Immaculate Intimacy

They came into the bedroom to find Sasha reading at his art desk. He closed the book wordlessly and looked Jake in the eye. He'd been waiting for their return to go back to sleep.

"Bedtime," Mariah said simply. She was exhausted and ready to return to her slumber.

"You bet." Sasha headed for the floor, and Mariah aimed him for his own bed.

"You guys came and got me, I ought to be the one to sleep on the floor." Her voice was firm.

"Don't sleep on the floor." Jake touched her back, noticing as he did so that there was no bra.

Sasha looked at Mariah, and at Jake, and then at his own bed. He got into it without comment, leaving his friends to do whatever they wanted. "I'll turn off this lamp whenever you guys are ready."

Jake went to his own bed, scooting against the wall, and left the covers pulled back. Mariah laid down beside him with the pillow from the floor, and Sasha turned off the light.

Jake's arm slipped over Mariah's waist. His eyes shut. There had never been a warmer, sweeter way to sleep than side by side like this. Mariah breathed deeply, allowing herself to be wrapped in Jake's comfort. Tomorrow things would need to be sorted, all the correct emotions filed into place. Until then, there was only this night and Jake's warm body to think about. The pair drifted to sleep together.

For Sasha, it took a little longer. He was dimly envious of Jake and Mariah's strange intimacy. Even in a love-hate relationship, there was always the underlying care. Maybe not fairy-tale true love or something, but genuine allegiance. For him, it was a content life but one without companionship. He wasn't jealous of Jake . . . Sasha also loved Mariah but not in the way that Jake seemed to love her. There was a distant memory of getting his first kiss from Mariah at a junior high party, but it was not in the way that Jake got to kiss her in later years.

Someday, he thought, there will be a partner for me the way others have their own. Maybe first I'm just supposed to do this, with The Gang. Be the advisor but not the one experiencing any of it. Still, even as he assured himself, Sasha couldn't help but wish that he was the one sleeping wrapped together with a girl.

THE END