Page 24 of Degraded Terms

Asher sighs. “Must we talk about this? Let me make you breakfast.”

I push at his chest, but he doesn’t move so I curl my fingers into his shirt. “Tell me.”

“I don’t believe you enjoy the degree you are so hellbent on obtaining. Nor do I believe you want to work in the field it’s designed for. I was simply trying to give you time to change your mind and declare a different major.”

My eyebrows knit together. He said so much, but nothing at all. I glare at him. “Stop talking in riddles. Tell me what you did.”

He stares at me silently, and I watch him back before something clicks in the back of my head. The tutor sessions, the discussions with peers and still wondering what I was missing.

My mouth drops open. “You failed me on purpose?”

His eyes flash with something victorious before his stoic walls are back up. I let go of him. My breathing accelerates as his jaw works back and forth. When he doesn’t confirm or deny it, I scoff in disbelief. “You did, didn’t you? Oh my god. Why? Why would?—”

Tears blur my vision when I remember what else happened last year. “You cost me that internship at the firm, didn’t you?”

He lets out a throaty growl and slams his hand on the frame above my head. “You hate everything to do with accounting. I know you do, Ava. I can see right through you.”

“It doesn’t matter! You had no right!” I shout, wiping at the tears falling down my cheeks.

“It does matter, you matter. I know you don’t want this, but I can’t figure out why you’re putting yourself through it.”

“Because I have to!”

This time when I push him, he steps back and I slip past him. I storm down the hall to the living room where my abandonedclothes are. His presence looms over me as I pull my shoes on and stuff everything else into my bag. My heart is in my throat, and I’m too afraid to look at him. It’s not till I turn on my phone to call a cab when he finally speaks.

“I’ll take you home.”

I ignore him, trying to log into the app I seldom use with shaking hands. Asher sighs, his footsteps getting louder as he reaches me and grabs my phone.

“I’m the same person I was ten minutes ago. I’m not going to hurt you, Ava.”

My gaze turns up to his, pinning him with a dry look. “I guess that depends on your definition of hurt.”

He has the gall to smirk. “I won’t apologize if you’re looking for one.”

“No,” I say with a saccharine smile. “I would never expect that from you. That would mean you have to think past yourself and your wants. And that will never happen so it would be insincere.”

Any amusement drains from his face as we stare at each other. I cross my arms and raise my eyebrows. “Are you taking me back or not?”

Chapter 9

Ava

I skippedhis class all week and ignored every text and call that came in. With a simple email to my other teachers, I claimed to have the flu and stayed in my room. I didn’t know how I felt, but I knew I couldn’t see him or my mind would go all gooey like it always did around him.

My anger drained hours after he dropped me off, instead leaving me hurt and confused. Hurt because it seemed like there was more to our relationship than I realized and everything felt like a lie.

Confused because as hours and days passed, I realized I was not mad. He was right; I don’t want to become an accountant or really anything to do with numbers, though that’s what I’ll be graduating with.

That still didn’t give him the right to interfere the way he did. It scares me that he could control my life like that, but what scares me more is how much I was starting not to care. When I failed his class last semester, it was my first time doing so for any class. It wrecked me.

I was nearly inconsolable for weeks, but I got over it and I moved on. I realized I didn’t have to be perfect all the time, that my world wouldn’t crash down around me because I wasn’t achieving some expectations I had set for myself.

The summer I didn’t get the internship, I hadn’t realized how much I didn’t want to do it till I got the rejection. How I didn’t want to spend my summer days locked behind a desk when I could have been spending it with my favorite person like I always do.

My phone rings and I glance over. My heart squeezes when I see who it is, as if he knew I was just thinking about him.

“Hey,” I answer softly.

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