𝑻𝒂𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 ʲᵉʳᵒᵐᵉ ᵛᵃˡᵉˢᵏᵃ

𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ˢʰᵃᵈᵒʷˢ ᵒᶠ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵖᵃˢᵗ

What to you felt like an eternity were two days in real life. Two days in which you barely slept, due to the uncomfortable excuse of a bed Jerome offered you, barely ate and occupied yourself with various puzzles. You even accomplished to ignore Jerome the best you could and to your surprise he did not lay a finger on you. Well he did push you around at some point, but other than that he didn't dare to hurt you. He is aware that you know about the game he's playing, but he likes the thrill of it, loves that you play along even, he told you that much.

Right now the both of you sit on your carpet, your body's leaned against the wall. The two of you talked a lot and you can't say that you didn't enjoy it at all. It's actually quite nice to chat about your shared childhood, but you also notice how dark it turned out for the two of you.
"I remember when you started bullying me." A smile is placed on your lips, as if it is a fond memory of yours. It's not.
"You know therapy actually helped with that. I quitted smoking and no longer have struggles with food." Jerome snorts and shakes his head.
"Of course." His tone is funny and he doesn't really seem to believe you.
"No, I'm serious." You defend yourself and pound at him in annoyance.
"You didn't eat, like at all, the past few days princess. Stop lying to yourself about it." He's right, you give him that. Your relationship with food has not fully healed yet. But you are positive that things might change in the future. If he lets you out of that damned storage room that is.
"Man, the past few years were a weird ride." He comments and places his arms behind his head, Jerome seems relaxed for the first time in the past few days.
"My moods constantly changed from being horny to wanting to strangle you, that's pretty exhausting." He admits and closes his eyes to empathize with his words. Like he's truly embracing his teenage years for the first time.
"Horny, hugh?" You snigger jokingly and carefully observe him.
"Only time I noticed this was in your shower." You swallow. Have you gone too far? That moment the two of you shared still remains in the back of your head somewhere and after all he has done to you and others, you still like to think about it with excitement. Did he use your vulnerability against you? Maybe. Did you mind it? Not really.
"Oh sweetheart, you don't want to know what I did behind closed doors thinking about you." For a moment it felt like your heart started to stop beating and a red blush runs down your cheeks, making you feel all hot and bothered by his statement.

"You are right. I don't want to know." Considering that Jerome usually hates it when you insult him, he reacted rather chilled about it this time.
"Yeah. I mean, why only know about it, if I could show you instead." Now that's something you should have seen coming, but you didn't, which is why your reaction was rather out of place compared to your normal clear rejection towards him.
"Okay."
Jerome opens his eyes confused and glances at you, his eyebrows are raised into a frown.
"Okay? As in 'okay, show me' or~"
"Yes. No. I mean no." You stutter embarrassed and hide your face behind your hands. This whole conversation escalated too quickly for your taste; it confuses you. His laughter makes it even worse.
"Damn. I did not see that one coming." His fits of laughter turn into giggles and he holds his belly in an amused way.
"Coming, hehe-" Now he's making the situation even more ridiculous, which is why you are about to stand up annoyed, but he pulls you back to him on your hair. He seems to like this gesture well.
"Hey. I did not say you could leave." You feel your body colliding back into his, the grip on your hair stays rough, quite to his liking as you notice. Jerome's breath hitches in his throat, as he stares at you darkly, his lips are parted and his body is tense. You yourself grip tightly on his arm, hoping to gain some sort of balance and comfort in this unfortunate position you are in. The tension between the two is sharp, almost as sharp as the blade of a knife.
"Do you even know how hard this is for me?" He winces and for the first time you see emotions in his eyes, real ones that is.
"Wanting you so badly and at the same time having the desire to just hurt you? Kill you?" He really is fighting with his inner demons and the way he confesses them to you makes you feel sad for him.