A continuation of "Taking Turns." More to come. Enjoy. :)
"Joe and I can stay with you tonight, Abbie." Jenny handed her a cup of lemon tea.
"Pour that out, Jenny."
She put the cup on the table.
"Don't worry about staying the night. Go get some rest. We'll meet here tomorrow morning." Abbie got up and walked to the door.
"Abbie."
"I'll see you tomorrow."
Jenny tried to hug Abbie, but she took one step back. Her sister stared at her before glancing out the door. Then she stared back to Abbie.
"See you tomorrow, Abbs," she said.
Abbie nodded and shut the door behind Jenny when she left. She knew she had to keep it together in order to get Crane from Pandora. This is the second time they've been separated like this. How would this change them even further? Would this distance them from each other or bring them closer together?
She still dealt with the trauma behind the Underworld. It was occurred in bits and pieces nowadays. Sometimes whispering, a pat on the arm she wasn't expecting, or the heat would trigger a flashback. Imagining how Crane would handle the Underworld himself concerned her.
The tea on the table didn't do her any favors when she walked in her living room. She didn't touch it, only stared at the steam that floated up and disappeared. The steam was there and then it wasn't. It was kind of like—. She left the tea and walked out the living room.
After her shower, she got into her bed. Lying on her back or on her side didn't help, nor did lying on her stomach. She squirmed for a whole hour before she got up and walked to Crane's room. He wouldn't answer if she knocked, so she slowly opened his door. His bed was unmade, but everything else was in its right place. The blue comforter would have been made if he hadn't slept in her room. It was the day before they figured out who would go to Pandora. He was worried about her and wanted to be there. She let him.
Walking further into his room, she sat on his bed, squeezed his comforter and closed her eyes. She inhaled. Everything smelled like outside, like pine trees and grass, like him. She hurried out of his room. In hers, she searched through her drawers for the shirt she wore the first night she returned home from the Underworld. She took off her pajamas to put it on, pulled at the sleeves to tighten his shirt around her body.
Hours passed as she lay in her bed with his shirt wrapped around her. After curling into herself for a few minutes, she finally got back out of bed. She took off his shirt, put it back in the drawer, and redressed in her previous pajamas. She grabbed two blankets from her closet as well as a new pillow that she threw on the floor. With one blanket spread on her carpet and the other wrapped around her, she lay down and slept.