“How the hell did your bed frame snap?”
“It’s old I guess. I’ve been using it for years.” I shrug my shoulders.
“Why the screaming?”
“Nightmares.”
“You never have those,” Dad says, moving to the closet and opening it. Thank God Soren knew his best friend better than I do. “Soren didn’t come in to check up on you?”
Oh, he checked up on me all right. Looked after me very, very well.
“Nope,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.
Dad’s eyes narrow some more, moving toward the window. He rips the curtains back and looks out…straight ahead.
If I thought my heart was beating hard when I was getting intimate for the first time, it’s only half as hard as it is now. My dad looks down and I'm toast.
“You’ll sleep in Soren’s bed tonight. He can sleep on the couch,” Dad announces.
“I don’t want to bother him.”
But my dad isn’t hearing it, marching right past me and into the hallway, down to his room where he knocks hard on the door.
“Dad! I don’t want to disturb him,” I say, yanking on his arm. My mom turns to me with a look that tells me she knows they’ve caught me, and my dad does too.
“Soren! Answer the door,” my dad demands, pounding on it with the side of his fist.
A second later the handle turns and Soren brings a hand to his face, rubbing his eye as he yawns. “Everything okay?”
Dad clams up, and mom does too. “What are you doing?” Dad finally asks.
“Sleeping. It’s the middle of the night,” Soren says casually.
Dad pushes past him, looking in the room, seeing the bed is completely made, and true to his word Soren is sleeping on the floor.
“Sorry to disturb you,” my dad says, clearing his throat in embarrassment. “Do you mind if Sadie sleeps in your bed tonight? Hers broke.”
“Yeah sure,” Soren replies, looking like he just woke up despite the fact that his eyes were wide open and his heart was racing not a minute earlier when he was hanging out of my freaking window. “I sleep on the floor anyway.”
“Maybe you want to sleep downstairs, on the couch?” dad asks.
“Wherever you want me, Rick. I just appreciate having a roof over my head and all your generosity and hospitality.”
Dad leads him downstairs, my mouth hanging open.
“Well, there you go,” Mom says, pointing to the bed.
I step inside and make a spectacle of locking the door, so mom knows nobody can get in. Then again Soren sure found one heck of a way to re-enter his room. Then I remember, there’s a decorative ledge. He must have carefully maneuvered across and then climbed back into his own room. That would make sense considering he’s always sizing up every place he enters, looking for all the entry and exit points.
You never know when you’re going to need them, as he says...which was surely the case moments ago.
I lie in his bed, holding back my laughter, but also realizing something much more serious is happening here.
We got super lucky, but this can’t go on forever. We can’t do this behind my parent’s backs. Nobody wants that.
But when is the right time to tell them, if any? And how do we do it?
I shelve the thought and instead decide to enjoy what just happened, thinking back to how Soren made me his, officially.