Page 64 of Merciless

I heard someone’s footsteps in the hallway. I knew it was her. Not only because my parents and Troy would make a lot more noise if they were coming home, but because I started to feel her presence around. Even when I couldn’t see her.

She opened the door of my room without a knock, stepped inside, and closed it behind her. She leaned on it. Probably giving time to her eyes to get used to the darkness.

“Talk about double standards, nemesis,’ I mocked her. “If I go into your room without asking, you’ll cut my head off.”

Silence.

I was so sick of her only thinking and never actually talking. I craved her words more than everything else.

I sat up in my bed and faced her, waiting for her to react, do something. Anything. She didn’t move a muscle.

“I’m not going to make it easy for you this time around,” I warned her. She nodded and pushed herself from the door, took a few steps in, and stood right in front of me.

“I’m sorry,” her voice cracked.

“You’ll have to elaborate. You’ve got quite the record,” It was a shitty thing to say, but I said it anyway. She was chewing her lower lip, deciding something. Then she turned her back on me, but still remained at arm’s length from me.

“Could you unzip my dress, please?” Clementine picked up her hair to reveal the zipper that started high on her neck.

“Are you that hammered?” I raised my voice and stood up gently pushing her forward to make me some space to get away from her. “Are you so determined to fuck someone tonight?”

Clementine sighed.

“Just do it. Please.”

Being a sucker for her, I did what she asked me to. I started to unzip her dress slowly. I could only hear the sound from the zipper and her shallow breaths. I wasn’t even at the middle of her back when she stopped me.

“That’s enough.”

She turned to face me, pressing her dress over her chest with one hand and trying to take the top of it off. I saw something sparkling on her naked skin. She managed to reveal everything from her neck down to her still covered breasts. She was wearing the necklace.

“I wear it every day. Obviously not all the time. You would have seen that. But every night when I go into my room and I know I won’t be seeing you until the morning, I put it on.”

“Why?”

“Why do I put it on?” she seemed confused.

“Why are you hiding the fact that you are wearing it?” I touched the daffodil pendant. I didn’t mean to buy her a present at all. In fact, I had decided I wasn’t going to. But then I saw that necklace when I took Troy to the mall to pick up presents for mom and dad, and I remembered how she called me Narcissus.

“Because I love it. I don’t want to ever take it off, and I can’t handle that.”.

I wanted to tell her what that pendant meant for me. Whatshemeant for me. But I didn’t want to scare her off. I didn’t trust her that she wouldn’t run away again. I took her face in my palms.

“Hide it then,” I whispered.

Clementine dropped her forehead to mine, then pressed her lips to my mouth for a second only.

“Thank you for the necklace.”

“You’re welcome.”

I reached and helped her put on her dress again in total silence. Then I took her hand and dragged her downstairs into the living room. I could see the fear on her face. Fear that I was going to make some grand gesture or say something that would be so big that we could never ignore it.

I was no idiot. I wasn’t doing anything remotely close to that. I just turned the TV on and sat on the couch. She sat next to me. Ten minutes passed and she summoned the courage to talk to me again. She was her usual sassy self.

“Are you going to ask me about Dylan?”

“No,” I smirked. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

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