Previously: Tessa spent 10 seconds in a bathroom.
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Marines: Tessa stares into amazing green eyes and she suddenly realizes that she never noticed that Hardin has green eyes before. That hardly seems like a sudden revelation since you are standing there, looking into his eyes, but okay baby girl.
Samantha: Last chapter they were glaring green eyes, now they’re amazing.
Mari: Ain’t that just symbolic of this entire story? I already know it is.
The revelations keep coming, and Tessa next realizes that she’s never noticed Hardin’s eyes because this is the first time he’s making eye contact with her. I found this super hard to believe, so I actually did a quick search through the previous chapters and in all the times Hardin has talked to Tessa, he’s never described as looking at her.
You guys. That is creepy as hell.
Samantha: Even stalker boyfriend makes eye contact.
Mari: ::shivers::
Anyway. Tessa says that the green eyes are surprised, but they look away quickly as Tessa pushes past him. I mean, is he really looking away or did you just physically move his body? Also, if you are pushing past him, and he is now behind you, how do you know what his eyes are doing? Answer: you don’t.
Hardin grabs Tessa’s arm and pulls her back. She yells at him to stop touching her and in a curious voice, he asks if she’s been crying. I’m trying to really imagine a curious voice right now and the first thing that comes to mind is probably a bright one? Like, “no way! You went to Europe this summer? Tell me more!” or like “tell me more about your family!” Even if the conversation is dark, I would still say sensing curiosity in the voice is more of a positive description? If the “curiosity” is more about wellbeing, that’s called concern. But there is no concern in Hardin’s voice. He’s asking Tessa if she’s crying like you ask someone if that’s the new iPhone 7.
Tessa seems to think that maybe he might be concerned, but it’s Hardin, and she already knows enough to know that he probably isn’t. Lovely foundation for a romance.
Hardin stands in front of Tessa to block her from getting the hell away from his scientific inquiry into her tears and Tessa begs him to leave her alone. (S: I hate when men, IRL or in fiction, use their physicality to block a woman’s movements. All of his actions point to Hardin being a creep.) She says that he can save whatever mean comment he has for tomorrow, because 11 baby chapters in, we have established the inevitability of his mean comments. Hardin is confused by her pleas and I don’t know why. He just tells her– flatly!– that there is a room down the hall where she can sleep. That’s where Steph is. Tessa says okay, Hardin gives her directions to the room and then he heads to his own.
“What the hell was that? Hardin without any rude comments?”
Honey, why are you so surprised? I hope to cats that you aren’t giving him any kind of credit right now because you literally just BEGGED him not to say any mean comments. You had to trade him some peace today for mean comments tomorrow. That’s what the hell that was.
Tessa heads to the spare room and this one is smaller and looks more like a dorm room. She wonders why Hardin gets a super special big room. Maybe he’s a frat leader or maybe everyone is scared of him. Is he a freshman too because that would make this all the more ridiculous. Whatever. I don’t even know why it matters that Hardin has a big ass room. If someone made it all the way here and the first thing they questioned was his big ass room, that would be ridiculous. (S: It’s just as nonsensical a question as why he reads literature when he’s always angry.)
Tessa covers Steph with a blanket and the climbs into the other bed.
“My thoughts are all over the place as I fall sleep, and images of clouded roses and angry green eyes flow through my dreams.”
- What are clouded roses? Anyone? Is there a gardner or a botanist in the house? What the hell are clouded roses?
- This is such a bite off of EL James Style. Seriously, is there no other way to telegraph the budding love between dick and damsel than dreams of very confused things?
- I made this for you:
The stuff of dreams.
Samantha: It’s creepy and beautiful. Like Hardin’s soul, probs.
Also, I googled “cloudy roses” and Google was like “….you meant colored roses, right?” So. It has even stumped Google.
Next time on After: The party is finally over, you guys. We made it in Chapter 12.
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.
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.