Scraps - Night Secrets

Being who I was put me in an interesting position to observe them; and they were most certainly worth observing for an enthusiast people watcher, such as myself.

Despite her beliefs, Zoe was the easier of the two to peg. You could literally see her walls if you looked hard enough and sometimes I even thought I caught fog coming off of her breath by how cold she made herself on purpose. It was all a ruse though. Zoe was quite warm and affectionate given the right setting, charming certainly but also quite playful when she was so inclined. Put simply, Zoe and her entire persona could be chalked up to childhood trauma and issues handling authority -- or basically anyone she assumed would or could lord over her.

Jules was a different story. Her hurts were… well, not worse than Zoe’s but I believed that they ran deeper. Jules was never one to let anything hold her back or keep her down and out but she was someone who let things sit and linger in the back of her mind and heart. They festered occasionally but she was too strong to show, putting on a show of optimism instead.

Honestly, between the two of them, Jules was much stronger in general. She just let Zoe assume otherwise. It was rather adorable, really.

I observed the two of them over my coffee cup from across the breakfast table. My husband, Jackson, sat to my right, completely oblivious to the wheels turning in my head from my analysis. Either that or he just humored my attempts to be some kind of psychologist/psychic mashup at this point and paid no attention to my crazy anymore. My Josh was known to be sweet like that from time to time.

Where was I… Ah, yes. This perfect pairing. God, if people only knew.

It was true, Jules and Zoe were about as perfect as couples came. Every weakness one had, the other seemed to just step in and supply a strength. They really completed each other in the best of ways. Beyond that, there was an energy to them, like this overpowering aura, and you could physically feel it when they were around. Like epic love story level bullshit.

Honestly, if I weren’t so secure in my own relationship I would be envious of them, as I’m sure plenty already were. However, they had plenty of quirks that no one knew about. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t really threatened.

Fuck, anyone that thinks they’re absolutely perfect has never shared a room with them before.

I snorted out a laugh that caught the attention of all three other bodies at the table. I waved them off with a hand and shook my head. “Just an inside joke,” I muttered to my coffee cup, a small smile lingering on my lips, “don’t worry about it.”

My husband looked away first, simply raising his eyebrows and putting his gaze back to the half eaten omelette on his plate with a non-committal hum. Jules rolled her eyes and looked back to Zoe, before beginning to talk about her plans for the day once more. Zoe threw me an apologetic glance before pointing her attention back to her girl like the obedient beast Jules had trained her to be. I suppressed another laugh at this notion and covertly watched the two for another moment.

It was only recently, probably less than a year, that I found out about the nighttime habits of my best friend and her partner. I wasn’t talking about their sexy stuff either. This was so much juicier than that could ever be.

To be fair, I had known about Jules’ fun little personality trait for sometime. We used to share a room when she would come home to visit her brother so I was bound to pick up on it eventually but really Derek was the one that tipped me off. He thought it was hilarious that she would mutter in her sleep and told me to watch out and listen, positive that it would amuse me. He was not wrong.

Jules didn’t just mutter in her sleep, she had full blown lucid moments of ridiculousness that she never remembered. There had been countless times over the years where I would be up late, watching TV and essentially doing nothing, Jules passed out in the bed next to me and out of nowhere she would wake up and have full conversations with me about nothing. One time she tried to convince me that her lucky blanket was the key to saving the world. Derek and I laughed about that for weeks.

To my surprise and joy, however, Zoe was no better. She wasn’t a sleep mutterer, thank God, but did she have her own nocturnal whimsy. Zoe was a snorer. What was really great about that though was how it sneaked up on you. Jules had once mentioned that Zoe kind of purred in her sleep, which is cute and all but not what I experienced whatsoever.

The one time I heard Zoe ‘purr’ it was cute. She had been sleeping on my couch after running around with Jules and my rascals all afternoon. I offered the bedroom but she assured me a power nap would be all she needed. I happened to come in for a drink while she was still asleep, everyone else was outside, and Zoe was indeed making the cutest little purring noise. I was almost inclined to awe at it. Then she turned over and let out the most ungodly snore. It took everything to get out of the room before I burst out laughing.

I wonder if they know the other does it? God, wouldn’t it be hilarious if they didn’t? Maybe I should just slip a recorder in the room next time they stay the night. Who doesn’t need a little extra blackmail?

“What’re you thinking about, Sara,” Jules asked, blowing apart all of my scheming thoughts in a second.

“Nothing,” I replied entirely too quickly.

Bullshit, my brain pinged to my verbal response.

“Mm-hmm,” Jules hummed. “You sure about that?” Her gaze was pointed as she asked me her question. She could smell something in the air.

Damn her intuition. Hmm, what to do… Ah! Time for a diversion.

I threw a seductive glance at Jackson, who was still so absorbed in eating that he didn't pay attention to the lustful stare I was giving him in an attempt to throw Jules off my trail. I wasn’t actually in the mood to play with him right now, not when there were extortions to be planned. Thankfully, he stayed blissfully unaware of my intentions to use him like a pawn.

“Oh,” I murmured and slid my hand along Jackson's arm before letting it drop to rest on his thigh, “I’m sure it’s nothing you wanna know about.” I pulled my gaze from Jackson to look at Jules with a sly smirk, before glancing at Zoe and dropping a wink.

Thankfully, my ploy worked and all the domino's fell like they should. Jules groaned in disgust, Zoe chuckled, Jackson looked up in utter confusion and I got away scot-free. Perfect diversion.

And that wraps that up. Now. I wonder where the best hiding place for that recorder would be...

***
AN: So, uh, quick update. I was really hoping to get Blitz out this Friday - which I've been working on pretty vigilantly lately - but my laptop has sort of, well, fallen out of commission. So, while I'm able to accomplish what I can on my phone, rest assured that it's a pain in my ass so I'll be on the journey to fix this problem as soon as possible. That being said, it's likely things will slow down for a minute. I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience to you guys, I'll try to keep up the work flow as much as I can. Thanks for the patience as always and hope you enjoyed the scrap!