Page 23 of Hypothetical Heart
Waking up in an unfamiliar bedroom is never the best feeling, but it’s especially distressing after the night I had last night.
I cracked the window before I went to bed to let some fresh air in, and the February air has left my room freezing cold.
Wrapping a blanket around myself, I swing my legs over the side of the bed so that I can close it, but before my foot hits the hardwood floor, it hits somebody’s ribcage.
“Holy fuck,” Logan groans, sitting up from where he’s on the floor next to the bed, clutching his ribs. There’s a pillow under him, and a blanket over his lap.
“What are you doing?” I ask, confused as to why he chose to sleep on the floor of my bedroom rather than his own bed.
“Good morning to you too,” he says, standing up.
“Did you sleep on the floor?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
“Yeah, and it was freezing. I don’t know how you sleep like that.”
“Why didn't you sleep in the other room with Luke?” I shut the window. “You know, the one with two beds.”
“He tried!” Luke calls from the living room.
I know he did. I watched him walk across the hall into his and Luke’s room after he came in here, checking on me one more time before I fell asleep.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Logan finally answers. “All I could do in the other room was stare at the ceiling and worry about you.”
“So you slept on the floor next to my bed?”
“I just needed to know that you were okay,” he sighs.
I run my hands over my face, not knowing what to say. I knew that last night frazzled Logan to an extent, but I thought he wasn’t as worried once we got home. I figured he was fine.
Both Eloise and Genevieve enter the room, Jameson and Luke following close behind.
“Jesus, it’s cold in here,” Eloise shivers, climbing into the bed and under the covers.
“Are you mad Logan stayed in here last night?” Luke asks me.
“No,” I answer. “I just don’t want anyone to be worried about me. I’m fine.”
“I think we were all a bit worried about you last night, Winnie,” Genevieve says. “We all were thinking about sleeping on your floor. Logan was the one who took one for the team.”
“So what? You’re all going to take shifts sleeping at my bedside? It’s notthatbig of a deal, guys.” My frustration is getting the best of me, partly because Logan slept on the hard floor in the freezing cold and also because my friends are all walking on eggshells around me.
Logan grabs my wrist, pulling me to face him. “It was allwith good intention, Win, and if you don’t want us doing it again, we won’t.”
I focus my attention on Genevieve because she’s the easiest to detect a lie from. She’s also my best friend, and I know she won’t tell me things just because I want to hear them.
Most people would find her a bit intimidating, but I find comfort in her bluntness.
“It was a one-time occurrence after a particularly scary incident,” she says. “It won’t happen again.”
I take a seat on the edge of the bed, and Genevieve follows suit. Logan lies on the bed next to Eloise, sprawling out so his legs fall over mine and Genevieve’s lap, then Luke and Jameson find seats on the floor.
“Thank you,” I say. “I appreciate how much you guys care.”
“Do you even know how to make a fire?” Eloise yells out the kitchen window toward the boys in the backyard.
“Yes, we know how to build a fire,” Logan snarks, throwing down another piece of firewood. “We’re not completely useless.”
“Leave them alone, they have wood and a box of matches, starting a fire is pretty self-explanatory from there,” Genevieve says, just loud enough for them to hear.
