I was in my room working on my essay on my laptop. April stayed until around eleven o'clock, waiting to leave until we were both finished our papers. Now I was doing revision. It was close to midnight but I knew better than to go to bed already. I didn't even flinch as my bedroom window creaked open. "When are you gonna start locking this thing?" Grinning, I spun to the side in my seat to see Raphael standing in front of my windowsill. His arms were crossed over the front of his shell like he was utterly unimpressed. This only made my grin grow. "Hi, Raphael."
"How many times do I have to tell you to lock your damn window?" His big green foot tapped firmly on the floor. "Then how would you get in every night? You come to make sure its locked every night, Raphael." "Because you don't lock it!" "I would if I knew you weren't coming," I sighed, turning back to my computer screen. "I'll stop coming when I know you're automatically locking your window," he came over to my desk drawers.
"How was patrol?" "Boring," the red masked turtle started rummaging through the bottom drawer. "Turns out Donnie's Kraang detection software was off, again," yanking out a ton of candy from my official candy drawer, he slammed it shut. "Hey!" This caught my attention. "I didn't give you permission to rummage through my candy stash." "Call it payment for coming all the way over here," he went to plunk himself in my soft chair, putting his feet up on my bed and resting the candy on the front of his shelf. "What are you working on?" He asked, starting to open the first chocolate bar.
"Uh, just an essay for Mr. Ratburn's class; it's due tomorrow." "Oh, read it to me." "It's not that interesting." "So? I like everything you write." This made me turn sideways again so I could look at him, resting my arm on the back of my chair. "What?" He noticed I was staring at him a minute later. "You know, Raphael. If you wanted to make sure my window was locked, you could just text me." "Ha! Like that would work; you don't answer your phone while you're doing homework." "Still, it's not like anything is going to happen to me." "And if it did? You're pretty helpless….." "I don't live alone; may I remind you. Uncle's here too." "Oh yeah; what's your uncle gonna do? Talk their ears hears off?" "Uhhhhhhhhh….."
"I love your dragon tattoos! How long did they take? Did they hurt? Where did you get them done? Wait, don't tell me; you did them yourselves? My brother tried to do his own tattoo once. He wanted to tattoo himself riding a giraffe on his forearm… but he accidently wound up tattooing his big toe instead. And he was wearing boots at the time too….. Wait, didn't you come here to rob us? Better try again tomorrow; had a pretty slow day today."
"You know what? That's actually scarily accurate," I hummed to myself, rubbing my thumb over my chin. "What's the big deal? So I come by every night to make sure your window's locked. What's wrong with that?" "It seems a little excessive, unless you have ulterior motives," I fired off a smirk in his direction. He did not seem to appreciate this, frowning at me. "What are you implying?" "I'm not implying anything; you imply, I infer." "Would you just shut up? It helps me sleep." "What does?" "This, obviously. I can't sleep unless I know that you're safe."
I didn't say anything, just blinked at Raphael with wide eyes. What did he just say? As if immediately comprehending what he just said himself, Raphael's eyes drifted off into nowhere for a second. Then he gave his head a violent shake. "W-what I meant was that I can't sleep because I know I'll have to wake up in the middle of the night to save your butt!" That's not what he meant. But I didn't address it, just kept staring at him in a sort of awe.
The room felt tense for a while, during which neither of us said anything for a minute or so. Eventually I smiled, as if trying to banish the awkward aura radiating off Raphael. "Well, we wouldn't want that. Don't worry, Raphael; I promise not to go to sleep unless my window is locked." "G-good!" His back stiffened a tad. "Uh, Baby….. you know I didn't mean anything weird by….. I mean it's not like I'm worried about your safety because I like you or anything!" "No, Raphael," I gave him a gentle, understanding smile, lowering my eyes a little. "I know what you meant." "Y-you do?" "Yes," I nodded. "Then would stop looking at me like that?!" "Like what?" "Like….. like that! God, I get enough chills when you look at me as is. You don't have to make it worse for me!" Oh! "S-sorry!" Oh…. Chills, huh? Yes, I think I was beginning to understand.