I wiped my eyes as I unexpectedly snorted. “Our fights were the best thing for me back then; they gave me something to focus on so I wouldn’t focus on what . . . what almost happened.”
Darcy gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “I know. It’s why I hassled you so much. It let me know you still had fight in you.”
That was almost romantic.
“Thank you, Darcy,” I said, and meant it.
He sighed. “You’re welcome, Neala Girl.”
I didn’t know what to do then. I had never been in a situation before with Darcy where we were civil, so I flipped it around to familiar territory.
“You have really hassled me this week. The doll, remember?”
Darcy groaned. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”
I shook my head.
“Well, I hope you enjoy disappointment, because you aren’t getting it.”
What?
“Excuse me?”
Darcy looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “What’s the shocked look for?”
“You just revealed something so deeply intimate to me. You just told me you stopped me from being raped when I was a teenager . . . and yet you still won’t give me the fucking doll?”
He blinked at me. “I didn’t think telling you what you asked to hear was an invitation for you to think you had a claim on the doll.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
Darcy shrugged. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I glared at him. “You still didn’t answer me question. You said I was a virgin, but how would you know that? I was a virgin back when I was sixteen, but I’m twenty-five now.”
“So?”
“So, I’m not a little girl anymore.”
Darcy did something that caused my insides to jump: he looked down to my body, then back up to my eyes. “I can see that, but so what? Your body grew, but you’re still the same girl I’ve known all my life. You took what happened very seriously, like any person would. You wouldn’t get with just anyone back then, and even more so now. I don’t know for certain if you’re a virgin, but I’m pretty damn sure you are. You’re guarded; you don’t get close to people. Your idea of a night on the town is a trip down to the pub with our families. You aren’t an out there kind of girl, so I can’t imagine you just dropping your knickers at the drop of a hat for anyone.”
“Like Laura Stoke, you mean?” I widened my eyes right after I said it.
I didn’t mean for that thought to slip out.
Darcy chuckled. “Yeah, you’re nothing like Laura Stoke, Neala Girl.”
Wow.
Talk about a low blow.
Laura Stoke was everything I wasn’t. She was tall, slim, had a big arse and big boobs. As much as I hated to admit it, she was beautiful and had naturally long, thick, strawberry blond hair. Darcy saying I was nothing like her shouldn’t have hurt or upset me so much, but damn it, it did.
“You know what? Fuck you, Darcy!” I snapped, and stood up off the couch and stormed out of the room. “And I am a virgin,” I shouted, “but so what?”
“What the hell did I do?” Darcy blurted as he followed me out of the living room and into the kitchen.
I stormed all the way into the storage room and slammed the door shut behind me.
“Neala, are you seriously escaping me by going back into the storage room?”
I was trying to escape.
I pounded my fists on the door. “Leave. Me. Alone.”
He was silent for a moment; then a little thud came against the door and I didn’t know if he was leaning against it or not.
“I don’t know what is wrong with you, and you can bet your arse we’ll be talking about it, but if you wanna sulk in there like a child for a while, go ahead.”
Don’t take the bait.
“I will.”
“You do that.” Darcy laughed.
I screeched, “Go. Away!”
God.
“No, this is my house, remember?”
He just couldn’t leave me alone!
I grunted in defeat and kicked the door open; it hit Darcy, who was standing behind it, and he yelped like a girl. That made me feel a little better. I stepped out of the storage room and walked out like nothing was wrong. I made sure to ignore Darcy and stupid Einstein.
He grabbed my arm in the hallway and spun me around to face him.
“Okay, what is wrong with you?”
I deadpanned, “You don’t know?”
“I really don’t, so enlighten me.”
“You called me fat and ugly.”
Darcy stared at me with wide, unblinking eyes. “You’ve officially lost your mind.”
I scoffed, “How do you figure that?”
He placed his free hand on my other arm and shook me.
“I did not call you fat or ugly. I never even mentioned the words.”
“You didn’t have to; it was implied.”
Darcy looked so confused that I almost pitied him.
Almost.
“Neala . . . What the fuck?”
I blew a large amount of air through my nostrils and said, “You said I was nothing like Laura Stokes. She is perfect, if there is such a thing. She is gorgeous, tall, and skinny, and everything else that I’m not. I don’t care that I’m not, but you didn’t have to say it.”
Darcy’s shoulders slumped a little.
“You got mad because I said you aren’t like Laura?”
I shrugged. “Call me crazy, but no girl, even an enemy, likes hearing they’re nothing like a girl who could easily pass for a supermodel.”
He stared at me for a long moment, and then the bastard burst out laughing.
I was instantly furious.
“You’re an insensitive piece of—”
“You’re crazy if you took what I said as an insult instead of a compliment.” Darcy cut me off, still laughing.
Come again?
&nbs
p; “Wait a fecking minute; I’m supposed to be flattered you think I’m nothing like Laura?” I clarified.
Darcy nodded.
“How do you figure that one?” I snapped.
He just shook his head and laughed.
“Answer me,” I demanded.
Darcy tilted his head back and sighed before he lowered his head, and his gaze, back to mine.
“Do you want to stand here and talk about this, or do you want to get out of this house?”
Topic change.
I hesitated for a moment, then said, “Get out of the house.”
Darcy nodded once. “That’s what I thought, so help me figure a way out of here.”
I’d let it go for the moment, but as soon as we weren’t in a survivor panic mode I would be back on his case, demanding to know what he meant.
“Okay, so all the doors and windows are blocked up with snow. The smart thing to do now would be to ring someone to help get us out of here.”
I chewed on my lower lip for a moment, then gasped. “I left me phone in the pub with me ma last night!”
At the time I hadn’t wanted to bring it with me, because I had no pockets on my blazer or my dress. It would have been awkward to hold when I realised I needed a bike to get up the mountain, too. I then thought about the bike, and the kid who had loaned it to me, and groaned inwardly. He was so going to tell his parents I stole the stupid thing from him.
“Good thing I have mine then, isn’t it?” Darcy quipped, then turned and headed down the hall to his bedroom.
I pulled a face at the back of his head as I followed him. Leaning against the doorway of his bedroom, I watched as he retrieved his phone from his bedside table. He turned to me and smirked as he waved it in my direction. I stuck my middle finger up at him, to which he shook his head.
“Nice.” He snorted and pressed on the screen of his phone.
The lights in his bedroom went off.
I yelped, and so did Einstein from the kitchen.
“It’s okay, sweetie!” Darcy called out.
I gripped the panel of the doorway. “I’m okay, Darcy.”
Silence.
“I was talking to Einstein.”
I glared into the darkness. “You’re more concerned for your bird than you are me?”