Previously: Darcy and Elise bond, Elise figures out more of what is going on with her father.
18
"This is fucking ridiculous!" Darcy grumbled angrily.
Over the last few nights, the dripping from his ceiling had continued to wake him up, and it seemed that no matter where he moved the bed the leak still managed to get him.
In a moment of inspiration he'd had the idea to cut up a variety of plastic bags, which he then taped over the various damp points on the ceiling of his room. But even that had failed him.
It just so happened that enough water had collected in the plastic that coincidentally happened to be above his head, causing it to overflow and dribble down on to his slumbering face, waking him up once again. Darcy had mentioned his problem to Elise, and between the two of them they'd both called Mrs. Phillips umpteen times, neither being deigned with a response. Her answering machine was surely full of messages from the pair.
Had the leak been generated from their own apartment, Darcy would have happily called a plumber to fix it, but it was clear to him that the leak was due to an issue with the apartment upstairs and the flooring/ceiling between the two flats. He had even been to speak to their upstairs neighbor, but the man who answered the door had spoken to was disgruntled at being woken up (at 2 in the afternoon, at that) and was entirely unhelpful. In the end, he'd announced gruffly to Darcy it wasn't his problem and that he wasn't going to stop showering on his behalf. Darcy had bitten his tongue to hold back from commenting on the fact that he doubted that the man showered on anyone's behalf at all. .
After a sixth night of disturbed sleep, Darcy was pretty fed up. After muttering to himself for a little while longer, he firmly decided that he was going to sleep on the couch. It took him wandering to the living room and stumbling around in the dark for him to realise that they still didn't have a couch. This was in part due to stubbornness on both his and Elise's part. Both of them had been insistent that they should have been provided with ample furniture, and so instead of purchasing one themselves, this was the basis of the second reason for their many calls to Mrs Phillips. Seeing the empty space before him, Darcy groaned out loud at his own mulishness.
Meanwhile, Elise's sleep cycle was gradually improving. She had been sleeping a full 8 hours the past few nights, and her hatred for their apartment (and Mrs Phillips) was diminishing, though at a very slow rate.
Darcy was absolutely fed up of moving his 'stupid uncomfortable bed' around the room in order to avoid the leak only to be awoken anyway. It wasn't as if the bed was all that comfortable without water falling on his face.
'I might as well be sleeping in the shower,' he thought to himself sarcastically. The idea however, planted itself in his brain, and Darcy realised that in fact, he might actually be better off doing just that.
Heading over to the bathroom, he switched on the lights. He made his way over to the bathtub and skimmed his hand over its inner surface, checking for moisture.
'Pretty damn dry! Drier than my mattress anyway,' he snorted quietly. He went back to his room, retrieved some of his bedclothes, scooping them up into his arms. He looked very much the part of a child who had had a nightmare, sneaking over to their parents' room to sleep. Darcy prepared a vaguely comfortable looking bed for himself in the bathtub, patting down layers of sheet and duvet. He had placed the duvet on the bottom, to add some padding to his nest, and decided to use the sheet as a cover instead.
He turned the bathroom light off and plodded over to the tub once more. Climbing in, Darcy discovered that aside from having to sleep in fetal position, as his legs were too long, and having his neck turned at a slightly awkward angle, which was sure to result in a crick tomorrow, his bathtub-bed was not all that uncomfortable. It took about 5 minutes, but Darcy managed to fall asleep, pleased that the showerhead hadn't dripped on his feet at all.
Elise for the first time in several days, stirred from her sleep. Her eyes soon opened, but only half conscious she simply rolled over and made an attempt to go back to sleep. Normally, she would have succeeded in her endeavor, but the built up pressure in her lower abdomen told her that she would have to pee before she could get back to sleep again. Still not entirely coherent, she padded over to the bathroom and switched on the light.
Darcy, who had succumbed to sleep only moments earlier, was easily awoken by the light. Startled, he sat up quickly, accidentally knocking over a shampoo bottle in the process. He was on the verge of blowing his gasket when Elise, hearing a noise from behind the shower curtain and fearing her childhood fears had been realised screamed loudly.
Suddenly more awake, Elise found herself shouting for Darcy, calling him to help defend her against the intruder in the bathtub. So, when Darcy stood and pulled back the shower curtain exasperatedly, she was very much taken aback to discover that in fact, Darcy himself was the intruder in the bathtub.
"Darcy?" she asked, as he stood facing her, a pitiful sight, his hair ruffled and eyes bloodshot.
"What's going on?" he asked with a resigned voice, lifting both his hands to rub his eyes with vigour.
"I could ask you the same," Elise replied, awake and back to her usual snarky self. "Why are you in the shower with the door unlocked the water off and fully dressed?"
"Why not?" Darcy responded sarcastically. Elise's continued perplexed expression persuaded him to elaborate further. "The leak above my bed led me to believe I might actually be dryer sleeping in the tub than in my bed."
"What? It's that bad?" Elise asked, feeling somewhat guilty for the several nights of decent sleep she had managed. Not bothering to wait for an answer when she once again took in his pathetic state, Elise felt she should at the very least try to provide Darcy an alternative to the cold, hard tub. "Darcy, come on," she said pulling his hand. "Grab your duvet and pillow, you can sleep in my bed."
"What?" Darcy responded, finally perking up.
"I said come sleep on my bed. I would bring your duvet and pillow because I tend to hog the blanket, or so I've been told anyway," Elise instructed.
Too sleep deprived and frustrated to refuse on the grounds of propriety, Darcy gathered his things and shuffled along behind Elise to her room.
Elise entered the room and unceremoniously plonked herself down onto the bed. She positioned herself on the far side of the bed, lying on her side with her hands below her pillow. She closed her eyes briefly, letting out a small sigh, before reopening them to look at Darcy expectantly.
Darcy eyed the vacant side of the bed hesitantly, but a moment of contemplation of going back to sleep in the bathtub was enough to convince him that sharing a bed with his charge was an encounter he was willing to endure.
Sandman came and Elise, her bladder now empty, was very quickly fast asleep once more. Darcy initially felt stiff and restricted in a situation that he found mildly awkward and was thus unable to get comfy enough to fall asleep. However, when he heard Elise's breathing slow as she succumbed to sleep, he was able to relax before he too joined her in contented slumber.
Darcy was far too warm. That much he could recognise in his sleeping state, although he remained unaware that the source of his warmth was a combination of the California weather, two thick duvets laid over him, and the body heat of his charge whose back was pressed against his chest.
Waking up due to the heat that was suffocating him, Darcy blinked a couple of times in succession, before he identified the body that was flush against his own. He lay very still as he determined the best course of action, which in his mind was to back away slowly from Elise, and return to his side of the bed. He was extremely taken aback however at the sound of her muffled voice.
"Your gun is poking me," Elise uttered.
Darcy tensed even further. He hadn't even realised that she was awake! Furthermore, as he looked down his body, he could see no identifiable cause for her comment. 'This is going to be awkward,' he thought.
"Um…" he began, quickly trying to think of an appropriate response.
"But I didn't put the hamster in the washing machine, I just want you to pass me the polo mint," Elise mumbled.
Utterly discombobulated, Darcy lay still, listening for further speech from the body that lay still beside him.
"I bought us a megaphone for the car," she announced.
There was all the confirmation he needed to conclude that Elise was spouting nonsense in her sleep, and he breathed a small sigh of relief before shifting away from her and back to the cool linen on his side of the bed.
"So…" Darcy began entering the kitchen to find Elise laying out 2 perfectly poached eggs on a plate for him, "…you talk in your sleep."
"Hmm?" Elise responded as she extracted four pieces of toast from the toaster, placing two pieces on each of the plates already laid out with two poached eggs.
"You talk in your sleep. You were spouting some really random crap last night… or early this morning more accurately," Darcy elaborated.
"Oh yeah," Elise acknowledged, "I maybe should have mentioned that, I hope it didn't disturb you too much."
"No, not at all," Darcy replied smirking, "you had some pretty interesting banter, it's all good."
Elise looked mildly concerned, "Interesting how? What did I say?"
It was then Darcy's turn to look worried as he recalled her comment about the gun. "Oh nothing really," he replied shrugging it off, "to be honest you were talking complete nonsense. And you mumbled so I'm not even sure I could fully make out words."
"Oh, ok then," Elise said, her focus shifting back to her breakfast preparations. She placed a plate down in front of Darcy and the other one down in front of her seat. "Jenine always tells this story about how this one time, when we were kids and shared a room, I started talking to her in my sleep but she didn't realise. Apparently I asked her what type of toothpaste she liked best, and she properly thought about it for a while and then was like 'Colgate, how about you?' She was astounded when the next thing I said was 'McDonalds.'"
Darcy chuckled at the thought, knowing full well that Elise could sound entirely awake while talking in her sleep.
"So, whatcha got planned for today?" he asked, in a conversational tone.
"Hmm, I dunno, it's such a nice day today," Elise mumbled back before she swallowed the food in her mouth. "One of the downsides of not living at my dad's is that I can't just up and go for a swim whenever I want."
"Yeah, that is a shame," Darcy agreed. "You could still always move back…?" he suggested.
Elise chuckled, "Nice try, Darcy. I love how hopeful you sound. I'm too stubborn to give up and move back."
"Don't I know it," Darcy muttered.
Elise pushed him playfully. "It's so bright and sunny today! Don't you just want to be in the water?" Elise asked, but she didn't allow him time to reply. "I betcha I could outswim you!" she provoked.
"In my current state, you probably could," Darcy agreed.
"What do you mean your current state?" she enquired, befuddled.
"I'm so out of shape right now," he explained.
Elise snorted and rolled her eyes, "You don't look in the least bit out of shape to me," she replied, "stop acting like such a girl."
"I'm not acting like a girl! I've put on loads of weight and yeah a reasonable amount of it is muscle, but I'm nowhere near as lean as I was back in my swimming heyday. Also, there's the additional issue of my shoulder."
"Is that where you got injured? Your shoulder?" Elise asked.
"Yeah," Darcy replied sullenly.
"How did it happen?" she pushed.
"Uh… there was a car accident," Darcy said vaguely.
Deciding she had probed him enough for one day, Elise decided to let it go and began washing up, leaving Darcy to his own thoughts as he did the drying.
"Daaarcy!" Elise summoned, as she emerged from her room that afternoon.
"What can I do for you, my good lady?" Darcy asked in a haughty voice as he came to stand in front of her.
"Grab your trunks! We're going swimming!" Elise announced excitedly.
"We are? Wait… are you moving back home or is this something else?"
"Good joke," Elise replied. "We're going swimming at Casa Lucas with Carla and JW," she explained.
"You invited yourself over so you could use their pool?" Darcy accused.
"I did no such thing!" Elise defended. "I merely called Carla to see how she was, seeing as I have not seen or spoken to her in a while and I wanted to know all her gossip. There may have been some mention of how lovely the whether is, how pleasant it would be to go for a swim and what a shame it is that I don't live at my Dad's anymore where there is in fact a pool."
"So… basically you invited yourself over?" he persisted.
"I did not at all. Carla is the one who said 'Oh Elise! Why don't you come over here where we can swim and gossip and frolick in the sunlight?'"
"So… you manipulated her into inviting you over. Which is pretty much the same as inviting yourself."
"Shut up Darcy, stop wasting time and gather your water-wear so that we can be off!"
The atmosphere was off. Elise was sitting beside Carla by the edge of their pool with her feet dangling in the water, as both girls sipped at glasses of coke. But they were sitting in silence. Granted they were both sipping refreshments but nonetheless, Elise knew something was up. Carla had been nowhere near as loquacious as usual; even her usually exuberant greeting for Elise had been toned down.
The group had been in the pool for over an hour. They had all been swimming laps back and forth initially. However Elise and J.W.'s competitive friendship meant that it wasn't long before the two were challenging each other to races across the pool. They'd invited Carla and Darcy to join in, but Darcy had politely declined with some excuse, which Elise could tell was just a cover to make sure he didn't show them all up with his superior swimming skills. Carla had somewhat surprisingly declined as well, preferring to continue swimming laps back and forth at a leisurely pace.
The racing had quickly turned into splashing and joking around, and before long J.W. and Elise were tossing a beach ball at each other from either end of the pool. Carla had continued with her laps for a while, before returning in doors to grab everyone sodas to drink.
Darcy was the only one who had maintained swimming laps the entire time. He was somehow moving with speed but maintaining an entirely relaxed appearance as he did lengths of butterfly back and forth. From her current vantage point, Elise could appreciate the toned muscles of his back as he brought his arms over, and his turning and kicking off the wall afforded her a view of his highly defined dimples of Venus.
"So…how are things?" Elise asked Carla, attempting to start up a conversation with her. The fact that she was attempting to make small talk with her best friend by lamely asking mundane questions was not lost on Elise.
"Oh, you know, the usual," Carla responded. "How about you?"
Elise couldn't comprehend the awkwardness that seemed to have fallen between them. "I'm just so glad to be in the water on a day as great as this," Elise responded with a somewhat falsely chirpy tone. In reality she was appalled that they had been reduced to discussing the weather. When Elise spotted J.W. returning from indoors with four popsicles in hand, she was relieved that there would be an additional party joining their conversation.
J.W. handed out the popsicles, Elise glad to have been able to get the raspberry one, and summoned Darcy from the pool handing him one as well. Soon the party of four was seated in a line, their feet dangling in the water as they enjoyed the heat of the day combined with the cool of the flavoured ice.
"Guys," Elise was taken aback as Carla interrupted their peaceful interlude, for the first time that day seeming to want to converse. "Since the two of you are my best friends," Carla began, "and Darcy you seem like a nice guy," she added, "I feel like I need to tell you guys my news first." Elise and J.W. eyed her warily, worried about what was to come.
I'm quitting my job…" Carla began her announcement, and was swiftly interrupted by exclamations of 'finally!' as well as the expected questions of what and why from both her brother and her best friend.
"I've got a new job…" she continued, and was once again interrupted by exclamations and questions from the other two.
"It's in Baltimore," she concluded.
"What?" both Elise and J.W. uttered in simultaneous shock.
"I've agreed to help with the production of Nicoll Collin's talk show, and together we're going to start setting up a production company that will hopefully not only be producing his show, but also my own show where I get to start producing some investigative journalism documentaries. I'm using some of the money I've saved from over the years- I mean I've always been pretty frugal- to help start out and everything. Unfortunately his show is largely based on the east coast, which is going to need me to move over there, since for the time being we're going to continue working under his current production company until we can get all the details arranged and finalised. So yeah, I'm moving to Baltimore to follow my dream," Carla explained, the explanation rushing out of her mouth as each thought passed through her mind.
"Carla… What? You're planning on working with Nicoll Collins? Why would you ever want to do that? He's such an… odious man," Elise grimaced at the thought of him.
Carla rolled her eyes with some irritation. It annoyed her that all Elise had taken from her announcement was that she would be working with Nicoll Collins, regardless of the fact that she was being given the opportunity to follow her career dreams at last and the fact that she'd be moving halfway across the country away from everyone and everything she knew. As much as she loved Elise, it did frustrate Carla how stubborn she could be about anything related to anyone who happened to make a bad impression on her.
"Elise, he's giving me the opportunity to do what I really want to do for a living. Yes, we've yet to work out all the finer details, but I finally feel like I'm actually making progress. Rather than sitting and doing a job I don't like and don't want to do without taking any action to change that, I'm going to be starting out doing a job I'm not that into, but at least I finally have a game plan to get where I want. So, quite frankly I don't care whether he's odious or melodious or anything else," Carla said defensively.
"You're planning to move?" J.W. asked, the thought of Baltimore finally hitting him.
"Yeah," Carla acknowledged, " it's not ideal, and I'd rather not, but I kind of have to for now anyway. We'll see what happens later on."
"You never said anything about this until now," Elise stated accusingly.
"Yeah, this is the first you've mentioned any of this, and it's kind of a huge decision," J.W. backed up Elise.
"Well I didn't want to say anything until I knew better what was happening. Now that I've told you guys, I'm obviously going to keep you both updated on the details of what's happening and what I'm planning. And both of you have been busy anyways, Elise you've been sorting out your new place, and Jun Wei you've been sneaking around hiding whatever it is you're hiding," Carla defended herself.
"I'm not hiding anything," J.W. said, a little too quickly and defensively for either girl to believe him.
"You're my brother Jun Wei, I mean we may not be blood, but I've known you for a pretty long time, so don't think you can pull the wool over my eyes. I may not know you're secret, but I can say without a doubt you're hiding something and I get the distinct feeling whatever it is, is about a girl. But hey, I'm not going to pressure you into telling, unless you've knocked someone up, you can go ahead and let me know in your own time," Carla said, hammering the point of taking time, showing that she had done no wrong by waiting to tell her news until she was ready.
"Is this about that person you mentioned you were interested in before? The one you're getting all buff for?" Elise asked, her attention now shifted from Carla to J.W.
"I'm not sneaking around and I did not knock anyone up," J.W. announced, ignoring the rest of the statement Elise and his sister had made.
Elise in turn ignored his feeble defense. "Wait but I thought you just liked that girl and you didn't know if she liked you? I didn't realise there was anything to be sneaking around about. Are you guys together now?" Elise pushed.
J.W. remained entirely mute, his expression nonchalant. He was not impressed that the attention was suddenly all on him.
"Wait, you're interested in someone?" Carla asked. "You didn't tell me this! And here you were giving me grief about taking too long to tell you something."
"Yeah I'm interested in someone, but it's not a big deal or anything yet," J.W. stated contritely.
"YET!" Elise exclaimed clapping gleefully.
"Who is she?" Carla demanded.
J.W. ignored her, shaking his head.
"Do we know her?" Carla questioned.
Once again, J.W. made no move to respond.
Carla and Elise made eye contact. "Ok, so we do know her," Carla stated.
"He said before she was a really good friend," Elise informed Carla.
"Oh, then we definitely know her," Carla confirmed. "He doesn't even have that many female friends, like off the top of my head you're the only one I can think of."
"Hmm, this is going to take some detective work," Elise suggested.
"Yeah and a little Facebook stalking," Carla agreed.
"Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" J.W. complained.
During the entire conversation, Darcy, who was present although forgotten had been turning his head to look at whoever was speaking, without making any comments himself. As if he didn't feel awkward and out of place enough already, the situation between the three friends was clearly a little tense.
Elise and Carla continued to try to squeeze information out of Jun Wei, but had little success other than determining that the woman was a close friend and that J.W. was not ready to admit anything further. He had never been more relieved however to here the ringing of Carla's iPhone in the hopes that a phone call would bring him reprieve.
Both Elise and J.W.'s ears perked up as they heard Carla greet Nicoll on the phone, however they were not able to head any further of the conversation as Carla disappeared indoors.
In Carla's absence, Elise tried a little further to find out more about J.W.'s mystery woman to no avail. They then went on to quietly discuss how unlike Carla it was to make a spur of the moment decision, and their various thoughts on how she would manage in Baltimore, and in Elise's case how she thought her friend would manage not to kill Collins.
When Carla's absence went on and it became apparent that she would not be rejoining them at the pool, Elise and Jun Wei decided to pack up and call it a day, determining that the three of them would have to meet again soon to further discuss the developments in Carla's life. Elise in her own mind added that next time she intended to find out more about J.W. secret as well.
Darcy rubbed the towel over his freshly shampooed wet curls one more time before draping it over the clotheshorse in the living room. He then entered Elise's room to find her equally fresh from a shower, sitting upright in bed and reading a novel under the light of her bedside lamp. He climbed into the bed and pulled the duvet over him, laying his semi-dry curls on the pillow. He sighed contentedly, enjoying the feeling of cool fresh sheets on his clean fresh self.
"Mind if I read for a couple more minutes?" Elise asked, "I can leave it though if the light is going to disturb you," she added, feeling bad for the bedless Darcy.
"No, no, go ahead," he acquiesced, looking up at her.
"Thanks," she responded, once more becoming engrossed in the novel.
Darcy rolled onto his side, such that his back was to Elise and the light of the lamp, and his face towards the door.
Out of the corner of her eye, Elise caught his movement, and her gaze soon fell onto Darcy's dark curls, contrasting with the stark white of his pillow. Almost unconsciously, Elise reached out with her right hand and ran her hands through his hair, gently rubbing his head as her fingers went through the locks of hair.
Darcy hummed contentedly, "What are you doing?" he asked, immediately regretting his question as Elise's hand stilled in his hair and the massage he was enjoying ceased.
"Sorry," Elise apologised with some embarrassment, "your luscious locks were just too inviting," she explained.
"No, don't apologise," Darcy said, "keep going."
Elise obliged his request. Darcy sighed and hummed as the fingers of Elise's right hand worked their way over his head and Elise's eyes returned to their focus on the words of the book she held in her left hand.
As Elise arrived at a particularly shocking paragraph in the tale she was following, her hand stopped its absent minded movement. Darcy huffed in frustration, and decided to take charge, reaching back to hold Elise's wrist, keeping her hand still and allowing him to rub his scalp against her fingertips once more. As such, he succeeded in drawing Elise's attention back to him from the novel.
Laughing at Darcy's behavior, "You're a cat," she accused.
"It just feels so good," Darcy said with emphasis, "please don't stop."
Elise laughed again and returned her hand to it's massaging and her mind to the words on the page before her.
"So… are you mad at Carla?" Darcy asked softly, distracting Elise from her reading once more.
"Mad? No, not at all. I guess I'm mostly just in a 'what the hell happened?' state. I'm not mad, I'm mildly offended, but it's mostly just that the whole situation is just really strange."
"Offended? I thought there was pretty much no way in hell you would ever collaborate in any way with Nicoll Collins?"
"Yeah, ugh of course not. It's not that I'm jealous, if that's what you're suggesting," Elise stated steadfastly.
"You're not jealous… but you are territorial over Collins?" Darcy probed.
"Ew, no. If anything I'm territorial over Carla. She's my best friend and I don't get what happened, yeah I've been self involved lately… or maybe even always… but when did Carla decide she was this desperate for the shot and getting on the career path she wants. And why on earth would she decide to work alongside Collins to get there?" Elise responded forcefully.
She soon lost track of the fact that she was still speaking to Darcy, and began to vent all her worries out loud, processing them as she went along. "I don't know it's really weird because today I just felt like there was a rift between Carla and I, and she's supposed to be my best friend! I don't get it. Did I do something to piss her off? And if I did why won't she just tell me outright rather than cavorting with my enemy and deciding to run halfway across the country with him?" Elise questioned with frustration.
Darcy pulled his head away from her hand, finding that as her irritation had risen her fingers had become more brutal and quite frankly he feared she would squish his brain to a pulp.
"Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?" Darcy asked, immediately regretting it however when he saw the glower on her face.
"It's not dramatic! She's my best friend! I don't even understand what happened!" Elise replied, her fists clenched in childlike anger.
"Elise, I think you'll only make matters worse by getting annoyed with Carla or saying anything to her that could make things more tense. Just let her know that you're there to listen and put out some feelers to see if she gives you a clue as to why she might be upset with you. But honestly, you've probably not done anything, sometimes people drift apart you know, for no real reason."
"Yeah sometimes people drift apart, but this is Carla! She's my best friend! She has been for years!" Elise exclaimed.
"Well lately you seem to be pretty close to her brother," Darcy said, trying to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice. "Sometimes you get closer to one person and drift away from another."
"No, you're wrong. First of all Jun Wei and I are no closer than usual. And secondly my friendship with J.W. is one thing I can say for sure has nothing to do with all this Carla drama," Elise replied stubbornly.
"Maybe Carla is backing off you to give Jun Wei room," Darcy hypothesised, in his own mind convinced that it was Elise that Jun Wei was interested in.
"Give Jun Wei room for what? I've been friends with both of them for years," Elise said, finding all of Darcy's suggestions flawed, nonsensical and stupid.
"Yeah but it seems like now Jun Wei wants to be more than just friends with you," Darcy accused, finally working up the courage to voice the suspicions that were plaguing his mind a little too much for his own comfort.
"What the hell, Darcy?" Elise sat up more straight, suddenly quite outraged. "Are you suggesting that Jun Wei is interested in me?"
"Well it certainly seems that way," Darcy stated.
"It certainly does not. If he was interested in me why would he tell me about this other person he's interested in?"
"Because maybe that person is you! Or maybe that person is fictional and he just wants to stir you into action by adding the incentive of jealousy," he suggested.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"It makes perfect sense to me. This is how guys act sometimes when they're interested in someone and trying to scope out if the person might be interested back."
"It makes no sense to me. You males make no sense to me. Why would you play these stupid mind games for no good reason? How do you eat so much and not get fat? Don't you find it troublesome to walk with additional dangling body parts? Like, what is wrong with your half of the species? Although that said Carla is a girl and she is being just as ridiculous and confusing as a man right now," Elise ranted, her cheeks pink with her frustration.
Darcy looked up at her face and chuckled at the disgruntled expression he saw combined with her flushed appearance.
"Great, now you're laughing at my plight. What's so funny?" Elise asked dramatically, frowning at him.
"You are. I think you should sleep on all this drama. I'm sure by tomorrow things will be clearer," Darcy instructed, reaching over to extract the book from Elise's hand, which she let go of with no resistance.
Elise yawned and rubbed her eyes, and Darcy found himself amused by her childlike mannerisms.
"Fine," she conceded, allowing him to reach over her to turn of the lamp as she sank down into bed. Darcy reached over and patted her shoulder sympathetically, before he too sank down to go to sleep.
A/N:
I realise that it has been ages and I don't even know if anyone is still reading this! But here is another chapter, written over several late nights. It is unbetaed (kinda wanted to just post it straight away), but when it does get checked over I'll fix any mistakes. I make no promises for quick updates, but I'll do my very best.
This chapter is full of so many references from my currently dramatic life, in case anyone wonders!
Let me know what you think of it all :)