Previously: IDK, Hardin’s parents were presumptuous and weird.
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Samantha: I am considering getting out the good old brain bleach for this, another sexytimes chapter in like 3 chapters.
Marines: No one would blame you.
Samantha: We begin with an entire paragraph of Tessa putting on Hardin’s clothes to sleep in. The black t-shirt smells like him. She gets into bed and starts to fall asleep when she hears Hardin’s voice yelling “No!!!” and “Please!!!!” Maybe Hardin is being stabbed AND THEN HE DIES????
Tessa bolts out of bed and to Hardin’s room, where his door is unlocked. He flicks on the light and sees him thrashing around to a bad dream in bed. She touches his shoulder and it’s “too hot.” Does he have a fever? Is he actually a werewolf?
Mari: 3 distinctly Christian Grey things happened in very quick succession: 1- a smell that is of the boy but never described; 2- bad! dreams! and; 3- hot hotness of literal heat.
Plagiarism like woah.
Samantha: She shakes him a bit to wake him up and he’s relieved to see her. “The way he says my name breaks my heart, then heals it.”
Samantha: He holds her against him and notices his shirt is wet, from tears or sweat idk, and knows that he wants her say with him so she turns off the light. They fall asleep.
Tessa wakes up in the morning and is immediately worried that she’s unwanted in the light of day. Cool cool cool, totally fine and healthy first morning thought. She lies next to him and he massages the crick in her neck and thanks her. Tessa, hilariously, thinks “maybe he is telling me to thank him for the neck rub?” Girl, wtf no.
He doesn’t want to talk about the nightmares, but he does want to talk about how pretty she is in his shirt. He starts nibbling on her ear and I consider changing my name so Mari can never find me and make me finish this post. (M: I’m torn about whether or not I would try…) “This type of mood swing is one that I can enjoy,” thinks Tessa. (M: Okay, after that line, I’m inclined to leave you alone.) He starts feeling her up and “hisses” when he gets to her nipple. Look, if you don’t want me to think your main character is a spawn of Satan/snake monster, don’t have him do weird shit like this.
Tessa gasp tells him that she wants to do something for him this time and asks what he wants. He moves her hands down to his crotch and says he wants her “plump lips wrapped around him”.
When he returns he’s added “emotionless robot” to list of beings that he is and tells Tessa that breakfast is almost ready without looking at her. Tessa is upset because guarded Hardin is the worst Hardin and I have a smidgen of feels for her because my ex would do this same thing to me. She goes and puts a bra on, also a thing I get because I hate being around people I don’t know well without a bra. Being on the same level as Tessa is making me uncomfortable.
She meets up with Hardin again in the hallway and refuses to look at him. He grabs her elbow and demands to know what’s wrong. ??????? You’re acting like a robot jerk, you robot jerk! Tessa asks him who called and after some prodding, finds out it was Molly. She’s hurt that he left the room to take a call from Molly when she was gonna go down on him. He tries to explain but she pulls away and then Landon pops into the scene.
This is annoying because if Hardin had just explained what plot happened when he got back into the room, this would all be avoided. Explain why it was necessary or don’t answer the call, Hard-o. Tessa walks down to breakfast with Landon, leaving Hardin by himself. Karen has made a fabulous breakfast and it makes me hungry. I’d be willing to live with weird Karen for a delicious breakfast every morning, probably.
Tessa helps clean up breakfast while Landon disappears to be a boy somewhere, I guess. Hardin hovers in the doorway and stares at Tessa LIKE SUCH A WEIRDO but doesn’t help. (M: That’s for women, duh!) Karen and Tessa talk about the greenhouse and Tessa wishes Karen was her mom. Hardin disappears and reappears with Tessa’s stuff. He doesn’t even let her change before he’s herding her out the door, LIKE A WEIRDO. They leave and hey, I didn’t need that brain bleach after all! Hot potato to Marines, in which the potato is sexy scenes!
Mari: I’ll hold out hope because it’s been 50 chapters of very awkward, one-sided sexual interactions. When she wants it, she doesn’t get it. She only gets to be acted upon and not act. They are constantly interrupted by his own mood swings and emotional insensitivity. Basically what I’m saying is I have faith in Todd to drag this shit show out even further.
Next time on After: This shit gets dragged out even further in Chapter 51.
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.
