Page 79 of Kaine

Chapter Thirty-One

HER

I feel like giggling.

Not laughing, not chuckling, not outright belly guffawing.

Just... giggling.

Like, when you’re drunk and something slightly silly happens and you think it’s the funniest thing in the world.

Like when you’re staring into someone’s eyes and the nervousness tickles in the back of your throat and there’s nothing you can do to hold it in.

Like when you’re sitting on your own and think of someone or something that makes you smile, but more, so much more.

Like, when you’re just living, going about your day, and you realize, you’re happy. Just honestly and truly happy.

I feel like giggling. And never stopping.

“What are you giggling about?” a sleepy, muffled voice with a mouthful of my hair wonders from behind me.

“I wasn’t,” I lie.

“The shaking of the bed begs to differ.”

“I was... scratching.”

“Well, then what was making your funny bone itch, lady?”

“It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”

“Okay.”

And something about that exchange, makes me giggle.

***

“Ahem,” a male voicewakes me.

“What?” I growl, not ready to get out of bed yet.

“What, what?” Kaine counters.

“You just said ‘ahem.’” I say grumpily. It’s too early to have to explain myself.

“No, I didn’t,” he argues back. “Maybe you dreamt it.”

“It was me, bloody lovebirds,” a third voice, the original voice, cuts in.

We both jump up and stare at the intruder.

“Xavier! What the fuck, man?” Kaine yells. “Why are you here?”

I slide down into my pillows and pull the sheet over my bed and curl into a red-faced ball, willing him to go away.

“I’m working. What are you doing here?” he asks his boss.

“Why do people keep asking me that? I live here, asshole.”