Chapter 7 – Dakota #2
“Sure you don’t.” I felt Val move closer behind me, then he nuzzled his head into the back of my neck. “How’s everything going so far?”
“It’s fine,” I said, shoving his icy feet away from mine. He laughed and stuck his cold toes on my calf. “Ew—why aren’t you wearing socks?!”
“I was, I just took them off,” he said, laughing. He snuggled closer and the tightness that had been around my chest all day loosened. “How’s it actually going? I haven’t heard from you much.”
I sighed and stared at the wall. “Same old, except my roommate hates me. Actually wait, that’s the same too.”
“Why does your roommate hate you? What’d you do?”
“What—why do you automatically think I did something?”
“Because you always do something.”
Fair enough. “I don’t think I did anything to deserve his all-consuming hatred.”
Val poked my back. “You never think you do, but trust me—and I say this with love—you’re kind of a dick sometimes.”
“Love you too, Val,” I said dryly.
He laughed and patted my shoulder. “What are brothers for, if not to hold a mirror to each other’s bullshit?”
“Someone should do that for Everett. His head would probably explode. Which actually wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
Val laughed then hummed in agreement, refusing to say the words out loud, but I knew he thought them. He was too kind to voice anything like that. “So where’s your roommate now? It’s kinda late to be out.”
“He went down to the laundry room, but that was like…” I turned onto my back and pulled my phone from my pocket. “That was an hour ago.”
And speaking of the little devil himself, the door burst open and a stormy Reese blew into the room with his bag of laundry. He stopped short when he saw Val lying with me. This weird expression took over his face, something halfway between anger and confusion.
I jerked my thumb at Val, who waved at Reese. “This is my brother, Val. Val, this is Reese—my roommate who hates my guts.”
“Hi,” Val said. “Sorry you were roomed with him. I know your pain.”
Reese shook his head and raised his brows at Val. “Maybe you could switch with him? Or me.” He threw his laundry at the foot of his bed.
Something soured in my stomach, and I sat up. “Um, no. Nobody’s switching. Val, don’t you need to go to bed?”
Val laughed in my ear, and I shoved him away from me. “Oh my god, I see you, Dakota. Okay, fine.” He hopped up and gave Reese a smile. “Real nice meeting you,” he said. He shot me the bird and left.
“Are you gonna be having people over all the time?” Reese rifled through one of his bags and threw an irritated look at me over his shoulder.
He looked like a little gremlin, crouching and glaring like that. It was adorable.
I plopped onto my back and turned my head so I could watch him. “No, I’m not. Besides, Val isn’t ‘people’. He’s my brother.”
Reese didn’t respond.
“Did you find the laundry room?” I turned onto my side and propped my head on my hand as I watched him.
He snatched up a few pieces of clothing and shoved them in one of his drawers. “No. I didn’t.”
“I tol—”
He whipped around so fast it startled me, pointing one of those long, pretty fingers at my face. “Don’t you dare say it.”
“What’s got you so cranky? At least I don’t go attacking people for no reason. Jumping naked all over their bodies.”
His face flushed a deep red, and the flash of remorse in his eyes stung me hard.
“I told you I was sorry for that,” he said, turning away from me.
His shoulders were tense, his posture stiff as he got ready for bed.
Fuck, I was an asshole.
“Yeah, it’s okay,” I told him, dropping my teasing tone. “Sorry, I was just messing around.”
He shrugged, not looking back at me, and climbed into bed.
He had his walls built up high, for whatever reason. I was starting to think that all my teasing was just making him build them even higher.
I was starting to think I didn’t want that.
That I wanted to tear them all down, raze them to the ground and tromp through the rubble until I got to the heart of him.
I wondered what I’d find.
The sound of shouting dragged me from a dreamless sleep, and when I blinked my eyes open, it was dark. Shadows cut through the blinds of the windows and played along the ceiling, like spindly arms reaching over me.
“No! No, no, no, no, no, please!” Reese’s frantic words were slightly slurred with sleep, and I turned over to see him thrash his head against his pillow.
Fuck. He was going to hurt himself.
“Reese,” I called, sitting up and rubbing at my eyes.
“Don’t put those in there! Take them out right now!”
I shook my head and threw the covers off. “Reese,” I said again, walking over to his bed. “Hey. You’re dreaming. Wake up.”
This had happened a few nights already, and usually if I stroked his head, he quieted down a bit and I could fall back asleep. But tonight felt different. He seemed a lot more distraught than usual.
I stood over him, hoping he would just wake up or his dream would end on its own. He was lying on his side, fingers curled around the edge of the blanket as he held it to his chin. They were trembling, and he started to whisper into the fabric.
“Mama, please—please, please, take me with you. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me. Please, please, please.”
Chills erupted down my back and over my arms, all the fine hairs on my body standing on end. He sounded so lost and broken, so desperate and devastated, and the urge to just take him into my arms and tell him everything would be okay was sudden and staggering.
To give him what no one had ever given me.
I crouched at the side of his bed and raised my hand to his head, my fingertips hesitating an inch above his hair.
“Come back for me,” he pleaded in the most gut-wrenching tone I’d ever heard. “Please come back.” A sob broke from his throat, and I let my hand fall gently onto his head.
“Reese,” I said softly. He whimpered and shifted his head into my hand as much as he could, and a tight band wound itself around my chest. I slowly sifted my fingers into his hair and brushed it back from his forehead.
He mumbled something incoherent, and the miserable expression he was wearing began to soften. It startled me when he suddenly reached out and grabbed my wrist, pressing my hand harder into his head.
Did he want me to touch him?
I mean, I already was, so I didn’t know how I could do it…more. His grip on my wrist slowly loosened until his hand fell back to the bed as I kept running my fingers through his hair.
I thought he was settling down, that that would be the end of it, when he gasped. He started whispering words I couldn’t hear in a panicked voice. They gradually became louder and louder until he was shouting.
I still couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he was gonna wake up the whole floor at this rate. I cupped his face in my hands and said, “Reese. Wake up. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
A tear slipped down the side of his face, and fuck me, what was I supposed to do here? And what was he dreaming about that was upsetting him so much?
“Reese,” I said softly but firmly. “It’s just a dream.” I sifted my hands through his hair, dragging my blunt nails across his scalp a little. “You’re okay.”
More tears fell, and the awful misery on his face was brutal. His sadness had come to the surface and was trying to drag him under.
“If you knew what I was doing right now,” I told him, “you’d be so pissed at me.”
His breath hitched, and then he mumbled something I couldn’t understand.
“It’s just a dream,” I said softly, hoping those words would break through and get to him somehow, soothe him maybe.
“It’s a nightmare,” he shouted, scaring the shit out of me. His eyes flew open and he shoved my hands away with a sound of frustration, then popped up so quickly that I fell back onto my ass.
“Reese—”
“And they marched right over her grave,” he said angrily, pushing the covers away from himself and jumping to his feet.
I had no idea what the fuck was happening. Reese walked to the door and flung it open, and I raised my arm to cover my eyes when the light from the hallway practically blinded me.
“Jesus fuck, Reese, where are you going?”
Reese disappeared into the hall wearing nothing but his sleep pants. I could hear his bare feet slapping against the wood as he stomped away.
Shit.
“Hey!” I called, pushing myself to my feet and racing after him. “Reese!”
He was halfway down the hall and trying to open the door to someone else’s room.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, jogging down to him. “That’s not your room. Let’s go, darling. Back to our room.”
I grabbed his arm to try and steer him back the other way, and when I got a good look at his face, I could tell instantly that he was sleepwalking.
His eyes were open but entirely unseeing, his cheeks flushed, and there was an eerie emptiness in his expression.
It was so unlike his usual self that it was unnerving to see him like this.
I slid my hand down his arm until I was able to grab ahold of his hand, then tugged gently. “Come on, let’s go back to our room.”
He turned around, slid his hand from mine, and started walking down the hall again. I sighed and went after him.
He was either going to make it to the stairwell and fall to his death, or keep trying other people’s doors and get a fist in his face, so I rounded in front of him, pushed my shoulder into his stomach, wrapped my arms around his legs, and hoisted him up.
He grunted, then brushed his fingers against my bare back, trying to find a hold, and finally made it to the waistband of my sweatpants.
He grabbed so hard that it pulled the material up into the crack of my ass, and I shouted in surprise, stumbling and bracing a hand against the wall as a sharp pain lanced through my balls.
“Jesus, dude, that fucking hurt.”
He didn’t ease up his grip at all, just kept holding on, so I grumbled and walked us back to our room. He was pretty heavy for how small he was. His skin was really soft, too.