The First Drop Of Rain

Chapter Forty Two

Somehow Edward and I decided that he should be the one to wake me every hour, and that's how I wound up curled in my bed with Edward sitting in my window seat like a breathing gargoyle. I sat with my back against the headboard, staring out through the gauzy fabric that draped over the curtain rods of my bed. The only light that was illuminating my room was the barely visible morning light that had begun to shine, and the white Christmas lights that zigzagged like stars above me and wrapped down the left side post to connect to the extension cord. I was silent ever since we arrived back in my room. Edward had helped me into my bed, and I pulled the patchwork comforter up around me to revel in its warmth. After a moment I broke the silence that hung in the air between us with a small clearing of my throat. "Thank you... for this, and well... everything else."

Edward seemed to hesitate like he was trying to gauge my sincerity, then took a small breath in and exhaled his words with almost relief. "Of course."

"I'm serious... I know that I'd probably have sat in my car for hours after that dance." I threaded the drawstring of my hoodie through my fingers before sighing. "How long do I have to stay up to prove I'm okay to go back to sleep?" We were officially on our third round of wake-up, and thankfully Edward was indestructible because throwing things upon waking was my reaction the first two times. Both times Edward had to gently shake me to raise me from my sleep, and both times I desperately wanted to fist fight him.

"Um, just until I'm sure you're not getting worse." He shifted in the seat and rested his back against the window. "You sat up fine, you aren't slurring, I'd say you're good for another hour."

"How much longer do we have doing this?" I glanced at the digital clock on my bedside table. It read in bright green numbers, 6:45am.

"Just until you're ready to get up for the day." He looked down at his hands, making it clear to me that he felt just as awkward sitting in here as I felt with him sitting in here.

"No I mean. How many days? The whole weekend? Just today?" I couldn't tell what answer I was hoping for, and in turn I wasn't sure what Edward was hoping for either.

"However long you want to." He glanced up at me before averting his eyes down again. The action seemed strange to me, it wasn't like he hadn't spent countless nights laying right beside me while I slept while we were together, what was different about sitting on my window seat? That's when it dawned on me, he must be flying blind right now.

"It's the concussion. Isn't it." I crossed my legs, now too awake to fall asleep easily.

"What?" His gaze flipped up, eyebrows knitting together curiously.

"You're acting weird because my brains are scrambled like an egg and you can't gauge my thoughts." I shrugged my shoulders and pulled my extra pillow from beside me and hugged it to my chest.

"No," Edward laughed, shaking his head and looking back to his hands, "and we don't have to talk about it right now."

"When then?" I felt like looking at him was almost like challenging him when he was like this, so instead I cast my eyes to the comforter that sat rumpled around me from my restless legs.

"In the morning." He conceded after a moment of consideration.

"Well... it's morning." The attempt to reign in my attitude was a lost battle as I countered him anyways. With a quick glance I confirmed it was now 7 on the dot. The sky had began to lighten even more considerably, causing the dense fog that had settled on the morning to create a gray-white haze across everything. Oddly enough it hadn't began to snow yet, but the chill of winter had already gripped the town and turned the roads to ice.