Day Sixteen: Morning Rituals

Day Sixteen: Wednesday

Sixteenth Challenge: Morning Rituals

Author’s Note:

I originally planned to have them do what they actually did: bathe, eat, talk, and all that, but it would actually be pretty boring. So here’s one of Ari starting up something I could see them doing every morning: drinking coffee and reading books.

* * * * *

He gave her that perfect smirk and moved closer to her, while she stayed rooted to her spot. She watched him with wide eyes, unable to move as she stared at him, wanting him to just take her away. He extended a hand and she took it, preparing to run away from Tokyo, from her work, from everything – perhaps they could start elsewhere and build from there. They had money. It would work, and both of them could get jobs that would assure the other of their safety.

He said two words.

“Wake up.”

She groaned softly and clung to him, making the man laugh as he ran a hand through her tangled, dark hair. She refused to wake up, and that amused him. The younger female kept her arms around him, relaxing in her sleep, sometimes even smiling and murmuring incoherent words as she rested. Matt planted a kiss on her forehead and glanced at the clock after. It read 8:12AM, and though he wanted to surprise her with breakfast in bed, he felt that she would prefer it more if he stayed by her side while she slept.

Matt decided to stay and reached over for a book on the bedside table, flipping it open to the first page and not bothering to even check for the title and author. All he saw was that it was blue, had a hard-cover, and that there were mini-post its acting as bookmarks all over the pages. Amused, he flipped to a random one and saw a mere sad face on the purple post it written with black ink. He recognized the handwriting as Ari’s.

He flipped once more to a later part and his smile faded as his fingers touched the page. There were small dented parts that were flimsy and could easily break if he touched them. He instantly knew that she either punched the book or had cried on the pages while reading. What had happened in the book?

His blue eyes eventually started to read. It was the twenty-first chapter.

A sense of confusion shifted to slight sadness.

 A death. A death of a lover.

“Oh Jesus,” he muttered, flipping to the very beginning, realizing at this point that he had most likely spoiled himself and revealed the biggest plot twist of the story. He lifted a hand and slapped his forehead, groaning. “Matt, you smart ass. Totally wanted to know that the guy must have died and the girl’s all grieving…”

“…mm? Did you say something…?”

He cussed and looked down, seeing Ari looking at him with bleary, sleepy eyes. They were half-way open and she clung to him, not aware that he was reading a book he picked up from the bedside table.

“No, no…” he ran a hand through her hair. “I just saw this. Are you reading it?” he flashed the book to her, and almost immediately, a look crossed between surprise and sadness filled her green eyes, making her look more awake, but certainly more upset than she tended to be.

A single name left her lips.

“Augustus.”

He blinked.

“Augustus?”

And then she explained it all to him in a rush. It turned out that the book she read was entitled “The Fault in Our Stars” written by John Green, and dubbed it as the most heartbreaking yet realistic book ever and that she refused to believe that Augustus Waters (or so he was named) had died because of a disease and left his girlfriend, who also had cancer, to cope alone. At least with his close friend, but that didn’t count.

She suddenly stopped and looked down.

“It’s depressing. I don’t want to read the next parts yet, even though I’m near the end.” She sighed, sat up, and hugged her knees. “He can’t be dead, Matt.”

“It’s cancer, baby...” He rubbed her arms. “You know how those usually end…” that made her look at him in disbelief, and then she got out of the bed suddenly. “Babe, what are you doing?” she opened the drawer, took out his pack of cigarettes, and crossed her arms. He blinked, and then chuckled nervously.

“Now love, those are my cigarettes…”

“Cancer. Augustus died of cancer.” She scowled. “Hazel Grace has cancer, too. There’s something wrong with her lungs.”

He sat up, running a hand through his hair, and lifted a brow lazily.

“You’re drinking – liver cancer.”

She blushed.

“S-Shut up! I’m trying to stop. You should stop too or at least, try to stop…” Matt’s lips curved up and he got out of bed as well, gently taking away the cigarette pack from her and kissing her forehead.

“We’re not Augustus and Hazel Grace. No one is going to die.”

“I know, I know…” she sighed, and then managed a small smile at him. “Let’s do something every morning. “You start reading this tomorrow morning, when you wake up. And I’ll be reading something, too. I have a couple of books I have yet to read.”

“What tells you I’ll like it?” he gestured to the book which was left on the bed.

She smiled.

“You will. I’m sure you will.”

Needless to say, the next few days were filled with him asking her endless questions, and when he finished, turned to her (who was reading Hamlet) and said:

“Does that kind of video game actually exist?”

Which resulted in her explaining that he didn’t need it because he wasn’t blind. Matt’s simple argument was that he’d charm her into letting him get one for himself. Ari could only scowl and resume reading, and the Englishman could tell that she had given in.

On the succeeding mornings, they woke up and shared a light kiss, and Ari would go prepare the coffee while Matt took out the books they had yet to read. Their phones would go on silent and they would cuddle in bed as they both read, stopping when fully content with the amount of pages read in a single morning.

Perhaps The Fault in Our Stars wasn’t so bad, after all.