I snarl in annoyance. It was bad enough that I’d had to wrangle the stupid group meeting. Melissa kept flirting with me, while Dan kept trying to flirt with Melissa, and half the session ended up being gossip instead of working on the project.
I don’t know why I care about my grades when my future is all planned out for me already. I don’t want to fail at anything though. Not even a fucking marketing class.
“Asch!” I shout. “If you’re here, you’d better come down to pick up your fucking trash or I’m dumping it all in your room.”
I glance at the stuff on the kitchen counter. It was bare when I left this morning, but now there’s a plate, a mug, a bowl, and a cereal box lying on it. That wasn’t River. River picks up after himself.
“Do it, then,” Asch challenges me from his room.
My annoyance bubbles over into anger. I stack up the dirty dishes and the cereal box and carry them up the stairs. Asch’s door is slightly ajar, as if daring me to enter.
Fuck him.
I kick the door open the rest of the way and step inside—only to see Asch throw a punch at me. I have good enough reflexes to drop the plates and raise my arms to block it, but I stumble back a step.
“What the fuck, Asch?” I growl. My heart is pounding harder though. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t want Asch fighting me. “Just do your dishes like a normal person.”
Asch ignores me. He lunges forward, and I’m forced out of his bedroom—nearly tripping over the dishes—and back into the hallway.
It’s too narrow here for a full on fight, but I’m not going to let Asch beat on me without fighting back.
If this is how he wants it, so be it.
I get into a defensive stance and block his next blow, following up by driving my knee into him. He breathes through the blow, grabbing my leg and shoving me back. I let out a startled yelp as I fall backwards.
Asch looms over me with a cold, dead expression in his eyes.
I’ve never seen him like this before.
No, scratch that. I’ve seen that expression. Never aimed atmethough. It’s how he would fight the people who tried to get in my way. It’s the look he had when he was protecting me.
I grit my teeth. Well, I don’t need his protection.
I don’t need anything from him.
I scramble to my feet and lunge at him. He grabs my arm and redirects my movement so I slam into the wall. I gasp in pain, but I force myself to deflect when Asch punches me again.
Before I can do anything else, Asch takes my arm and flings me down the hall. I crash into the door to my bedroom.
There’s no way I can take him in this narrow hallway. I open the door and step inside, readying myself for another attack.
Asch stands in the doorway, the light from the hall filtering in behind him. His face is completely dark.
“Are you going to tell me what brought this on?” I ask with confidence I don’t feel. “You’rethisupset you don’t get to play my bodyguard for life?”
It’s for his own sake.
Asch takes a step closer.
And suddenly there’s something around my neck, pulling tight. I cry out and reach up, clawing at a thick, rough rope. My eyes go wide as Asch approaches.
“Did you forget something?” Pandora asks, her voice full of dark amusement.
Fuck. I drive my elbows back to dislodge her, but she pulls tighter on the rope around my neck. While I struggle, Asch closes the distance. He grabs my hands and snaps leather cuffs around my wrists.
Those are my cuffs.
They were in a bin under my bed.
