I wasn't sure how long I'd passed out for, but I lazily opened my eyes to find myself draped over Ian. If his own sudden jerking was any indication, I was positive that he'd fallen asleep as well.

I rubbed my eyes and failed to stifle a yawn before turning to look at him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. You were up all night. It's almost noon. Go to bed."

He tried to shake himself awake, but his eyes continued to close. "It's no big deal. I don't have any meetings tonight."

"Do you still have work though?" I tried to brush some wrinkles out of my tanktop and make sure nothing was out of place.

"Yeah, but like I said, it's going to be a slow night. I'll be able to cut out early most likely, maybe even head in late." His hand rose to his face and covered a large yawn.

"Even still, you're falling asleep." I smiled, then clamped my mouth shut to prevent me from continuing to play yawn tag with him. Once the feeling passed, I stood up and stretched. "Thank you for being here with me. I actually feel pretty good, all things considered."

"Company can sometimes have that effect."

I turned around and offered him a hand, but his head had already fallen back into the couch cushions with closed eyes. A chuckle escaped my lips. His sleeping form looked so peaceful even with his fangs popping out from his slightly opened mouth. "Ian? Hello?"

He didn't respond. I snapped my fingers, then clapped my hands together, but still nothing.

"So when you do sleep, you sleep like the dead. Okay, that would've been good to know earlier." I said, shaking my head and placing a hand against my forehead. "What am I going to do with you?"

He was still sitting upright with his head tilted against the back cushion and arms abandoned across his lap.

Should I leave him like that? It didn't look very comfortable, but I knew I couldn't drag him upstairs to his place. If someone were to see us, they'd probably think he was dead, actually dead, and he wouldn't be able to allay any of the fears or misunderstanding.

I reached down and lifted one of his legs onto the rest of the couch, then the other. The movement dragged him lower into more of a lounging position.

"I hope that's good enough." I said aloud and glanced towards his chest. I guess I was expecting to see it slowly rise and fall with his breathing until I remembered he wasn't human. He didn't really need to breath. Turning to his thermos on the coffee table, I flipped the top open and could smell that coppery metallic smell of blood. I coughed a bit. Yep, he was the real deal.

There were several dishes that needed to be cleaned up so adding his thermos wouldn't be too bad. He'd prepared breakfast and humored me all morning. This was the least I could do.

I carried his thermos at arms' length and quickly rinsed it with dish soap. Luckily the smell dissipated within a few minutes of dish washing and I could comfortably package up my leftovers and start scrubbing the hell out of my scorched pan.

"It's the thought that counts." I said aloud as I added more soap and stretched my shoulder.

My phone jingled from the other room and I set the pan back down in the sudsy water to soak. Grabbing it off of the nightstand where I'd left it plugged in all morning, I saw a message from Emily. She'd known about Philip and the fallout with my family. Her text asked if I wanted to go out for some tea. I was a mess last year so it was no surprise that she was checking in on me again.

Rather than text her back, I called. "Hey Emily."

"Nicole? Hey, you actually sound pretty good. Is everything okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm all right. What about you?"

"Hungry, but pleasantly surprised to hear that my best friend is coherent. You want to get something to eat?"

"I'm not too hungry because I just ate a couple hours ago, but I could handle something to drink." There was a long pause. "I meant non-alcoholic."

"Would it be better if I grabbed something for us and brought it back to your place? I don't want to force you out today."

"No!" I snapped, looking out into the living room where Ian was still passed out. "No, sorry, I think getting out will do me some good. It's a little stuffy here and I'd rather not run the A/C all afternoon. My bill was higher last month."

"Okay, well I just finished up at the post office so I'll swing by in ten to get you."

"I'll meet you outside. See you soon." I clicked end and the call dropped. "That could have gone better."

Shaking my head, I walked out into the living room to see if Ian was still dead to the world. After stomping, clapping, shouting, and waving my hands about, it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere for a long while. Unfortunately, that meant one of two things: leaving my door unlocked again or locking him in. And that would guarantee me another scolding for having my door unlocked at some point, either before he woke up or after.

I checked myself in the bathroom to make sure I didn't have anything on inside out or backwards. Make-up would have been a nice addition, but I did not want Emily to come up here and find a practically dead Ian in my apartment after I claimed we were just neighbors.

With my purse strapped to my shoulder, I glanced back over at the lifeless figure on the couch. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Ian, if you can hear me, don't do anything weird while I'm gone like steal my underwear or try on my dresses, okay?"

Nothing. I shrugged, then closed and locked the door behind me. Once I reached the sidewalk, I waved down Emily's Accord.

She opened the window and called out to me. "Well, you still look like shit, but you're at least up and dressed. Get in, I've got some cover-up that'll do wonders for those dark circles."

I slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. "Love you too."

"You are surprisingly feisty today. You did drink last night, didn't you?" She paused with foot on the brake pedal, watching me.

"Yes, I did. I just, it was a weird night. I kind of hallucinated a bit and then one of the neighbors made some breakfast for me. It was really nice."

"You what? Hallucinated? Do not make me put you into AA classes, Nicole. What was it about?"

I shifted and glanced back up at the apartment building. "Give you one guess."

I could hear her sigh and then the blinker ticked and we drove off. "I'm so glad I reached out to you then. What if something were to happen to you? You've been spiraling out of control for the last two years. I thought you might have been getting better when you got a boyfriend, but knowing you already broke up and now this? What am I supposed to think?"

"That it's been rough these last few months?" I could tell her that the hallucination was actually just Ian, but it was embarrassing enough that he saw that. Telling her about it would probably not reassure her any more than the idea of me drinking too much.

My phone buzzed in my purse, but I didn't bother pulling it out. There wasn't a person alive that I'd want to talk to on this day, around this time besides the woman sitting next to me.

Emily glanced over at me before focusing on driving again. "You can answer that, you know."

"Nah, it's probably a wrong number."

~

Hours later, Emily pulled into a parking spot near my apartment.

I smiled at her. "Thanks for hanging out. Next time it'll be my treat. I don't need you spoiling me just because of some tragic past experiences. I can function as an adult, thank you."

The engine shut off and she started opening her door.

I stared at her with my mouth a bit open. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you actually are functioning as an adult. You're hiding something and I'm going to find out now." Emily's voice had that motherly-tone that reminded me a bit too much of my estranged mother.

I scrambled out of the car after her. "It's nothing. You caught me off guard. It's a bit of a mess with laundry and dishes."

"Why would that bother me when I've had to drag your naked butt to the shower after you vomited all over yourself? I'm not afraid of a little laundry."

"That was one time and you know it was right after I got a very unpleasant voicemail from my mother." I managed to catch her easily as she was a few inches shorter in the leg department, but she pushed into the building.

"So why are you so worried about showing me your place if everything is fine?" She took the stairs two by two.

"Why do you care so much about what's in my apartment?" I reached the first landing and grabbed her arm, turning her to face me. "What's the deal?"

"Did you trash it?"

I gaped at her and she slipped from my fingers. "Trash it? Why would I do that?"

She sprinted up the stairs and stopped on the next landing with her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed on me while she cocked her hip out. "Because you drank so much that you hallucinated. I didn't think I'd need to repeat that, but you don't seem to realize how horrible that is. I need to see for myself that your apartment's in one piece and nothing's broken and thrown across the floor."

My anger deflated. Keeping this from her was really becoming difficult. Maybe I could just open the door enough for her to see it was fine and she wouldn't see Ian sleeping on the couch. After-all, she was just worried about me. I followed her up the rest of the stairs to my landing.

The door to my apartment was shut and locked, from the quick check I did with my key conveniently twisting the wrong direction first. Everything was as I left it, which meant he was probably still inside. Crap.

"You can check real quick, but then you need to leave. I have some stuff I need to take care of soon, okay?" I said as glanced back at her, looking for some reassurance that this'll all work out and she won't freak out.

I pushed open the door and turned to walk inside when I heard Ian's voice.

"Hello again, Emily, Nicole."

The sound came from outside of the apartment. I whirled around and saw him just reaching our landing, dressed in slacks, a fedora, and his leather jacket again. It was a strange combination, but not as strange to me as seeing him there.

"Oh, hi Ian. I didn't realize you lived upstairs." Emily said with a big grin on her face. Apparently, she'd forgotten that he was off-limits.

"Yep, directly above us. What brings you here?"

"Nothing special. Nicole just wanted to show me something in her apartment."

They both looked to me for very different reasons. Ian's eyes narrowed into a glare at me while Emily's begged for me to play along since she didn't want to embarrass me. If only she knew.

"I got a new game and thought she'd enjoy playing it with me." I said, staring directly at him, hoping, praying that he'd realize I wasn't planning to sell him out. He must have heard our conversation. We weren't exactly being quiet. "Where are you going?"

"Work, last second meeting was arranged." He said, covering a yawn with his hand. His eyes had darker circles than mine.

"Are you safe to drive? You seem exhausted." I knew it was my fault. He'd kept me company because he hadn't needed to go anywhere. A pang of guilt struck my chest and I coughed as I broke away from his gaze.

"Ian, you didn't hear anything weird last night, did you?" Emily asked, jumping back in and most likely digging for proof that I'd been a maniac last night.

He directed his gaze over to her now with a brow raised. His eyes bore into her, deciphering her question. "Nothing comes to mind. Why? Did something happen?"

I swear Emily started to sweat, but she stood her ground well enough. She turned to me and patted my shoulder in an attempt to be consoling me. "No reason, just making sure. It must've just been a dream, Nic."

Ian's lips curled into a smile that oozed smugness. He'd worked out everything, I guess. "If you ever need anything, I'm just upstairs."

I rubbed my thumb across Emily's hand as I tried to ease her panic. She was still staring at my door. "Noted. Thanks, Ian. You'd better get going. I wouldn't want to make you late for work."

After closing the door behind us, Emily finally seemed to shake off that panic.

"Wow, he's got quite the stare. He kind of freaked me out."

"I think he succeeded in freaking you out, Emily." I walked over to the couch and saw everything was normal. "So have you seen enough yet?"

She glanced around the apartment, pausing every once in a while then looked back to me. "Okay, it looks fine. Actually, it looks better than you claimed. Where are all of these piles of clothing and dirty dishes?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but honestly, I'd run out of believable ideas. So I closed it and shrugged. "You seemed to have convinced yourself that something was wrong with me. I just didn't think it'd be that much of an obsession."

"I'm sorry." She said, then walked over and wrapped her arms around me. "I just worry about you. I want you to trust me enough that you would rather turn to me than tuck it all away inside. We're best friends, aren't we? We're supposed to be able to rely on one another."

Her voice broke into a sob and it took all of my will not to copy her.

"Of course, we are. It's me. It's my fault. It's always been my fault. I'm sorry to make you worry so much. I promise I'll be better from now on." I said, squeezing her tight in my arms and nestling my face into her hair.

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