A giant teddy bear with fangs sits across from me. The bear looks oddly familiar both in height and build. It’s holding a blood bag connected to a nonexistent dark wall.

The bears fur is blue with red eyes. Its claws are sharp with stained blood dripping down towards its fur. As it grows closer I wonder if there’s something wrong with me.

Usually when you encounter something like this, you’d feel fear and have an urge to run. But all I feel is relief. And as the bear sits centimeters away from me, I welcome it with open arms. The sharp fanged bear throws its arms around me, wrapping me in a comforting hug.

My eyes flutter open and I quickly scan the room. For a moment I forget where I am, then I remember, I’m in Carson’s room. There isn’t a lot of other places filled to the brim with random stuffed animals.

I try sitting up but something’s locking me in place. Looking down, I see Carson’s arms wrapped around my torso. No matter how hard I try getting up, his grip remains pinning me in place. After a frustrated growl I settle back down and turn to look at Carson.

His sleeping face looks almost too peaceful. “Blue Bear”, I mock. I find a stuffed tiger and shove it in his face, which was a huge mistake and poor thinking on my part. He drags me closer, snuggling his face into my shoulder.

An inhale followed by a soft sigh leaves him. “Carson?” Has he been awake all this time?

“Hmmm?” He hums.

“Hmm my ass, get off of me.” He buries his head further into my shoulder, his arms tightening around me. “Five more minutes Mazz.”

His voice is soft and sleepy. Every breath he breaths I can hear all too clearly. “I’m not a body pillow!” I try wiggling free to no avail.

His tired chuckles against the silent air sound too cute and I end up giving in. “Just five, ok?” He nods, rubbing his head against my shirt. “Mmm.”

I guess I shouldn’t be too mean to him today. One night of sleep isn’t going to fix the tired feeling of being up for four days straight.

“Mazz?” Five minutes turned into another six hours. “Yeah still here, unfortunately.” His grip has loosened, now my lungs have room to actually move. He rubs his eyes rather harshly then looks over at his clock.

“Oh no…”

“What is it?”

“I had a job interview today…”

“Are you serious?” I knew I shouldn’t have let him sleep so much.

“Yeah…it was at 2:00 pm.”

“Ok, what time is it now?” His eyes narrow as if he’s trying to read the time again. He pulls the clock way too close to his face, ripping the plug out of its socket in the process.

“3:30 pm..” His tired face gets no sympathy from me this time and I push him onto the floor. “Ow!” He exclaims while launching a stuffed frog at me.

“Oh don’t pretend like that hurt, the stuffed animals broke your fall.”

Carson pretends to cry out in agony. “And my ribs.” His cry’s don’t last for long, in a split second he’s rushing over to his closet, picking out what horrid outfit to wear today. In todays show of “what weird outfit will Carson pick next” we have, oddly mixed matched flower pants with army green t shirt. Corn on the cob pullover mixed with camo pants. And last but not least, a red hail Satan hoodie with cat shorts.

You have five minutes to poll in which fashion crime you think Carson will commit today. (Insert game show music). TIMES UP. And the winner isssssssss the red hail Satan hoodie with camo pants. You all guessed wrong, better luck next time.

“At least this outfit isn’t a complete atrocity.” He shoots me a glare and throws one of his ugly Christmas sweaters at me.

“That will change your mind.” Santa on a stripper pole with elf waitresses and reindeer’s throwing money at him from the crowd. “Where do you even get stuff like this from?”

"Online.” Of course, BUT WHERE?!?!? “Alright I gotta go. Hope she’s still waiting for me after an hour and a half.” He darts across the room to the door then pauses.

“What? Forget your keys or something? They’re probably downstairs by the plant where you usually leave them.” He turns around and makes his way over to the bed, leaning down, he plants a kiss on my forehead. His smile is brighter and less creepy than usual. “See you later”, he says as he exists the room and runs downstairs.

“See you?” I say under my breath as the front door slams.