Chapter 228

Chapter 228
Carla's POV

"Do we have an 'end-of-the-day' relationship?" I asked Asmodeus as I slipped into bed with him for the night.

When we got back, Jessica had fallen asleep with Layla on the couch. And surprisingly, Asmodeus didn't make any snide comments about his arm around her waist as they slept. He seemed to actually be thankful this whole time that Jessica was able to make her feel at all better.

Jake was still wide awake, though, sitting in his bed. With a sad nod in my direction, Asmodeus walked into Jake's room to talk with him. I knew it wasn't my conversation to have, so I just went up to Asmodeus's room, changed into one of his comfiest sweatshirts, and listened to some music to try and somewhat get my mind off of everything.

By the time he had come back in, it was a long while later, and I assumed that he had stayed with Jake until he fell asleep. He gave me a sad smile when he closed the door, no doubt still in a lot of pain from the fight.

And now, as we laid in his bed, he scrunched his eyebrows at me, not knowing what the hell I was talking about.

Typical us.

"There's no way that's an expression," he said, finally calling BS on all my weird terminology.

"I just made it up, but it seems pretty straightforward," I replied, and he shook his head.

"I thought I was the potentially concussed one here," he gave me a strange look, and I rolled my eyes.

"See- this is what I mean," I commented.

"Fine, what's an 'end-of-the-day' relationship?" He asked me, trying to play along.

"You know when people say that? Like when they talk about people and are all 'oh yeah they're this and that but in the end of the day we love each other'," I tried to explain, and he was trying to follow, "like when a sibling is a pain in the ass, but in the end of the day they're your sibling," I gave another example.

"So you're saying that I'm a pain in the ass?" He grinned, and I chuckled.

"Well I mean, you are, but that's not my point," I responded lightheartedly, re-centering myself on what I had planned on being somewhat of a serious conversation.

"I feel like we've been in the 'end-of-the-day' phase at all times because of how messed up our lives are, and we don't really know what it's like to... you know... be in a relationship during the day, too," I said, and he looked like he finally was starting to follow. "I just don't want us to be an 'end-of-the-day' thing, and then whenever all this dust settles for our roll to get messed up at all."

The fact that I trusted him enough be saying all this, though, definitely made me feel better about the thought, and made it easier for me to start accepting this as probably just my anxiety talking- which was something I never could do.

"Well what makes you think we would?" He asked, sitting up a little bit to match my eye level.

"I don't know," I tried to think, "I mean, we argue sometimes."

"We don't argue, we banter, with an occasional argument that gets settled anyway," he corrected, "and might I remind you that our love started from an argument."

"A stupid one, though."

"Yeah, very stupid. It so obviously was you who walked into me," he said and I turned to glare at him, but when I did I just saw him smiling amusedly at me. He really did enjoy pushing my buttons..

"Funny," I replied sarcastically, and he chuckled. "Okay fine, so our daily banter isn't considered arguing, but what about the times that we've actually gotten into a fight? Like in June," I went on.

In June, I had gotten annoyed at him for not wanting to do anything because he was so busy being his angsty-ass self and being opposed to simple fun things like bowling or beach volleyball. I told him (only somewhat aggressively) to lighten up, and needless to say he didn't take it too well. Looking back at it, I don't blame him, though. If he had said that to me I probably would've reacted much worse..

"I mean, every relationship has arguments from time to time.. if not then they're either not being completely honest with each other, or they're just plain boring people."

"Yeah," I agreed, "I guess I'm just nervous that we've gotten so used to living in Hell that we won't even know how to live in Heaven, if that makes sense.

"It does," he said, reaching and taking my hand under the sheets, intertwining our fingers. "But that's not gonna be the case, C."

"If you think about it, in a way every relationship is an 'end of the day' one.. because the most important part is how you deal when everything turns to shit and you don't have control.." he continued thinking out loud, "I mean, that's the hard part of a relationship. Not deciding how bright your days are, but dealing with how dark your nights get. And we've had plenty of bright days, too- they've just been so right and natural to us that you didn't even notice the sun rise."

"Damn," I chimed in, and he looked back to my eyes, smiling slightly when he saw my overly-impressed reaction to his words. "When did you become a poet?" I asked, and he chuckled, rubbing my hand with his thumb a little.

"You bring out the worst amounts of cheesiness in me, what can I say?" He smiled softly at me again, and I returned it.

"I'd say we have the 'dealing with everything turning to shit' part down pretty solid," I mused, turning on my side to fully face him.