12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
VIVIAN
I wake to the usual sounds of fighting from the apartment above mine and shouting from the streets below. My stomach is unsettled still, and my head aches slightly, but it is all infinitely better than it was the evening before. My mouth is dry, so freaking dry, and I get up slowly, making my way to the bathroom when I notice a figure on my futon.
I tiptoe over the short way and see Declan fast asleep on my couch. His face is relaxed in a way I have never seen when he’s awake. Awake he’s always serious, focused, distant, hard to read. But like this, in such a relaxed state, he looks so peaceful.
His eyelashes are a deep black, like the shade of my own hair, and they are so long they rest on his high cheekbones. As I inspect them, Declan shifts a little and I stand up straight and still, afraid of being caught creeping around my own apartment and staring at the man who helped me even after I vomited on him.
I inch backward and enclose myself soundlessly in the bathroom. I wrap my hair in one of my hands and lean down, taking a drink from the sink. The cool water burns on the way down initially, but once it subsides I feel a little reprieve. I look in the mirror and see the dark bags under my eyes, along with knots and flyaways in my hair from bedhead.
I quickly grab a brush and straighten out my hair, but there’s nothing I can do about the bags. I don’t have makeup except for some mascara and lip gloss. Bailey has a decent collection—she calls it her one vice—but we are far different skin shades so I don’t dare even try it.
I’m about to try to make my hair more presentable when I hear a thump and then a high-pitched scream. I rip open the door to find Bailey with her mouth hanging open, staring at Declan who has a gun pointed at her.
“Declan, put the gun away!” I shout.
“Who are you?” he demands, his eyes never leaving Bailey, his gun still trained on her.
“This is Bailey, my roommate!” I say, trying to get through to him. I cross quickly over to Bailey and get between her and the gun, which thankfully Declan is putting away.
“I’m sorry, Bailey,” I say, going over to her and helping her pick up her bag.
Bailey crouches down to pick up her items, and she looks at me, her face no longer panic-stricken. “ That is Declan?” she says, barely audibly. I glare at her and she mouths the word “hot” to me, and I can only look at her like she is crazy. Only Bailey would be able to look past the fact that a man has held a gun on her in her own apartment, and still find him attractive.
“Sorry about that,” Declan says, striding over to Bailey and me as we stand. “I must have been out cold; the door opening startled me.”
“Yeah, it happens,” Bailey said, like it is no big deal. “I see the doorknob broke again,” she says, staring at the knob on the floor.
“Again?” Declan asks, his demeanor back to that serious, stone face I always see, what I have become used to.
“Oh, yeah, it breaks all the time,” Bailey tells him.
“And your landlord hasn’t fixed it?” he questions.
Bailey and I exchange a look. “Tim isn’t the kind of guy who cares about really anything,” I explain to him.
“That’s so?” he says, and he looks angry. Not that his angry face is much different from his everyday face, but I can see a slight change, and his voice seems colder. “Well, I will fix it today.”
“You don’t have to—”
He meets my eyes and I lose the ability to speak. I suddenly remember the way he crouched by my bed last night and stroked my hair. And now the way his stare locks on to me, I feel something straight to my core. “I want to, Vivian,” he tells me.
I nod. “Okay,” I say, “but I have to work at eleven, and Bailey will be sleeping so today may not work,” I ramble out nervously.
“You can’t work today,” Declan says to me. “You’re sick.”
“I was sick last night but I feel much better now.”
“You were sick?” Bailey asks, now looking at me with pity. “Did you get that stomach thing everyone has been getting?”
“I think so,” I say. “But it wasn’t too bad—”
“You threw up six times and couldn’t walk to bed,” Declan points out, crossing his arms over his chest. I try to ignore the way his biceps flex tightly against his white tee, but it proves difficult.
“So how did you get to bed?” Bailey asks. “Wait, how did you get home from class? You didn’t take the bus, did you?”
“No, I brought her home. Then I carried her to bed.”
“Thanks again,” I say, looking down and feeling Bailey’s eyes bore into me. I can feel her practically vibrating with excitement to get the entire story. “You didn’t have to stay; I feel bad you slept on the couch.” I say this to make sure Bailey knows he did not sleep in bed with me.
“I broke the doorknob, or at least I thought I had, and I didn’t want to leave you with an open door,” Declan says.
There is a silence where the three of us just stand there, and then finally Bailey dramatically yawns. “Well, I’m beat, so I am off to bed. Nice to meet you, Declan. Night, Viv, see you later,” she says to me and winks. I have no idea what she means by the wink, but I am sure it’s her dirty mind on overdrive.
I follow Bailey with my eyes, and once the door is shut, I turn and meet Declan’s gaze. “Thank you again for last night,” I say with a small smile. I want to give him a bright smile but I am suddenly very nervous around him, and I also remember how I looked in the mirror. I’m not sure the smile would help right now.
“I,”—he stops and licks his lower lip then clears his throat—“I’m glad I could help,” he finally says. “And I will be back to fix that door.”
“You don’t have—”
“I want to, Vivian,” he says, taking a step toward me. He’s so close now I have to lean my head back to look up at him. Again I am caught up by the comfort I feel in his stare. Something draws me in and holds me there, and I feel a shift in the world around me.
A vibrating sound breaks through, and Declan takes a step back from me and pulls out his phone, answering the call. “I’m on my way,” is all he says and then he hangs up. He stalks to my kitchen sink a few feet away and grabs his sweatshirt then heads to the door. “I’ll be back,” he says as he walks through it, and I am left standing there trying to figure out what that just was.
“Ho-ly shit,” Bailey says from behind me, sending me jumping in the air.
“What?” I ask, turning to find her standing in the doorway of the bedroom.
She looks at me like I am crazy. “Come on, Viv! That is some serious sexual tension right there!”
I stare at her and then roll my eyes and laugh. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“No, I am not fucking kidding,” she says, coming over and grabbing me by my upper arms. “The way he looked at you, wow,”—she blows out a breath and starts to fan herself with her hand—“so hot.”
I open my mouth to tell her to get over herself, but curiosity gets the better of me. “How did he look at me?”
Bailey gawks at me, her eyes going wide. “With feeling.”
I screw my face up in confusion. “What does that even mean, Bailey?”
“Like he feels stuff for you.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, like pity,” I say. “I puked on him, Bailey,” I tell her and then recount the entire night’s events, from Declan finding me asleep in the classroom to him bringing me home and putting me to bed and everything in between.
“Wow, you described this guy like a total douche, but he seems actually really sweet,” Bailey says.
“Well, he is really weird in class,” I say, trying to defend my assessment of Declan. “And you saw him; he is so serious.”
“I like it,” Bailey says. “He’s broody. I dig it. But honestly, Viv, you’re missing what I’m saying! He didn’t look at you with pity,” she says. “He looked at you like he cares about you. And from what you’ve told me about him, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to do caring a whole lot. And he is coming back to fix the door! I mean, he is like a white knight with a significant resting bitch face.”
I laugh and Bailey yawns. “You need to get to bed,” I remind her and she nods. “Shower off your night, and I will change the bed so you don’t get sick.”
“Please,” she says as she does the sleepy shuffle to the bathroom. “I totally hate puking. But if I had a hottie like Declan to hold my hair back, I might just change my tune.”
I love Bailey. She makes me laugh even when I feel like junk. I still feel wiped, and I need to get food in me, but first things first—bed change.