Page 16 of Creatures Like Us

I frown. “Uh, yeah?…”

He rolls his eyes dramatically. “Christ, you’re clueless. As if I didn’t already know that. Hey, it’s not weed, at least, right? Or heroin.” He flashes a boyish grin, as if that was funny.

It’s not funny to me. He should take care of himself better, treat his body better. But I’m not really one to talk.

“You’re not that good with sarcasm, are you?” Asher asks. “Is that why my brother and his friends were afraid of you?”

“I don’t know,” I mumble. “Areyouafraid of me?”

He takes another deep drag of the cigarette and squints as he looks at me through the smoke. “Would you blame me? You do scary things, like locking me up in your basement like some BDSM sex slave.”

“You’re not my sex slave.”

“Yeah, no, I’ve kind of figured that out.” He narrows his eyes. “Are you straight? Is that why?”

I shake my head.

“What, then? Are you a virgin?”

A chill goes through me. Is it that obvious? For some reason, I don’t want him to know. My lack of sexual experience has neverbothered me much, but I don’t want him to see me as lesser because of it.

“I just don’t like to force people,” I mutter.

“But you don’t mind locking people up against their will?”

Something inside me curls up and turns cold. I look down at my lap, stroking my fingertips over my knuckles. When I look up, I notice Asher’s gaze on me.

“How about hurting me?” he asks, nodding to my hands. “Would you do that if I tried to escape?”

I look at him for a long time, contemplating. His cigarette is down to the filter now, and the ember has fizzled out on its own.

“If you try to escape, I need to make sure you don’t,” I say finally. “For your own good.”

Asher flicks the cigarette to the floor. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he mutters.

He sounds disappointed though. Maybe he hoped I would say I’d never hurt him, but I need to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself, and keeping him here is just a means of making sure that doesn’t happen. Why can’t he see that?

“Noah,” he says, and this time, my name on his tongue lacks that breathy tone from before. “Can you leave me alone?”

“Didn’t you enjoy the cigarette?”

“The cigarette has nothing to do with it. I just want you out of my face, that’s all.”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Asher says, voice higher now. “Maybe because you’re creeping me the fuck out. Maybe because I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you’re up to. Maybe because you just admitted you’ll hurt me.”

“I didn’t say Iwillhurt you,” I protest. “I just said that if I have to, I’ll make sure you stay here. For your own good.”

“Stop saying that!” Asher brings both his hands to the sides of his head, covering his ears. “Fuck, you’re so annoying.”

“Annoying?”

“Yes! And weird. So leave me alone.”

That, I can understand. I know I’m a weirdo and a freak. I’ve been called those things countless times.

I rise from the chair, intent on leaving Asher alone like he wants, but before I have time to turn around fully, he speaks up.