Lisa had thankfully woken up partway through the night and, in a surprising moment of lucidity, made her way to the bathroom to down a couple aspirin and a big glass of water. Grabbing the same cocktail for her guest, she padded quietly over to the bed where Jennie lay buried under her winter comforter, only her dark hairs peeking out. Torn between wanting to let her rest undisturbed, and being the good friend and preventing her from having a nasty hangover, she chose the latter.
"Jennie, honey..." Lisa spoke softly, pulling back on the blanket covering Jennie's head. "I need you to take some medicine for me."
"Mmmmmm," Jennie grumbled, trying to pull the blanket back up.
"You only have to wake up for a second, come on now," Lisa tried again, pulling the covers down one more time and helping to pull Jennie into a sitting position as best she could with a full glass of water and some pills in her hands.
"Ugh, what time is it?" Jennie asked, her voice deep and raspy from sleep.
"It's late, but you need to take this or you'll feel worse in the morning."
"Mmm hmmm," came her response through the glass of water she was chugging down. Handing the glass back to Lisa, she flopped back down in bed and rolled on her side to face Lisa.
Lisa had just set Jennie's empty glass on the side table when a warm hand grabbed hold of her arm and started to pull her gently closer to the edge of the bed.
"What are you doing, Jennie?" Lisa asked a bit warily.
"Stop trying to take care of me," Jennie replied, pulling a bit more forcefully on her arm, "and come back to bed before you fall over."
Tensing a bit and trying to pull back her arm from Jennie's surprisingly firm grasp, Lisa only succeeded in throwing herself off balance - not a particularly hard thing to do given her current state - and found herself dropping unceremoniously onto the bed next to Jennie. She didn't miss the glint of victory in Jennie's eye.
Not feeling terribly comfortable perched on the edge of the bed next to Jennie's pajama-clad form, Jennie sensed her distress and scooted toward the middle of the bed to give Lisa a bit more space. Pulling back the covers beside Jennie, Lisa shuffled around just a bit, trying to make herself comfortable before pulling the comforter back over herself. Lisa and Jennie were now much closer to each other than they had been earlier in the night. She could feel the heat radiating off of Jennie's body. Jennie had decided to remain on her side facing Lisa, and her chest was practically pressed along Lisa's arm. How did Jennie think she was going to be able to get any sleep with them lying in this position? But before Lisa could get too far down that rabbit hole, Jennie surprised her yet again when her hand came up to Lisa's hair and began stroking her fingers softly through the golden locks. Lisa's eyes drifted closed on their own accord and she let out another sigh. "Mmmmm," Lisa hummed, loving the feeling of Jennie's fingers in her hair.
"Shhhhh, go to sleep," Jennie whispered, soothingly. It was like she understood the struggle Lisa was going through, wanting to be this close to Jennie but also being afraid to do anything that might confuse or complicate their friendship even more. Allowing herself to just be in the moment, to not over-think it like she did everything else in her life, Lisa felt herself sink deeper into the bed as the muscles in her body finally relaxed and sleep claimed her once again.
Lisa could feel herself slowly waking up, her senses coming back to her one at a time. Though her eyes were closed, she could tell that the room was filled with sunlight by the warm red glow behind her eyelids. She felt wonderful and was pleasantly surprised to find that her midnight hangover remedy had truly done its job. As her mind slowly cleared from the fog of sleep, she became acutely aware of a hand, not belonging to herself, draped lightly across her abdomen and a warm body pressed snugly against her side. Her heart began to pound so hard that she was certain Jennie would hear it and wake up. Lisa finally pried her eyes open to fully assess the situation. She definitely knew how they had gotten themselves into this position, but she had absolutely no clue how to get herself out of it without waking her sleeping, snoring, drooling friend in the process. As much as she hated to admit it, Lisa had, on many occasions, dreamt of the day when she would wake up to the site of this beautiful woman in her bed. But this wasn't how it was supposed to happen, and Lisa didn't want to put herself in such a vulnerable position so soon after their sort-of-talk last night.
