“We camp here,” he says, glaring down at me.
I look up at him, too close to his chest, which expands his aroma of fresh citrus, white musk, and aquatic wood. I take a disgusted step back.
With my best condescending smirk, I say, “No more naked cuddling?”
That grimace could burn a hole through my skull.
While Niklaus sets up camp and fire, I manage to hunt a jackrabbit. When Aunt Marilynn taught us how to hunt growing up, I remember thinking “What situation am I ever going to need to know this for?”
We eat in silence.
Stare blankly at the fire in silence.
Co-exist in silence,barely.
Aside from the light of the fire illuminating our faces, the world around us is an empty pit. This forest leaves no room for sight. It’s just us and an eerie feeling in my chest growing hollow and uneasy.
“Your chewing is obnoxious,” he comments.
Oh, here we go.
I start smacking my lips.
“God,” he sighs.
“So crazy how my mouth annoys you so much,” I say, still chewing.
Niklaus relaxes, unbothered and uncaring.
“Would you rather be stuck out here with Mabel Rose?” I ask and instantly regret it. Why? Oh god, why would I give him the impression of jealousy? It wasn’t. Fuck, no, it wasn’t.
“That is eating away at you, isn’t it?”
“That my best friend was sucking the dick of the man who has been obsessed with hurting me my whole life? Yes. It’s eating away at me.”
He smirks, half amused, half disinterested as his eyes remain focused on a spot in the darkness beyond the fire. “And imagining your best friend riding me isn’t making you furious with jealousy?”
That image collapses onto my thoughts. The brunt force of it scorching my insides. But I relax the lines on my forehead, steady my breath, mute the feeling of betrayal boiling over.
“It makes me sad.” The muscles in my neck stiffen. I can’t decide if I’m embarrassed or disgusted at my sudden confession.
“What?”
“Yes.”
I continue digging a deeper hole for myself.
Niklaus shifts his attention to me slowly from the corner of his eye.
“Sad because I didn’t see it. Not you two fucking. But that I didn’t see how much she’s hated me all these years.”
He listens reluctantly.
“She’s your best friend.”
“I thought so too. But my mother killed her distant cousin, Belinda, in the asylum. Mabel Rose always attempted to convince me that fact meant nothing to her.”
He peers away in deep thought. “I didn’t know that.”
