Phantoms of Fourteenth Avenue

Chapter 13

MASON

I wasn't sure that I had heard her correctly. She wanted to sleep here? None of this made sense.

“What?” I whispered, furrowing my eyebrows.

She slowly approached the bed and when she was close enough I could see how red her cheeks were. “Uhm… I asked if it would be okay if I slept in here for tonight.”

I stared at her with a sceptical look. “Why?” and was inevitably disappointed when she answered.

“I'm scared.”

Brushing off my disappointment, I rolled my eyes as I layed back down. “Scared of what? What happened that scared you enough to want to sleep here?”

She looked around the room before returning her gaze to mine, obviously embarrassed. “Nothing in particular today. Are you going to let me sleep here or not?”

I could hear her voice turn into annoyance. I rolled onto my side and shrugged. “Whatever.”

I was surprised to see her getting into bed with me as I tried my best to be as neutral as possible. She must have really been spooked, given that she still got into bed with me after I had been rude.

She rolled to her side, her back facing mine and sighed. I closed my eyes and tried my absolute hardest to fall asleep but all was in vain as I couldn't get over our proximity.

She was so close to me. All I had to do was reach out slightly and I would be able to touch her. But I couldn't do that, given we were only friends.

The thought of that word quickly made me angry and I huffed. What are you doing Ali? Why are you here in my bed after you've friend zoned me? Why did you take off your shirt earlier revealing your supple breasts to me? Why are you doing this to me?

I knew I would never get the answers to those questions as I would never be able to muster up the guts to ask.

“Are you sleeping?” she whispered, and I almost wanted to pretend that that was exactly what I was doing. But Ali had had a hold on me that I couldn't quite explain and even though she had hurt me slightly, I could never be that cruel to her.

“Yeah, I am. What's up?” I returned.

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.”Have you ever thought of the meaning of the word nothing?”

I opened my eyes and scrunched my nose at how extremely random and weird that question was.

I turned and replicated her position but turned my head so that I could see her face. “What made you think of that?”

She shrugged and locked eyes with me. Even in the dark, I couldn't believe how stunning she was. There was so much depth in her eyes that I just had to keep myself from getting lost in it.

“but just think of it for a second. The word nothing. It literally means nothing. Like, this… This is something.” she gestured to the air above her. “There are molecules and all different kinds of microscopic things that we can't see but it is still something. Nothing means nothing. It can't even be classified as darkness or just blank because those things are something as well.”

I couldn't help but smile at how insightful Ali was. This babe’s packing a brain as well. I felt all the anger and hurt leave my body as she continued her ramble of the meaning of the word nothing. It was so cute how a word so mundane had gotten her so excited.

I didn't even want to think of how she had come up with that idea but I was just in awe of how happy she seemed. Being only a friend to Ali was going to be tough but seeing the real side of her, I just couldn't imagine a world with her not in it.

I turned to my side and faced her as I watched her go on about what seemed to be a new topic: How it was possible for space to have no end in sight but if it had had an end, what would be after it?

Those kinds of questions were way too intense to think about at this time of the morning but having Ali here with me made me want to try and entertain her deeply sighted thoughts.

The both of us just layed there talking about sweet nothings until we both fell asleep.