40 Sweet Blue Butterfly (1/2)

When Ash got out of the bathroom, Hunter was laying a duvet down on the floor beside the bed. Ash watched as he took a pillow from the closet and laid it down on the duvet. She watched as he laid himself out on the bed cover and closed his eyes, never once glancing in her direction.

Her shadow fell over him and the empty bed where he refused to lie with her. Ash felt a coldness in her gut.

When she arrived at the Guzmans' grand estate, the butterflies inside her stomach had been dancing with excitement. She had been so happy to be given the guest house to stay in--like a scaled up play house but for adults--and she had seen herself having a grand vacation in the little pretend house with the golden boy from school.

But that had been several hours and many disastrous situations ago: counted at one failed dinner, a loss of consciousness, and a derailed romantic encounter.

A mere few hours into her dream coming true and Ash's own instincts had turned on her. The happy butterflies were dead inside her now, smothered by the sudden cold. The golden boy who had carried her to bed in his arms no longer wanted to sleep with her in it. And to top it all off, she hadn't eaten anything for dinner and was hungry.

Hunter lay on his back on the spread-out duvet on the floor and closed his eyes. He didn't even look in Ash's direction. Ash felt like he did it on purpose.

[Whatever, Wolf Boy. I don't even care anymore. Sleep on the floor while I sleep on the nice soft bed.]

Ash turned the bedroom lights off. The room turned dark with only a faint light coming from behind the closed bathroom door. Ash's eyes didn't have time to adjust to the darkness but she walked quickly anyway, stepping over Hunter to get to the bed.

She had made sure to give him a wide berth as she stepped over his body on the floor, but at the last second, her foot dropped just a little too low and her toes lightly grazed his ribs as she got up on the bed.

”Sorry,” she said.

She had barely touched him, and yet her heart was beating so fast, it felt like she had done something wrong.

Hunter let out a sigh.

”It's okay, baby,” he said in a tired voice. He was not mad at her.

The truth was, he didn't really know what to do after everything that had happened. He didn't want to leave her in the guest house all by herself: he had promised his mother that he would take care of Ash. And even if he hadn't, he would have done so of his own accord anyway.

He just wanted her to feel safe with him, so he chose to sleep on the floor so she wouldn't feel pressured to do anything.