Page 154 of Secrets and Lies
West’s breathing evens out, and I close my eyes as the exhaustion from my day finally catches up to me, and I fall asleep.
Beep.Beep.Beep.Beep.Beep.
Dragged out of sleep by the blaring alarm, the first thing I notice is the warm body plastered against my side, and it takes a few seconds for the haze to clear as I blink my eyes open.
“Uuummggghhhh.” West groans and presses his face into my pec.
I gently brush his fluffy hair back from where the ends tickle my face, and he freezes, like he’s just realizing he’s not alone.
“Morning,” I say, my voice rough and raspy from sleep.
He slowly lifts his head. “Morning,” he says, his lips tilting up in a little smile.
“Where’s your alarm?” I ask just as it starts beeping again.
“My phone.” He waves toward his bedside table.
“I got it,” I say, untangling myself from him.
He lies back on the bed as I climb over him and grab his phone from the table.
He takes it as I settle on his other side and turns it off.
“How much time before you have to leave for class?” I ask as I pull him against my side again.
“About thirty minutes.” He rests his cheek against my pec.
“Will that give you enough time to get something to eat?”
He nods against my chest. “I usually grab a coffee and one of the boxed breakfasts and eat when I get to class.”
“I should let you get ready,” I say, but don’t bother moving.
“Probably,” he says, sounding miserable. “Hopefully my shower will wake me up because I am not feeling this class today.”
“I’d take one with you, but we ended up being late the last time we tried that with a thirty-minute time limit.”
“And now I’m going to be thinking aboutthatall morning on top of what happened last night.”
“Sorry, not sorry.”
“I don’t want to move. You’re really warm and comfortable.”
“So are you. But you need to get to class. And I’m going to stay right here until you’re done to make sure you don’t go back to sleep. Then I’m going to go back to my room and sleep for an hour.”
He lightly slaps my stomach. “Asshole.”
“Guilty.”
Silence stretches between us. I don’t want to get up, but West has to get ready for class.
Beep.Beep.Beep.Beep.Beep.
West lets out a loud groan and grabs his phone off the bed so he can turn his alarm off.
“That was my ‘get the fuck up now, lazyhead’ alarm.” He tosses his phone back on the bed.
“Is that your only backup alarm?”
