Chapter Twenty

"My nightmares are usually about losing you."

CLAYTON

I had almost spent that whole weekend crammed in my room painting. I was so inspired; that Thursday night with Lucy was still replaying in my head again and again. Everything did not go as planned - which was slightly irritating to me - but it turned out to be an amazing evening. She was so understanding, funny, nice. . .

Everything I already knew she already was, and then some more.

And so my parents had not questioned me locking myself away, only to go out for food and to show them finished pieces. In fact, they probably enjoyed seeing me focus on my old hobby rather than baseball. I do admit, baseball had consumed most of my time once we moved to the states. In Norway, growing up, I spent all of the time sketching, sculpting, and painting. It was my escape from reality that I could not find with anything else. Well, until baseball came into the picture.

My favorite of the weekend thus far was definitely the one I had just finished. It was a painting of Lucy with the color scheme of her favorite color, purple. It wasn't a portrait because it wasn't that realistic, but if anyone knew Lucy, they could recognize it was her immediately.

When I picked up the brush I didn't intend to paint her out. However, the moment I applied the first stroke, the girl who had my mind captured influenced my movements further.

I was about to get up and make my way to far's office, but a knock at my door seized me.

My eyes shot to the clock, and when I realized it was already two-thirty in the afternoon, I cursed softly to myself. I completely lost track of time and forgot Lucy was coming over today.

Trying my best to remain calm, I yelled out, "one second!" Carefully placing the paintings away under my bed, not yet ready to show Lucy my pieces, I wiped my hands on my shorts. Sadly some leftover purple paint smeared onto them.

I gave myself a once over in the mirror. I didn't usually wear my glasses throughout the day, but I was too lazy to put my contacts in. My hair was in need of a cut; my curly hair was starting to show with the unruly spirals poking out to and fro. I tried taming them, but to no avail. I was stuck looking like I had just woken up with the girl I want to impress right outside my door.

"Sorry, sorry." I said aloud as I changed into a clean pair of shorts then spread a little bit of gel through my head.

"I'll wait in the livingroo--" Lucy had started, but she stopped once I swung the door open. Her green eyes were wild with surprise and so many olives and jades. I could stare at them all day and paint them.

"That's not necessary." I stepped back into my room. "My dad's out there anyways. He would ask way too many questions about this sleepwalking stuff." She slowly began to nod her head. I bet she could picture far asking her a billion questions, which was why we tried to keep the conversation to ourselves. "Come on in." I waved her inside.

Lucy walked into my room very cautiously. Her eyes scanned the walls, floor, until finally meeting the bed. She gulped.

"This is the first time you've been back in here since that night, huh?"

She simply nodded, all the while taking in her surroundings more. I was kind of embarrassed - I was in desperate need of having my laundry done. Plus my trash bin was overflowing the slightest bit, but that was okay compared to Zeke's. His trash was full of used condoms.

"It feels like it was so long ago." Lucy finally seemed to fall out of her trance, and held a perky smile. She pulled her long hair to one side, combing through the ends absentmindedly. "But it's been almost three months, I think."

Three months? It felt like I had known Lucy and her parents much longer than that. I could barely even fathom the idea of us being strangers a year before that, yet alone four months previous.

I pulled the bedspread off then flopped down on the mattress. "That's crazy." I shook my head in disbelief, searching for the T.V. remote amongst the blankets. When I found it, I caught a glimpse of Lucy. She was standing on the other side of the bed, blankly staring at the space beside me. "You don't have to be afraid, you know." Her green eyes flashed to me. I smirked. "It's not like it's going to swallow you whole."

"Hardy-har-har." She fake laughed while dramatically rolling her eyes. "I'm just, you know, considering my options. There is a perfectly good chair right there by your desk, after all."

I laid back on the headboard, my lips still curved upright. "But then I wouldn't be beside you. And that's a problem." Yes, I was fully aware my flirting game was switched on. "Plus would you leave me all by my lonesome?" I exasperated, outreaching my hand to her.

If there was one way to make Lucy Walker comfortable, it was by making her laugh. So the moment I saw her pearly teeth once-more I knew she overcame her nerves of the situation.

"Is it safe for me to get in bed with the Clayton Hugh though?" She held her own smirk while crossing her arms. "I've heard some stories, you know. With you and the other girls at school."

My face faltered at that. "Like what?"

"Just things. . . Like, from girls gloating that they've slept with you and stuff." Suddenly the flirtatious mood was simmering down, and Lucy began to pick at her hair once again.

I scoffed. What bullshit. Sure, I hooked up with a few girls and did some things I regretted, but I had never gone that far with someone. I wasn't necessarily waiting out of purity and innocence - more so waiting for the right girl. That was something Mateo followed by too. So of course Zeke had to tease us all the time about still being virgins. At least I never had a scare of having an STD, unlike someone I knew so fondly.

"Well whatever you heard wasn't true. I promise." When I realized I was speaking much more annoyed than intended, I cleared my throat. "I'm not like that. I might have done some dumb things, but not dumb enough to be with girls like that."

Lucy seemed to take in her options one last time, but finally settled for sitting beside me. She got comfortable

"So I actually called my doctor earlier this morning. She specializes in sleeping disorders and used to put me through different trails - medical and physical ones." Lucy began to change the subject, dodging my eyes in the process. As she opened up her phone, I noticed a list of things coming up.

Causes:

- Traumatic event

- Loss of loved one

- Lack of feeling safe

- Stress

"We've already discussed my stress before and I actually do feel a whole lot less stressed out with the yoga I've been doing with my mom."

This should have been a happy thing for her to reveal. Yet there was that cursed frown indented onto her features.

"So obviously my cause of sleepwalking is a lot more deeper than that. And after talking to my dad a bit. . . I think it may have to do with losing my grandpa."

The whole time I had known Lucy, she never once mentioned her grandpa. Of course I had seen pictures at her house of an older man with her while she was younger, but I never questioned who he was. Lucy had explained who everyone else was on the walls but skipped over him. Her eyes would always fall on him, linger there for a second, then move forward to her next relative.

"My grandpa was a good man, you know? I don't even think he got one speeding ticket his whole life. That's just how good my grandpa was." Lucy glanced over at me briefly. Those jade eyes of hers were glazing over, no doubt from the amount of love and grief still churning in her heart for him. "He died when I was eight. A home invasion gone wrong."

She sniffled. Her eyes closed as she faced away from me again. I just wanted to hold her close, but I settled for taking her slender hand in mine.

"During the summer my parents would drop me off at his house in Rhode Island, and we'd do so many things together. He taught me how to ice skate, ride a bike. . ." She used her free hand to flick a tear away, then chuckled softly to herself. "He even talked to me about boys."

My brows rose at this and I sat up more. "What the heck do you tell an eight year old girl about boys?"

Her laughter continued to be sound to my ears. "He told me how boys had cooties, and that him, my dad, and Jacob should be the only men in my life."

"Me, cooties? Pfft. If anything, you are the one with the cooties." I poked her nose, making her giggle all the more. All I could do was stare at her in that moment of joy in silence. That was until she retreated back to the somber mood she was in before, and made me give her a reassuring hand squeeze. "He sounds amazing, Lucy. Honestly."

To me it sounded like her grandpa was her favorite person way back when. He was an avid drawer, and actually worked as a cartoonist whenever he could; yet managed to be apart of the Major League Baseball League and played for the New York Yankees back in the day. She went on to tell stories of his childhood, and how he went to school with some famous American actress I had no idea about, and how he used to claim they dated briefly.

I sat through it all, truly mesmerized. Not just because Lucy was so in touch with her memories of her grandpa, but because of how much life one man had lived. He sounded so unique and talented - everything I aspired to be.

As the hours passed, and the tears were long gone and smiles were replaced, we somehow ended up cuddling as we began to watch a movie. Her head settled onto my shoulder while her arm made its way across my stomach and my own held her close towards me. I gently pressed my cheek against her hair, the smell of lavender intoxicating me to the point where I couldn't focus on the movie playing.

"Thank you, Clayton." Lucy suddenly whispered out.

I had no clue what she was thanking me for, so I couldn't find a reply.

"I haven't been able to talk about him with anyone for a long time. . . It felt good. So thank you for listening." She glanced up at me briefly, but enough time for me to see her smile.

Before she moved back to her position, I took the opportunity to kiss her cheek quickly.

"Anytime, love. Anytime. . ."

And for some reason after all of that, I had a feeling we were one step closer to solving her sleepwalking.

What do you think about what was revealed in this chapter? The whole Lucy confronting Clayton about his "player" ways? Lucy's grandpa and how it could relate to her sleepwalking? Give me your insight in the comments below!

THE NEXT UPDATE -- IT WAS APRIL 8TH, but for personal reasons I will see if I can update any time soon. If you get mad at me for this, oh well. I have more important issues like the condition of a newborn baby boy, my future nephew, who was born this week with complications.