Page 51 of Riot House
“Well. Let’s see. You dumped a load of rotten meat in my desk. It smelled like rotten meat, anyway. And you threatened Tom when he didn’t want to manipulate me into giving him my phone. And you broke into my room—”
“You know I didn’t do that.”
“I know youdid,” I argue.
He shrugs a shoulder, laughing bitterly under his breath. “What else do you know?”
“I know that—I know that you—you’re—” Ahhh, fuck.
“You know that Carina doesn’t like me. She’s been your primary source of information about me, right? And she’s so wounded over Dashiell slighting her that she’d hate me and Pax along with Lord Lovatt no matter what. What else?”
“Just because I haven’t experienced you being a dick firsthand doesn’t mean that it’s not true.”
“So, I put a couple of frog’s legs in your desk. I’ll admit, that wasn’t very nice. I apologize for it. And I’m sorry I threatened Tom. I’m not very good with people sometimes.”
“No shit. That has to be the understatement of the century.”
He pins me beneath a very serious, very green stare. “Are you done?”
I bite the tip of my tongue, glaring back at him.
“I’m sorry that I’m imperfect. I’m fully aware of my flaws. But I’ll work on a few of them if it’ll make you happy.”
“Hah! Like my happiness means anything to you.”
Sitting up slowly, Wren turns so that we’re facing one another, his expression frighteningly intense. “I care very deeply about your happiness. More than I should. I care about beingpersonallyresponsible for your happiness, and that—” he shakes his head, “—is a confounding realization, believe me.”
He looks so astonished by this turn of events that I actually believe him. “Must be weird, caring about someone else when you’ve only ever cared about yourself before.”
Wren flashes his teeth—a quick grimace that looks pained. “There you go, making assumptions again. How about this? You suspend judgment against me for three nights. You come up here and you meet with me, and we talk.You actually listen. And then…thenyou can decide if I’m the Anti-Christ. At which point, I swear on my family honor that I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want.”
“Three nights? If it’ll take you three whole nights to convince me that you’re not a horrible person, then I’m not sure I sho—”
“Just quit being so spiky and agree already,” he groans. “Tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday night. That’s it. Three nights. I’ll be on my very best behavior.”
“And I’ll see that you’re not some evil monster and I’ll fall in love with you?”
“Maybe,” he agrees. “Or maybe you’ll see that Iama monster. And maybe you’ll fall in love with me anyway.”
In The Dark…
I kick and scream.
I learned a long time ago that kicking and screaming doesn’t help, but I have no choice.
I am a deranged, trapped animal, howling for freedom.
A freedom that will never come.
“Please! Please, I promise…I won’t tell anyone. I won’t breathe a word, I swear. I promise, I promise, I promise. I won’t tell a soul what you’ve done. PLEASE! LET ME OUT!”
18
WREN
She agreesto my proposal like the prospect of spending the next three nights with me will be so traumatic that she’ll need a decade of therapy afterwards. And perhaps she will. If that turns out to be the case, then I know a great guy in Albany who’s rates are reasonable, and I’ll happily pass on his information. But until that comes to pass, I’m going to make the most of the hours I get to spend with her. She sits Indian style on the blanket, using the material to cover her bare feet—they must be freezing—staring at me like she’s facing down the most daunting experience of her existence.
“Ask me your questions, then,” I tell her, flopping down onto my back again, affecting an air of carelessness that I don’t feel. I’m far from careless, actually. This is a risky move on my part. I’ll be brutally honest with her, so that I can say I gave her the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but itisdangerous. She could decide that I revolt her and she really doesn’t want anything to do with me. If that happens, I’ll have to honor the deal I’ve made with her, and I’ll have to leave her in peace. Only, I know how badly that’ll affect me. It’ll destroy me from the inside out, and I won’t be able to do shit about it. A promise is a promise, and I don’t make them lightly.
