AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The weather was slightly warm today, but that didn’t mean we could sit for too long out in the open without getting chilly, so we were back in the car a few minutes later, our chilly hands pressed to the vents as Lark blasted the heater as high as she could.
“Okay, now I’m ready to be warm inside,” she said.
“Back home?” I asked. The home that was mine and hers, and thus ours. Still hadn’t wrapped my mind around that yet.
“Yes, please,” she said, backing out and getting back onto the road to go back down the mountain.
Chapter Four
“Why am I still cold?”Lark asked, banging the snow off her boots and then leaving them in the tray in the doorway.
“I’ve got a heated blanket somewhere,” I said. “Gimme a second.”
Now I was kicking myself for not buying one for her at the store when we’d gone shopping. I went into my closet and pulled the heated blanket from the top shelf where it had been folded.
“The only downside is that now Clementine is going to be your best friend,” I said. “Hope you don’t mind having a fat orange cat in your lap.”
“I think I’ll manage,” she said, taking the blanket and sitting on the couch. That was where I’d wanted to sit, but there definitely wasn’t enough room for her to stretch out with the blanket and the cat and for me to sit without touching her.
“Enjoy,” I said, feeling awkward. I grabbed my stack of books from the coffee table and shut myself in my room. Reading in bed was just as good as reading on the couch. I put on some music and picked up my first book, but I read the same page three times and then put the book down and grabbed another.
Same situation.
I was usually the kind of person who could completely lose themselves in a book and shut out the world, but it wasn’t happening. I sighed and got up. Maybe I just needed some coffee. That would perk me up.
I left my room and saw Lark bundled up in my electric blanket on the couch, the TV playing a movie, and Clementine asleep on her legs.
If she was Joy, I would have asked her if she wanted some coffee too but asking Lark if she wanted coffee seemed…too much. Joy was my best friend. Leaving Lark alone to do her own thing was what regular roommates did.
So I went to the kitchen and started to make coffee and Lark didn’t say anything.
“Come on, come on,” I said under my breath as the coffee pot took its sweet time. Why was it going so slow?
At last there was enough to fill my cup and I went back to my room as quickly, but as casually as I could and shut the door. Black coffee was fine, so I chugged it down, burning my tongue, and waited for it to kick in before picking up my book again.
This time I was interrupted by a message from Layne, asking how Lark was doing.
She’s on the couch watching a movie with Clementine. Seems fine?I sent.
Good. Honor is just a worried little mother hen about her, so I’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on her via youshe responded.
I think Lark needs some space, honestly. She’s just trying to figure her shit out and she can’t do that when everyone is staring at her and waiting for her to cry or fuck upI sent.
Layne and I had been friends so long that she was used to my bluntness.
I kind of told Honor the same thing, just not that way. I’ll see if I can try to get her to back off a bitshe replied.
I was writing out a response to Layne when another message came in. This one was from Lark.
Do you mind if I have some of the coffee, or were you going to come get more?she asked.
I shook my head at her texting me when we were literally in the same apartment. Joy would have just yelled from the couch.
Knock yourself outI replied.
I couldn’t help but hear her moving from the couch to the kitchen and even the clink of mugs as she grabbed one. Somehow, I was aware of every single move she made in another room. Or maybe I was just hyper aware of her still. Like a low-level sound that I needed to adjust to. She hadn’t even lived here for two days. All of this was still new. When Joy had moved in, it had taken us weeks to figure out our routines and who did what chores and a cleaning schedule and so forth.
Lark and I would figure it all out and then I wouldn’t hear her every single time she breathed.
