Bea & the Broken Record

 I sat at the head of my bed with my songbook in my hands as I brainstormed ideas for songs. It was so much harder to concentrate, I realized, since a beautiful girl was laying at the end of my bed.

Bea was curled into a ball, her arms under her head and her knees pulled up to her chest. She was sleeping softly with a few strands of hair falling in front of her face. She was always here, at my house, and no one seemed to care anymore. She was like a part of the family.

You wouldn't expect it, but Bea was like one of the guys when she wanted to be. She ate pizza with us, brought pizza to us, even. She had wrestling competitions with us and played Call of Duty with Ben and Grayson. Bea was any guy's dream girl - and I finally had her. She was always with me, and I loved every second of it.

The weird thing was, she was always asleep, it seemed. When she wasn't doing all those weird things with us, she was lightly snoring on the couch or my bed. It made me think that she didn't get much sleep at home. And I didn't want to ask because what if it's something bad? What if it pushes her buttons too far?

As I sat there staring at Bea, my door opened slowly. I glared at it, warning the person on the other side not to make any noise. Ben stepped in with his eyes shielded by his hand.

"Everyone have clothes on?" He smirked and lowered his hand. I sent a pillow flying toward his head and he didn't catch in time, making it smack him in the face. He shook his head and looked from me to Bea sleeping at the end of my bed.

I had my feet stretched out so they were close to Bea. So, when she moved to get more comfortable, she laid her head on my legs and curled into a ball again, her hair covering her face completely.

"Didn't want to interrupt anything but." Ben smiled at the two of us. "Practice starts in fifteen minutes. You might want to come down and join us."

"Okay, I'll be down in a little bit," I told him quietly. He smirked at me once again before finally leaving and closing the door behind him.

I carefully pulled my legs out from under Bea's head and turned my body so my face was next to hers now. I gently pushed her hair out if her face so I could see her face. Bea was snoring lightly and I had to laugh.

I placed a kiss on her temple and attempted to crawl off the bed without waking her up, but she grabbed my hand before I could move anymore. I knew our practice would've woken her up anyway, but I didn't have to worry about it now.

"Hey," she said groggily. She rubbed her eyes and looked at me, sleep still trying to consume her. I furrowed my eyebrows and laid my head down next to hers. I laid my hand over her waist and pulled her closer to me.

"Hey," I said quietly back. She pursed her lips and looked uncomfortable for a moment. I didn't know what could've been wrong, but I felt like that was the time to find out.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked softly, resting my hand on the base of jaw and waiting for her response.

"Nothing, just a bad dream," she told me.

"You can tell me, Bea," I replied. She rolled over so she was lying flat on her back, her feet hanging off the edge.

"I'm sorry, Asher," Bea murmured dejectedly. She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again, turning her head to stare at me and hold my face gently in her hand.

"You say that an awful lot. What are you so sorry for?" I smiled at her I'm hopes to get one in return. Her smile lit up not just the room, but the world. She was the world, to me.