Sunshine Kisses

They’d fallen asleep.

And lying under the covers with him, cuddling, felt a world away from the brief nap they had shared on her bed earlier. This was intimate, even for them, and edged too close to that line they couldn’t cross.

Abby lay there for a moment, weighing her options. She could have slipped out of bed and gone back to her room. Maybe she should have. But he was wrapped so tightly around her that it would be impossible not to wake him, and deep, restful sleep was such a rarity to him that she couldn’t bear to be the reason it was disturbed. Besides, Erik was more than strong enough to carry her back to her own bed. She might have passed out, but at some point he’d been conscious enough to switch off the TV and lights, clear the bed of snacks, and tuck them under the covers. He obviously didn’t mind if she stayed. They were adults. It wasn’t that weird for friends to share a bed. It wasn’t as if they’d never done it before. And at this point, leaving might invite more questions than they could safely confront.

As if he’d read her mind, Erik’s arm pressed closer, drawing her more firmly against his chest.

Well.

That decided it then.

Fifteen Years Before

Place We Were Made – Maisie Peters

‘E

rik, give Abby the hurry-up. Mum’ll be here soon.’

Alex’s face appeared above him, looming over the top of the bookshelf Erik was browsing. He was only thirteen, but already stood as tall as most of the grown-ups they knew.

Erik carefully stacked his selection of books about trees, rocks, and dinosaurs before walking slowly to the fiction shelves. Abby was collapsed on a beanbag, library books scattered around her. She made a tragic figure, with her eyes closed, back curled over the lumpy seat, and blonde hair puddling where it touched the floor.

‘I can’t choose,’ she groaned quietly, cracking an eye at the shuffle of Erik’s footsteps on the coarse carpet. ‘Why are we only allowed ten books when the grown-ups are allowed twenty? They don’t even have time to read them. Wait, is it because we’re ten?

‘I don’t think that’s how it works, Sunshine,’ Erik said, trying to hold in his laughter. ‘How many do you have?’

Abby’s pink sneakers lightly kicked at the beanbag in frustration as she pouted up at him, green eyes now wide open.

‘Fifteen. That one’s for you though.’ She pointed at a door stopper of a book with a dragon curling around the spine and his heart jumped. At the end of the previous book in the series, the main characters had been separated, with one of them about to face certain death.

Erik had been desperate to get his hands on the latest instalment to find out what would happen to his favourite fictional best friend duo.

‘They told me I was fourth on the waiting list,’ he said, touching the cover reverently. ‘How did you get it?’

‘I was first on the list. I asked about it when you told me the release date.’ Abby shrugged.

Erik stared at her as she added the book to the tidy pile in his waiting arms and thumbed through her fourteen remaining books. It was so like her to do something so thoughtful for him and then shrug it off like it was nothing. She didn’t even read the series anymore. But she’d known how much it would mean to him to have it as soon as possible. ‘Stack them up, Sunshine. You can borrow the extras on my card.’

She’d read them all too. Abby averaged a book a day in the summer holidays. They would go back to his house now, take a pile of sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade into the garden, and lie on the grass next to the pool. She wouldn’t move until she finished her book, or one of her parents arrived home from work and called her for dinner. Whichever came first.

These were his favourite days.

‘So it turns out the boy who was helping him is actually a girl, and she’s the long lost daughter of the duchess and next in line to the throne. They’ve fallen in love, but even if she does reveal her true identity to the world, he won’t be allowed to marry her because he’s so far beneath her station.’ Wide green eyes fixed on Erik’s face and his throat went tight. ‘Now I have to wait to find out what happens.’ Abby rolled her head back towards the ceiling with a sigh.

He loved how passionately she spoke about the books she was reading. Even when she got so excited that she accidentally spoiled the endings of stories he was actually interested in. He wanted to take her hand, to squeeze it in the comforting way she so often held his, but their bodies pointed in opposite directions as they lay on his bedroom floor with their heads close together. Both of their books were discarded on the floor next to them. Abby had finished hers before dinner, which she had joined them for because her parents were working late. Again. She’d spent the hour since recounting every detail of the story to him. Erik’s tired, noisy brain had appreciated the distraction. The miniscule typeface of his book called for regular breaks, and her voice was pretty and soothing.

He was still looking at Abby intently when she turned her head towards him. She was catching him staring at her more often these days. But this time, he didn’t look away as he so often did. She smiled at him, still blushing faintly from the joy of telling him about her book. Their faces were separated by only a few centimetres, and one thought rose through the static chaos in his head: he wanted to kiss her. It would be so easy to close the gap. Maybe Erik imagined it, but he swore she slid her head a tiny bit closer to his, and it was the push he needed to tilt his chin up and—

‘Abby dear, your mum called. She and your dad will be stuck at the hospital until late, so you’ll have to spend the night.’ Erik’s mother appeared at his door.

Abby nodded, a wide grin forming as she turned back to Erik and mouthed sleepover. He grinned back, happy at the prospect of late night ice cream sundaes and the blanket fort they would surely build in the living room.

Happy, and maybe just a little disappointed his mum hadn’t walked in thirty seconds later.

Chapter 4

Friends – Ed Sheeran