The next morning, I wake up pressed to Damon's chest. It's warm and firm, but surprisingly comfortable. His arm is draped around my waist and his forehead is tilted down to touch the top of mine. The position is surprisingly intimate and warm. Very warm.
When my stomach protests again, its growl reverberating around the whole room, I try to squirm my way out from underneath Damon's arm. He stirs in his sleep, his hold tightening around my waist.
I turn around in his arms, looking up at his face. He looks peaceful, content.
"Are you going to stare at me all morning?"
Blinking, I sheepishly smile. "That was the plan."
"Carry on then, baby."
I don't listen, opting to get out of bed and feed my ravenous stomach. He doesn't let me leave the bed, only pulls me closer into his body. Not that that is possible.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to eat something. I don't remember when I ate last."
His brows furrow in thought. He shakes his head a minute later and gets out of bed. "Let's go get you something to eat."
I join him at his door and together we walk to the kitchen to cook breakfast. He stops at the fridge to grab eggs, bacon, bread, and other ingredients to make french toast. "I know it's early and we already talked about it, but if you want to talk about how you feel instead of the actual situation we could do that."
"I don't know. I guess I was scared. I mean, I never thought anything like that could happen to me. I've seen it in movies, but never actually imagined it happening to me. For a second, I really thought he was going to take me. It seemed like nothing I was doing was enough to stop him. The only reason I got away is because I hid in a place I knew he wouldn't be able to find me."
He walks over to me then, the bread already cooking in the pan.
"It's okay. You're safe. You will never have to go through something like that again. I'm sorry that you did. But, I promise I will protect you from now on."
"You can't always protect me. It was probably someone just looking to rob me."
"You're not that naive. I don't want you out studying so late anymore. It's not safe."
"In this one instance, just this one, I will agree with you. But that does not mean that you can just tell me what to do and control my life."
"I'm not trying to. I just want to keep you safe."
He walks back over to the stove to flip over the french toast. He pulls the pieces of bacon apart from each other and gets another pan. We stand in silence as he does this, neither of us knows what to say.
"I have to go back there today. I have classes. You will still drop me off, right?"
"Of course I will, but I'm not leaving unless you are in my car and ready to go home or to work."
"Damon…"
"I wasn't asking."
I want to be mad that he is inputting himself in my life so blatantly. It's like he thinks I'm a helpless little girl who cannot take care of herself. I did pretty well last night if I do say so myself. I saved myself from the bad guy. But, at the same time, I understand where he is coming from. With the people from his past out to get him, he is worried that they will target me. If anything like this happened to him or to Amelia, I would be very overprotective over them too.
"I also want you to stay here for the next couple of nights."
"I can't do that. I want some privacy. I can take care of myself."
"Once again, I wasn't asking. Let me take care of you. I am here for you."
"I know that, but-"
"No 'buts.' You are staying here for the next couple of days until I think it is safe for you to go home."
He turns around and takes the pieces of french toast out of the pan. The smell of cinnamon wafts through the kitchen. My mouth waters. Putting the pieces on a plate, he adds new ones to the pan to cook and flips the bacon.
"I will take you to your apartment later to get you necessities."
"I want to take a shower in my own shower tomorrow."
"No."
"You can be in the apartment with me. Hell, you can be in the bathroom with me, but I want to use my own shower," I say, exasperated with his behavior.
"Fine, but if, at any moment, I think it is not safe, we are leaving."
"Deal."
"Deal."
We stand in silence, him tending to the food and me watching his back muscles flex. I picture the way his arms were around me this morning and already miss their warmth and weight on me.
Brandon stretching as he walks into the kitchen breaks my trance. He looks at me knowingly.
"Good morning."
"Morning," Damon and I reply at the same time.
"Rose, do you want to talk about it? You seemed distraught last night. Is there anything I can help with?"
I know that he is just trying to be supportive by finding out what happened, but I just don't want to talk about it. I already had to live through it twice last night and once this morning. That is more than enough for me.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I really don't want to talk about you. Damon can tell you later, but I just don't want a play-by-play again. Sorry."
"Hey, hey, hey," Brandon comes up to me, lifting my chin. I feel bad that I talked to Damon about it twice and yet I can't even tell Brandon about it once. "That is okay. I just want to be here to support you. How about we watch movies today after you get back from your classes? We can watch your favorite movie?"
I manage a watery smile, they barely know me and they care for me so much that they would spend their day watching movies they aren't the least bit interested in to make me feel better.
"I would love that. Thank you."
I turn around and hug him, he squeezes me into his chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Damon turn to look at us, a smile on his lips and a sparkle in his eye. What is that about?
"Breakfast is ready, everyone sit down."
Walking to the cupboards, I grab plates, cups, forks, and knives out, setting them down on the table while Brandon gets butter, syrup, and juice from the fridge. We all sit at the same time, Damon placing the eggs and bacon on the table. We sit silently, filling our plates. It's unsettling. I just want to talk and not be trapped in my own mind.
"Can we talk about something, please?"
"Sure, what's on that mind of yours, Rose?"
A lot. "I'm nervous for my exams. I have a class today. I took a shower this morning. I don't want to go back to my campus. I don't want to have to think about last night. I mean, nothing even happened, why am I harping on it so much? I just want to stop thinking about it!"
They look at me then, sympathy and pity in their eyes. I don't want their pity. I stand up from the table. I need to go home. I need to find a way to distract my thoughts, to move on and pretend like it never happened because nothing did happen. I am safe. I was lucky.
With misty eyes, I walk out of their door and frantically search my pockets for my keys. Where are they? Thinking about it, where is my phone? My bag?
My stomach drops. I never picked up my bag from when it fell. Everything is in there. Keys, phone, wallet. Everything.
Turning around I bump into Damon, my head hanging low in shame. "Can you take me to the campus? I dropped my bag last night and it has my keys in it. I really need to get my keys."
"Okay. Come inside with me and I will grab my keys and we can go."
"I just- I want to stay out here."
His lips form a scowl. "No. Just stand right inside the door."
"Dam-"
"Rose, enough!"
I flinch at his tone, he has never spoken to me that way. He reaches out to me, apologetically, but I back away. I don't know who that man was right then. He was angry. Looking into his eyes, sadness and fear swim in their depths.
"I- I'm," huffing he walks away.
Why is he acting like this? What did I do?