Chapter Six: No Matter Our Doubts
“Hey Sleeping Beauty, it’s time to wake up.”
I groaned and my eyes flickered open. Egan leant against the doorframe, smiling down at me. For a moment I was shocked to see him, but then I remembered – I fell asleep here last night. Again.
“C’mon, Kieran’s not going to be very happy if you don’t show up for work.” Egan said before leaving the room. I swung myself out of Egan’s bed and walked through to the kitchen, rubbing my eyes. “Here,” Egan passed me some toast. “I can cook one thing.” I smiled and began eating.
I jumped when I heard a door opening, and turned to see Brenden walking through the house, Andy close behind. “Egan,” Brenden called. “Andy borrowed this from you ages ago. I’m returning it,” Brenden placed a book on the table.
“Thanks Brenden,” Egan called back.
Brenden turned to leave, but stopped in his tracks when he saw me. “You’re here,” he stated.
“Yes,” I giggled.
“Did you...sleep here?” Brenden asked.
“Um, yeah,” I admitted slowly, feeling blood rush to my cheeks.
“I thought you were Christian,” Brenden said to Egan, clearly confused.
“Wait,” Andy said, joining the conversation. “Kieran was right?”
“No,” Egan spoke awkwardly. “We’re not...we just...”
“We just slept,” I felt the awkwardness of the situation. Egan nodded, glad to have a way out.
“So, you two sleep together, but you don’t have sex,” Andy assumed.
“Yeah,” Egan started searching for something in one of the kitchen cupboards.
“Are you actually together, or...”
Egan began to blush. “No.”
Andy’s eyes flicked from Egan to me, and then back to Egan. “Right.”
“You’re friends that sleep together?” Brenden asked, innocently.
“Egan, you’re meant to do more than just sleep.”
“Sorry to disappoint, Andy. I’m kind of traditional when it comes to the Christian ways of marriage.”
Andy shook his head. “That makes you like friends with benefits, but without the benefits,” he mused.
Egan gave Andy a confused look. “Wouldn’t that just make us friends?”
“Friends don’t sleep with each other,” Andy argued.
Egan smiled and raised his eyebrows, turning his head so that he could look at the boys. “Really, Andy?”
“Uh, I think it’s time to go, Brenden,” Andy announced before swiftly leaving.
Brenden blushed a little and followed with a sad look in his eyes.
“Did I miss something?” I asked, seeking explanation for their sudden retreat.
Egan grabbed a strange looking electronic item from the cupboard and placed it on the table.
“Last year we went camping,” Egan explained. “We decided it would be fun to lock the two of them in a tent for a night. They yelled at us for a while, but soon got over it,” Egan began flipping through books and magazines on the kitchen bench. “We went to let them out in the morning, and found them cuddled up together. Asleep.” I smiled at the image. “Of course, Kieran and Mikayla had a bit of an argument about whether they’d make a cute gay couple or not, and Andy woke up. He didn’t find it overly amusing.”
“He’s not really into the gay couple idea?”
Egan shrugged. “Kieran’s homophobic. It creates a bit of tension between all of them.”
“You’re not homophobic?”
“Why would you think that?” Egan asked, giving up on the kitchen bench and turning back to look at me.
“You’re Christian.”
“Well, every now and then you’ll find a Christian that doesn’t hate gay people.”
I shrugged. “I’d better get to work.”
“C’mon then. I’ll walk you there.”
“Don’t you have some kind of job to get to?” I asked as we stepped out the door.
Egan grinned. “I’m a hunter and a full time genius. Where do you think I get time to work?”
“In between the hunting and fighting with Kieran over what you can and can’t do, I’m sure that you need to make a living.”
“No work for me at the moment,” Egan explained with a slight smile. “School holidays.”
I looked at him. “You’re a teacher.”
“You got a problem with that?”
“It’s just not what I would have expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“I honestly don’t know,” I confessed. “What do you teach?”
“Physics and music.”
“Now that I would expect.”
Egan smiled.
We reached the office pretty quickly and found ourselves face to face with Kieran and a blonde woman. “Hey guys, this is Ashleigh,” Kieran seemed to scramble for the words. “Ash, this is Egan and Ailia.”
“Hi,” I smiled.
“I’ll see you later,” she told Kieran. “Um, nice to meet you guys,” she waved and walked off.
“I gotta go too,” Egan said. “Bye!” He walked back in the direction of his house.
“Alright,” Kieran said as we walked through the door. “Spill.”
I looked at him.
Kieran rolled his eyes. “You and Egan, what’s going on.”
“Nothing,” I replied.
“You’re wearing the same clothes that you did yesterday and you arrived here with Egan, which means that you’ve spent the night at his house twice now. I assume that you didn’t spend those nights in his bed.”
Well, I did, but I didn’t think that was what Kieran meant. “We just talked.”
“About what?”
“Stuff.”
“Very descriptive.”
I shrugged.
“Anyway, there’s stories of a haunted castle going around. Did you want to go and take a look at it for me? Seems like the kind of thing you’d be interested in.”
“Sure,” I smiled at the thought of getting out of the office for the day.
“I’ll get you the address. Just try and get as much information about the place as you can. And if you have any ghostly experiences,” he waved his hands above his head, making fun of the whole ghost thing. “Let me know.”
I nodded and waited patiently. Today might be good a day.