Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“You think I want to hang out with your friends? Give me a break.”
“I just wanted to make sure you understood.” What else, what else?
He beats me to it. “Going out at night. If you want to go out, I’m coming with you. No, you will not go to any guy’s apartment or dorm room or anything like that. That is completely off the table. And if there’s going to be guys hanging around, I need to know in advance.”
I don’t like that at all. But if I shut him down, that’s it. I might as well give up. “No guys’ rooms or apartments. Okay. But I can’t promise there won’t be guys anywhere I go. Like, if a friend invites me to her apartment, what if her roommates have guys over? I don’t have any control over that.”
He folds his arms, pursing his lips as he thinks it over. “Fine. Then I come up with you, and I take a look around. I meet everybody or at least get a look at them. Then I wait somewhere nearby. Balcony, outside the front door, whatever. Close enough that I can get to you fast if you need help.”
Now I’m starting to wonder what kind of danger he thinks I’m in. “I doubt I ever will.”
“But never say never, right?”
It’s like he’s waiting for me to get assaulted. “What about parties?”
This, he doesn’t have to think about it. “What if we settle for keeping a liquor stash here at the condo, and if you want to hang out with your friends and drink, you can do it here. While I’m here, on the premises at all times.”
“How many friends are we talking about here?”
“No more than six at a time.”
“You’ve already thought about this one.”
“Hell, yeah, I have. Any more than that, and it gets out of hand.”
Only six people at a time—well, considering I’ve only met a small handful of people so far, that doesn’t seem totally undoable. “What about sports events? Football and stuff like that?”
“We can go to those. We, you and I, together. And I will sit next to you, and I’m not going to get any arguments about that. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, but you’re not going to change my mind.”
“Okay.”
“You accepted way too fast.”
“Because I’m not a total idiot, maybe? I know how to compromise.”
“And you will not try to sneak out again.”
“Only if you promise not to change the code on the alarm.” His head tips to the side. “Come on. Don’t pretend you weren’t going to do it, now that you know I saw you put it in.”
“How do I know you’re not going to use it again?”
“That’s the point. I want to be able to use it. What if I can’t sleep, and I want to go downstairs to work out? What if I get up earlier than you and want to go for a run or a walk or something? I can’t sit around and wait for you to get out of bed.”
“You’re not going for a run or a walk by yourself, remember?”
I roll my eyes, even though I know how immature it makes me look. “You get my point. God.”
“You could always wake me up.”
“And you could always just trust me to remember a four-digit code and not share it with anybody else. And I won’t use it to sneak out, I promise.”
“You promise? As in, you swear you’re not going to try to sneak out ever again?”
“Could you not make such a big deal about it?” When he only grunts, I sigh in exasperation. “Fine. I promise. I’m not going to try to sneak out again.”
“If there’s something you want to do, you tell me about it.”
“But you’re just going to say no.”
“Why would I, so long as you’re following the ground rules we just set down? I’m going to trust you, but you need to trust me, too. Otherwise, your dad’s going to kill us both.”
I wish he didn’t sound so serious when he said that. Like he means it. Dad wouldn’t kill him. No way. He’s being dramatic. But I’m not in the mood to argue when he’s finally loosening up a little bit. I might be able to have some kind of a life, finally. “Sure. I’ll follow the ground rules, but I’m going to trust that you’ll do it, too. But no backtracking.”
“How would I do that?”
“By pretending this never happened. I’m going to hold you to it.”
“That’s fine. And I’ll do the same.” He gives me a short nod. “Now, I’m going to go to bed for real. Just remember, I get an alert on my phone whenever that door opens or closes.”
Dammit, I never thought of that. He has an app on his phone connected to the system. “Fair enough,” I mutter, even though it’s not quite fair. He still has all the power in this dynamic.