Fairytale Green

Nature and animal documentaries were never really my thing but the one time I did decide to watch one, it was about Koala Bears. The little creatures slept with their legs and arms wrapped around a large tree.

That was also exactly how I woke up. Except the tree was not a tree and instead was a giant.

It took me at least forty-five seconds to wake up and be fully aware of my surroundings.

When I realised, I was on top of Stone, I hoped that I had just moved on to him and that I had not been there all night.

Carefully, I tried to pull away and lift my leg away from him. It felt all very like a sequence from Mission Impossible.

A chuckle interrupted my movement and proved my ninja skills were not that good.

I slowly looked up at the guy under me and he did not appear as if he had just woken up. He looked wide awake as his lip twitched upwards at the sight of my widened eyes.

I jumped away to the other end of the bed and pointed at his amused face before accusing ‘You are not sleeping.’

He chuckled as he watched me rub at my eyes.

‘Do you ever actually sleep?’ I asked, remembering that it was the second time I had woken up on top of him ‘Why did you not push me off?’

Stone shrugged before his raspy deep voice affirmed ‘I am not going to say no to a small hot water bottle. You kept me warm all night.’

I did not miss the way he dragged out all night in a taunting tone. I had spent the whole night on his hard yet comfortable chest.

‘There is no way I would have done that willingly.’ I let out a groan in reply before I quickly recovered by accusing him ‘I think that you placed me on your chest.’

He said nothing and instead changed the subject by motioning towards my white shorts with the frogs on them ‘Nice pyjamas.’

‘Do not mock them.’ I said to his amused face ‘Princess and The Frog is a cinematic masterpiece.’

If somebody had told me even a week ago that Stone would be in my bed and that I would be talking about how good a movie about talking frogs was then I would have called them a dirty liar.

‘I can’t believe you slept in your clothes.’ I laughed as I looked down at his creased top and the outline of his abs.

His eyebrow raised and the side of his lip turned upwards when he questioned ‘Next time, should I sleep just in my boxers?’

My whole body went warm at the thought.

After I gained composure, I replied ‘There isn’t going to be a next time.’

Our laughter died out and the atmosphere changed. The playfulness disappeared as there was nothing else to joke about.

Unanswered questions about last night flew around the room and the tension from the other person on the bed was noticeable.

I picked at a thread on my shorts as I avoided the dark gaze and uttered quietly ‘I’m sorry.’

Stone’s expression contorted to a much more serious one when he gruffed his words out ‘You have nothing to apologise for.’

‘I do.’ I argued, ‘I shouldn’t have broken down like that and you shouldn’t have been forced to deal with it.’

He scowled. He looked to be a second away from giving me a stern telling off.

‘I am only going to say this once.’ I joked to make the conversation less serious ‘You are not ugly. Some might argue that you are above average and that your face is pretty symmetrical. There are girls at school lining up to speak with you.’

His head cocked to the side and his darkened expression almost appeared disgusted.

‘You are not hard up on female companionship so why’d you choose to stay with a crying mess of a one?’ I continued my joke.

Silence filled the small space of my bedroom.

‘That is a stupid fucking question.’ He grumbled lowly.

I was grateful for what he did. I owed him for calming me down and looking after me when I needed it the most

‘Okay.’ I sighed ‘I will shut up now.’

‘Medusa.’ His deep voice turned scornful as he rasped out ‘I would talk with you all day and all night.’

I shot him a small grateful smile as he moved closer until our shoulders touched.

‘What happened yesterday?’ He tried to ask gently but his voice came out rough and demanding.

‘It was nothing.’ I waved him off.

‘It was not fucking nothing. Something that makes you upset is not fucking nothing to me.’ He growled out his words like they hurt him to say, ‘I was worried about you.’

I offered him a small smile as I questioned ‘Really?’

‘Ella.’ He breathed out, sternly yet softly.

‘My dad doesn’t live here with me.’ I admitted while avoiding his gaze.

Stone went silent for a second.

His fixed dark gaze never left my face when he spoke again ‘I thought as much.’

I turned my head to the side and upwards so that I could meet his eye as I asked, ‘How could you have possibly known that?’

‘You are a terrible liar.’ He mentioned with a rough sounding sigh.

‘Maybe you are just psychic or something.’ I spoke absentmindedly ‘I’ve convinced Lana that he is still around for about a year now.’

I realised what I had said as soon as I said it, but it was too late to take it back.

‘You have done what?’ The giant on my bed grumbled.

‘I don’t want to worry her.’ I rambled out my explanation ‘I feel really bad about lying to her, but I just don’t want to see the look of pity on her face.’

Stone did not speak for a while. He just sat there and studied me. His jaw ticked and the veins in his neck bulged while he watched me deep in thought.

‘What is going on, Medusa?’

If there was one thing that I knew for definite in this world, then it was that I was a stubborn person, and he was also a stubborn person.

My gut feeling told me that Stone would not push me for an explanation if I was not ready to talk about it.

The scary thing was that I wholeheartedly wanted to open up to him.

I cleared my throat and spoke ‘When my mom died last year, it was really hard for me, but it was much harder for my dad. I know that grief is different for everyone, but he was a whole other level of messed up. Alcohol was his only comfort. He even showed up to her funeral wasted…’

He watched intently as I paused my story to take a breath. He then offered me a small twitch of his lip.

I understood the tiny movement of his mouth as a smile of reassurance to continue my story.

‘My father is never here because he can’t look at me without feeling disgusted.’ I told him the cold hard truth with a sigh ‘He spends all of his time bar crawling and drinking twenty-four seven to avoid looking me in the eye. He can’t stomach the sight of me.’

Stone moved a little. I felt him move closer like he wanted to reach out. He stilled near my body as he decided on something. His hands twitched like he was struggling to hold back from enveloping me with his huge bulky arms.

He eventually settled for placing a large hand on my leg. His long thick fingers sprawled out against my thigh.

His next words were slow like he wanted me to hear every syllable and understand him ‘That is not true.’

‘It’s not?’ I asked as I moved my hand, so it was touching his that rested on my knee ‘Last night before you came, he said that I was the reason my mom took her own life.’

The hand that made mine look minuscule moved and rested on top of my hand. He gripped my fingers and squeezed. His touch was comforting but it was also like he was telling me off for thinking such a thing.

I tried to look away from him and ignore the feeling blossoming in the pit of my stomach.

He noticed that I was trying to hide my face from him because he reached out with his free hand and clutched onto the higher part of my neck. His fingers gently but demandingly moved my face so that I was facing him again.

Every word he said was emphasised vigorously through his tyrannical tone ‘You did not kill your mother.’

‘You don’t know that. I don’t know that.’ I argued while shaking my head ‘One of the worse things about her death was not knowing. She never left a note and she never said goodbye.’

‘Your father is just looking for someone to blame.’ Stone grumbled, his eyes still on me as his grip warmed my hands and the whole of my body ‘That does not make it true.’

The pair of obsidian eyes darkened like a thought that made him murderous had surfaced to the front of his mind.

‘Did he hurt you?’ He demanded to know, his body stiffening like he was on high alert.

‘No.’

‘There was a smashed bottle.’ Stone mentioned, his jaw ticking faster and his hand tightening around mine ‘Did he hurt you?’

His whole demeanour screamed vengeful. He looked ready to start a murdering spree if I muttered the three-letter word.

I chose not to mention how my father threw a bottle at me and instead I shook my head.

Stone relaxed but only slightly. The scowl etched onto his harsh features remained and he appeared to be deep in thought.

To lighten the mood, I stuck my tongue out at him. My tactic failed as he continued to look down at me with a serious expression.

‘What are you looking so worried about, Lurch?’

‘Do you get lonely here yourself?’ The gravelly voice was quiet when uttered his concerns.

I did get lonely myself. I sometimes felt so hollow that I had conversations with myself. I got so bored that I sat and made-up theories about Egyptian mummies and Scandinavian Vikings to keep myself entertained.

‘It is not that bad.’ I lied to him with a shrug of my shoulder ‘I have peace and quiet to get through my collection of books.’

‘You are lying.’ He gruffly remarked, his husky voice growing deeper.

I crossed my arms and challenged ‘And how did you gather that?’

‘I told you.’ He grumbled, his serious scowl never breaking ‘I am an Ella Expert.’

‘You are a pain in my ass.’ I rebutted, trying to act serious but I failed because I smiled at him ‘That is what you are.’

Stone’s attention flicked to my smile and his tensed wide shoulders relaxed.

‘Why am I a pain in your ass, Medusa?’

I opened my mouth and then closed it.

‘Because…Because you are everywhere,’ I lamely replied as I stared up at him ‘And when you’re not then I end up wondering where you are and when you are going to show up again.’

The permanent scowl that he usually wore on his face disappeared for a good minute. The corner of his mouth hiked up in a small triumphant smirk.

I looked down at my legs and fought the urge to crawl back into my bed in embarrassment.

‘You are always thinking about me?’ The words left his large chest in a raspy drawl ‘Is that what you are trying to say?’

‘I think about you because I hate you so much.’ I rebutted with a nervous laugh.

He chuckled while the corner of his lip twitched again.

I was still holding out to see him smile.

‘What the hell was yesterday with Chase?’ I finally remembered to ask, ‘You turned full Tyler Durden.’

Stone shook his head, his lip twitching upwards as he spoke ‘Trust you to make a Fight Club reference.’

I shushed him ‘First rule of fight club is to not talk about fight club.’

‘You are changing the subject about you thinking about me all of the time.’ He mentioned with a deep sigh.

While attempting to tame my hair, I glared at him ‘You are changing the subject about yesterday at the ice cream place. So, we are even.’

‘I will be honest with you when you are with me.’

I sighed because he was right. I nodded my head in agreement.

Instead of asking what I meant when I said I thought about him, he asked ‘Do you ever get lonely?’

He knew I was lying last time so there was no way out of his trap. I had to answer honestly.

‘Of course, I do. Being alone sucks.’ I admitted before feeling the need to add humour to my statement ‘That is why when I’m older, I am going to have loads of kids. If I have a lot of little people running around, I will never be lonely again. I also want kids so I can sit at the cinema and watch animated films without judgement.’

His dark eyes turned a little softer as they flicked over my face.

‘Oh, and also to swing freely on the monkey bars at the park without getting dirty looks.’ I added.

My outburst had definitely gotten carried away. I brought my knees to my chest as I faced him, and he looked down at me with amusement in his gaze.

‘You do know that you are too small for the monkey bars. You might hurt yourself if you fall off.’ He grumbled lowly ‘You will need to marry a tall man.’

‘I am not that small!’ I shouted up at his smug-looking face.

‘Sure, you are not.’ He chuckled before adding ‘Little Medusa.’

‘It is my turn to ask a question.’ I pointed out while frowning at him ‘Why did you lie about Kermit being fixed?’

Stone’s reply was a short angry mutter ‘I could not bare to see you with him.’

‘What do you have against Chase?’

Chase was a douchebag with an audience but one-to-one he was a nice enough guy. He just liked to wind up people.

The thick muscular leg brushed against mine and he leant down so he could move a strand of hair behind my ear. A tingly sensation shot its way up my neck and to my face and followed his touch.

‘I can’t see or think about you with another guy.’ He spoke in his deep voice like a god who was speaking an ancient law ‘I would end up killing someone.’

I raised an eyebrow at him when I quietly challenged “I thought I was your best friend’s girlfriend’s best friend?’

‘Is that what you think you are?’ He demanded to know, his voice dropping an octave.

Shrugging, I then nudged him with my elbow and spoke up with a teasing smile “I think you are starting to think of me as more than an acqenemy. Maybe even a friend.’

Silence filled the room.

‘I am not your fucking friend.’ He growled like the thought poked at the predatory animal inside him.

‘Fine.’ I forced out a laugh while I held my hands up in surrender ‘I’m not your friend.’

I tried not to let my disappointment show and I kept a smile on my face. I tried not to be too disheartened because I knew that Stone did not like people in general.

‘Medusa—’ He began to grumble a response as his large round shoulders tensed.

‘You are not my friend, and you might be a little more than an acqenemy.’ I recovered the conversation by teasing him ‘The only explanation is that you want a piece of the Ella Éclair.’

‘The Ella Éclair?’ His deep voice recited, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

‘Shut up!’ I laughed my words out ‘It had to be an alliteration and Ella Escargot does not have the same temptation.’

He hummed in reply. I did not miss how his lip twitched again in a small smile. My attention fell on his lip and it had me wondering how I would manage to see him with a full smile.

A chuckled broke my train of thought and I stopped staring at his mouth.

‘What?’ I quickly said, acting like I was not thinking about him.

‘You do know that you have been staring at me for the past five minutes.’

‘I was not!’ I defended.

He smirked before he stood up from the bed and asked, ‘Can I take a shower?’

‘I don’t know.’ I muttered, still embarrassed I was caught staring ‘Can you?’

‘Why?’ He questioned, peering down at me as his lip twitched again ‘Do you want to come and help me?’

I crossed my arms over my chest and let out a sigh ‘Go and take your stupid shower, Rasputin.’

‘Rasputin?’

‘Yeah. You are both tall and huge and evil.’ I explained, ‘I also want to assassinate you.’

His dark chuckle was heard down the hall as he made his way through to the bathroom.

My feet swung off the bed and I slowly got up from the mattress. I walked out of my room and through the hall, passing the sound of running water.

As I made my way through to the kitchen, I tried not to think about the fact that Stone was naked in the room next to me.

The living room was clean when I entered it to get to the kitchen. The bottles of empty liquor were nowhere to be seen. It meant that Stone had gotten up during the night and cleaned it up.

Just as I was about to make myself some breakfast, my phone went off so I sat down at the kitchen island and answered it.

‘Hey Barbie.’ I greeted my best friend, holding the phone to my ear.

‘Ella, are you okay?’ She rambled out her words in a rush ‘Why are you not at school?’

I pulled my phone away from me so I could look at the time. The screen read ten o’clock. I had been too busy thinking about the large man in my bed that I had forgotten to set the alarm for school.

‘I’m sorry.’ I quickly replied to Lana ‘I’m not feeling that well today so I’m just going to stay home.’

Lana sighed ‘Are you okay? Do you want me to bring you anything after school?

‘I will be fine.’ I smiled at her caring nature before laughing into the phone ‘No doubt you have plans with Loverboy tonight.’

The other side of the line went quiet before she spoke again ‘Maybe.’

‘Enjoy school.’ I remarked sarcastically ‘Have fun in English without me.’

‘It will be quiet in class today.’ She stated before explaining ‘Stone is not here either. There must be an illness going around. Brennan mentioned that last night Stone said he was not coming to school today.’

‘Last night?’ I repeated, deducting that Stone had already decided we were both not going to school before this morning.

Speaking of the bane of my existence, I heard him shut the bathroom door being him.

Lana asked, ‘What have you caught?’

I swivelled on the stool to keep myself entertained but when I noticed the sight in front of me, I stopped.

Stone was standing at the doorway with nothing on but a towel around his bottom half. A very low hanging towel.

His dark hair was wet, and a strand fell onto his face. His black tattoos glistened under the light and his eight-pack was soaking wet. A drop of water fell from his hair and ran down onto his chest, making me watch it as it did so.

The only thing stopping him from being fully naked in all of his glory was a towel.

‘Ella?’ Lana called to me ‘Are you still there?’

‘Yeah. Sorry.’ I put my phone back to my ear and forced myself to look away ‘What was your question?’

‘What have you caught?’ She repeated before suggesting ‘The cold? The flu?’

My attention had been compelled back to the half-naked giant and how the veins bulged in his muscular arm as he adjusted the knot on his towel.

I panicked and ended up answering ‘Lurchiatias.’

‘I don’t think I have heard of that.’ Lana hummed to herself, not picking up on the significance of the name before asking ‘What are the symptoms?’

‘You feel hot.’ I muttered to her ‘Your body feels all hot all over.’

‘Okay. Hope you feel better.’ She delivered gently ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too.’ I replied before saying a quick goodbye.

I placed the phone down on the table and faced Stone. I pretended to be unaffected by the sight of his soaking wet upper half in front of me as I glared at him.

He had his big arms crossed over his chest as his deep voice demanded to know ‘Who was that?’

‘Lana.’ I told him before asking ‘Why did you not wake me up for school?’

‘We are skipping today.’ He stated like it was non-negotiable.

I studied his face for a good few seconds. I forced my gaze to remain centred upwards.

‘Why are you doing this?’ I sighed before elaborating ‘I said I was lonely but I’m not a little home-goblin that doesn’t leave her house. I don’t need cheering up.’

His gravelly demanding voice repeating ‘We are skipping.’

‘Fine,’ I gave in, thinking to myself that there were worse ways to spend time than with an irritating giant ‘But I get to pick what we do today.’

Stone nodded once in agreement.

Getting up from my seat, I sauntered over to the kitchen cabinets to get some cereal. The cupboard with the cereal just had happened to be the tallest one.

I climbed onto the counter and reached upwards to grab the box.

I almost had the box when I got pulled off the marble unit and lifted by a large set of bare arms. I was set on the ground before Stone grabbed the box without effort and handed me the cereal.

‘I almost had it.’ I argued with a huff.

He looked down at me with a scowl as he gritted out scoldingly ‘Be careful.’

As I fetched a bowl, the larger one of us went to sit on the barstool at the kitchen island. He watched as I poured some cereal. He also never let his gaze wither away from me as I got the milk out of the fridge.

‘Do you want some?’ I asked while I dipped my spoon into my bowl

Shaking his head, he remained silent.

‘I know what you want.’ I told him with a mouthful of cereal ‘You want apple pancakes. I am a mind reader.’

‘You are a mind reader?’ He raised an eyebrow while challenging ‘What am I thinking about now then?’

I twirled around twice before I joked to him “You are thinking about how good I look in my Princess and The Frog pyjamas.’

Stone did not answer. He was too distracted looking at something else. I followed his heated stare to my bare legs.

After a minute or two, his gaze roamed back up my body so that he could meet my eye as he asked “What do you want to do today?’

I jumped up onto the countertop to sit on it so that I could face him.

‘Who says we have to stay together today?’ I pointed out with a taunting smile ‘I’m already stuck with you at school.’

His stare was intense. Even more intense than normal.

I looked down at myself and the realisation hit me.

The last time I was on the countertop top with him was when we nearly kissed.

I pushed myself off the surface and stood up as I started to distract myself by counting the colourful contents in my bowl.

He followed every one of my little movements with his dark eyes.

‘What are you thinking about?’ The deep voice spoke up.

‘I’m thinking about how I can kill and hide a very tall person.’

The giant rose to his full towering height as he made his way over to me.

‘Did you know that in some myths they believed that gorgons like Medusa turned a person into stone because of a kiss?’ The words were a guttural rasp from his large hollow-sounding chest.

It became apparent that he was also thinking about our last kitchen encounter.

It was uncharted waters. I had expressed many times how I had found him annoying but I never spoke about my attraction towards him.

I began to list reasons why to never let my immense attraction show. Reason one was that it would result in me surrendering the weird rivalry between us and declaring him the winner. Two was that his already big enough ego would grow. Finally, reason three was that he might not have found me attractive.

He had stayed in my bed, and he had comforted me but that might have been because he felt sorry for me.

I was not an ugly troll, but I did not think of myself as anything special. I was not traditionally beautiful or supermodel worthy. I believed that what I lacked in looks, I made up in my personality. I believed that I was funny and that was all that really mattered to me.

My eyes fell to his chest and then to his abs and then back to his mouth. His mouth was in up in a small smirk.

‘What are you looking at, Medusa?’ He questioned; his usually monotonous voice amused.

‘Your lack of clothes does not bother me.’ I said and felt the need to add more to my sentence to sell my lie ‘I have seen loads of naked guys.’

His eyes darkened before he gnarled ‘Who?’

‘Too many to name.’ I smiled before leaning against the counter and crossing my arms.

Stone neared me so that he was hovering over me. He leant down and entrapped me between the counter and himself.

‘You are lying.’ He affirmed like the fact that I was lying was essential for his state of mind.

I rolled my eyes as he neared even closer.

‘What are we doing today?’ The raspy voice questioned before adding ‘Except from me trying to stop you from killing me and hiding my body.’

‘That is very nice of you to look out for me, Lurch.’

He smirked while placing a hand on the counter behind my back and remarking ‘I don’t think they make prison overalls for people as tiny as you.’

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. I instead shot him a murderous look.

‘I want to go to the beach today.’ I decided aloud.

I needed to get over my fear at some point. I was feeling a little braver after standing up to my father the night before.

His expression contorted from surprise to concern when he quickly questioned ‘Are you sure that is what you want to do?’

I tried to stand straighter to seem taller. It failed because he still towered over my small form.

‘You don’t think I can handle it?’ I asked while frowning up at him.

The words left him in a deep hoarse grumble of a noise ‘Maybe I am the one that cannot handle it.’

I tilted my head upwards and queried ‘What do you mean?’

My question forced him to meet my curious eyes.

He leant down so that his warm breath tickled my earlobe.

‘I don’t think I can handle seeing you in a bikini again. I am struggling to hold myself back now with those shorts of yours.’ His voice was a soft yet husky sounding growl ‘I want to steal you for myself and place you on the counter and finish what I started last time.’

My ear was already heated at where his mouth lingered near it. That heat reached over my face and down my neck towards the rest of my body

I released a shaky breath as I tried to act like my heart was not about to explode.

I wondered what his aim was. I wondered if he wanted to leave me flustered because he genuinely wanted to or because he was playing some sort of game with me.

Intentions were not something that I could understand. Especially when they were someone else’s.

I made a rule to myself that I was not allowed in any circumstance to kiss my acqenemy. No matter how badly I wanted to.

My face felt on fire as I kept my gaze on the floor. My eyes slowly but surely traversed the well-built body until I reached his face.

‘Clothes.’ I blurted out.

The corner of his mouth rose infinitesimally.

‘If we are going to the beach then I am going to need to get changed.’ I stated the obvious as I forced myself to pull away from him ‘And you will need to put some clothes on.’

My hips had a mind of their own and I ended up walking away from him and down the hall with a little more movement in them. The dark eyes followed me down the hall before I shut my bedroom door behind me.

It was dangerous territory we were walking together.