Atonement
By Seniya
Fan
Oh can't you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches
With every step you take
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you
Every Step You Take By Sting
………………………..
Bliss can possibly be defined as falling asleep with her on my arm. I'm fairly certain that she doesn't know it, but there's this thing…that she does with her mouth when she's dreaming. That's nice too. Yeah, that's it, simple, I know, this definition of bliss. Because recently I'm discovering that bliss really isn't at all complicated. Her, I guess, she has this other habit of uncomplicating things.
Bliss is also waking up with her sprawled across my chest, because (and she'd deny it) she's a horrible sleeper. She usually winds up on top of me, and then of course comes the part when she awakens and blushes and stammers…yeah, little things.
But this morning, she wasn't ontop of me…or next to me for that matter…
"Will?" It's too early to be worried (the brightly colored alarm clock on her nightstand heralds 4:30 AM), but I manage it anyway. She also does that to me by the way, makes me worry—she's too small, you have to see her to really understand but she's tiny. You'd worry too, especially since she doesn't seem to notice—or care about the fact that most people outweigh her by twenty pounds.
"Will where are you?"
"I'm here," she wanders out of her closet, her hands tugging at her hair, which I assume that she's trying to detangle—no use. She clad in a massive gray shirt, a very familiar looking shirt in fact, one shoe on her foot…
"Come back to bed."
"I'm going jogging."
"Now?"
"Yes, now."
Jogging is pointless, what's the use of running in circles—you train horses like that, you herd cattle like that. She doesn't seem to care for my opinon much though (and I have expressed it to her many times), seeing as she continues on with this; now this is a habit I can do without. Everytime I come to visit her, she jumps out of bed at these God forsaken hours to go running.
And when she comes back she doesn't even rejoin me in bed. It's damn near cruelty.
"Have you seen my other shoe?"
I pull the covers over my face, mumbling a no. Of course, I'm not a morning person, in my experience, you awoke at the crack of dawn to win wars, not to…what was it…jog?
Her dorm is disgusting in any case, you can't find anything in here…
"Found it!" she chirps and then sits next to me and laces it up.
"Come back to bed." I'm fairly certain that I can break her down if I keep at it.
"No…"
"Yes…" I reach for her slight frame (a surprise attack) intending to pull her back underneath the covers, but she's already pranced over to the other side of the room, rumaging through her drawers.
"Besides, I am expected."
"Expected, by who?"
"My friends. They're from the high school here, they're on the track team so they jog with me on mornings—since you don't want to."
She looks over her shoulder at me, smirking, have I mentioned her mouth? Because it's perfect.
"What is it with you girls and running around in circles."
"They're not girls."
"What?" I managed to convince my lazy mind and body to sit up.
"Don't freak out. They're just some guys that run with me. They say that's its good practice for when the track season starts."
"When has this started?"
"Don't Caleb, they're like, sixteen maybe." As if that would comfort anyone.
"That's a terrible age…boys that age only want one thing…"
"Not this again," she interjects.
"Well, you don't seem to listen when I tell you this."
"And what do you want?"
"For you to come back to bed. I'm not going to deny it."
She blushes, but manages to laugh. "Well, don't try to pin your one track mind on everyone else."
"Where are they?"
"Why?"
"I'm just gonna…"
"No."
"Why, what am I going to do?"
"You are going to go downstairs and scare them off. You'll tell them something like, I'll saw off your arms and reattach them to your back…"
"That's original." I stagger from bed, drawing nearer to her, "I'll remember it for later."
"Haha." She presses a kiss on my cheek. "But I'm a big girl now. I can take care of myself. Besides, they're really sweet guys."
She turns away, making her way through clothes and books towards the door. I know that the park is merely across the street, I know that she'll run around for maybe half an hour and then return, but still…
Like I said, she's five foot nothing. Too small, far too small.
"Wait Will." The inclusion of boys in this equation changes everything. Boys are disgusting pigs. They'll probably run behind her simply to stare…or "accidentally" brush up against her…And she, being Will, won't notice or care…so of course, as usual it is my duty as the paranoid boyfriend to care and know for her. "I'll go with you."
"You?" She snorts. So perhaps my lengthy rants on the futility of jogging (delivered to her at least once a week, every week) are now coming back to bite me in the ass.
"Yes, me." I ignore her raised eyebrows. "What? It's a free country."
"I thought that normal people don't jog."
"They don't. And it's bad for the knees."
"So then…"
"Because, since you won't stay here, I think that it's a good way to spend time together."
"Suddendly…"
"No…not suddendly. I've been thinking about it for a while." It's just that this makes it all the more dire.
"If you promise to behave…"
"I promise. Now, I want a shirt, where's the one that I had on last night?"
"Is this it? Turn around, I'll give you it back."
"Turn around?" Maybe I should learn to think before I speak. "Why? It's not like I haven't already…"
"Just do it." She's blushing again. I wish she would have just stayed in bed and let me enjoy her warm, flowery smell for just a few hours more…but, well a few less hours of sleep won't kill me.
I hope.
She's yanked on another T-shirt by the time that she allows me to look at her again. I notice, vaguely, that it features a large cross-eyed green creature, that, knowing her must be a frog.
"Come on…" She smiles, and I follow her out of the door.
………………………..
Well, on the upside (the very slight upside) at least she seems to be excited about me running around with her. She bounces along next to me, telling me in an overly happy voice that she's certain that I'll love jogging, and that it's actually fun.
Had I had more sleep last night, I may have been convinced to play along. But I haven't, so I just nod and grunt occasionally. Staring at the other closed dorm rooms on our way down the stairs with absolute longing…
"Oh wait…" We're in the hall now, where outside, through the foggy glass doors I can see them, all three of them, waiting for her.
"I forgot my water…" she bites her lip, so damn adorable…"I'll have to go get it. It'll only take a second." And she's already up the stairs.
Which is fine, absolutely fine. A more than oppertune moment to introduce myself to her "friends".
………………………..
Well, Will was right about one thing. They are all sixteen.
It's freezing outside, being the middle of Febuary, and yet, two of these three have decided that it is in their best interests to not wear shirts during their little practice session. Right. The third one is now currently stuffing his face with some sort of fried meat, the grease on his cheeks and chin is challenged only by the grease in his hair.
And the smell…like embalming oils…
Will, Will, Will, when will you learn?
"She wants me." I hear one of them saying to his friends in the typical arrogant earth boy drawl. "Obviously, did you see her last Saturday?"
"Jason, this girl is a fox. Why in the blue hell would she want you?"
Yes, Jason, why would she?
"Because…"
"Look whatever, if she really does. And I mean if, you've got to tell us if she's a natural red when you finally tap that…"
Well that's about it. Resisting the urge to simply snap their scrawny necks, I walk towards them. They don't notice, that's all right. Will keeps reminding me that there are laws and punishments for doing those things here.
They continue on with their little conversation for a while, and really, it's a strange experience to have to listen to three snot nosed boys describe (in their loudest of voices) to everyone near them the shape of your girlfriend's…derrier.
But, soon their attention drifts over to me.
Finally.
"What are you standing around here for?" One of them questions.
I shrug. Really, this isn't even remotely amusing to me. "You know that girl you're waiting for."
"Yeah." Another one squints at me, "what, are you her cousin or something?"
"No, I'm her boyfirend." Not the reaction that I expected, perhaps, the reaction that I wanted, but still, the fact that none of them even flinches…
"So what," Jason, who I've now deemed to be the ring leader here, stands below me by at least a foot. "What? Are you here to tell us that we can't go running with her anymore?"
"No," I stare down at him, wishing to God in heaven that he'd simply implode, but no, he remains intact. "You can run. But of course, only if your running doesn't include you touching her, talking to her or, and here'a a very important one, don't you dare look at her."
"What's your problem…"
"I don't have a problem. You however, you might. You see, if I catch you even thinking about looking at her again, well, I might be tempted to pull your intestines out through your throat and see, finally, if they really are as long as people claim."
"You wouldn't…"
"Well, not now I wouldn't. But after a while, I might become…inspired. You see, Will has this little tendancy to believe what people tell her…that's why she has me...to make sure that they tell her the truth. You understand?"
That did it. Visions of hormal satisfaction currently bainished from their sex deprived minds, they took off.
Well, what did you know, they were actually pretty fast.
………………………..
"Hey, where are they going?"
Will is back, her bottle in hand, her eyes are pulling double duty, attempting to inspect both me and the sidewalk at the same time.
"What did you do to them?"
"Me?" I nearly gasp with shock. "Nothing."
"Caleb you said that you'd behave."
"And I did. I was just…introducing myself and they ran off. I guess that they were just intimidated."
"Right. And what did you say to them exactly?"
"What, you don't believe that I'm imtimidating?"
"No, actually I don't."
"Now that stung Vandom."
"You suck." She rolls her eyes at me. "And after you promised me that you'd behave yourself. You go and chase away my running partners. Now, who am I going to run with? You?"
"I don't run Will. I'll just watch you…"
"It's not a spectator sport."
"All right fine…where around there?" I point to the park, "what all the way around there?"
"Fine, fine. I'll go by myself. Even though you said that you would."
I watch her as she sprints across the street into the park, I watch as her messy ponytail bobs along with her. Feeling…quite satisfied at least, that she's safe for now.
………………………..
Author: You should know that my spell check seems to be broken, so forgive any errors, I really did my best at editing…(gulp) manually.
Well, the lyrics are of course, the offical "Matt is a stalker" song. Oh well.
I thought that this was funny, and it was fun to write, it came to me a lunch today. It's based on that episode when Caleb walks Will home in the snow, I always figured that he'd be the over-protective type. I dunno.
Thanks to Zadien, HA, and my favorite faerie for their continued support. Reviews don't bug me much honestly, but yours are always anticipated.
Next: W is for Worthy.