I tipped my chin up. This man had saved the world. He might be a grumpy, bossy shit, but he had done things for civilization that were… well, he’d never be paid back for it. It wasn’t a surprise he wasn’t some polite, courteous person. At this point, I was 99.9 percent certain he was missing those genes in his DNA.
But his comment really did hurt. Not just my kidney either, but my heart as well. Of all the things I’d ever been sensitive over, “friends” were at the top of the damn list.
“I do have friends,” I whispered, my eyes suddenly stinging a little.
More than a little.
He made another one of those dismissive, rude sounds in his throat.
Why was he coming at me like this? Did I take a shit in his Lucky Charms? Had I stabbed him in another lifetime?
Couldn’t he at least try and make decent conversation with me instead of this shit? Was that asking too much? If this was what having friends was like, I hadn’t missed out on shit.
I was trying to be nice here. I’dbeentrying to be nice to him. It hadn’t exactly been easy either, but I’d tried.
And sure, nice people probably didn’t have to tell themselves tobenice, but too fucking bad.
I gritted my teeth. “It’s true. What am I supposed to do? Invite people over when you’re here?” Resentment stirred inside me. It wasn’t exactly easy to make friends when I had so many things hanging over my head. So many lies I had to keep track of that I could forget what they were supposed to be.
Mostly though, even though I had too much experience with it, I hated lying. It had a spiderweb effect that leeched to everything, and eventually there was no freeing yourself from every fine string that clung to you. Once you started, there was no stopping, no telling what kind of design you’d end up covering yourself with.
So why would I want to waste someone else’s time on lies? That wasn’t fair. I didn’t want to do it, I never had, but I didn’t have a fucking choice. So, I opted for putting myself into the least amount of positions possible where I needed to. That was how I’d been raised. It was the best for everyone.
But it wasn’t like I could explainthatto him.
For once, it was my turn to grunt.
Plus, who the hell did he think he was judging me for not having friends? I didn’t see anybody hanging up missing or wanted posters for him. I was just smart enough not to bring that shit up.
Fucking rude.
I shook my head. For the sake of both of us, and mostly out of respect, I forced myself to get up even though I really just wanted to flip him off instead. “On that note, I’ve got a few lessons scheduled. I’ll come and check on you later,” I managed to ground out.
Not that I was pissed at him or anything.
* * *
Unfortunately, I kept on thinking about his dumb insinuation as I worked.
He didn’t know me. Didn’t know my life. He didn’t understand shit.
But his comments still made me pretty damn miserable anyway. I’d gone past being angry to just being hurt. I couldn’t remember the last time anything had done that. It was one of the few benefits of not interacting with people. With not having friends or relationships, you didn’t have people who could let you down.
He didn’t know anything.
And that was why I found myself sulking in the shower later that evening, after I’d finished another two lessons and ignored Super Crabby, who also pretended not to see me when I walked by my room while he watched something.
When I heard, “Are you almost done?” I started to hold up my middle finger before remembering he might have X-ray vision and could see me—could he see me naked?—and grudgingly turned toward the shower curtain and tugged it back just enough to peek my head through so I could holler back.
But I didn’t do anything more than squeak.
Leaning against the doorway, looking pale while holding my cell phone—the same cell phone I clearly remembered leaving plugged in to charge in my office—was my houseguest.
Who was currently pecking away at the screen.
He knew my password, which was something. But mostly, it was thefact he was fucking standing upthat alarmed me.The urge to ask him if it was a smart idea for him to be up was right on the tip of my tongue.
But who the hell was I to say shit? I wasn’t his babysitter. I was the lonely idiot who was taking care of him.
