Marianne by Elizabeth Hammer (best books to read in life TXT) 📕

about out of line. Whatever. Let him be mad. She wasn’t going to get all bitter at Danielle just because he said she should. This was stunningly stupid. When she heard Danielle close the front door, she stood up straight and marched herself right down the hall. No way was she going to stand for this.

She chickened out by the time she made it down the hall, however. Marianne knocked softly on the open door of Patrick’s bedroom. There were boxes everywhere and piles of random stuff on the bed and floor. He was standing at the side of his bed, a grey t-shirt hanging from his hands, staring out the window. “Hey,” he said. “Come in.”

Marianne took a step forward and stopped. She tried to hide her hands in her pockets, but she didn’t have any pockets. Deep breath. She smoothed down her ugly pajamas and shuffled forward again. The wood was hot under her bare feet where the sun was shining in through the window. Where were all those excellent lines she had for him a moment ago? She tried to think up something new but got distracted staring at the tattoos across his back. There was a giant circle with the letters P and X crossing each other in the middle; it looked almost like a wheel. Underneath that, the words, ‘In hoc signo vinces.’

“I’m sorry for walking out on you,” said Patrick, pulling on his shirt and turning around.

“That’s okay,” she said.

He bit his lip for a moment. “In what universe is that okay?”

Marianne shrugged and smiled. “Whichever one I decide we’re living in today. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I make the rules.”

Patrick laughed but stopped abruptly. Well, in a normal situation it wouldn’t have seemed abrupt, but this was the tail end of a fight, not a normal situation. Marianne’s senses were heightened. “I was even more out of line than Danielle,” he said. “We’ve only been dating for about twelve hours; you don’t owe me any explanations.”

Marianne crossed her arms. “There was nothing to explain.”

“Okay,” he said. But that was soooo not what he was thinking; she could tell.

She was about to say something about how he had no right to dictate the timing and manner of her anger when she realized that he hadn’t exactly tried to do that. Not exactly. He’d said he wanted to know how she felt. That…

Well.

Yeah, that might be just a bit different.

He’d asked Marianne how she felt about last night, and she’d lied. He’d asked how she felt about Danielle’s comment, and she’d lied. He was so good at reading her that he must have known she wasn’t telling the truth. Marianne cleared her throat, but couldn’t speak immediately. Geez, it was embarrassing getting caught. “Um,” Marianne stepped up close to him and looked down at her feet, “I have vile communication skills.”

He snorted. “You’re just now realizing that?”

Marianne whipped her head up. “Well, you don’t have to be a jerk about it,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “I was going to cede the point, but now I’ve changed my mind. I refuse to be bullied into saying things or… Why are you laughing at me?” she cried.

“I’m sorry,” he choked. “It’s just that you’re so adorable when you get all righteous like that.”

“Don’t call me adorable,” she said and tried to punch him in the arm.

Patrick caught her fist just as it was about to connect and pulled her arm behind him, bringing her forward. He leaned down at the same moment, grasped her gently behind the head, and kissed her full on the mouth.

“Gah!” she screeched. Total accident. She was just so startled.

Patrick released her immediately and stepped back, looking shocked and wretched.

“I’m sorry!” said Marianne, still short of breath. She stepped back, crossing her arms over her gross jammies again. “I didn’t mean to scream. You just scared me.”

Whoops. She may have used the wrong word. He looked like he wanted to die right there.

“No!” she said. “Not scared. I meant startled. Surprised.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He turned away and fumbled around in a pile of shoes, looking for a match. “I’m sorry.”

Marianne could only stand there and watch as he knelt down, hunting around under the bed for his other shoe. Oh crap, how did she manage to blow things so completely all the time? He was mortified, and she couldn’t think of one thing to say to salvage the moment. She stopped racking her brain for a good line when it struck her how pointless that would be. She’d just mess up the next moment, too. Silence was better.

What had she done to him? Rejected, insulted, and demonized every time he asked her out. Lied to whenever he bothered to care about her feelings. Humiliated when he dared to make a move on her. And yet, he was never anything but sweet to her. He backed down every time she lied to him, walked away every time she snubbed him. He still made himself vulnerable to her all the time, though he never got anything back. He’d said he liked her, wanted to date her, told her she was beautiful, cute, and adorable. What had she ever admitted to him? Not one thing. Nothing. That made Marianne a seriously gnarly person. How unbelievably frustrating would that be?

Marianne sucked in a silent breath. She was frustrating. She closed her eyes and jammed her fists into them for a moment. She was a frustrating person. Oh, that sucked. Patrick was on his knees, still searching for his left shoe, so Marianne dropped down and started combing the other side of the room. He didn’t deserve to see the stupid tears that had started up on her face, and she didn’t want to show him.

She found his shoe under a black necktie and a pair of the baby’s footed sleepers. “Here ya go,” she said, horrified to hear how slurred her voice sounded.

“Marianne?” said