Sleeping Beauty

Vincent

Anne’s presence increasingly brightened my mood from the moment she walked in through the door until now.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling so frustrated and handicapped. My patient diagnosed with cancer has been getting worse and my efforts to help him came out futile.

I can’t ascertain the reason for my mood change. Maybe, it’s the aura she exudes or how clumsy she gets. Whatever it was, it left me wondering.

After the food we had, I had gone up to tidy Andrew’s room because I knew the storm wasn’t abetting anytime soon. I also knew she would be more comfortable staying in Andrew’s room where she’s more familiar with, rather than the guest room.

I straightened Andrew’s bed and took my time to remove all his clothes lying around, then walked down the stairs to summon Anne.

On reaching the living room, I noticed Anne was no longer sitting on the couch.

I looked around but there was no sign of her.

I didn’t hear her come upstairs and the storm was still raging, so she couldn’t have left.

Movements on the couch caught my attention, but the headrest shielded my view, so I had to move closer. The sight I met on reaching the couch rooted me to the ground.

My heart tightened and my protective instincts ignited.

There on the couch, Anne was resting her head on the armrest, sound asleep, with the lower part of her legs on the table.

She had her arm folded underneath her head for support. She just laid there, looking so fragile and vulnerable.

She had on a plain yellow t-shirt and loose jeans but that did little to conceal her slender waist and curves which I’d been forcing myself not to look at since she came. But now, her top had ridden up, exposing her smooth, caramel flat stomach. Her jeans were low enough to make visible the upper part of her rounded hips.

I just stood there and stared, trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

I felt like shielding her as a brother would, but at the same time, I thought of what it'll feel like to run my hands along her smooth skin, exploring those soft curves.

I shook my head at my ridiculousness and proceeded to slowly pull down her clothe to cover the exposed part, then I gently raised her legs from the table and straightened them on the couch.

I went back to Andrew’s room upstairs to retrieve a blanket. All my intentions were to make her feel comfortable with things she was familiar with.

Moving quietly so as not to wake her, I pulled the blanket gently over her body.

The next thing that happened almost drove me crazy.

As I made to tuck the blanket underneath her, she suddenly shot out her right hand and grabbed my hand. I had thought she was scared and was awake but to my surprise, she was still sleeping. She wriggled her body to face the back of the couch, taking my arm with her.

She cuddled my entire arm. With my palm as her new head support, she rubbed her face against it, making satisfying moaning sounds.

My other hand, on reflex, balled into a fist and pounded on the couch behind her, wedging me from falling on top of her. She left me stooped in an uncomfortable butt-in-the-air position, still struggling not to trip and fall face flat on her.

“I’ve missed you, mum,” she whispered to my hand.

I couldn’t stop the smile that crept to my face despite my inclined position.

I was so close to her face that if she just decided to turn her face towards me, our nose would touch.

She wasn’t making things easy for me. A part of my arm was secured comfortably in-between her two breasts. I could feel her softness pressing against my arm, then her lavender scent decided it was the best time to infiltrate my nose.

All these made my groin tighten painfully, giving out a dull throb.

I shook my head again to expunge the illicit scenes invading my thoughts, then slowly, I removed my hand from the almost strong grip Anne had on it.

Why I didn’t think of waking her up was far from me. Well, on second thought, if she had awoken to see me hovering over her, it would have been a different, unappealing scenerio, taking a resemblance of the initial encounter with my brother. I didn’t want that.

I breathed deeply like someone who just went through hard labor, and fell back on the glass center table.

I then thought of carrying her to Andrew’s room but decided against it, partly because she might wake up midway and freak out. That too I didn’t need. Another reason was the freaky desire to watch her sleep.

I chose the latter.

***

Anne

I opened my eyes and immediately knew I wasn’t in my room.

I rubbed and squinted my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room.

I checked my phone on the table and it was five o’clock in the morning which meant it was still dark outside.

Sitting up, I stretched my muscles and realized I had slept well despite sleeping on a couch.

I noticed the blanket which wasn’t there last night. My mind went straight to Vincent. He must have covered me because I don’t remember doing it myself.

‘How sweet.’

I felt all good and bubbly inside.

He should be sleeping up in his room I had thought, but imagine my shock when I turned to the side of the couch and came face to face with the most angelic, peaceful face I’d ever seen in my entire 21 years on this earth.

I had almost screamed out when my foggy mind hadn’t registered the figure at first and had held my hand against my mouth to stop myself from screaming out.

He was resting his head on the headrest in an uncomfortable position. 

I stared endlessly at his beautiful face, fighting the urge to pinch his smooth cheeks, or run my fingers against his brows, eyes, lips, everywhere.

‘it’s sealed, I have a crush on Vincent.’

The jingling of what I presumed to be keys, drove me out of my reverie and I shot my eyes towards the door, where the sound was coming from.

‘Andrew.’

I returned my gaze to its former and found a set of clear brown eyes staring back at me.

I jerked back and almost fell off the couch.

The eyes followed my movement, wrinkling at the side as if they were smiling. When we had the jingling again, he too looked towards the door.

I followed his gaze back to the door which opened to reveal Andrew who was bent over, removing his shoes.

“These shoes are done for,” Andrew asserted, carrying his sneakers that looked like they were run over by a trailer into the house.

It was when he entered and looked up that he noticed us.

He paused, stared from me to Vincent then back at me. For a second there, I could have sworn I saw a flash of something in his eyes. I couldn’t make out that emotion because it left as fast as it came.

He then broke into a gorgeous smile and ran towards me.

“Anny, I’ve missed you!”

He lifted me off the couch and gave me a bone-crushing hug that left me gasping for air.

“Hey you,” I chirped breezily.

“Sorry I didn’t get back to you last night, the rain was terrible,” he expressed.

“It’s cool. We don’t need you drowning now, do we?” I said with a lopsided smirk, earning myself one of his award-winning smiles.

“No, I am really sorry you had to spend the night with my boring brother,” he mocked, giving his brother a side glance.

Vincent who has been quiet stood up and smacked the back of his head.

“Shut up, freak,” he said and ambled towards the kitchen.

“Boring and bully of a brother!” Andrew retorted after the retreating back of Vincent while rubbing his sore head.

I covered my mouth, giggling at Andrew’s expression.

“And you!” he said, turning to me and picking me up easily, then threw me over his shoulders.

I squeaked, struggling to get off.

“Put me down this instant!” I yelled when my struggle came out futile.

“Nope. Weeeeeeeeee!” He sang and ran around the room. Jumping up and down.

“Andrew Benedict Sawyer, I swear if I get down, I will kill you!” I threatened, exhausted from all the jerky movements.

“You sound like my mum,” he said thoughtfully, “I’ll tell yours you swore to kill me,” he said mischievously.

“That’s if you’ll still be alive…Drew please, I’m getting dizzy,” I begged.

“Only cause you asked nicely,” he said, dropping me gently on the couch.

I shot out my hand and gave him the middle finger. On seeing it, he slumped to the floor, laughing hysterically.

Just then, Vincent walked down the stairs putting on grey track pants and white polo, with a small towel over his shoulders.

He must have gone up during the gambol with Andrew.

“Hitting the gym, these babies need maintenance,” he announced, tapping his abs.

‘Hmm cocky, that’s new.’

“Show off,” Andrew sneered from where he lay on the floor.

“Hater,”  Vincent retorted, sticking his tongue out, then turned and sauntered towards the gym room.

I grinned, staring at them bicker like old women.

“Oh,” Vincent stopped and turned, “Mum invited Anne to dad’s party," he said and continued to the gym.

“Really!” Andrew yawped. “Anny bear, you’ll be my date!”

“Umm… Andrew, I don’t know if I’m going…”

“Shush!” He said, “You can’t say no.”

“I wasn’t going to….” I said, biting my nails nervously.

He laughed, not at all convinced by my reply.

I don’t know how they held their parties but somehow I knew this one was going to be grand considering it’s theirs.

Again, I’ve never met face to face with their mum. Though she seemed nice over the phone.

But the most pressing problem was the fact that I had nothing grand-party-worthy to wear to the, you know, grand party.

‘yikes.’

“Don’t worry, you’ll love my mum,” Andrew assured, coming to sit beside me, flinging his arm over my shoulders. “She’s too sweet and definitely going to spoil your tooth.”

“Shut up,” I said smacking his arm off my shoulders.

He threw his head back and laughed.

“You’ll come, right?” He pouted.

“Yeaaaa.” I drawled.

“That’s my baby.”