Elias lay in bed later that night watching Eri get dressed after her shower. They’d spent an hour making origami butterflies while following a tutorial they found on social media. Then they’d spent a couple of hours filling in the scrapbook with pictures from the rides he’d taken her on so far. Dedicating a page to each one. He made a promise to himself that they would fill it within a year.
Eri grabbed her body butter from the dresser and handed it to him before joining him on the bed. Elias sat up as she draped her legs over his lap. He rubbed the moisturizer into her legs as she did her arms in comfortable silence. When they finished, he put the container on his nightstand as she slid under the comforter.
Elias passed her the remote, then picked up his tablet since he wanted to work on a tattoo design. Eri settled on a crimedrama that he was sure she’d only make it through one episode of. He wasn’t sure he’d been drawing twenty minutes when she moved into his side, and Elias lifted his arm, allowing her to get comfortable.
“Am I in the way?” she asked.
“No, Amate,” he responded, kissing her forehead, and to prove his point, he continued working on the design.
Thirty minutes later, his girlfriend was asleep, and he was putting his tablet aside when his phone vibrated on his nightstand. He glanced at the screen to find a text from Jordan and picked it up.
Jordan:I’m headed to your place. I smoked way too much tonight.
Elias:Are you driving?
Jordan:No I’m in an Uber. I’ll be there in like ten minutes.
Elias:Text me when you get outside. Don’t knock.
Jordan:Alright.
He turned the television off and eased himself from under Eri. He left the bedside lamp on and exited the bedroom. Elias went to the living room to wait for Jordan. It wasn’t unusual for the teenager to show up at his place when he’d gotten high, since his uncle lived in the next city over, and he didn’t want to hear his mom lecturing him about it.
He sat on the couch and scrolled through his phone until he got a text from Jordan that he was pulling up. He opened the front door and waited for the teenager as he came up the walkway.
“Hey,” Jordan greeted as Elias stepped aside to let him in.
“Hey,” he responded. “You know I was gonna give you an earful if you’d been driving.”
“I like to smoke, but I’m not reckless. Especially since I had a gummy tonight too.”
Jordan sat on the couch. “Let’s play some video games.”
Elias debated it for a few seconds before agreeing. “Alright, but Eri’s asleep. So we need to keep it down.”
He turned the game on and let Jordan choose. The nineteen-year-old chose the same game he always did.
“Where are you coming from tonight?” Elias asked as the game loaded.
“A couple of friends and I went to a frat party. One of them wanted to talk to this girl in one of his classes, but he struck out.” They started the round. “It served him right. He came on way too strong.”
Elias snorted, but didn’t comment as they focused on the game. He remembered being eighteen and nineteen and thinking the same way. That his friends were always doing too much, and running off the girls they were trying to talk to.
They’d been playing the game for almost two hours when Jordan paused it and his eyes shifted down the hall.
“Hey, Eri,” he greeted. “Were we too loud?”
From where Elias sat, he couldn’t see down the hall, and it wasn’t until his girlfriend entered the living room that he saw her.
“Amate,” he called, and when she didn’t answer him, he knew she was sleepwalking. He tossed the controller onto the couch and stood, approaching her. He could have woken her up, but he gently turned her back towards the hall.
“Is she asleep?” Jordan asked.
“Yeah, I’m taking her back to bed. You know where everything is.”
“Alright. Thanks for letting me crash.”
Elias nodded before guiding Eri back down the hall. He thought about picking her up, but wasn’t sure if that would startle her awake or not. He closed the bedroom door behind them and helped her back into bed, then joined her, turning off the bedside lamp, and no sooner had he settled on his back shemoved to lie on top of him.He knew that she likely had a bad or strange dream and was seeking out comfort and protection. She’d told him that was typically when it happened.
