josh whispered, his thumb running gently over my temple. “Get some rest. You’ll feel better if you do.”

I nodded my head gently before pressing my face deeper into his chest. His hand, which had once been running over my hair, wrapped around my shoulder as he pulled me closer to him. His breathing was soft and deep, like an old familiar lullaby, and I was asleep before Morgan Freeman even had a chance to explain the plot twist in the movie.