Control Freak ✔️

45 the pretend game

"What about her?" she muttered, alluding to Ivy.

He only shook his head, offering nothing else. That compelled Jasmine to venture over to him. She sat down beside him.

"Caleb, I wanna help you, but, what am I supposed to do?" she whimpered.

"Nothing. I don't want you involved in this. I just needed a place to hide out for the night. If anyone asks, tell them I threatened you."

"Then what will you do?"

Caleb didn't answer. He was staring past her, as if peering into his uncertain future, but with a gaze that pierced straight through her hopeful eyes. It gave her the courage to leap. She took his cheek in her soft hands and pressed her lips against his. With all her passion, she tried to inspire his lips to move, but they would not. She opened her eyes, only to find that his same cold stare hadn't warmed at all.

She retreated, no more than an inch from his lips as she managed a nervous giggle, "did you forget how to kiss?"

"No," he flatly declared. "I just don't feel anything for you, sorry." The icy chill of his words pierced her heart like a steel blade, leaving her skin with goosebumps.

"What? Is it because of her?" she exclaimed. "Caleb, wake up! Look at what she's done to you!" Jasmine had taken both sides of his face in her palms now as she pleaded. "She's been manipulating you from the start! Why can't you see that! I would never—"

He pushed her hands away as he stood up and went for the door. "That's not true," he said. She sprang up from the bed to chase after him.

"Ivy has less to do with this person I became than people give her credit for. At first, I thought I was being manipulated into doing Ivy's bidding, but, as time went on, I decided— I really kind of enjoyed it all. It was fun," he said with a smile. "We had fun. Most people wouldn't understand that. In the end, I guess that makes me the real psychopath, huh?"

"Caleb, if you walk out that door, I'm calling the police!" she whined, desperately holding the phone out in front of her. He turned and stood there, watching her shaking hands attempting to cling to the small device.

"Do that and I'll kill you," he murmured. The way he said it sent her heart in a frenzy. Her body was on fire for him. She'd never been so confused by her desires: to be attracted to a killer; to want him so, so badly.

"Don't come near me," she pathetically warned as he stepped slowly towards her.

"I'll do it! I'll—" He slapped the phone clear out of her hand. She felt herself crumbling before him like wet sand. He seized her wrists as she raised her hands in a feeble attempt to keep him away. He flung her down on the bed and followed her there, hovering over her, gazing in her eyes intensely with his face just inches from hers. She let her defenses down, her chest heaved as she let herself breathe him in. He could do whatever he wanted with her. He could have her.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to come up. Caleb watched from the balcony as the tiny orange sliver softly burned in the horizon, slowly warming the crisp morning air. The rain had stopped. In the silence, he thought of her.

Caleb, she whined.

He remembered everything about the night they made love; the way she said his name:

Caleb.

With his lips on hers, he just wanted to stay there forever, to feel every part and savor every taste of her. Nothing felt more blissful. It made his heart smile to feel the warmth of her face against his, as she'd bashfully avert her gaze from him, compelling him to chase after her. When their eyes finally met, hers were soft and sweet, honest and vulnerable.

And when she cried it sounded like music. To know such a sound, he couldn't bear to hear the silence now.

Ivy, he whined her name.

I love you, Caleb, she had told him.

But it was all a lie.