Page 37 of Coping Skills

He sighed and pulled her into his chest, unable to keep himself from offering her some form of comfort when she so clearly needed it. “What do you need?” he asked again.

She didn’t answer for a few minutes. “I’m so tired. Could I just sleep for a while?” She paused, and then whispered, “And if you could hold me some more, that would be really great too.”

He nodded, smoothing his hands down her back. “I can do that.” Even though it would be a form of self-torture, he couldn’t deny her when she was crying. Pulling away, he led her to his bedroom. “I thought you said you had a bunch of coffee.”

She let out a low chuckle. “Yeah. But I’m so exhausted that there’s not enough coffee in the world to keep me awake right now.”

And she wasn’t lying. As soon as they slipped into bed, she snuggled back against him, pulled his arm around her waist, and fell asleep in minutes. He held himself still, not wanting to give in to the temptation of curling around her but finding it hard to stay separate. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, inhaling her scent, the fruity smell of her shampoo mixed with the unique smell of her skin. That sent blood flowing south, his cock lengthening against his thigh, which was the last thing he wanted right now. She didn’t want him. Not really. He needed to remember that. He wished he could flip a switch and turn off her effect on him.

Since he couldn’t do that, he waited a few more minutes to be sure she was deeply asleep, then extricated himself and went out to the living room. He sat there as the twilight faded and the room grew dark, contemplating what Elena’s sudden appearance after a week of silence meant. What did he want it to mean? If she wanted to get back together, would he do that? Maybe.

Puzzling through what-ifs and maybes was exhausting and useless, and he still had a dull headache from the game last weekend. The floaty, head-too-big-for-his-skull feeling had faded after a few days, but he still got tired faster than normal.

Flicking on a light, he pulled out some homework that he needed to catch up on. The trainers and coaches had told him he needed to rest for as long as possible, but he also couldn’t afford to get too behind in his classes. He’d missed Monday and Tuesday, but had gone the rest of the week. The one good thing was that this was the week they didn’t have a game, so he wasn’t missing anything there.

It didn’t take long for the tiredness to start dragging at him, blurring the numbers on his homework and making it difficult to do any more. He squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing them, and closed his math book over his notebook and pencil. He’d finish later.

Lying back on the couch, he kept his eyes closed. It felt good to close his eyes, so he’d sit like that for a while, listening for any sounds from Elena in his bedroom. She’d been asleep for a while. Would she wake up soon?

Someone hit his foot, bringing him out of his unplanned nap. He blinked his eyes open and found Coop standing at the end of the couch by his feet.

“Hey, man. Why are you sleeping on the couch?”

Daniel sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Elena’s here. She fell asleep in my bed.”

Coop snorted, opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head.

“Shut up, man. It’s not like that.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Daniel glared at him. “I know what you didn’t say.”

Shaking his head, Coop laughed quietly, keeping his voice down. “Whatever, man. Why’s she here? I thought she dumped your sorry ass.”

“Thanks so much for your sympathy, dude. What would I do without you?” Daniel stood and walked to the kitchen, stretching on his way there.

Coop followed him, waiting as he got a glass of water and drank it. “Seriously. Why did she come over? Is she trying to get back together or something?”

Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know. She went home today for the break, but I guess it didn’t go well, and she came back. She said she’d promised Hannah and Matt a weekend to themselves and didn’t feel like she could go there. She said she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.”

“And then she fell asleep in your bed?” Coop had crossed his arms, disbelief coloring his voice.

“Pretty much. She said she was really tired and asked if she could take a nap. I came out to the couch after she went to sleep and did some homework. My head started hurting, though, and I closed my eyes for a minute and fell asleep. What time is it, anyway?” He swiveled his head around to find the time on the microwave, which showed 7:56.

“Shit, man. She’s been asleep for over three hours.”

“You gonna wake her up?”

Daniel shook his head. “Nah. Why would I do that?”

Coop shrugged. “Dunno. Figure out why she’s really here? What she wants from you? See if she’s hungry?”

He considered that. “No. Not yet. She said she was exhausted, and she looked it. Man, she was crying. That woman never cries. She holds it back and pushes it down and doesn’t let it out.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy, dude.”

Daniel shrugged. “Maybe not. I dunno. I’m a math major and a football player. We’ve all been told to suck it up and walk it off since we were kids. If that’s what she wants to do, who am I to judge? But for her to let tears out …” He shook his head. “Man, whatever’s going on with her is bad, and I couldn’t just kick her out.”

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