Page 42 of Wild Life

“What now? Lost your tongue again? How long were you going to fucking keep this up? Until I got eaten by a shark or something, when you wouldn’t have warned me first that you saw it coming for me?” I was reeling. I couldn’t believe that I’d assumed he was such a good guy, thinking that he was too good for me. I would never sell myself short in front of a man ever again. They were all scum.

“Listen, I can explain,” he said, his hands in the air. His words came out clunky and cloaked by an accent.

I smacked his chest, which did nothing to his sturdy frame, further stoking my anger. “Explain what? How you lied to me?! For fuck’s sake, we’ve been intimate, and you—What? Thought you’d keep this secret from me the whole time?”

“I’m s-sorry," he stuttered.

“I had your dick in my mouth, you asshole! You were willing to keep this lie going for so long that you couldn’t spare telling me before jizzing down my throat?”

“What’s ‘jizz’?” he asked, repeating the word carefully.

I stared at him, dumbfounded one second, and the next, I launched at him, punching his wall of abs. The impact hurt my knuckles more than it hurt him, but I didn’t care. “That’s the first question you ask me, motherfucker?!”

He grasped my arms, and I yanked them away. “You better watch yourself tonight. Sleep with one eye open.”

The pig grunted from the ground. “You too.” I pointed my finger at him, blazing with heat. “Wouldn’t want you to sleep too close to the fire pit, would we? You might accidentally fall in, you little—”

Cryptid interrupted, his voice low. “His n-name is Poaka.”

I scowled at him. “Now you want to speak so much that you’ll cut me off? You got some balls, dickwad!”

“Sc-ree-ch Owl, listen to me—"

I snapped my head around to face him, stunned. His words might’ve been rough, but I heard them clearly. “What the fuck did you call me?”

“Uh, sorry. It was m-my n-nick-name for you in m-my head.”

I hadn’t expected I could have been more offended, but finding out he had been referring to me as one of the most annoying animals in the entire animal kingdom tipped me over the edge.

“You had a n-nick-name for me too, remem-ber?” he said, referring to my admission of calling him Cryptid last night.

“That was the only name I had for you, asshole, because you refused to talk to me! Why did you lie to me?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but I put my hand up to stop him. I couldn’t bear to listen to his excuse. All this time, I had been praying he could speak so I could get some answers, so I could have companionship, and now his voice made my stomach turn. “You know what, never mind. You’ll just lie to me again.”

“I p-promise—"

“What’s your name?”

His gaze lowered to the ground, like a puppy who had been caught peeing on the floor. “Aleki.” The pronunciation of his name was smooth.

I tested it out on my tongue. “Aleki.”

He peered at me, hopeful that I was giving him another chance to explain.

But he didn’t know who he was dealing with. “Fuck you, Aleki,” I spat, before storming off.

Chapter 21

Apologies, Who is Ariel?

Aleki

I couldn’t remember the last time I had been afraid of another person. Maybe that time at age seven when I’d lied to my mother about brushing my teeth for a whole week. When she had realized my toothbrush was never wet, she yanked me into the bathroom by my ear and interrogated me about it. I had denied everything, of course, and tried to convince her that it always dried quickly after use. She’d made me do it in front of her so she could test the bristles herself. I had nearly peed my pants because I had been so anxious and frightened that she’d pull my ear again. I always made sure to brush my teeth after that, even if it involved using a twig.

Again, I felt like a scared seven-year-old, but this time, I was afraid the explosive woman sitting near the fire was going to yank my ear. If she did, I deserved it. Something told me she wouldn’t hesitate to chop the whole thing off if I spoke out of place.

The fire cracked, sending sparks into the evening air. I approached her, but she didn’t look up. She was freezing me out, or at least trying to. The little wrinkles on the bridge of her nose deepened, as they often did when she was disgusted by something, like when Poaka pooped in front of her while she was eating. I now ranked with pig feces on her list of repulsive things.

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