That Bubbling Feeling: A Feel Good Roommate Romance Novel

Chapter 13

Kai

I got into Burbank around 3:00 p.m.—12:00 a.m. in Spain—but I hardly felt tired. Adrenaline clanged through my body, propelling me across the shiny airport floor as my bags dangled and bounced, threatening to pull me from my path. My legs kept pumping until I crashed right into Jonah, Oli, and June for what might have been the longest hug I’d ever experienced. There were at least four arms wrapped around me, perhaps five, pulling me into a mess of friends and forcing my neck to arch up awkwardly. They tugged on me as if I were indestructible, and I fought between wanting to hug them tighter and needing to be able to breathe.

Jonah must have noticed and backed off because when I pulled away, he was standing a foot to the left. He watched us, smiling, with two hands in his pockets. I finished my embrace with Oli and June and stepped directly into him, shoving my forehead into his chest.

“You get an exclusive one,” I whispered as my hands slid around his torso.

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he wrapped me tight. This hug didn’t crush me. It enveloped me and made my excitement melt into the tranquility of knowing that life was about to get a lot better, that I’d made it through the hardest part and now found myself on the other side. It was the kind of hug you get when you finally run to your favorite person after a long day. Except it wasn’t a long day. It was a long six years.

His nose pressed into the top of my head. “I’m speechless, my beautiful girl.”

And he wasn’t lying. He hardly said a thing as we all piled into Oli and June’s car and uttered a whopping total of zero words the entire ride home. But the smile didn’t drop from his face for even a second, and I could see just how glossy those green eyes were each time he stole a glance. I hadn’t seen him so overcome with joy since he got his first microphone.

The apartment was just as I remembered it, if not better. There were a few updated decorations, some new appliances I’d never seen in my life, and three new stools on the outer edge of the black island that sat in the middle of the kitchen area. The TV area off to the right of the main room looked as cozy as ever, and I was more than ready to get into my comfy clothes and lounge there with my friends until my consciousness gave out.

Oli easily hauled one of my suitcases into Jonah’s room while I wrestled with the other, following him in. I couldn’t help but notice that the futon was already prepared with what appeared to be new sheets. They were baby blue. I loved baby blue. Jonah must have gotten them when he was buying the two new pillows that sat atop my sleeping space as well: one hard and one soft. For a quiet moment, I imagined my grumpy Jonah out shopping for sheets and blankets, squishing pillows to find the best one as he glared at every other customer in the store for breathing the same air as him.

A deep voice cut through my imagination. “I wanted to go to concerts.” I turned to find Oli standing in front of Jonah’s desk, looking at me and fiddling with the bottom of his flannel in one hand. It was the first time we’d been alone together in years, a notion which struck me quite suddenly with a melancholic arrow through the heart. “There were so many concerts that were 18+ or 21+. You left before we were both old enough to get in. I wanted to go together.” His eyebrows drooped with an emotion that could only ever be evoked by lost time.

I took a step toward him. “We’ll go to every single one from here on out. I promise.” But I knew it didn’t really matter. They were the concerts now. My friends were practically famous, and I’d already missed so much.

I hugged him, barely taking up the width of his chest. Had his torso been bendable, I’m almost positive he would’ve been able to touch his shoulders to each other behind my back.

“Are you going to leave again?”

Pulling away, I placed my hands on either of his biceps. “Why would you think that?”

He shrugged. “Your parents are there.”

I shook my head. “I’ll visit them eventually, but I’m not leaving.”

He relaxed slightly and let himself smile, nodding and glancing at his feet. “June really misses you. She says she wants to have movie nights in real life, not just over video chat. And Jonah, well... You know.”

“And you?”

He caught my gaze. “We certainly can’t gush over our hot classmates anymore, but I missed having my little sister around.” A large palm fell atop my head and messed up my bangs, ruffling them around so they dangled every which way.

“I missed you too, big brother.” I flicked my chin to set my hair back into place before cocking it to one side, giving him a very specific look that I knew he’d understand. If we’d missed so much time together, we had to start making up for it as soon as possible. Right now, in fact. He squinted at me in challenge, and I tilted my head further, waiting for him to break.

Finally, a mischievous grin broke out across his face. “All right. What are you thinking?”

“A whoopee cushion under the pillow to start, of course…”

Oli held up his finger, silently commanding me to wait, and snuck across the hall to his bedroom. A few moments later, he returned with a pink inflatable cushion and scampered over to Jonah’s bed.

“Make sure the tongue thingy sticks out a little or it won’t work,” I said.

“As if I didn’t know that.” He positioned Jonah’s pillow perfectly on top, lifting it and placing it down lightly over and over again until it was just right. “Last month I signed him up for an email list for some sex toy shop, but it didn’t turn out to be as funny as I thought it would be. So, I bought a huge dildo and had it delivered to him. It was priceless.” He snorted as he finally turned away from the bed to face me.

I lifted my hand to my mouth and wheezed, trying to muffle my laughter. I had to keep quiet. If June and Jonah heard us, they’d interrupt to see what was so funny. “Do you still have it?”

He nodded, disappeared to his room, and returned with it in his hands, snickering as he held it like a precious poison that he was going to use to defeat his enemy. The thing was fucking enormous.

I lifted my palm at him in a stop position. “It hasn’t been used, has it?”

He released a single chuckle. “No, no. I can assure you, June is more than content with…” Our gazes snagged, and he stopped himself, clearing his throat. “Sorry.” There were some lines Oli and I didn’t quite cross together.

“Gross.” I tutted and turned back toward Jonah’s bed.

We proceeded to put the long, floppy dildo about two-thirds of the way down on the mattress, hidden perfectly between the sheets. My head filled up with silly pressure as I refrained from howling aloud, choking on my own giggles. The thought of Jonah startling at the feel of the toy on his toes as his pillow simultaneously ripped a fart was simply too much for me to handle. Just in case it wasn’t enough to tick him off, as he really was a hard one to crack, we also set his computer chair to the lowest setting, just to be annoying.

A suspicious amount of time had passed since Oli and I had been in the room. We made our way back out to find our friends before they caught on, chewing back our laughs to absolutely no avail. They knew what we’d done the second we walked in.

June, who was preparing drinks at the kitchen island, looked up, smiled, and rolled her eyes. Jonah, who was standing next to her and dumping a bag of chips into a bowl, stopped what he was doing immediately. He dropped his wrist down to the counter, the bag of chips crinkling in his fingers, and sighed. It was the first time his smile dropped all night.

“I will ignore it,” he said as if he were the most exhausted person on the planet, “because I know whatever it is will make you laugh.” He looked directly at me. “June has gotten into the wine already. It’s only 5:00 but you must be tired, Kai. Do you want a coffee instead?”

I strutted over and stood to his left, opposite June. “First of all, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Oli released a high-pitched he-he from where he stood and quickly slapped his hand over his mouth. It took every ounce of my energy not to do the same. “Second of all, I couldn’t work that thing if I tried.” I pointed to their…coffee machine?

At least, I think it was a coffee machine. It looked more like a fucking rocket ship to me. It had so many buttons I couldn’t even begin to count them, three different places where I assumed coffee might come out of, a random metal spout sticking out from one side, and what appeared to be a wood chipper on top. It was the kind of thing I only ever saw in cafes, not in homes, and it was certainly fancier than anything I was used to using. The thing probably cost more than my life.

“That thing was very expensive,” June said. “Jonah bought it for the house last Christmas. You’ll love it, Kai.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “It looks like a torture device. I wouldn’t have even known it was a coffee machine if that mug wasn’t sitting on it.”

“Not surprising,” Oli said, “coming from the girl who can’t tell a lemon from a lime.”

“I can too!” I flipped my middle finger his way and smacked a hand on the counter. “It’s just different in Spanish. I told you that. And that machine is really high-tech. Mine was just a little metal pot on a stove.”

“A percolator.” Jonah’s voice sounded to my right. I turned and scrunched my nose at him in confusion. “A percolator,” he repeated. “That’s what your coffee maker was called.”

“Right. A perc-o-lator. Can we get one of those so I can make coffee too?” I glanced around at my new roommates in search of approval.

“You can get whatever you want. This is your house too,” June said.

“I’ll teach her to use the coffee machine,” Jonah announced to no one in particular as he held the bowl of chips up to me. I took one from the top and popped it in my mouth. “We’re both early risers, so we’ll have plenty of time for lessons.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice as his green eyes fell flat on mine, kind of like he was amused by me, kind of like he was testing me.

“She is an early riser,” Oli corrected. “You are anxious and restless and therefore cannot sleep. Don’t lump yourself in with her.” He and June each lifted a glass of wine from the counter, clinked them together, and took a sip.

“At least I’m out of my room before noon,” Jonah muttered.

“If you were doing what we do in the mornings, noon would feel too soon.” Oli grinned like a cat as June snorted and pulled him into a kiss.

Icky. I twisted my face and locked eyes with Jonah, who lifted his brows at me as if to say, You have no idea.

I took the bowl of chips from him and brought it to the coffee table, placing it in the center and shuffling around the remotes and other paraphernalia on the surface to make space for our little spread. Jonah followed with our two wine glasses and stood each of them on top of a red coaster.

“Coasters,” I said as I plopped down onto the gray couch cushions. “How adult.”

Jonah cracked a smile and sat down next to me. Oli and June plunked themselves on the other couch which jutted straight across the main room, dividing the kitchen area from the TV area. The loveseat positioned directly across from me remained empty, of course, and I began to wonder why they needed so much furniture and so many appliances for so few people. I thought my tiny apartment was over-the-top incredible just because I’d fixed the counter and painted the walls. But my friends? They were like…established. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit behind.

“Can I put my feet up on the couch?” I asked mindlessly, kicking my sneakers off and shoving them under the table. I hoped my shoes were tame enough that I wasn’t about to torture the entire household with travel feet. I really should’ve showered, but drinking wine and eating chips felt much more important at the moment.

All three of my friends—roommates—turned to look at me as if I’d asked them to paint the sky yellow. I thought they might’ve just been shocked by the stench of my toes, but their faces twisted in bewilderment, not disgust, so I had to assume it was a reaction to my perfectly reasonable question.

“Put your feet wherever you want, Kai,” Jonah said, leaning his head back on the couch as he gazed sideways at me. I pulled my heels onto the seat, and he grabbed one of my ankles, urging me to position my legs over his instead. “This is your home.”

◆◆◆

By 9:00 p.m.—6:00 a.m. in Spain—my eyes were starting to drift shut and my head hung heavily. I fought as valiantly as I could for more time with my friends, but Jonah insisted on taking me to the bathroom to clean up for bed with the promise of more fun tomorrow.

He sat on the edge of the tub and began brushing his teeth into the spout to leave me space at the sink. There was something so amusing about the image of him bent over, sticking his face under the short stream of bath water. I smiled as my exhaustion shifted into that very particular tired but happy feeling, like being sleepover drunk. Not intoxicated by alcohol, but by drowsiness and good company.

I grinned and began my work at the sink.

First, I brushed my teeth. Then, as I spit the toothpaste and filled my mouth with water to clean up, I splashed my whole face with water and moved right into washing my skin. I counted to sixty in my head as I rubbed the cleanser in before rinsing it off. Then I used a toner spray and then lotion. Next, I dabbed a thick, clear paste onto my lips.

“For my lip fillers,” I said, turning to Jonah. He was staring at me firmly now with his toothbrush hanging from his fingers. His eye roll was a reminder that he thought the fillers were stupid.

I turned back and brushed a serum onto my lashes before releasing the claw clip from my hair. I took my bottle of hair oil and pumped it three times into my palm before rubbing my hands together and running them through my waist-length waves. Then, taking a wide tooth comb, I combed through them. Using a fuzzy sock I had placed on the sink, I ponytailed my hair and pulled it through, fastening it with a scrunchie. Finally, as I rubbed my lips together and looked at myself in the mirror, I washed the excess oil from my hands with soap.

While drying between my fingers with a towel, I again faced Jonah. “I know it might seem like a lot, but it feels good to do stupid little things like that. It makes me feel pretty.” Besides, if I didn’t do my routine exactly as I’d constructed it, I’d fall off the wagon completely. My brain clung to my carefully crafted needs, and if I didn’t pump my oil three times or fasten my hair with the correct color scrunchie, it convinced me I was incomplete.

“No.” He stood with a pleasant expression, his gaze burning into me not with heat, but with a calm sweetness. “It’s fun to watch and, uh, nice to see. And you are pretty—inside, out, and all over.”

I returned my attention to the sink, my bottles clicking and clacking as I piled them back into my little hygiene bag. Jonah’s hand reached around me to drop his toothbrush into the designated cup. He then pressed his palms to the counter on either side of my hips. Our eyes met in the mirror, and I smiled.

His composure was as mature as I’d ever seen it. He’d been taking care of his long hair, and he had a few new tattoos on his arms since my last trip. I could tell that his facial hair had thickened from the shadow on his chin, though he never let it grow. Everything about him just seemed put together in an entirely new way. He was…an adult.

“You look good,” I said.

“And you have a sock in your hair.” I pretended to elbow his chest as punishment for his comment, and he chuckled. He was just tall enough to line up his mouth with the top of my head, just tall enough to press a confident kiss to the side of my temple. My Jonah was grown up, getting close, and showing affection. What a weirdo. “I guess now that we’re living together, we’ll learn a lot more about each other.”

I scoffed. “Please, Jonah. I know your preferred sleeping position. I don’t think it’s possible for us to learn more.”

His body was so close behind mine that I could feel the atoms pushing between his chest and my shoulder blades. I may have been staring at him a bit too creepily, because he averted his gaze with a little grin and placed his hands on my shoulders. He backed me away from the sink and turned me toward the door, signaling that it was time to rest.

Back in the room, I hid behind the closet door and changed into my pajamas while he did the same on the other side. I wondered if we would always awkwardly get dressed like this, or if we’d work out some sort of system. Maybe I should’ve considered that question before moving into his space. I made a mental note to get dressed in the bathroom next time.

“All right,” he said, tossing his things into his hamper. I handed him mine, and he threw them in as well. “Time to get to bed. You’ve had a long day, and we’re in for some fun tomorrow.”

I just stared, waiting for him to stumble across the traps Oli and I set and clinging to bits of my sleepover drunkenness as I forced my giggles to remain hidden in my chest. He crossed his arms and sighed before giving a quick nod to himself. Holding eye contact, he approached his bed, sat down, and slowly lowered himself to rest his head on the pillow, eliciting the faintest of sounds from the whoopee cushion below, almost like a pig’s oink.

I bit my lips back to hold in my amusement, but I was already practically crying, my face hot and full of humor.

He wrapped his arm around the side of his bed frame to pull his head down harder into the pillow, still refusing to break eye contact. The noise that came from beneath him was long and muffled, the whoopee cushion taking more than a handful of seconds to empty itself. With each passing moment, it only got harder to breathe through the laughter. Finally, the toy sputtered out, and I was practically on the floor. Jonah just shook his head as he retrieved it from beneath his pillow and placed it on the nightstand.

He must’ve assumed the coast was clear because he pulled back his blanket to get into bed without a hint of reservation. The dildo rolled off the side of the mattress and dropped onto the carpet. Fucking Oliver put it too close to the edge. Still, Jonah watched it fall, and the look on his face was arguably just as funny as startling him would’ve been. My laughter became so intense that it produced no noise.

“I’m not touching that,” he said, pushing his feet under his covers to get comfortable.

I slapped my thigh and picked the dildo up off the floor, stomping on weak legs. My stomach twisted with so much amusement that I was unable to straighten myself up fully as I crossed the hall to Oli and June’s room.

“Oh good,” Oli said, taking the toy in his giant hand. “Juni, Kai found my other ear plug.” The thing flopped over in his fist, and I simply couldn’t contain myself. I fell against the doorframe, hooting without control as June approached and took it from him.

“No, babe, this is my bracelet holder.”

“Oh god.” I smacked a hand over my chest. These two were going to kill me if they didn’t stop. “Okay, I can’t breathe. I’m headed back over to the dark side.”

“Kai, wait!” Oli said before I turned away. “Don’t forget your doorstop. Sometimes the doors slam when the windows are open.” His thumb pointed back toward the toy in June’s hand, and I genuinely lost my breath for a split second. I said nothing more as I made my way back across the hallway, my cheeks sore. How happy I was to be home.

Jonah was seated in his bed when I returned. I nestled into the futon, though instead of lying down, I sat sideways with my feet up, facing his desk and computer with his bed to my right. The upright position would keep me awake a while longer as well as inform Jonah that he wasn’t going to sleep just yet. It was our first sleepover in years, and I wanted a late-night conversation. “Tell me, Jo, about you.”

His head disappeared behind his nightstand as he sank into his covers. “What do you want me to tell you? You know everything significant.”

Oh, no, no, no. There was no way he was getting off the hook that easily. “But what about the other things? Come on.”

No answer.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

Still no answer. I knew he wasn’t.

“What about Caroline? She was nice, right? I never really knew what happened.”

Finally, he offered me a long sigh and a response. “Caroline was not nice. Caroline acted nice.”

I hummed thoughtfully, staring at the far wall in front of me as his head was out of view anyway. “Do elaborate.”

“Honestly…” The bed squeaked as he shifted his weight around, and he made a breathy noise like he’d found the right position to get comfortable. “It was mortifying to admit that anything was going on. So, I just said it didn’t work out so you guys wouldn’t ask questions.”

Huh. That sounded like an honest answer. I expected him to say she wasn’t nice simply because Jonah had little tolerance, but the authenticity of his response piqued my interest. Placing my hands on the futon below me, I launched myself from my seat and stepped onto the carpet, moving to sit on the edge of his bed.

“Talk to me about it,” I said.

He shook his head with a soft smile on his face, sitting up to lean against the headboard as he reached to grab my fingers and twiddle them lightly in his.

“Open up to me, you dork.” I grabbed a bottle of my own black nail polish that I’d stuck on his nightstand for later use and seized his hand fully. I began painting his nails against his will, though he didn’t even try to protest, and he finally surrendered to my pestering.

“She was really jealous. Of everything. Of the weirdest things. She’d start fights when I wanted time alone to write or hang with Oli. And she made me feel guilty because she wasn’t doing well mentally, I guess. We talked about it a lot, but I felt like she didn’t want to, or maybe she couldn’t, see my side of it. It frustrated me, and I just didn’t want to be near her anymore.”

“Maybe that was part of the problem.” My eyes turned up to his and then back down to his fingers.

“Yeah. I didn’t exactly make her feel wanted. I’m not sure I ever really did want her, actually. But I certainly tried.” I paused, waiting to see if he’d add anything to that claim. I hoped he would. “I know that was my fault.” Good.

“Well, you didn’t have to force it either,” I admitted just as I accidentally swiped black paint over the tip of his finger. I began searching for something to wipe it with, tucking my hand into the drawer of his nightstand. “Are there tissues in here or just loads of porn and pictures of me?”

I expected him to simply smile and give me consent to open the compartment, but instead, he offered a comeback. “It’s not 1984, Kai. I watch porn on my phone.”

My mouth dropped open. Did Jonah Alexander just say the word porn in front of me? “Jonah interested in sex? I absolutely do not believe it.”

He chuckled and nudged his chin out, granting me permission to look inside the drawer. I did find tissues as well as some cables, a dance photo of me from when I was about eight, and a single condom. Before cleaning the tip of his finger, I grabbed the condom and held it up in front of him. It was fucking XL. “Jonah, you dirty man. I really am learning a lot about you today.”

He smiled and took it from my fingers calmly with his free hand. “Not mine. Caroline threw this at me one of the last times she was here. Which was years ago, mind you. She said something like, ‘This is called a condom. It goes on your dick when you do this thing called sex.’ And then she launched it at my chest.”

His impression of Caroline’s high-pitched voice pulled a little giggle from me. “Oh, the poor thing. You left her entirely unsatisfied, Jo. Maybe you need to watch less porn and get more practice.”

I finally cleaned his finger, and he threw the old condom at his trash can.

“I like sex, Kai. I just don’t like people.” He lifted his eyebrows. “I’m hardly interested in getting close enough to someone to speak with them, let alone bare myself to them.”

I shook my head to ensure my brain was plugged into my body correctly. Was this really happening right now? Jonah had never spoken to me in such a way, and now suddenly he’d mentioned both porn and interest in sex in a matter of five minutes. Despite my surprise, I was curious to hear more about this hidden side of him. “You like sex, but you don’t have it. So…you suffer?”

“No. I’m perfectly comfortable with the way I am. I do just fine…by myself.” He dipped his head, silently encouraging me to extrapolate. “I’ll be glad when I find it, I’m just not in a rush. You know relationships have never been a huge part of my life.” He looked down at his nails, completely unbothered.I, on the other hand, was honestly kind of in awe of him. “You’re terrible at that.”

“You have ugly fingers anyway. This is an improvement.” Untrue. Jonah always had excellent hands, and my lack of fine motor skills was no match. “And that’s true that relationships have never been that important to you. I always envied that. That you could focus on so many things without getting sidetracked by flings.” Unlike myself, historically. Except for these last two years, during which I was admittedly hiding from them. Utterly disgusted by them.

“I guess that space in my brain is already filled with song lyrics and cynical musings.”

I reached for his other hand to match it to its messy counterpart. “Well, it’s not in your brain, Jo, it’s in your heart. Maybe that’s your problem.”

“No,” he said with certainty. “But that might explain your problem.”

I flicked his shoulder vengefully and returned to my work. “Maybe you’re right. It should be somewhere in the middle, right? Not only in your head or only in your heart.”

“Right in the middle. In your chin.”

I chuckled as I dragged the brush down the nail of his middle finger, ignoring the bits of paint on his cuticles. “The chin is pretty good at pointing you in different directions, sticking itself out when you’re feeling strong or tucking itself in when you’re hurt.”

“Exactly. It should be in the middle of the head and heart, able to demonstrate both strength and vulnerability.”

“Oh, Jonah, what a scholar you are.”

“I am a songwriter, you know.”

I grinned as I finished up on the final pinky. They just looked awful, his nails, but it was nice of him to let me try. He always did. I wanted to move on and play with his hair like I used to, but he’d become so adult-looking I was ashamed to ask.

Physically, he really did look like he was doing better. Perhaps it had something to do with age or fame. When I placed the nail polish back down on his nightstand, I found the most likely culprit. A bent white box with an aluminum sheet full of pills hanging out of it sat under the lamp. I snatched the flimsy cardboard and began reading it.

“How are these going for you after all?” I asked. “Are you still going to therapy?”

“Hardly.” I frowned at his answer. “We’ve had a lot of work lately. I like to keep my free time to myself. And, actually, I’m going off these.” He reached one set of terribly painted fingers to ease the box from my hands and threw it the same way as the old condom.

I perked up immediately. “Did you talk to your doctor? You shouldn’t do that, Jo. And you drink alcohol, you know. I hope you stopped drinking while you’ve been on those. When did you decide to stop taking them? And why? Are you oka—?”

“Hey, Kai,” he said calmly. “I’m going to throw you out the window if you don’t stop.” Humph. “I decided to stop when… When you told us you were coming home.”

I shook my head in response. That was far from okay and he knew it, which was even worse because it meant he was consciously being an idiot.

“I’m slowly lowering the dosage. Just to try. I have a personal deadline to reassess if I need to. They have some side effects I’m not crazy about, and I knew I’d have you here as support if I needed it.” He shrugged, and if sad little puppies could shrug, they’d look exactly as Jonah did right now.

I rolled my eyes in surrender and crossed my arms. “Jo, I’m… I’ve worried about you a lot these last few years. So much. I need—we need—to know that you’re okay. And I just don’t think making these changes willy-nilly is such a good idea. You still don’t leave the house unless you have to. You still call me at night when you’re having a hard time.”

“When will you accept that isolation and negativity are simply parts of my personality?” he asked lazily, dropping his head to one side. Exhausted apathy took the place of his innocent longing.

My shoulders dropped. “Jojo, you deserve to enjoy all that you’ve built.”

He blew out a breath. “I’m taking it one day at a time, Kai. You’ll be here with me. Will you take it one day at a time with me?”

I picked at my nails, nodding affirmatively. I knew he couldn’t snap his fingers and be one hundred percent better, and I knew prying him open wasn’t really going to change anything either. So, yes, I would. I’d walk alongside him straight into oblivion if only to make sure he was all right.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

There was a beat of silence as I allowed myself to ponder, to accept that Jonah was in control of his own mind whether I worried about him or not.

“You wouldn’t really throw me out the window,” I finally muttered.

“Well, you are asking for it.” He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me right over himself so that I sat next to him on the wall side of the bed.

“Careful with those fingers, Jo! They’re wet and I worked very hard on them.”

“I’m more concerned about ruining my sheets than your hard work.”

I gaped at him. He had the most annoying grin on his face. “Don’t tease me.”

“Why? Do you like it?”

I gasped. This asshole learned to bite back while I was gone. “Jonah! Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Shakira in that one music video.” He held up his fingers in front of himself and looked at them with a smile. “The one where she’s covered in black paint.”

Immediately, I reached across him and grabbed the nail polish from the nightstand, untwisting the cap as I propped myself up on my knees. Holding the open bottle over his head, I threatened to dump it on him. “You want to take the role a step further?”

He giggled as he grabbed my wrists, and I pushed into him, our forces fighting against each other. I tried to bend my arms and twist away, but his grip remained tight. There was no way I could win, and if I didn’t stop, the paint really would end up everywhere. He was somehow stronger than I remembered him being. Less frail. Less easy to beat.

Finally, I managed to pull away, but it was obvious he’d let me win. After twisting the cap on tight, I reached over to place it once again on the nightstand, sticking my tongue out at him. I then lifted the edge of the blankets and sank my feet in, lying down between Jonah and the wall. He clicked off the reading light, and I fell into a deep, immediate sleep.