Chapter Ten

Simon

“Okay. Change the channel,” Megan said as she covered her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t handle it anymore.”

I laughed out loud and reached over to pull on of her hands away from her eye. “The scary part is over.”

She just shook her head and squirmed away from me. I laughed again and changed the channel so we weren’t watching The Conjuring anymore and instead it was some Cameron Diaz movie.

“So, no scary movies, huh?”

“Definitely not,” Megan replied as she peeked between her fingers to make sure I’d really changed the channel. When it was confirmed, she dropped her hands back to her lap. “If, and that’s a big if, I were to watch a scary movie, it would have to be during the daytime with all of the lights on and all of the blinds open.”

It was the day after Independence Day and Alex had gone to bed more than an hour before and Megan had come back down about thirty minutes later. We didn’t talk about it, we never did, and we both tried to pretend like we weren’t in a completely fucked up situation. She’d just sat down silently and started watching the scary movie I’d had on and her protests were the first time either of us had spoken.

“Kelly loves them and loves to terrorize me,” Megan explained as glanced over at me. “After we saw The Ring when we were teenagers, she started randomly turning on the TV while hiding behind something or in the other room. When I woke up at two in the morning to static on my TV, she waited about thirty seconds and jumped out at me. My parents thought I was being murdered in my room.”

I was laughing so hard by the end of her story that I had covered my face with a throw pillow so I wouldn’t wake everyone up. Megan just rolled her beautiful eyes and shook her head.

“No scary movies for me.”

“It was just getting good, too,” I said with a long, exaggerated sigh after I’d stopped laughing.

Megan raised her brows. “No, Si. Watch it then. I can try to hang or go so you can watch what you…”

I had reached over and covered her mouth with my palm. “Stop. I was kidding. It was really stupid.”

She pulled my hand off of her mouth slowly and it took her a long moment before she let me go. I wanted to do it again just for another chance to touch her. I had no idea what we were doing anymore. I was pretty sure I spent more time with my brother’s girlfriend than he did and probably knew he better than he did, too. Everything inside of me screamed that we needed to stop, that I needed to separate myself from Megan, but I couldn’t. While everything screamed that was we were doing was wrong, it felt so damn right.

She stared at me for a moment with an expression on her face that was almost sad. She swallowed and quickly turned her attention back to the TV, gesturing towards it with her hand.

“Have you seen this?”

I shook my head and tore my eyes from her. “No. Is it any good?”

“It really is.” She grabbed the throw pillow next to her and placed it between us. Making herself comfortable, she laid on her side and rest her head was on the pillow. “It has Kate Upton in it, too, so you can’t really go wrong.”

“She acts?” I raised my brows and looked down at Megan. She shifted so she was looking up and me and nodded.

“And runs around in a bikini. Every man’s dream.”

She turned her eyes back on the TV and I let mine run down her figure. She was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a tight, black t-shirt and I watched as she ran a hand to her knee to simply scratch an itch. I wanted to tell her that she was my dream, that she was all I thought about, but I didn’t. I forced myself to look back to the TV instead.

We watched the movie together and one of us would break the silence every ten or fifteen minutes with a random fact or question. After about thirty minutes of silence, I realized that Megan had fallen asleep. I thought about waking her up but decided to wait until the movie was over. I wasn’t sure if she was staying the night or going home but I wasn’t ready for her to go yet.

I dozed off myself, though, and when I opened my eyes again, I could tell the sun was coming up.

I’d slept sitting up with my legs resting on the coffee table. At some point, Megan had shifted so her head was resting on my thigh and one of her hands was on my knee. My arm was draped over her and resting at her waist, like it belonged there. Everything was completely innocent but I knew it wouldn’t look that way if Alex came downstairs. The clock said it was a little after five-thirty and he’d be waking up soon. I loved having her in my lap and it killed me to do it but I needed to wake her up.

“Megan,” I whispered as I leaned down and shook her gently. She stirred slightly but her eyes stayed closed. I kept my hand on her waist and shook her again as I brought my other up to touch her face. “Megs. Wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she stared straight ahead for a minute. She slowly moved so she was looking up at me and her eyes went wide. She sat up quickly, causing my hand to fall, and she looked around frantically.

“Oh, shit. I…” She moved to her feet and shook her head. “We fell asleep. I was in your lap. I was supposed to go back upstairs.”

I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything. Megan looked like she was going to cry as she disappeared into the kitchen. I thought she was going upstairs but a moment later she returned with her sandals. I watched as she stumbled while trying to put them back on.

“I’m just going to go home,” she said quietly and she ran a hand along her face, as if she was wiping a tear. “I’m sorry about… that.”

She had her purse and was almost to the door when I said her name quietly. She paused and turned around to look at me.

“I’m not sorry,” I confessed with a shake of my head. “Be careful heading home, okay?”

Megan just stared at me for a long moment before finally nodding and pulling the door open quietly. She looked back to me one more time before closing it behind her.

I let my head fall back to the couch as I released a long breath. I wasn’t sure I could keep doing what we were doing. The thought was gone almost as soon as it crossed my mind because I was kidding myself. I’d continue doing it for as long as she would.