Previously: Hardin wanted Tessa to spend the night.
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Samantha: Okay well here I go. To recap Tessa and Hardin alone in a room at night again. With sex implications in the terribly written text. Alright. Here we go. Oh, wait, man, have I asked how you all are recently? Anything new?
Marines: Just rip the bandaid off, girl. This garbage fire has 90-something chapters.
Samantha: …….fine. According to my Kindle app we’re only 26% done.
It’s super dark inside the room except for a bit of romantic (ha) moonlight. Tessa hears Hardin trip over something and tries not to laugh. Why do books think that if a character is clumsy it will endear me to them? What shitty writers conference did Anna and Steph both attend?
Hardin turns on a lamp and Tessa looks around the room that Hardin identifies as his. She’s shocked that he has a room here but like, that’s not *that* weird. (M: He wasn’t born at college, girlfriend.) He says that he has never slept in it before, and Tessa swoons that she’s “part of a first” for him. See everyone? He’s tender and fragile underneath all the physical intimidation and cruel manipulation!
Mari: This fits right in with the girl is a vagina virgin and the boy is a heart virgin thing we’ve been talking about. James did it with Ana and Christian too. The girl has never slept with (as in had sex) with a boy and the boy has never slept with (as in zzzzzzzz) with a girl and so we are supposed to feel that they’ve both got skin in the game? IDK. Don’t ask me what the value in the tradeoff for hymen vs. pillow is because I DON’T KNOW.
Samantha: Tessa then thinks that she is “taking advantage of his drunken honesty.” Free writing tip: having a character admit they are taking advantage of someone in any way does not make them likable. Hardin just says that he hates it here, which is not much of a revelation, and then he starts undressing for sleep. Tessa thinks that she isn’t going to have sex with him, and I pray to every god (M: the old gods and the new…) that she sticks to that. He also runs his hand through his hair so. Shots if you need ’em.
Hardin tosses Tessa his probably so gross t-shirt (M: he went on a rampage and drank an airplane bottle of scotch in that shirt.) and says she can sleep in it or her *eyebrow waggle* underwear. Tessa decides she’s going to sleep in her long skirt and blouse and hopes Hardin doesn’t say anything mean about her outfit. That’s a fun fear to have about your love interest.
Hardin starts tossing the decorative pillows on the floor and Tessa scoops them up and puts them in an empty chest. These wacky kids! He asks if she’s going to “whine” about sharing the bed, and does Anna Todd know that the connotations behind most of her adjective choices are not nice? That they just make me hate these people more?
Mari: I mean, honestly, no. And unfortunately for the world at large, she didn’t need to know because people still love this. The world is awful shots if you need them!
Samantha: Tessa wants to sleep in the bed with him and tells Hardin so and he says, “Now that’s the Tessa I love” and she gets all flittery inside over his word choice. Yuck.
She lays on the bed as far away from Hardin as she can get, which seems like a pretty strong indicator that he should keep his distance, but I guess I don’t know anything. He scoots closer and they are playful with each other, I guess. I WANT TO SCREAM BECAUSE HE SAYS
“I don’t know why no one has fucked you yet; all that planning you do must help you put up a really good resistance.”
We had a brief discussion in the comments awhile back over whether or not him saying this could be considered sexy. For me, the way it’s phrased purposefully erases her autonomy. It makes her an object to be fucked and I hate it. And the second half of this statement reads hella rapey to me.
Mari: Same, same, same. And had it been one time that he said, “why has no one [person with will] fucked you [the object],” we could’ve called it a fluke, one more thing that Ana Todd doesn’t understand. The fact that Hardin has repeated this sentiment, what, three times now? It betrays something about the author and the character she created. He can’t believe that no one has torn down, rejected, manipulated or ignored her resistance, essentially. AND THAT IS GROSS.
Samantha: Tessa says that no one ever tried to have sex with her because they respected that she was in a committed relationship. Hardin can’t fathom this show of self restraint because of her lips and stuff so, IDK, Hardin must walk around sexing everyone whether they like it or not the second his wing wang gets so extra blood flow.
Mari: He’s like an evil villain. He probably busts into places like the Kool-Aid Man yelling, “WHY HAS NO ONE FUCKED YOU YET? OH YEAH.”
Samantha: He bites her finger, and she asks him to turn on the fan. This turns the talk to her clothes, and he tells her that she needs to dress for her body, and I just love when men tell women how to dress to be more appealing to them.
However, these “compliments” give Tessa confidence because if a boy thinks your body is bangable I guess you can conquer the world or whatever. She gets out of bed, which panics Hardin, in order to change. What happens next is pretty gross and I read it and had to take a break because I got nauseous.
She tells him to turn around so that she can change, and Hardin refuses because he wants to watch her. She thinks this is ADORABLE, for real, and just turns off the light so she can have some privacy. Then, when her skirt is off, HARDIN TURNS ON ANOTHER LIGHT so that he can watch her. Tessa decides that he isn’t going to listen or stop abusing her privacy so she just lets him. Besides, secretly deep down she wants it.
Mari: I’ve been casually yelling nonstop since the fashion advice to him finding another light source for the specific purpose of ignoring Tessa’s wishes.
Samantha: She puts on his t-shirt. He tells her to come here, and she literally decides to “ignore my subconscious telling me to run away as fast as I can” and just. DO NOT IGNORE THAT RED FLAG IN YOUR OWN BRAIN.
Mari: Equally importantly: NO SUBCONSCIOUS. WE ARE DONE WITH THOSE ON THIS BLOG FOREVER AND EVER.
Samantha: Chapter over! No sex! I don’t actually feel like a winner, though.
Mari: Dammit, this is the worst game ever because it’s my turn next and they are still in bed together.
Next time on After: Tessa blushes a lot, probably, and they are still in bed together in Chapter 33.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
