Chapter Sixteen

Dinner went by smooth. It was as if everyone forgot about the whole me not telling anyone and going out with a boy.

It's currently 3:30 and I can't sleep. Of course. I'm too scared to close my eyes. All I see is the blood and the human meat and ugh, this boy.

I decide to do what he says and go find his contact. My eyes hurt from the brightness from my phone as my room is pitch black, and it's pretty dark under the covers too. I'm about to press the call icon, but stop after remember what Avery and Reagan said about becoming too close. It wouldn't be bad if I called him right? He said I could. I brush away the thought and press call. The line rings for a bit before I hear him pick up.

"Seems like babygirl couldn't sleep."

"Shut up, its all your fault." I whisper, making sure no one wakes up from my loud talking.

"Well maybe you should've told me you can't watch horror movies."

"Don't make me argue with you at 3:30 in the morning. I'm tired and I just wanna sleep."

"Then close your eyes and fall asleep."

"I can't! All I see is blood and chopped up human meat." I practically whisper yell.

"Yeah that was a bit of a high level horror movie."

"It was." I mutter quietly, trying to blink the memory away.

"How about we go watch a fantasy movie tomorrow?"

"I'm not a five year old. Besides, I got home late and everyone was worried."

"I might have put your phone on silent during the movie. It fell out of your pocket and kept beeping."

"I knew it was you! You-you annoying little...monkey!"

"That totally wound me. Can't you think of any better insults sweetheart? You had so many options. Bastard, asshole, oh and psychopath!"

"Yeah whatever. Everyone thinks I went on a date." I say quietly, hoping he did and didn't hear it.

"Technically, it kinda was cause a boy asked you to go out." He tries to explain to me.

"You told me it was a friendly outing."

"Well, I guess you could call it that, but a date sounds better." He tries to convince me.

"I did not go on a date with you." I emphasize each word.

"Oh yes, you did."

"Shut up, I'd never go out on a date with some arrogant, cocky jerk like you."

"Babygirl, you're just tired and mad. You'd wish you hadn't said that in the morning."

"I'm just tired, not drunk. I know what I'm saying."

"Do I look like a bad guy to you? I've done some bad things in the past but there are valid reasons for each one. Come on, you know you had fun today. You were happy, at least most of the time. It won't happen again. You see, I'm just trying to get to know you. Once I do, you'll be happy all the time. Just give me some time." I sit there, squinting at my phone, not knowing what to say. That was deep. Especially, for him.

"Hello? Erin?"

"Yeah, I'm here." I breathe out, airily.

"Did I leave you speechless?" He teases me.

"Shut up, you're not that sweet and heartwarming."

"I'm a great guy though. I made your boring Saturday, fun."

"Yeah, you did. Except now I can't sleep."

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't know the movie was gonna be that bad. It was a teensy bit extreme for me too. I'm really sorry though. But you can call me every night. I'll stay up to talk to you as an apology. Trust me, I know staring up at the ceiling all night isn't very fun. I've done it tons of times before, but no one was there. But now I am, so take the chance." He says the last part so soft, his voice sounds...raspy?

"Yeah, okay." I say and yawn.

"You're getting tired. Try closing your eyes now. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight Erin. Sweet dreams. Don't let the bed bugs bite." He chuckles, softly.

"You're not really helping with the bed bugs part." I saw, yawning again.

"Then, goodnight."

"Gwahnat," is all that comes out as I saw goodnight while yawning.

"What?"

"Goodnight." I say properly, before ending the line. I put my phone of my side table and pull the covers over my head properly before my eyes shut on their own and I fall into a deep sleep.

The next morning, I wake up to a text.

good morning babygirl

I respond with,

Good morning Idk your name boy

Quickly, he replies.

ur awake

Yeah

did u sleep well

Yeah I guess

that's good

Yeah

does ur texting vocab only consist of yeah cuz all u say is yeah

I debate on just saying yeah again, but decide against and try to argue my point. I have a large vocabulary, thank you very much.

Ik other words too

prove it then

Okay then so how'd u sleep

wifey material right there

jkjk it's cute you care

Um, what?

I was just tryna spike up a convo and show you that my vocab consists of more than yeah

i see it does

and ur an amazing person j so yk

ur sweet nice pretty smart and definitely cute when ur trying to act normal

ur cute when u ramble on and on like a little kid especially

I am not a little kid

but sometimes u act like one and it's not annoying

I like it

Oh okay then I'm gonna ramble on and on like a kid all the time how'd that be

perfect

anyway i gtg sorry I'll ttyl

Now that's how u properly end a convo

Usually u sound angry

yeah ur right

sorry bout that

anyway I'll ttyl bye

Bye

The rest of my Sunday is boring and I sleep surprisingly well that night too. I think running on 4 hours of sleep is enough to go through a depressing day of school and torture from homework and siblings. Well, then happy Monday to me.