Chapter 29

An hour later, Elizabeth woke with a start. She screamed when she saw someone watching, but he quickly covered her mouth with his hand, and she relaxed.

Lucky pulled his hand away and smiled. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. Remind me never to watch 3 horror movies in a row again!" She said, still out of breath.

He laughed. "Nightmare?"

She nodded, waiting for her pulse to slow down. She hadn't had a bad dream in such a long time. "Why were you staring at me, anyway? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

He shrugged. "I couldn't fall asleep, and then I heard you whimpering. I thought maybe your burn was acting up, but when I sat up, I saw that you were still asleep. I figured you were having a bad dream, but I wasn't sure if I should wake you or not. That's about when you woke up on your own. What was it about?"

"Psycho killer wearing a Scream mask, chasing me around the dorm from Urban Legend, with an ax. I just can't imagine what caused that!" she said sarcastically, trying to hide that she was still trembling.

He didn't buy her calm act. "Are you sure you're okay? You still sound kind of shaken up."

She sighed. "I'll be fine. I'm just kind of jumpy right now." She sat up and put her face in her hands, trying to stop herself from shaking. She felt the bed move and looked up. Lucky had sat down on the edge of her bed. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and she momentarily forgot all about her nightmare.

Forgetting that he was half-naked, he reached out for her hand. "I didn't realize those movies had gotten to you so badly. Are you going to be able to go back to sleep?"

She nodded, still shaking slightly. "I didn't think they scared me that much either, to be honest. I'm sure I'll be fine. Can you do me a favor?" He nodded. "Stay here until I fall asleep?"

"You mean in the room, or on the bed?" he asked.

"On the bed. If you don't want to, it's okay. I just feel better when I can feel you sitting there." She looked at him shyly, not sure what he was going to say.

"Hey, I don't mind. I wasn't really sleeping anyway. You know, being in a strange place and all. I'll stay here until you fall asleep, and then I'll go back to the floor, okay?"

She nodded and smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I'm not usually such a wimp. That dream just really scared me."

"It's okay, just try to go back to sleep. I'll be right here."

She snuggled back into the bed, the covers pulled up to her chin. "Thank you," she whispered, as she slowly fell back to sleep. He stayed on the bed and watched her sleep, not wanting to go back to the floor yet. She rolled over slightly, so that she was pressed up against him. After watching her for a while, he was about to get up and try to go to sleep, when she whimpered again. She had a pained expression on her face, and was twitching slightly.

"Elizabeth!" he whispered, touching her shoulder. When she didn't wake up, he shook her gently, and said her name a little louder. She still didn't respond, so he tried shaking a little harder.

"No!" she whispered hoarsely, and shot up in bed, immediately flinging her arms around him and burying her face in his chest. Startled, he put his arms around her to comfort her, not knowing what else to do.

Liz was shaking and she had broken out into a cold sweat. Her eyes darted wildly around the room, slowly coming back to reality and seeing that she was just in her bedroom, not in the dream anymore. She sighed and tightened her hold on Lucky for a moment before she realized what she was doing, and that she had her face pressed against his bare chest. She gasped slightly and sat back, blushing.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that!" she said quickly, trying to hide her embarrassment, as well as the slight disappointment she felt. The few seconds she had been in his arms, she had felt completely at ease and safe. She scolded herself for thinking it and drew her knees up to her chest.

Lucky was still in shock. He hadn't been prepared for that. He tried to push away the memory of how her hair had felt against his skin, how perfectly she fit in his arms. He shook his head slightly. "It's okay. You were half-asleep. No harm done." Suddenly feeling very self-conscious, he got off the bed and retrieved his shirt, pulling it on over his head. "I've got a feeling that neither of us is going to get any sleep tonight."

"I'll understand if you want to go home," she said quietly, hoping he wouldn't. Normally, Lucky just drove her crazy, but that night she had seen a completely different side of him, a side she found herself wanting him to stick around.

He shook his head. "I don't...unless you want me to." He wasn't quite sure what she meant. Maybe he had scared her by hugging her back before.

"I don't really want to be alone right now. You're right, though, I'm definitely not getting any sleep tonight!" She sighed and got out of the bed, turning on the light. "What do you want to do?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, it's your house. What is there to do around here in the middle of the night?"

She looked around the room, trying to think of something. Getting an idea, she dug through one of her desk drawers. "How are you at cards?"

He grinned. "Love 'em." She smiled back and they both climbed up onto her bed and spent the next few hours playing card games. They argued over almost every win, saying the other had cheated.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm sick of cards!" Lucky said, throwing down his hand after Liz won another game.

"Yeah, I'm getting kind of bored with it, too. What else should we do?" She gathered up the cards and shoved them back into their box, then got up to put them back in the desk. Lucky flopped down onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"You tired?" Liz asked, sitting next to him.

He shook his head. "Strangely, no. I'm wide awake. Maybe it was all those brownies. You know, sugar rush."

"Maybe," she sighed and fell back onto the bed next to him, looking up at the ceiling as well. "We've still got hours before morning, so what do you suggest we do now?"

He shrugged and rolled his head to the side so that he was looking at her profile. "Like I said before, it's your house. I'm just the guest. It's your job to entertain me."

She snorted and rolled her head over to face him. "Entertain you? My job is not to entertain you! You're only a guest here because you practically begged me to let you stay!"

He raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at her. "I did not beg you! Anyway, you agreed pretty quickly. Admit it, you're glad I'm here. Otherwise, who would have fixed up that burn?"

She lifted herself up the same as him and looked him in the eyes. "If you hadn't been here, I wouldn't have burned myself in the first place! You were the one looking for food, not me! I can't help it that you were too scared to walk home by himself!"

"Excuse me? If you hadn't been scared in the first place, I wouldn't have had to walk you all the way over here. Anyway, if I hadn't stayed, no one would have been here when you had those nightmares!"

She blushed slightly, remembering her reaction to the last one, and looked down at the bedspread. She looked up again, meeting his eyes, but not with nearly as much anger as before. "Well, if it wasn't for your friends, neither of us would be in the situation in the first place. They're the ones who chose the movies."

Lucky chuckled. "Okay, then it's Nikolas and Emily's fault. I guess that makes us even then."

She nodded, still gazing at him. Somehow during the course of their argument, their faces had gotten closer and closer until they were just inches apart. Remembering her vow not to fall for any more guys, she nervously cleared her throat and sat up. "Why don't we go downstairs and watch TV or something?"

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves after being so close to her. "Um...yeah, good idea," he muttered, standing up and stretching. "Got any good movies?"

She followed his lead and headed for the door. "Sure, but this time we're only watching comedies!"

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