After Chapter 62 – Alarmed

Previously: Truth or dare gone bad.
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Samantha: Tessa wakes in the morning to find Hardin sitting in a chair watching her sleep. I’m torn because he’s the creepy worst, but she’s also in his bed. (M: We keep arriving at them both being the worst…) He tells her that they need to talk and I groan IRL. She thinks about how she wants him to go away but actually not but actually he should. She tells him that she needs to get to class and he tells her that he turned her alarm off because she needed sleep and it’s actually 11.

He. Turned. Her. Alarm. Off.

He.

Turned.

Her.

Alarm.

Off.

Marines: There was a whole Christian Grey v. Hardin conversation in the comments recently and this is a good time to talk about that. I think there was a lot about Grey that was more overtly menacing and serial-killer-y. Hardin does all of these small, pervasive things that creep up on you with their awfulness. WHO DOES THIS?

Samantha: This dude is unreal.

Tessa is mad but in that emotionally exhausted way. She thinks about how she doesn’t want to show weakness in front of him and asks him to go. He points out that she’s in his room and wants to know why. His voice is “bleak”.

She stumbles through a non answer and he asks her if her own shirt didn’t fit. She assumes he’s making fun of her, because he usually is. He clarifies that he wasn’t teasing her (M: yes you are, you fungus. Why wouldn’t HER OWN SHIRT fit her? You are teasing.) and steps towards her. She raises her hands to keep the probable murderer away from her. She tells him that she can’t have this same fight over and over anymore. (M: And yet, here we are.) He whines that he said he was sorry for kissing Molly. She tells him it’s about so much more than that and they can’t be what the other wants. He dramatic whispers that she is what he wants. Obviously he proved that by hooking up with another girl and laughing when she thought they were dating.

Tessa can’t believe him and omg I’m so bored at this back and forth. She tells him he’s not who she wants him to be and all he does is hurt her. She goes back to the guest room and gets her things together. Hardin is all “But I said I loved you yesterday so doesn’t that negate all the horrible stuff I did?” basically. She tells him she has nothing to say about his declaration so he turns hostile and blocks her exit. LIKE YOU DO WITH PEOPLE YOU WANT TO POSSESS.

He grabs her and she tries to move away but he holds her in place and force kisses her and also tries to force his tongue into her mouth omfg this is so awful.

Mari: Unfortunately, we already have a tag for this.

Samantha: He demands that she kiss him back and she refuses and pushes against his chest. He does the whole “tell me you don’t feel the same and I’ll go” thing but then when she tells him that, he refuses to believe it. Cool. She tells him that she didn’t buy his “I love you” routine and so he completely changes tactics to save his ego and tells her that she’s right, he didn’t mean it. She buys this and goes downstairs. Karen greets her and offers her breakfast, but Tessa just wants to go home. Karen goes into the kitchen, her apparent natural habitat, and Hardin grabs Tessa’s wrist which she “struggles” against. He can’t believe she’s just going to walk back to the dorms and she calls him insane for not viewing their situation with anything like human emotions. She also can’t believe he’d offer her a ride after saying awful things.

Hardin tells her that he didn’t say anything awful and also he didn’t offer her a ride, just said he couldn’t believe she was going to walk. His expression is “smug.” Because it’s fun to win at… being the worst?

This manipulative emotionless bullshit is so AWFUL. She asks him why he hates her and why he spends so much time hurting her. He says that he doesn’t hate her, she’s just an easy target. I know that Todd wants us to understand that he’s just “saving face” cause he’s hurt that Tessa said she doesn’t love him but my god. What terrible programming went into this probably-a-robot-I-guess.

Mari: Is that what we’re supposed to believe? That he’s “lashing out?” Because honestly this seems like Hardin’s behavior on any day that ends in day.

Samantha: Tessa heads back to the dorms and thinks about how she loves Hardin.

 

Next time on After: Plot appropriate lessons in Chapter 63