Page 13 of The Facade

I totally wouldn’t get into huge trouble for sleeping in the same bed as my brothers’ best friend.

I hoped.

4

Mack

The alarmon my phone startled me from my sleep. But since I always hit snooze three times before dragging myself out of bed, I reached over to my nightstand to push the button on my phone to silence the upbeat music.

Only, instead of touching something hard and cool, my fingers landed on something soft and silky.

What the?

When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was not in the same bed that I’d gone to sleep in last night.

I was in Cambrielle’s bed.

And yeah, she was there, too.

She moaned tiredly and rolled onto her side, her hand reaching for her phone to turn off the alarm.

She seemed pretty drowsy still. I glanced at her balcony door, my heart pounding in my ears. Maybe I could slip out before she was fully awake and she’d never know that I’d somehow ended up in her bed last night.

I looked at her again. Her breathing seemed even enough, and her back was turned to me now. I might have a chance at avoiding an awkward situation.

So I carefully rolled off the bed, bracing my fingers on the floor to slowly lower myself on to the carpet. Then ever so slowly, I crawled on my hands and knees past the foot of her bed. I was just reaching for the deadbolt on the door when Cambrielle’s voice broke through the quiet room, saying, “I know you slept in here, Mack.”

Busted.

I froze for a second, my hand hanging mid-air before I cringed and looked back at her. “How bad was it this time?”

Had I made it out of her house? Had she chased me through the woods again?

“Aside from the fact that you decided to get into my bed and make yourself at home, it wasn’t that bad.” Cambrielle scooted up to rest her back against the padded white headboard of her canopy bed, pushing some of her brown hair away from her face.

“Yeah?” I rolled from my knees to sit on my butt against her wall, resting my arms around my legs. “And how did I get in here exactly? Did I just come in and you found me next to you sometime during the night?”

Because from the wall of pillows down the center of her bed, she had to have noticed me at some point and decided to protect herself from any accidental cuddling in the night.

I didn’t know if I was a cuddler, since I’d never shared a bed with anyone overnight—well until last night, apparently—but I hoped I hadn’t tried spooning her in her sleep.

She would’ve screamed and woken me up if I had, right?

“You came to my balcony door.” Cambrielle gestured at the French doors beside me. “At first I thought a murderer was knocking, but then I realized murderers probably don’t knock before they come in. That’s when I realized it was you.”

I dropped my head and shook it, feeling the warmth of embarrassment creeping over me.

Why couldn’t my body just stay where it was supposed to be at night? How was it possible for me to get so detached from reality in my sleep that I could wander around aimlessly, completely unaware of where my dreams were taking me, and then have absolutely no recollection of it in the morning?

Maybe I should have my dad take a closer look at my brain. Maybe my mom wasn’t the only one who needed his and his colleagues’ expertise.

I drew in a deep breath and sighed. “Sorry my subconscious is weird,” I said. “I’m starting to think I need to have someone handcuff me to the bed, so I’ll stop doing stupid stuff like this.”

“Handcuffs?” Cambrielle’s eyes widened, and a faint glow of pink colored her cheeks.

I shook my head. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Hey, you’re the one climbing into my bed without a shirt on.” Cambrielle laughed, a light, tinkling sound that always made me smile because it was cute and fit her midget size perfectly. “What am I supposed to think?”

---