Through the Screen

Chapter 51

abel 's phone is buzzing loudly on the nightstand, not disturbing abel per say, but definitely causing

chris to turn uncomfortably in his sleep, blindly patting the nightstand to find the source of disruption.

"hello?" his voice is heavy and laced with sleep, and he's sure that his words are barely

comprehensible as he twists a few tufts of abel 's hair between his fingers.

"hey, i'm sorry to wake you up darling but i just can't find adrian's school sweater, do you have—"

noah's voice is rushed as he quickly fries some eggs, his phone balanced between his cheek and

shoulder, but before he an finish talking, a sleepy voice is interrupting him.

"hey man, sorry abel is sleeping right now, do you want me to wake him up?"

"chris?" noah can physically feel all the blood drain from his face, his fingers losing the grip he had

around the handle of the pan, and he struggles to get out the words. "no, um, i-i'll manage don't disturb

him," noah chokes out, dropping the pan on the kitchen counter and leaning helplessly against it,

unsure of what to think of the situation. why did abel not tell him? Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

"alright, i'll tell him you called," chris is almost half asleep by the time noah replies.

"no! um, don't, it's fine, i'll call him later myself," chris just mumbles a small "okay," in response and

waits for noah to hang the phone, before dropping the device back on the nightstand, and wrapping his

arms tighter around abel.

abel is uncomfortably hot when he wakes up the next morning, a heavy weight pressing his body

further into the warm mattress and the duvet almost falling off the bed. the heat in the room is too high,

and abel is too lazy to get up and set the temperature so he takes his time in getting up, rubbing his

eyes and letting out a short yawn.

chris' head is resting on his chest, his lips parted slightly and soft snores escaping his lips. his caramel

hair is falling messily all over his forehead, and his arm his wound tightly around abel 's waist.

"chris?" abel blushes slightly at the close proximity but he isn't uncomfortable. he knows for a fact that if

noah knew about this he would probably take in any way other than platonic, and so abel ruffles chris'

hair to wake him up, causing the other boy to whine and leave his embrace, curling into the opposite

direction.

"five minutes," he slurs in his sleep and abel rolls his eyes, running a hand through his hair and sitting

up in bed, his back resting against the headboard as he yawns once again, rubbing the sleep off his

eyes.

he's glad that chris' put him to sleep last night, because if he hadn't, abel was sure he would wake up

with an enormous headache along with all the anxiety that was piled up inside him since the past few

days. sleeping it off calmed him down a little bit, and although he was still skeptical about the

presentation, he didn't think that the world was going to end.

an hour later abel was showered and dressed, sitting across from chris and digging relentlessly in his

waffles, making sure not to spill any syrup on his crisp white shirt. chris had only woken up after their

breakfast arrived, and so he was in his crumpled t-shirt from last night and a small stubble on his chin,

all his hair pushed messily off his forehead.

"how are you feeling?" chris' broke the comfortable silence, resting his fork on the now empty plate and

grabbing the mug of coffee, holding it between his palms to warm them up.

"a lot better actually," abel said with a mouthful, swallowing the bite and continuing to speak. "thanks for

forcing me to sleep last night, i would probably be a mess if you hadn't," abel thanked him and chris

just smiled at him lopsidedly, waving his hand dismissively as if to say it was okay.

it's eight thirty by the time abel is ready to leave, deciding to call noah before he does so. they haven't

been communicating that well since abel got here and that makes him feel a little bit guilty. the meeting

is still an hour away, and the conference hall is a good seven minute walk, so abel quickly grabs his

laptop and a bunch of files, bidding chris a goodbye before dialling noah's number and pressing the

device to his ear.