High School Survival Theory

Chapter 42

I turn over at the sound of birds chirping outside. I'm not sure what time it was and I don't even care. I just wanted to sleep a little longer. It's been a while since I stayed in bed late.

I snuggle into my duvet and roll to the side, only to get pushed back by someone. An arm drapes around my torso when I roll back to my previous position. At first, I didn't give it much thought and snuggle closer. Then it hits me. The strong smell of cologne. It alarms every fiber of my body and my eyes shot open.

It takes me a while to adjust my vision with the morning light, but as it starts to get clearer, I cut out the figure next to me.

My eyes fall off the socket.

"What the hell!" I push the person and he falls off the bed, taking me along with him.

We land on the floor with a 'thud' and yelp.

"Bloody Mary!" Someone screams from under us.

I try to readjust my position but Ashton is still holding me tightly. He opens his eyes and blinks them to adjust in the daylight. We might've stayed like this longer but something groans from under him. With a gasp, I roll over to the side and so does Ashton.

Miles shoots up from the floor. "Are you two fucking crazy?" He yells. "You could've killed me."

'Yes,' my brain responds automatically but I choose not to answer the question. So does Ashton. He's not even fully up yet.

Miles crosses his arms and looks around my room in astonishment. His eyes land on Grace first, who's still sleeping on my bed. Then they move to Owen who's sleeping on the duvet to Nyako and Jason who're sleeping on the floor.

He looks back at us. "How did we all end up here?" His eyes move around again. "Did-"

Ashton raises a hand to stop him. "Don't," he says. "Please, don't make me recall the night. In fact, if possible, just pretend it never happened."

I kind of agree with him. It's better if we pretend last night never happened. We're not even sure who ended up where. All of them were already passed out by the time Ashton and I reached my house. So we had to carry them all in without waking up Kat or any of our neighbors and let me tell you, it was not a fun experience. At all.

In fact, never try it at home. Or anywhere else as a matter of fact.

Ashton yawns beside me and scratches his arms, revealing a bit of his toned torso. I try my best not to take a peek. But of course, my traitorous eyes keep going back there.

I wonder how he managed to look this good even when he's still half asleep.

"Snow?" Ashton shakes me. I look up at his face. It looks like he said something and didn't hear it, as I was busy staring at something in particular.

The corner of his lips turns up and he gets off the floor.

It's something past nine in the morning. It's Saturday-thankfully- and we don't have school today because we worked on this week's issue on Thursday. Mrs. Roth thought it would be better if we took the day after Halloween off. Turns out, she was right.

From what it looked like last night, there's no way they could've made it there today.

I look at Miles but he's sleeping on my bed now.

I get off the floor and look around. Everything looks like the way we left it last night, everything except for Ashton.

"What were you doing on my bed earlier?" I ask the boy in guilt.

He shrugs. "The floor was very uncomfortable?"

I roll my eyes. "The floor was supposed to be uncomfortable, that's why I told you to go back home."