That didn’t bother me though, knowing he did it all because he loved me.
I lifted my hand and placed it on his cheek, cupping it gently and brushing my thumb along his warm skin.
My intention wasn’t to wake him, but his eyes slowly opened as he noticed me touching him, and when his eyes met mine, the corners of his mouth curled up.
“You’re awake already,” he pointed out.
“It’s early,” I told him, hinting that it would be best for him to leave my bedroom before the others would notice he had slept in here.
Not that it mattered, seeing as we shared a bed in the treehouse anyway.
But this was different.
We had a bedroom each and there was no reason for us to sleep in mine together.
“Are you kicking me out?” he murmured, his voice cracking and thick with sleep.
“Yes.”
He chuckled, placing his hand at the back of my head and pulling me in to kiss me.
“One more minute,” he mumbled, and I eased into the kiss and let him take over control.
He was tired, and it showed in the way he kissed me without much energy.
Still, it was a sweet kiss.
I smiled against his lips and when I leaned back, he opened his eyes again. “Still feeling good about what we did last night?” he asked, and I quickly nodded.
“I’ve never felt better, Fen. It was amazing.”
He smiled at me and pulled me in for one last kiss. “I love you, Vespyr. No matter how many fucked up things I’ll make you go through.”
I didn’t regard the words after his I love you, seeing as I didn’t feel as if the things he did last night were fucked up.
They were things he desired to do, and his intentions weren’t to hurt me.
“I love you too, Fennec.”
We laid there like this for another while, then he got out of bed and grabbed the three things he had brought last night from my desk.
“Get a few more hours of sleep. And, Ves?”
“Yes?”
“I think it would be best if you’d go get the morning-after pill. At the pharmacy.”
“Oh…okay, yeah. That’s a good idea,” I replied, slapping myself mentally for not even thinking about protection last night.
“Don’t worry. Many girls get one. Take the money out of Mama’s wallet,” he suggested.
I nodded and watched him exit my room.
No reason to be embarrassed, right?
Better to take action than hope not to be pregnant.
26
Turned out that standing in line at the pharmacy was more nerve-wracking than anything I had ever done in my life.
People in line were looking at me funny when I asked for the morning-after pill, and when they told me to go sit down in the corner of the store to wait until it was my turn, they continued to stare.
Luckily, I didn’t know anyone in the store, until the girl exiting the back with another pharmacy worker walked out.
“Shit, Vespyr?” Nia asked as she noticed me.
“Hi,” I greeted, not feeling like talking to her.
“I thought you moved away. Is Fennec here too?”
“Yes, why?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. What are you doing here?”
Probably the same she was.
“Next,” a woman said, looking at me from behind the counter.
Nia immediately realized what I was there for, then she laughed and covered her mouth with her hand.
“No way! Who the hell was brave enough to sleep with you?”
I rolled my eyes at her and got up from my chair to go to the back with the lady, ignoring Nia.
“I have to tell my girls. Oh, man! You needing the morning-after pill is just funny. Are you sure you had sex?”
Frowning, I continued to walk, and once I followed the lady into a separate room, I let out a heavy breath.
“That girl sounds like a bitch,” she said.
The lady was around Mama’s age, and I tried to shake Nia’s words off while I smiled at her.
“You’re Judd’s kid, right? The guy who lives out in the forest?”
I nodded.
“I went to school with him until I moved away, but I came back to Fairbanks after finishing college. He was already gone by then. How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s fine,” I replied, unsure about why she was interested in talking about my family.
She nodded, finally realizing that I wasn’t here to do small talk with her.
“Ever took the morning-after pill?” she asked, and I shook my head.
She continued to ask me specific questions and telling me about the side effects the intake of this pill could have on me, and after I signed a piece of paper, I swallowed it and was already free to leave.
“Wasn’t so bad, hm?”
“No, guess it wasn’t,” I replied with a small smile.
“We get up to twenty girls per day who come in for the morning-after pill. There’s no reason to be ashamed.”
I knew that, but Nia made me feel shame after laughing when she saw me here.
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Of course. Tell your parents I said hi.”
I had no idea what her name was, and I didn’t bother looking at her name tag before I headed out of the pharmacy to get back home and have breakfast with my family.
To my luck, Nia wasn’t outside, so I made my way back home and pushed the thought of her making fun of me off my mind.
When I entered the house, Papa was sitting on the couch with a newspaper in his lap and a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Hey, sweetheart. Where have you been so early?”
“I went on a walk. I was up early and couldn’t fall back asleep,” I lied.
“You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I guess I slept well and didn’t need any more hours,” I told him, sitting down next to him.
“Where’s Mama and Fennec?”
“Out back, talking to the neighbors.”
I leaned against him, letting out one more sigh which was about my tenth since I walked back from the pharmacy.
“How are you? Do you miss camp?”
“Of course I miss camp. I can’t wait to go back, but Mama’s happy and I don’t wanna ruin Christmas for her. She’s also very excited to have you back for your nineteenth. It’s always strange to have you and Fen be the same age,” he said.
I smiled up at him and nodded. “It’s strange for me as well. But it’s fun too.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked back down at the newspaper on his lap, but I didn’t feel like reading the article on it.
“Papa?”
“Yes, Vespyr?”
“Was it true what Fennec told me about the fox he brought back to camp? That it was hurt?”
He didn’t respond right away, and when he shrugged, I looked up to see his face.
“I don’t know. He came back with it already dead.”
I observed him for a moment, and when he noticed that wasn’t a good enough answer for me, he sighed heavily.
“I heard a gunshot minutes before he came back, it wasn’t far away, and hunters never come this close to camp.”
A knot tightened in my throat and I tried to think of anything other than Fennec killing the fox without it being hurt already.