Page 49 of Sparks of Insanity
“No. It’s safer… you shouldn’t sleep naked either. It’s not… you should wear something.”
“Because you can’t control yourself? That sounds like a ‘you’ problem, Ethan. I’m in my bed, you’re the one creeping on me.”
Hell. She’s not wrong, is she? I got the hell out of there before I took her up on that offer, and then took her body up on the offer she’s not even fucking making.
28
Ember
Iwoke up alone,because of course Ethan was too stubborn, or tortured, to just sleep in the same room with me, even though he really seemed to need some kind of help or support.
When I’d showered and dressed, throwing on another t-shirt and sweatpants I’d found in the drawers here, like somehow someone was set up for an emergency living situation or something, I headed downstairs, but Ethan was nowhere to be found. Had he found a way out after all? Oh my god, did he try to escape and my dads killed him?
I ran back upstairs, and headed for his room, and there he was; not on the bed, but curled up in the furthest corner of the room, a blanket around him, fast asleep in the most uncomfortable position possible. I took a moment to study him while he slept, seeing him truly peaceful for probably the first time ever.
His dark hair was scruffed up, and there was a red mark on his cheek where he’d probably had his face resting against the wall. His cheeks looked a little darker with stubble, and while I studied him, he suddenly moved, jolting awake with a gasp, and I couldn’t hold back a squeak of surprise.
“Jesus, Ember. Why are you here? Go to your room!” Whoa, so many things to unpick there, right?
“First off, that’s not my fucking name! Secondly, I live here, and thirdly, you don’t tell me to go to my damn room, okay? You’re not my parent, and you’re not my teacher anymore.”
He struggled free of that blanket as he shoved up from his awkward position, wincing as he moved.
“The hell I’m not. Things are going back to the way they were, Ember. You are my student, and I’m your teacher, and that’s how it’ll stay.”
What was he going on about? I stepped further into the room, and he practically hissed at me as he lifted his hands. He was still bare chested, but he’d put on a pair of these generic sweatpants after he’d been in my room too.
“Teacher, huh? What will you teach me though? I finished my exams, can’t teach me more there. I don’t need art lessons, so what does that leave?”
“Ember,” he warned, dragging his forearm over his eyes, fighting a yawn that he ended up defeated by.
“What? I’m just saying, if you’re planning to teach me things, I think I want that too.”
Ethan stalked in my direction, and my heart started thudding faster at his approach. Would he kiss me? Touch me? Would he throw me down on the bed?
“Wait downstairs for me. I need to freshen up, then we’ll eat and discuss a lesson plan.”
Lesson plan? What the fuck? Completely bemused, I headed back downstairs to wait for him, firing up the coffee pot, because I fucking needed it.
He appeared about twenty minutes later, completely composed, freshly showered and shaved, and looking more like the man who truly had been my teacher for so long. He looked like he’d made decisions while he was away from me, and I feared what they might be. I felt like he’d put so much distance between us that he was practically a stranger.
“Ethan?”
“Mr E,” he corrected, pouring coffee with his back aimed firmly at me. I flipped him off, knowing he couldn’t see, but he turned just as I was retracting my finger weapons, and rolled his eyes.
“Very mature. Okay, here’s how it’s going to be. You have art stuff here, and a room to paint in. We’ll come up with a theme for each day, and you’ll paint or draw, or however you want to create it.”
“And?”
He shrugged. “We’ll make the best of this, until your dads see fit to release us, and we can get back to our separate lives.” His words hit hard, like the biggest dismissal from the one person I wanted to belong to, and with, and he was brushing me off like I didn’t matter at all.
“But-”
“Failure to follow each day’s lesson, will be punishable by… well, I haven’t worked that part out yet, but there will be rewards for achieving the goals I set for you.”
I carried my empty mug back to the machine, noting that Ethan instantly backed around the counter, putting that distance back between us, digging another piece of my heart out and throwing it away. Would I ever be enough for someone?Would I ever just be what they wanted, rather than something to use and abuse, and discard?
“Rewards?” I barked finally, turning to glare at him again, praying he couldn’t see the way my hands trembled, the way my heart was turning to dust under his cold attention.
