Not Much of a Sleepover

Like two deer caught in the headlights, the pair stayed motionless with their faces inches apart. John didn’t dare look towards his mother; deep down, he hoped that, if they ignored her long enough, she would go away. Unfortunately, he didn’t have such luck.

“Mom, how long have you been there listening?” John asked after mustering the courage to face his mother.

“Long enough to know that you lied to me,” Brenda answered.

John stayed quiet, not sure how long his mother meant; did she actually listen to them talking about their abilities? I guess she would have been more freaked out than mad. It was at that moment that John realized where his hand was resting: mid-way up Amelia’s thigh. High enough for him to blush due to his unexpected lewd behavior in front of his mother. Luckily Amelia saved him from much more embarrassment by taking that hand into hers.

“You know, Son,” his mom finally spoke up after what to John felt like an eternity of silence, “had you told me before that the mysterious girl was Amelia, I would have been less angry at you. I would have actually been overjoyed. Not only did you hide this from me, but you also didn’t have the decency to tell me she was here at MY house.”

“But, Mom, she just got here,” John tried to justify his mistake.

“That’s not much of an excuse! You certainly had enough time to kiss,” Brenda answered back then turned to the girl. “Come here, Amelia.”

John quietly watched as Amelia slowly walked over to his mother. To his surprise and relief, Brenda took the girl in her arms and gave her a huge hug. His mother even let a smile slip from her previously stern facade.

“You don’t know how happy I am to see you!” Brenda said and gave her another hug and then let go of her to take in her appearance. “You’ve certainly grown since I last saw you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Brenda,” Amelia replied and then continued after staring at John with a mocked upset look on her face. “It’s been way too long.”

“So, were you planning on staying over the night?” Brenda asked.

“Yes, Brenda,” the redhead answered. “I mean if it’s ok with you?”

“Of course, honey,” was the reply she got with the addition of another hug.

“Great, let me get my bag, I left it outside,” Amelia said and was about to head for the door when Brenda stopped her.

“You left her bag outside?” Brenda asked her son as she smacked him on the back of his head; thankfully there wasn’t much **** to it. “Go get it!”

Without saying a word, John promptly went to the door to get Amelia’s bag. He was sure that he hadn’t seen anything outside other than Amelia when he had searched for a possible Caile; still, he wouldn’t dare argue with his mother, especially at her current state.

Just as he opened the door and stepped outside to search for it, he noticed a drone carrying a school bag flying towards him. He sighed a bit annoyed, feeling set up by Amelia. As soon as it dropped the bag by his feet, it rose close to his face and said, “Sorry”. Its voice sounded like Amelia’s. After pitching downward as if it were bowing to him, the drone quickly and silently left.

Before his mother called him to hurry up, he picked up the bag and went back inside.

“Unfortunately, our guest room is in no state for anyone to sleep in, so you’ll have to sleep on John’s bed. I hope you don’t mind,” Brenda said when John got back; not waiting for an answer from the girl, she then turned towards him and continued, “I hope, for your sake, Son, you kept your room cleaned, especially your bed.”

She’s really making me pay for this, John thought before saying anything. “It’s fine, Mom. Where will I sleep?”

“You will sleep on the couch,” she answered her son. “Punishment for keeping this secret from me since yesterday. Now get ready for bed, both of you, you have school tomorrow,” she said entering her mom mode.

John watched them leave for their respective rooms and heard his mother say to Amelia, “Unfortunately, I am leaving early in the morning, so we won’t have much time to catch up before you go to school. I would love for you to have dinner with us tomorrow if your aunt won’t mind. It would be like old times.”

“Sure, Brenda. My aunt won’t mind,” Amelia told John’s mother, her laughter was the last he heard from her just before she closed the door to his room.

John wasn’t sure whether his mother would permit him to go to his room and get his things to sleep. Luckily, minutes later, she came back to the living room with a few of his things.

“Here you go,” his mother told him as she handed him his pajamas, a pillow and a couple of bedsheets. “Now go to sleep.”

John arranged the couch to make it as comfortable as possible, using its pillows to help. To his delightful surprise, he felt Amelia’s scent on one of them and fell asleep holding onto it.

“John, wake up!” he heard as he felt a hand try to stir him awake.“Not now, Mom,” he answered half asleep not wanting to open his eyes. “Let me sleep some more.”

“John!” the voice exclaimed loud enough to fully awaken him.

“What the hell?” John asked startled with the presence of the redhead now sitting at the edge of the couch; fortunately, he managed to control the level of noise he made to a minimum. “Amelia, what are you doing here?”

“Continuing where we left off before your mom interrupted us,” she whispered back. She then took a small grey box from her bag and pressed a button on top of it. “So, where were we?” she asked with her voice back to normal. “Oh aye, you were about to tell me more about skills.”

Well, not that exactly, John thought.

Seeing the look on his face, Amelia continued, “Well, we can’t do much else, this device can suppress the noise of us talking, but I doubt it can do much with the noise from any other type of activity. We can get back to that later.” She then smiled.

“So, apart from your prying skill, what else can you do?”

“Well, I have some offensive and defensive skills,” John answered his inquiring friend.

“Yeah, I guessed as much since you went to Scotland and fought some Bauchans,” she told him.

“You know about that?” he asked a bit surprised.

“Aye,” she said. “Oh, and by the way,” she said just before punching his shoulder.

“Ouch,” he put on a show of feeling hurt, “what was that for?”

“Don’t you ever use my ring for collateral again!” she told him pointing at his face. “I freaked out when I lost the signal from you.”

“I am sorry,” it was all he could do to apologize. “I didn’t know it at the time.”

“Well, now you know, please don’t lose it, especially now,” she said sounding a bit worried. “Anyway, of course I know about you going to Scotland,” she said and then beamed proudly. “I’ve even confronted Mrs. Wentworth during class for her sending you there.” She then laughed, showing a much different behavior in comparison to how she felt in the morning. “Anything more that you can do?” she asked hopingly after she collected herself.

“I have a storage system like the ones in most games we’ve played together,” he said dismissively not knowing how rare it was.

“Wait, what?” It was her time to be surprised. “What item do you use to access it?”

“No item,” he answered. “I can just access it when I want to store something in it or take something out.” He made a show by retrieving the Heads or Tails coin from it; he wanted to take it from behind her ear as if it was a magic trick but quickly changed his mind and just made it appear on the palm of his hand. “See?”

“That’s such bullshit!” she exclaimed a bit envious; she then recomposed herself and put on her glasses. “Sorry, please do that again.”

As he did so, Amelia watched with fascination as her glasses flashed a whole range of colors.

“That’s quite interesting,” she said. “Peter is going to freak out about it when he comes over tomorrow.”

“Peter is coming back?” John asked happy to hear the news.

“Aye,” she said while smiling at him. “He was supposed to be here already, but something or someone delayed him.” Not able to contain herself, she started to laugh quickly putting her hands on her mouth to stifle the noise.

“Why are you laughing?” John asked her.

“You’ll see,” she said and then had to put her hands on her mouth once again, not able to control herself.

“Ok,” she said moments later. “I need to do some tests on you. Is that ok?”

“Sure,” he answered.

“Good, let’s go to your room.”

The pair walked to his room, John following behind her. Once inside, she told him to sit on his bed.

“When I was here earlier, I couldn’t help but notice that you have already upgraded your computer and phone,” she said and then tapped on his grandfather’s chest. “And made a change to this, too. Do you have any crafting skills?”

“Crafting skill?” John asked back and then answered, “The devices’ upgrades were made by the Abyss Auction; the chest was due to a reward item.”

“Oh, so they gave you the simple upgrade, huh?” she said after taking the phone into her hand and analyzing it. “No worries, I’ll give you a more complete upgrade later.” After the second bit of info kicked in, she looked at him once again surprised. “Reward item? Oh, for fuck’s sake! How the hell did you? No, wait, first things first. Lay on your bed please.”

After he laid on the bed and closed his eyes, Amelia took advantage of the situation and kissed him. As he felt her lips touch his, his eyes flew open, but before he could get into it, she withdrew herself from him.

“Yeap, we still need some practice with that. Please lie still,” she said as she smiled at him. “If you are a good boy, we’ll do some more practicing.”

Amelia took her time as she scanned his body, still with his clothes on, all the while John stayed still with his eyes closed. Unfortunately, he still felt tired from the day’s events, and being quite comfortable on his bed, John couldn’t help it and...