12// ~Nightmare~

A few minutes after Arabella had gone upstairs, Athena, Morgan, and I had begun picking up from dinner. Loading the dishwasher, wiping down the table, and putting away any leftovers we had after we were all done eating.

Ara had walked downstairs as we were finishing up, still in the same clothes, and stood at the entrance to the kitchen. Her hands were folded in front of her, and she had her head angled slightly down as if she was afraid to look up at any of us.

"Do you need something sweetheart, do you not want to put on your pj's yet?" I questioned her, wondering why she hadn't changed before coming back down here.

"I...I forgot to um p-pack any pj's." She fiddled with her fingers in front of her. "I don't know h-how I forgot." She shrugged, glancing up at me quickly before looking back down.

I didn't want to make her feel bad at all for forgetting them, especially since she had told me she struggled with her ADHD, so I jumped in instantly, trying to reassure her that everything was fine and we could deal with the situation. "That's alright honey, how about you come with me and you can borrow some of my clothes, does that sound good?"

She nodded slowly and so I grabbed her hand before leading her up the stairs and took my room. We all kept our clothes in our own room. The room we all shared was really just for sleeping or sometimes...other activities.

Once we got to my room I let go of her hand. I heard a tiny whine leave her lips but decided not to say anything, onto smiling slightly to myself when I was facing away from her, looking through my dresser. "I'm not sure if I have anything that will fit you but how about you can wear one of my t-shirts and it'll be okay if it's too big. I can give you some pants too but I don't know if those will stay up. We can try though." I was the shortest out of me, Athena, and Dani, but it was only by a few inches and I was still taller than Ara by almost 10 inches. Plus i was a lot more...filled out than her.

"Okay, thank you."

I got her out the smallest size t-shirt I could find and some pajama pants with that could tie before I handed them over to her and sent her into the bathroom to change.

She came out a few minutes later, holding onto the pants, I'm assuming so they didn't fall down, and the shirt hanging off her shoulder. She looked so cute.

"Um...the pants won't stay." She mumbled.

"Come here hun." I sit down on the edge of the bed and wave my hand, signaling for her to come stand in front of me.

She shuffles over to me and stands between my legs, her cheeks blushing slightly pink at the position. I grab the strings attached to the front of the sweatpants and tie them as tight as I could before rolling them a few times. I tap my hands on her hips and look at her. "Alright, they might fall down a little sometimes but they should stay up enough. Do they feel comfy?"

She nods, clearly still feeling shy, with her hands pulled up under her chin and her teeth gently biting her lower lip. I move my hands off of her hips and pull the shirt down. It ends just before her knees. God, she's adorable. "Alright ready to go downstairs now?" I smile gently at her.

She nods again, not giving a verbal response. It's obvious she's feeling very shy and unsure right now and I don't want to make her uncomfortable or push anything, so I stand up before grabbing her hand again and leading her out of the room and downstairs.

When we get to the living room, Morgan and Athena are sitting down on the couch talking, but stop as soon as we walk in.

"Oh look at you cutie." Morgan says to her, making her blush once again, of course.

"So, we can do something before bed. We can watch something on the tv, we can color, we could read. Whatever sounds good to you." Athena explains to her.

"We...we can read please?"

"Of course, here, I'll show you where the library is and we can pick out a book."

Athena stands up and goes with Ara off to the library and me and Morgan begin chatting the moment they have left the space.

"God she's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Every time she comes near me I just want to squeeze her so tight and never let her go." Morgan smiles while looking at the archway that they just left through.

"Tell me about it. I cannot wait until she's ours. Do you think she knows anything about mdlg or little space at all?"

"Well I definitely don't think she knows anything about bdsm because, well, it's kind of obvious. She might feel little sometimes but probably just doesn't know exactly what she's experiencing, but we'll figure it out tomorrow once we sit down and talk with her about it."

"Ya, I know, I just can't wait." I laugh.

We hear them walking back to the living room so we out a pause in the conversation and wait till they enter.

"I picked out a book!" Ara says as she skips back into the room, her small hand engulfed in Athena's.

"You did?" I say in a surprised voice. "Well come here, show us what book you chose." I pat the spot next to me on the couch.

She bounds over to me and plops down, sitting right next to me and holding up the book in her hands, smiling. "I picked out 'Charlottes Web', I never read it before but Athena told me it's good and there's a piggie and different animals in it." She says in a high pitched voice.

"Wow, that's a good choice! Do you want to read it or do you want one of us to read us to read it out loud."

"Umm...you read it to me please." She points with her finger to my chest.

"Alrighty then, get comfy so we can start."

Morgan places a blanket over me and Ara before she goes and cuddles up next to Athena on the other side of the couch. Ara hands me the book for me to read, before reaching over to grab Tootsie who she had left on the couch earlier after our game and leans back into me slightly, wiggling around to get cozy.

I open up the book and begin reading. Her eyes track along the page as I read and she reacts to every surprising, sad, or happy thing throughout the book.

After reading a few chapters I hear her yawn and look down to see her trying really hard to keep her eyes open, as they occasionally close without her permission.

I pause my reading and look up at the clock on the wall, seeing it reads 7:57. I know it's towards her bedtime.

"You getting sleepy, sweet girl?"

She makes a pouty face and shakes her head back and forth. "No, no sleepy."

"I think somebody might be." I laugh a little.

"No, no laugh at me. M' not sleepy." She attempts to make a mad face but all it does is scrunch up her nose and make her look cuter.

"How about I read one more chapter and then it's time for bed, does that sounds good? We don't want to be too tired tomorrow when it's time to get up right?" I try to reason with her without pushing too much because we haven't talked about anything with her yet and have no right to control her decisions as she's an adult.

She thinks for a second before responding. "I guess that sounds good." She mumbles, playing with the ears on her stuffed bunny.

"Alright."

I keep reading, stopping after one chapter. I look down to see she's almost asleep. "Okay that's one more chapter, it's time for bed now." I stroke her hair as she is completely leaning onto my chest now."

She attempts to mumble out a response but it's unintelligible. "Come on sleepy girl, time to head up to bed." I attempt again. "Can you stand up for me sweetheart." She groggily sits up and stands up after me, reaching for my hand for stability, as she holds on tootsie with the other, it dangling by her side.

Morgan and Athena stand up and follow us up to her room. We walk into her room and go straight to the bathroom, letting her brush her teeth and go to the bathroom before she goes to sleep.

She opens up the door and walks very slowly to the bed. I pull back the comforter when we get there and help her into bed, pulling it back over top of her.

"Remember, we're gonna be just across the hallway in case you need anything alright okay?" I make sure she knows before she falls asleep so she feels safe.

She nods, while trying to keep her eyes open to say goodnight. "Goodnight honey."  I lean down and kiss her forehead before moving aside to let Morgan and Athena do the same.

As I walk out of the room I flip on the nightlight across from the bed, not making it a big deal, before I shut off the bedroom light and we all leave the room with the door slightly ajar.

We decide to watch tv in our room right across the hall before going to bed rather than going to the living room. Just incase she needs anything throughout the night, including before we actually fall asleep.

We all quickly change into our pajamas and get into the bed, putting on a movie and getting comfy.

We'll go to bed after it's over.

****

I'm woken from a dead sleep when I hear a noise coming from outside the door. We left it halfway open but I can't see completely because of the dark. It sounds like someone if sniffling and slightly crying. I sit up right away and peek at the clock seeing it's around 2 am before I turn on the lamp next to the bed that's placed on the nightstand. It's not too bright so it won't wake the other girls, but it's just enough so I can see throughout the room.

As soon as I turn it on I see one of the saddest sights ever. Ara is standing there with tears streaming down her face. Tootsie is clutched tightly in her hand as it hands down by her side and the other hand is rubbing her eyes as she hiccups and tries to stop her crying.

I stand up off the bed and walk over to her. "Oh honey, what's the matter?" I crouch down in front of her hold onto her hands.

"I...I....I-" She tries to talk to me but can't as sobs keep coming out.

"Come here." I stand up and place my hands under her armpits, lifting her up and placing her on my chest. Her legs instantly wrap around my waist and she  places her arms in between us, pulled up to her chest. "Your okay, it's okay baby." I rock her back and forth as I pace the hallways trying to calm her down and reassure her that I'm here.

"Ssshhhh, can you try and take some deep breaths for me sweetie."

She tries her hardest but her breath gets caught as she tries to exhale. "It's alright, you doing such a good job baby, what a good girl. Can you try again for me. Let's take a deep breath together. Breathe in nice and deep, that's it, now blow out through your mouth." She leans back slightly and follows along with my breathing the best she can. "Oh you're doing such a good job." I smile at her as I continue to sway back and forth. "Blue skies in." I breathe in with her. "Gray skies out." I blow out with her. "That's it, there we go, just keep breathing."

After she had calmed down a bit and is breathing better she looks up at with her big pouty eyes. "Had a b-bad dream." She mumbles out.

"Oh you did? It must have been really scary huh?"

She nods her head. "Really scary."

"I'm sure it was. You're such a brave girl though, aren't you?" I continue to walk back and forth in the hall with her, the slight light from the lamp in the room allowing me to see where I'm walking. "Do you want to talk about it baby?"

She shakes her head before laying it onto my chest and nuzzling into me. She brings tootsie up to her face and rubs the fur against her cheek.

"Do you want to sleep with us tonight honey?" She nods her head instantly.

"Please." She says sleepily.

"Alright, that's more than okay baby." I walk into the room and see Morgan and Athena are both awake. I knew they probably were but neither of them would come out into the hallway because they would want to give her privacy. I'm sure she wouldn't want all three of us looking at her while she was crying. Obviously later on I'm sure it would be a want but not now considering we had only known her a week or two.

"She okay?" Morgan questions. Athena looks at me waiting for the answer, a worried look adorning her face.

"Ya she's alright now, just had a little scare from a bad dream, but she was super brave about it right baby?"

She nods her head slightly, peeking out and looking at them both with her sleepy eyes. "I go na-nite now." She whispers.

I laugh quietly and pat her on the bottom as I rock her. "Yes we are going to go na-nite now baby."

I sit down on the bed adjusting her slightly as I lay down. She never moves and stays cuddled up to me as she drifts off to sleep.

We all follow and slowly fall asleep, me holding her close as my eyes shut for the night.

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2571 words

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Hi! I hope you liked this chapter! I tried to slowly start to go more towards a relationship aspect rather than just friendship but I'm trying to do it slowly so it's not too all of a sudden.

So, the question for this chapter is:

Have you always been into reading or is it something you started getting into at an older age?

For me, I was always into reading when I was younger like elementary school but once I got to middle school I kind of stopped because the only books they were having us read in school were not interesting so I thought I didn't like reading, then I discovered Wattpad in high school and learned that there were actually books I did like reading and now I'm like addicted to it and can't go a day without it lol!

Sorry, that was a long answer!

Bye-bye!

- lauren 💕