I woke up with him breathing down my neck. In the middle of the night I must have twisted in my sleep, Mark's arm remained around my waist as he spooned my body in his. He was still asleep, his breathing was gentle and soft, warm against my cold skin. Every time he took a breath in it was like he absorbed the heat off my neck, until he let the breath go and I felt warm again.

The sun was still making it's way up, signifying to me that I woke up way earlier than intended. It was all Mark's fault. He had hogged the blanket over his shoulders to warm his uncovered torso and it had slipped off my feet. They were so cold right now I thought they were ice. Of course the chill had awoken me but all I wanted was more sleep. Even with my feet covered back up, I couldn't find myself to fall back in my peaceful slumber.

Even without the sleep I didn't want to get out of bed. It was cold outside of the covers and I was still trying to get warm. But of course this is when my body told me it had to use the bathroom. I tried to stay warm as long as possible, and try to go back to sleep, but when you gotta go you gotta go.

I carefully made my way out of the bed, making sure not to disturb Mark. When I moved away from him I stepped onto the floor and nearly yelped. The floor was freezing! How could it have gotten so cold in one night. There's just some wonders in the world that I'll never understand.

I walked quickly on my tip toes to Mark's closet. The creaking of the ground making him stir slightly before he started to snore. In his closet I found the small little box in the corner, beside the Nerf guns, where it was labeled, Tori.

It was just a regular brown cardboard box with no top on it and inside were just some things I leave here in case I don't have my backpack. There was a toothbrush, a sweatshirt (that probably didn't fit me anymore), some Nike Fit shorts, the little stuffed bear Mark gave me for Valentine's Day a few years ago, and at the very bottom my special hot pink fuzzy socks. I slipped the socks on and then grabbed Mark's Scooby-Doo slippers putting those on as well.

When I finished using the bathroom I went over to my backpack and pulled out Mr. Cuddles. I take the little stuffed toy around with me everywhere. Well not everywhere, ever since fifth grade when I had class with these boys. They found Mr. Cuddles in my backpack and started making fun of me, so from there on I just left it at home or took it with me to sleep overs. Whether is was Mark's house or not. Last night I was so tired I had forgotten he was in my backpack for me to cuddle with as I slept.

Mark groaned a bit in his sleep and I turned to look at him. "It's cold," He muttered in his morning voice. It was scratchy and an octave lower than usual, making my toes curl for more. Wait what?

He brought the pillow he rested his head on, into his chest curling around it like a ball. I nearly laughed, half expecting he'd start sucking his thumb.

This was the man that wanted to join the armed forces? I thought, nearly smirking out loud. He looks like a giant cuddly teddy bear. How is he suppose to turn into someone lethal? He's such a little baby.

The slippers allowed me to slide on the floor, so I slid my way to Mark and climbed into the bed. I stayed just behind his back pulling my hair behind my shoulders so it wouldn't get in the way, and I started running my finger up his neck. "There's a spider on you..." I taunted, whispering softly against his ear. "What happens when it strikes?"

Mark groaned again and tried swatting my hand off his neck. Instead I flicked his neck and he hissed. "Now you're turning to Spiderman," I started to blow lightly in his ear, using my nails as spider legs and brushing them against his neck down his arm and up his back. Wherever I brushed my fingers chills would follow on Mark's skin. "What does Spiderman do?" I asked against Mark's ear.

"Fly," He muttered in his sleep. I laughed before biting my lip containing my laughter for now. I heard a small giggle from the other side of the door. When I looked over I saw the small crack in the door and an eye on the other side.

"Conlan?" I whispered so Mark wouldn't wake up.

Conlan opened the door with a weird smile. "What are you doing?" He asked in a normal voice making Mark stir. I put my index finger to my lips, using wide eyes to show Conlan how serious I was. I wanted to play around with this sleeping baby. See what I can make him say while he's unaware of his thoughts and actions, but if Conlan was going to mess up my fun I was just going to have to chase him around with a bat.

"I'm just playing around." I answered as he advanced on his tip toes. "How'd you wake up anyways?"

"I heard the toilet flush," Conlan whispered, "You know I'm a light sleeper." It was true, Conlan would wake up to the smallest of noises. He always seems to be in a deep sleep, till you drop a pin on the floor and suddenly he's wide awake.

I just nodded looking back at Mark. His mouth was wide open and his snores weren't loud but they surely weren't quiet either. He had a bit of drool running down the side of his mouth onto his pillow, and his hair was pointing in all sorts of directions. "You want to help me mess with him?" I asked Conlan.

He of course smiled and nodded his head, crawling over me and Mark's sleeping form. When he was on the other side he looked up at me as if to say 'What now?'

I had to think of a good scenario so it would be funny. Conlan waited for his signal while I was thinking on what I would do. When I came up with the idea I leaned over and whispered in Mark's ear. "You're swimming in the ocean with-"

"Selena Gomez." Conlan chimed in with a devilish smile. "She's uh...wearing a red bikini."

I just wanted to drop on the ground and laugh at what Conlan was saying. But I played along biting my lip so I wouldn't laugh and wake up Mark. "Oh my god Spiderman look out it's Voldemort."

"Careful he's gonna steal your nose."

"I got your nose," I said with a scratchy voice. Conlan decided to grab Mark's nose between his knuckles and I continued the Voldemort act. "Bwahaha now I take your girlfriends nose."

Mark groaned again waving his hand at his nose and Conlan brought his voice a pitch higher, "Mark! Spiderman how could you! I'm so not gonna write a song about you!"

"When you're ready come and get it." I said in my Voldemort voice.

Mark groaned out again, finally swapping Conlan's hand away. "Tori..." Mark grumbled flipping on his stomach.

"I think we've been compromised," I whispered to Conlan.

Conlan only grinned and leaned closer to Mark's ear, "What about Tori?"

Mark muttered something under his breath. I couldn't hear him but now the curiosity was killing me as well. I put my head right beside Conlan's and we held our breaths while Mark muttered something else. "Gotcha." Mark sprung up before we could react.

He locked my head in his arm and Conlan ran away from the room as fast as he could. "You're just going to leave me!" I shouted after Conlan.

"Yeah pretty much!" He shouted back before we heard his bedroom door shut. Then lock.

"Son of a gun..." I muttered looking up at Mark. "How long have you been awake?"

He raised an eyebrow and thought for a second his lock on my head not even loosing. "Well I had this weird dream of being Spiderman. Then Selena Gomez came from no where in this really hot red bikini. The Voldemort came and took my nose and then I woke up."

I laughed, "Wow I seriously didn't think that'd work."

"You know it's not nice to wake people up." He pinned me on his bed, my stomach flat on the mattress with him sitting on the middle of my back. "See you get punished for these sort of things."

I squirmed around, which was no use. It was like putting a rock on an ant and telling it to walk. But not a pebble, more like an ant has to carry a large boulder across the Sahara desert. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but Mark was that heavy. "Dude you gotta lay off the Lucky Charms," I managed to say still squirming around.

It got harder to breathe and it was definitely bothering me. His weight compressed on my back where my lungs were and every time I breathed out I wouldn't be able to catch my breath again. Now I knew what it felt like to be trapped in a python. Like when we had Monty the snake in my science class last year. I fed him a mouse and watched the poor sucker stop breathing and feet turn blue from lack of blood circulation.

Karma is a bitch.

"Please get off." I looked over my shoulder at Mark who was playing with his nails. I gave him a toothy smile and started batting my eyelashes.

He smirked, "No this is your punishment. I like to sleep."

I groaned and started kicking my legs trying to hit Mark. He dodged them pretty easily considering I was moving slow with the lack of oxygen. "You're hurting me though."

"Well this is better than what people would have done back then."

"Meaning?"

"They probably would have tied you somewhere-"

"You're sitting on me Mark. So you pretty much tied me to this bed with your butt."

He laughed, "To bad. Don't wake me up next time."

"What about Conlan? The little kid ran away you're not chasing him!"

"Because that would mean I let go of you. And I just caught you."

"Am I fish now?" I asked attempting once more to squirm away, "Please I can't breathe."

"Fine I'll let you go." Mark said making me shout a thank you to the air. "On one condition."

"Oh lord what?"

"You gotta be my servant for the rest of the day."

I laughed, "Not happening. I remember that last time. I'm not being your butler ever again."

He shrugged, "Your call."

Mark just sat on me doing nothing. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that I kept trying to buck him off, and squirming to move him around. But nothing worked, he stayed seated on my back like a paper holder on paper. He didn't budge or flinch any time I'd kick him. I had reached over and grabbed the pillow hitting him square in the face which didn't do anything either.

Frustrated didn't begin to describe how mad I was. I literally felt my heart beating in my chest and I wanted to scream. But I knew that wouldn't get him off. So after a while of frustration I began to think. What comes after frustration? Tears...

I smiled to myself happy my hair covered it up. I began my act, keeping my eyes open for a long time and concentrating hard enough until I felt tears welling up. Some people can cry when they want, like actors in movies. But some people are just not good at it. I was luckily one that developed the skill to cry whenever I felt like it.

It can come in handy when you really want something. When I was younger I wanted the Spiderman web shooter toy you'd put on your wrist. Dad had been at work which left me with the babysitter. She didn't want to get me the shooter, even though my dad had specifically asked her to get Suzie and I a toy to entertain ourselves while he was gone. The babysitter said it was un-lady-like to buy a little boys toy. So I started to fake cry, which she obviously wasn't expecting. I don't cry. I haven't cried a lot since my mother died, but when you do see me cry it's obviously something that really hit me. In the end I got the Spiderman web shooter and Suzie got a doll.

When I started to sniffle I could feel Mark shift over like he was trying to look at my face. I acted on choking back a sob and Mark got off me. "Aw shit." He muttered grabbing my shoulder's trying to turn me around. I was just grateful I could finally breathe again. "I'm sorry Tori."

Although Mark was trying to make me face him I kept myself stiff and laughed softly. He knows I can fake cry, he just never knows when I'm faking, or when I'm crying for real. I would think he knows the difference if he was looking directly at me, but at the moment I didn't feel like turning around and ruining my fun.

He misinterpreted my shaking shoulders as crying and even without looking at him I knew guilt was written across his face. "Tori come on I'm sorry," He tugged at my shoulders again, "Could you please turn around?"

Mark managed to turn me around and at first his face did show guilt. When he saw I was smiling and laughing softly it turned to confusion. "Gotcha." I laughed louder and he frowned. "You thought I was crying?"

"Yeah now I'm hurt that you acted you were hurt. There's to much hurt." Mark muttered confusing himself.

"Aw I'm sorry." I instantly stopped laughing and put on a straight face. "It's seriously your fault I mean if you didn't sit on me we wouldn't be in this situation."

"We're in a situation?" Mark asked lifting his eyebrow.

"We're always in a situation." I said with a eye roll.

He chuckled, "Like what kind of situations?"

The mood was instantly lifted like we had completely forgotten as to what happened ten seconds ago. I let the whole You-sat-on-me-now-you-have-to-pay thing go. So instead I just laid back, my arms behind my head and one leg propped on my knee. "I don't know...like the time we chased that bunny around because it was April and we thought it was the Easter bunny."

Mark laughed, "Oh god yes! We chased it to the neighbors backyard and all across your neighborhood. Then it disappeared and I started to cry."

I laughed along with him recalling that memory. "Then my dad took us out to ice cream and we passed by that Blockbuster."

Mark nodded, "And we stole the movie The Goonies."

I grinned, "How did we pull that off again?"

Mark shrugged walking away from his bed to his closet. "I think it was in the buying section. Not renting, but buying the movie. You were with your dad distracting him, while I was in the back unwrapping the plastic covering around the movie box." He went over to his shelf opening an old looking CD holder. The one's where you'd slide the CD or disc inside, a way of keeping everything together without losing them. So glad they invented MP3 players and iPods.

"Oh yeah," I suddenly remember how it all went down. How Mark and I were incredibly mischievous in our youth. Getting in trouble about everything and anything. "You took the DVD out of the box, put the box on a shelf and stuck the DVD down your pants!" I laughed.

Mark grinned a small laugh coming out of his lips, "Yeah. It was not comfortable I can tell you that."

I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing. "Why? Did you have to put your peanut through the center hole?"

Mark knitted his eyebrows with a weird face like he had just smelled some rotting cheese. "You have no idea how wrong that just sounded."

I couldn't contain it and burst out laughing. Mark tried to ignore me but as he watched me roll around on his bed he started to laugh a bit as well. He'd glance up from me while flipping through CD's and DVD's trying not to laugh. I asked, "So you did?"

"Did what?"

"Put your peanut through the circle thingy on DVD's."

"Oh heck no." Mark glancing down between his legs where his manhood stood. "It wouldn't have fit you kidding."

"It could have when we were kids."

"No. It still couldn't." Mark didn't make eye contact and just as I was about to say something he pulled a disc out from the collection. "I found it!" He walked over placing the disc right in front of me. Written across was the title of the movie: The Goonies.

"No way! You kept it!" For a second I reached out for it then remembered where it'd had been. It made me wonder what else Mark had kept all these years. The situations we'd get into were hilarious yet punishable. In a way, we did it for attention. Dad was always at work and Mark...well his dad was on the other side of the world. We thought maybe if we acted bad we'd get attention from our parents. Turns out we got to much attention. They didn't trust us anymore, so we were constantly watched making sure we didn't do anything stupid.

In a way I'm kind of glad they watched us. As weird as that may sound. Once Mark and I had been saving money to go get matching piercings on our ears. Two eleven year olds walking in a piercings shop with some scary guy covered in tattoos from head to toe, about twenty piercings on his face, not to mention his insanely long red beard. That could not have ended well. But of course my dad, being the dad he is, had been following us and 'saved us' from the shop. After allhe was a cop.

Mark chuckled handing me Mr. Cuddles who had fallen at the side of the bed when he had sat on me. "You treasure this little guy," It wasn't a question. It was a statement. "You take him everywhere with you."

I smiled a bit taking Mr. Cuddles into my arms. "It was the last thing mom gave to me before the wreck."

Mark nodded sadly. Countless times I've told him how my mom died. Never did he take it lightly. He understood how I felt about her. How much I loved her and regretted not telling her every chance I got. It's one of those things I still have nightmares about, or just wake up thinking about it. It'll never go away. Not the feeling, the guilt....not the love. It's there forever in the locked chamber most people call a heart. You'll need the key to get in, and not everyone has the key.

"Tori?" Mark said shaking my knee a little bit, bringing me back to reality. "You dozed off again...."

I forced a small laugh, "Sorry..."

"Don't be." He smiled softly. That was Mark's key, his smiles. Just the way he smiled made my heart open up and melt. When he was done staring into my eyes, like he knew he had just unlocked my heart he looked away towards his closet. "I'm going to get dressed. You can use the bathroom."

I nodded picking up my bag and walking towards his bathroom. Inside I quickly got changed into a dark pair of jeans and loose top with a leather jacket. I took my fuzzy socks off and exchanged them for a regular pair, keeping the Scooby-Doo slippers.

I walked out while Mark finished buckling his belt, later zipping up his hoodie although he wore nothing underneath. "Seriously don't you ever get cold?" I asked going over to make his bed.

I threw everything off of his bed as he laughed gently. "No not really."

"And you're never like iceberg cold either, which is what shocks me."

He grinned, "So you like the fact I'm warm?"

I nodded pulling the covers and sheets off his bed. He was always warm and cuddly, no matter what. It made me feel safe. I'd never get tired of his larger figure enveloping me in his warmth. "I at least feel safe around you." I admitted. Mark smiled turning his back on me as he threw dirty clothes into his laundry basket.

I saw the remote control for the TV on the ground and remembered last night. How I had been watching Drake and Josh and had an incredibly strange dream about them being my stepbrothers. Then Suzie was suppose to be a meaner version of Megan and they all tormented me. But then Katniss Everdeen flew in with the Fairly Oddparents and they defeated my brothers and crazy little sister.

I thought Shawn was the crazy one...

Then something else came to mind. Mark had tried to tell me something last night but I had fallen asleep. So I glanced over him as I jammed the edges of the sheets under his mattress. He was just looking around his closet gathering all the dirty clothes and tossing them into the basket.

"Hey Mark?" I asked.

"Yes?" He said without turning to face me.