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You don’t know how things ended up this way—pressing Haley harshly against a maple tree, one hand forcefully tilting her chin upward and the other gripping her hip. You just know that you’re angry, angry with her—angry with this whole godforsaken valley; so utterly enraged that you can’t even think about the repercussions of what you’d done. It bleeds out of you the moment you meet her eyes, wide and blue and clouded with something you don’t quite recognize.
It feels like wisps of anger seep from your mouth, your breath stuttering.
You did not mean to do this.
So you push yourself away from her, glaring darkly at your boots as your shoulders tremble. She pressed you, and she pressed you, and she just pressed you—as though there would be no repercussions for what she did, as though she didn’t think you would do anything about it..
“Leave.” You say shortly, far calmer than you thought you could actually manage. You’re tired of whatever game the girl in front of you wishes to play, exhausted that she had somehow found a way to wind you up more than you already were.
She doesn’t quite say anything in response at first, and right before you open your mouth to ask her if you had slammed her against the tree a little too hard, she takes a deep breath. Her glossy lips part as she sighs and the look in her eyes is another strange emotion that you can’t quite decipher. “You’re no fun.”
Maybe you did slam into her a little too hard.
“Excuse me?”
Haley huffs, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that is far too dramatic for you to do anything other than roll your eyes. “I was only teasing.”
“Well." You look away. “You went too far.”
“Are parents off limits then?” She asks quietly, a look of rare gentleness on her face. As quick as you see it, it’s gone again—like it never even existed. “I didn’t know... Should’ve though.”
Your heart sinks to your stomach. “I—what?”
“You don’t talk about them, not to anyone; and you got this farm from your grandad, right? Makes me wonder why they didn’t get it instead of you.” Haley muses, picking out a stray twig from her hair. She looks perfectly content to stand there and talk to you, a look of carefully crafted boredom on her face—she probably doesn’t want you to think you’re too special.
What a bitch.
“Dad didn’t like the woods much.” You say after a moment, averting your gaze.
“Is that the only thing he didn’t like?”
A flash of white-hot anger overtakes you as you glower at her, “You just said—”
“Right, right.” Haley brushes you off flippantly, and the motion is enough to make you want to bury your head in the pond and scream. “Again, I should’ve known—especially considering, well. My own family situation.”
“You’re.” You struggle to find the words, and you clench your fists to keep your hands from shaking. “Strange.”
It hangs there for a while, the two of you not saying or doing much of anything as the atmosphere cools down. What does she even want from you? It seemed like she could hardly stand you—constantly trying to take you down a peg, a bully in high school that never grew out of that stupid phase. Couldn’t she have just gone to nursing school like the rest of them?
But even as you think it, you know that’s not all there is to her. She liked to play a part, that popular small-town girl who loved to have her own little posse worshiping her. She was in for a wake-up call if she ever moved anywhere else, but you had a feeling she already knew that.
“I thought we were playing, you know,” Haley says finally, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “Bickering, I didn’t know—”
You scoff, “Would that have changed anything?”
“Not really,” she admits with no shame. “Though, I probably wouldn’t have approached you as much.”
You sigh. “We were playing, I didn’t mind—the bickering, I mean. Today has been a bad day.”
“I noticed.” She snorts, looking away from you and examining the skin underneath her nails.
You grimace, wrapping your arms around yourself in a meager attempt to bring some comfort to the situation. “I slammed you into a tree.”
“Yeah well...” She pauses, and though her face flushes lightly she still somehow manages to sound bored. “I didn’t exactly mind.”
“What?” You blink owlishly back at her, trying to make sense of what exactly she just said.
Haley scoffs at you, looking severely unimpressed. “I thought you were gonna kiss me—one of those passionate, ‘shut the fuck up’ ones.”
“Oh.” You say, and then, “What?”
“You’re honestly clueless.” She sighs. “Only God knows why I thought you were hot enough to talk to.”
That throws you for another loop. If this is how she treats the people she’s flirting with, how exactly does she treat the people she sincerely cares for? You’re not sure you want to find out. “You’ve been flirting this entire time?”
“Uh, yeah.” Haley rolls her eyes, leveling you with a look that tells you she thinks you're stupid.
“I feel like I have to apologize.” You say, after getting over the sheer embarrassment over the fact that this girl had been flirting with you the entire time.
“For not kissing me or slamming me into a tree?” If not for the gleam in her eyes, you’d think that Haley wasn’t that interested in your answer.
“...both.” You murmur, as earnest as you can make it sound. You don’t like it—the way that you lost control over yourself, the way that something so passionate has managed to cloud your judgment. You like tenderness, calm—you’d moved to the valley to escape the roughness that pervaded you, not embrace it.
“Oh.” She considers you, debating herself for a moment, before sighing and relenting. “Well if it makes you feel better, you didn’t really push me into the tree all on your own.”
“Um, what?”
“I backed up, you know, for a kiss.”
“I won’t do it again.” You turn away from her, something bubbling up inside of you. It’s warm and uncomfortable and itchy and far too emotional for you to be able to really bear. “Without permission I mean. I don’t like—I don’t like getting angry.”
What an understatement.
Something in Haley’s expression seemed to flicker. “Is it a rare thing for you?”
“Yeah.” You said through a grimace, jaw clenching and eyes shutting tightly.
“You look like you’re about to cry," she points out, sounding alarmed.
“Yeah,” you repeat quietly, your voice cracking. “Yeah.”
“Shit—hey, hey, wait.” Haley protests hastily, as though she can stop whatever is happening to you with a simple wait.
“Stop it, Haley.” You rub at your forehead. “I don’t... I can’t play today.”
It’s all you really have the power to voice, today had been... unlucky; and on top of that, you had this girl telling you she pulled on your pigtails because she had a crush on you. What was this? Elementary school?
Haley crosses her arms over her chest. “You make me sound like a child, putting it like that.”
“Aren’t you one?” You can’t help but snap back. “God, you are so immature, it’s a wonder that I feel—”
“That you feel?” She begins leadingly.
You sigh, “Forget it, Haley. Please.”
Something stubborn flits across her face, and you already know what she’s about to say before she even opens her mouth. “I won’t.”
“Why not?” You can’t help but bite out, exasperated.
“Don’t whine, babe.” Haley grins at you, nothing like any smile you’ve ever seen on her face before—lopsided and genuine, as though for a moment she’d forgotten to be so concentrated on her own expression. “It’s unbecoming.”
“You drive me insane.” You moan out with a groan, rubbing at your face tiredly. “I go so crazy—it’s like I’m small again; like I’ve got no grasp on the concept of self-control.”
Haley’s lips quirk as she slowly walks forward, confidence dripping from every step. “I like you better without it.”
That makes you frown. “I don’t think you like me much at all.”
“Fair.” She shrugs, obviously caring very little what you think. “I dislike you less without it.”
“What do you want from me?” You hiss, just barely managing not to tell her to leave you the hell alone. She was on your property, dammit, she should at least be mindful of pushing your buttons. “Be honest—no games, we both know I’m not in the right mind to play right now.”
Your words make her pause, and for a moment a thoughtful expression surfaces on her face.
“You’re—” She struggles with expressing her thoughts, “—brave.”
You can’t quite help the disbelief on your face. “Brave?”
“Mouthy,” Haley adds. “But... docile. Stoic. I haven’t been able to get under your skin at all... well except for just now.”
What kind of confusing bullshit—
You shook your head as though trying to rid yourself of your thoughts. No. No, you’d had enough of whatever this was, any other day you might have pressed her, any other day you might have had the energy to fight back—but not today. Today, you were tired.
“Then you got what you wanted,” you say flatly. “You can leave.”
“Not yet.” Haley sighs, exasperated. “C’mon, sugar.”
“What?”
“You’re so cute," she coos. “You’d be even cuter on your knees.”
It’s the expression she makes that clues you in even more than the words that she had just said. Eyes smoldering and lips pouting, movie star beauty full on display in such a profound picture of desire that for a moment it leaves your throat dry.
“You have to be kidding.” You finally manage out, your voice a rasp. “You’ve gotta be.”
“We both know I’m not.” Haley says, taking another step toward you, lifting her palm to press against your shoulder. Her fingers splay across your shirt, warmth radiating against the soft material. "What, do people not proposition you often? Is it sad I'm not surprised?"
"You literally want me to fuck you."
"I am painfully aware of this fact." She rolls her eyes, toying with the collar of your shirt.
“After this... after this, you leave me alone?” You can’t even believe you’re considering it, but you can’t help your curiosity. You’d finger her and then kick her out, she’d have her little farm sex fantasy and you’d have one less problem going into town. You could refuse her but... well, a part of you liked the idea of making her suffer a little through whatever desire she had for you.
“Haven’t decided yet.”
You glower. “What’s this then? A trial run? Gonna see how fast you can drive the car before you bust the engine?”
“For both of our sakes, I hope it isn’t fast.” Haley coos, licking her lips and leaning in closer to before. Her breath tickles your neck, and you're sure that her mouth grazes the skin there on purpose. “You know, some people would be begging me for this.”
You roll your eyes. “Having nice tits doesn’t make you a nice person.”
“You’ve been looking, then?” Haley preened. “I mean, I already knew but it’s nice to have the confirmation.”
Yeah, okay—this bitch was going down. “When this is over, I hope you ache.”
“What’s that—”
You grasp her again, shoving her harshly against a tree. “Tell me if you don’t like it.”
“You bitch!” She snarled, “You’re going to ruin my dress—”
“I’m sure that’s what you wanted.” You hum as you press closer to her, roughly grabbing her face and pulling it up toward yours. You lean in so that your breath brushes up against her ear, and the warmth that radiates from her body feels almost comforting. “You’ve basically come here to beg me, haven’t you?”
“I don’t beg.” But her face is flushing rapidly, like you’d caught her red-handed. “I already told you, it’s the other way around.”
“Oh, babe.” You croon into her hair, resisting the urge to bury your nose into the blonde tresses. She smells of coconuts. “I sincerely doubt that.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She grumbles out unenthusiastically. Even though she says that, she leans closer, a soft sigh escaping her mouth as she pressed herself against you. How long has she wanted this? This didn’t seem like some random whim she’d suddenly had one day. “Careful with my hair—it’s curly, and if I come out of this shit with it a mess I’m never sleeping with you ever again, plus hair-pulling is not one of my turn ons.”
“Shame.” You murmur, brushing your nose against it once before backing away like she asked. “‘s soft.”
“Just—be careful, alright?” Haley says through a grimace. “I don’t... Alex liked to run his fingers through it, the dick.”
You aren’t surprised, but something cold licks down your spine. You know they aren’t in a relationship, so she isn’t cheating on him, but the reminder of the fact that they probably were in a similar position before doesn’t sit well with you.
Oh. You think. You haven’t felt jealous in a while.
(Which, judging from the self-satisfied expression on Haley’s face, was exactly the reaction she wanted you to have.)
It’s a little odd, to feel it in regards to her—who you were sure you hadn’t felt very strongly about only a few minutes ago—but it rages in your chest regardless. You knew that Haley considered you a one-and-done type of deal, and you were alright with that, but even so, you would ensure that it was an experience that she’d find hard to forget.
You lean down, pressing soft kisses to her jaw and neck, trailing slowly down to her collarbone. You almost smirk at the surprised noises she makes in response, and grasp her hip a little harder—not tight enough to bruise, but rough enough to certainly feel. There’s desperation to your movements, and despite how hard you try and hide them Haley surely notices. You distract her with a soft bite to her collarbone before she can ask questions—before she can destroy the gentle peace you have found in destroying her.
She’s horribly charming, you think morosely—the hand on her chin lifting her to face you, finally bringing your lips together. So horribly charming.
She makes a sound of surprise at the kiss, as though she’d expected you to press your mouth everywhere but her own. Haley reciprocates enthusiastically, animalistically, one of her hands clutching tightly at the back of your neck and the other tugging harshly at the front of your shirt. It tugs it out from your pants, slipping underneath and pressing up against the soft planes of your belly.
She’s not shy, and it sends a thrill through you that you can’t help but want to sate.
It almost hurts, the rumbling in your chest and stomach that shakes your body with each touch she bestows upon you—like a gift... if gifts were too warm touches against your bare stomach and neck.
You wonder if you should worship her. You wonder if perhaps you should draw yourself down to your knees and kiss and kiss and kiss—
There’s time for that soon, you reassure yourself. Foreplay first.
Haley whines into your mouth when you move your hand down from her chin to her shoulder, palming at the skin just above the swell of her chest. You thank whichever higher power for the fact that it is summer and that Haley rather enjoys wearing tank tops. It makes it easy to press your fingers against her skin, to have her against you in a way not muted by clothing.
Which reminds you—you’re both still fully clothed.
You pull away, breathing harshly against her mouth. “Can I—”
Haley is one step ahead of you, unbuttoning your shirt for better access to where she had already been touching. It makes you laugh, and the sound is far too genuine for the woman in front of you—if the way she freezes is anything to go by.
“Someone’s eager.” You quip, the tone of your voice coming out as low and smooth as you can make it—you don’t have the energy to think if it came out hot or not. “How badly did you want this again?”
That knocks Haley out of her stupor, her face flushing harder than before. “Shut up.” She growls out, reaching out and bringing your lips back together. She’s a good kisser, good enough for you to almost forget what you were doing—who you were doing it with.
You swallow back a sound. Her lips are so soft, brushed gently with pink lipstick and strawberry lip gloss. You don’t know if you’ll come out of this like you planned, if you can make it out of her embrace with the way you felt before. She has very real power, if her kiss can turn your complicated mess of feelings into this.
“Fuck.” You swear quietly, pulling back and reaching for the hem of her tank top to pull over her head.
She grins, expression not faltering for a second even though the rough movement had ruined her perfect curls just a little bit. “That’s my girl.” She husks, pushing your shirt off over your shoulders, her warm hands pressing into the bare skin.
You don’t give yourself the chance to feel self-conscious, deciding to kiss down her chest and to her stomach. Your hands go to dips at her hips, squeezing harshly.
Haley outright moans, her hand gripping the back of your neck to steady herself. “You—”
“This good, sweetheart?” You say against her belly button, licking at the area just below it. “I want to eat you out.” You state it with such plain desire that Haley lets out another moan. It makes you laugh again, and suddenly you know exactly what she wants from you. “Oh, you like it when I say the things I want to do to you, huh? That’s kind of hot.”
“Shut up!” It escapes her mouth just after a whimper, so it doesn’t affect you or your confidence much.
“No, see I don’t think I will.” You grin, “Do you want me to eat you out or not? I can always just get back up and—”
Her hand tightens around the back of your neck, and you have to choke back a groan. “No, I—” Haley shivers. “Wait, I uh—want it.”
You pretend you don’t hear her, humming as you litter kisses at the skin above her waistband. You wonder if you should touch her with or without her skirt on—burying your head underneath the material or stripping Haley down until she was completely naked.
“Hey, c’mon...” She whines. “I said that I wanted it.”
“Hardly.” You scoff, looking up at her. “How do you want it, be specific—or else I’ll stop touching you, and we both know how badly you don’t want that.”
She grimaces, looking the most embarrassed you’d ever seen her. “Eat me out.” Haley whispers. “Please.” It’s added after a moment, like an afterthought.
“You’re lucky I’m in a forgiving mood.” You grin cockily. “If this was a regular thing I wouldn’t be so merciful, so let’s get this over with—”
“I wouldn’t mind.” She blurts out. “If you did this again, once or twice.”
“Are you that desperate?” You scoff, deciding to ignore the tinge of vulnerability in her tone. She’s hurt you, why should you be careful not to hurt her? “Wow, you really are enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“What gave it away?” Haley asks sarcastically, gaining back some of her confidence. There’s something in her eyes, fiery and dark—like she’s fighting the urge to grasp the back of your head and shove it against herself.
It’s kind of hot, but you don’t let her get the chance.
You button open the skirt, carefully sliding it and her underwear down her legs—your mouth following the top of the waistband with small kisses and bites. You smile against the inside of her knee when Haley fails to stifle a whiny little gasp, your stomach burning and your heart beating just a little bit quicker at the sound.
You kiss back up her legs, pausing for a moment. You’ve never done it up against a tree but you can’t imagine it’s very comfortable, you open your mouth to say something—only for her hands to push down on your head toward her body.
“I’m not letting you tease me,” she hisses. “At least now maybe your mouth will be good for something—oh!”
Fighting the urge to roll your eyes, languidly lick up her—pressing into her and trying not to laugh as she squirms and begs you to get on with it. You hum, pressing a tiny kiss on her pubic bone, and continue to go slow. You like to work your way up when it comes to things like this, every delicate push and pull of your tongue seems to be driving Haley insane—her fingers digging into your scalp.
“God—just.” She trips over her words, and when you chance a glance up you see that her body is bent toward you, her face visible and her chest heaving. Her eyes are screwed shut, which you privately find to be a shame—you would have liked to see them—and her face is flushed up to the tips of her ears. Haley chews on her bottom lip, making another whiny noise. “Please.”
You wonder briefly if she’s just making that noise to make it, but it starts to become startlingly apparent that Haley is just loud. It’s so embarrassing for her, and you can’t help but pull away to laugh.
“Someone’s enjoying herself,” you snicker. “You like that for everyone or am I just special.”
Haley’s face burns brighter somehow, her hands going from your hair to your shoulders—almost completely arched over you now. At this point, the only part of her body leaned up against the tree was her ass and part of her legs. “Shut up,” she manages to huff out. “I’m not—I’m not easy.”
“Sure,” you say, and it comes out more mocking than you intended it to. You bring your hand up to her center, brushing your thumb against her clit and smiling when she makes another unintelligible noise. “I mean, unless you want to say that it’s me that’s making you like this—but that can’t be it, right?”
“Shut up,” she moans. “You suck.”
“I’m certainly sucking on something,” you agree, and press your mouth up against her once more.
“You’re such a dick!” She says, or at least—that’s what you think she says. She’s kind of too busy groaning into her fist, teeth digging into the soft skin of her palm.
You don’t bother to hide the way you roll your eyes now, positioning one hand underneath her thigh and lifting it so that you get a better angle. There’s something inherently pleasing about the sound of her muffled groans, but there’s a mean streak burning inside of you that you just can’t stand to deny—and you reach up to pull her hand from her mouth and pin it beside her.
Her legs shake, her balance skewed, and you slow down a little. It would be supremely hilarious if she fell over while you were eating her out, but only in a ‘wow this feels so good!’ way rather than a ‘my sexual partner is so fucking stupid they dropped me’ way.
You pull back, humming thoughtfully. “This can’t be comfortable for you.” You’re finding that the ‘ooh I’m so cool I’m going to fuck you against a tree’ thing was fun but also Haley had to have some scrapes. Unless she was into that sort of thing.
You glance down at her, noting how wet she was.
She was definitely into that sort of thing.
It’s very hard not to start making fun of her again.
“It’s— fine.” She seems very angry all of a sudden. “Are you going to keep working me up and then just—just—”
“Hmm... maybe? I haven’t thought about it.” You smile up at her. “You like it though, right? I mean... like, I’m thankful I’m a pretty strong swimmer—”
She groans.
“—because I’m pretty sure I’d drown otherwise.” You finish, because you are an asshole.
Haley buries her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I want you to fuck me.”
You throw your head back and laugh, a joyous, far too genuine sound. Still, you can’t bring yourself to muffle it. Sex was supposed to be fun, right? Haley was just going to have to deal with it—if she didn’t like it she could just pick up her clothes, walk back home, and finger herself there.
Which... nice imagery, actually.
Haley’s frustrated face, cheeks and chest flushed red, her fingers digging into her skin as her other hand furiously works to bring herself to an orgasm... nice. But also, you have the real thing right here and you kind of don’t want to watch her leave without knowing what her face looks like when she finishes.
“I’m going to put your legs over my shoulders,” you decide suddenly. “You have to lean up against the tree though—you could fall down otherwise.”
She shoots you a look like you’re insane.
You raise a brow, smiling at her like she’s stupid. “As funny as it would be to see you topple over—” (Haley tugs on your hair a little) “—and believe me, hilarious—” (she tugs harder) “—I don’t think it would be super fun for you if you had a spill into the dirt—anyway, ready?”
Haley sighs. “Alright.”
You pout as you pout her legs over your shoulders, easily supporting her weight and pressing a hand against her stomach to ensure she keeps her back against the tree. She shudders at the touch, and you make a mental note to grope at her more while you eat her out.
“You know,” you begin before your start, “I feel like you should be more thankful that I’m taking time out of my day to do this for you.”
“As if you aren’t enjoying yourself,” she scoffs and tugs your face between her thighs.
You smile against her, and then get right back to work. She squirms against you, scraping her back against the tree and gasping, and you realize once more that it is supremely attractive to have her at your mercy like this—to have her grinding helplessly against your mouth, one hand desperately grabbing at the tree to find purchase and the other on the top of your head.
Your fingers dig into the flesh of her thighs, and they clench around your head as she cries out—body shuddering as you mercilessly continue to service her.
The warmth that burns in your stomach is almost unbearable, and though you feel the urge to shove a hand down your pants you only just manage to keep yourself disciplined. You could get yourself off when Haley was finished—still, you find yourself gripping onto her tighter to prevent yourself from giving into the urge, something that she apparently finds attractive if her stuttered gasps mean anything.
“You’re going to leave bruises,” she barely manages to say—and even then it’s a little slurred. It was a little funny that she would say something like that as though you hadn’t already led a trail of hickeys down her chest to her thighs. She shivers, curses—both hands going to your head—and starts squirming and grinding harder against your face.
Your knees are probably supremely bruised, and there’s a burning sensation in your arms and shoulders—but none of that seems to matter when Haley cries out even louder than before, thighs squeezing down on your face and fingernails digging into your scalp.
Your eyes trail up her body of their own accord, watching the way her expression shifts—the furrow of her brow and the way her teeth bite down hard on her bottom lip. She groans, a whiny whimpering sound, and throws her head back—head against the trunk of the tree and more gasping noises escaping her mouth.
There’s a burst of warmth on your tongue.
Haley still grinds on your face, though the motion is weak, pathetic little murmurs escaping her pouty lips—her eyes fluttering and her eyelashes fanning across her blushing cheekbones.
“Oh...” She sighs, a revelation, and with a peculiar expression on her face loosens the hold she has on your head.
You raise an eyebrow and smile, nuzzling your sticky face against the inside of her thighs—to which she releases another soft sigh, her hand going gentle against the top of your head. “Alright?” You ask her, voice a little raspy. “Do you need any first aid stuff? I’ve got a semi-magical healing salve that’ll make all that stuff go right away—”
“No! I mean—no, it’s fine.” She babbles from her position still above you. Her face is flushed, redness seeping down from the tips of her ears to her collarbones. “I just—ugh. I might. Need a second.”
“Do you want me to carry you inside?” You ask, with a slight frown on your face. When you had started this you hadn’t really intended to allow her a chance to recuperate in your house, but... well. You weren’t that mean. Also, aftercare was a necessary thing. “Here, let me just—”
She yelps, and in a flash one arm is underneath her knees and the other is holding her back. Haley reaches out blindly, holding your neck close as her eyes go wide.
You let out a soft laugh. “I’m not going to drop you.”
You decide not to mention the fact that in frantically holding onto you she’d accidentally rubbed your still sticky face against her precious hair.
Oops.
“That’s not—” She cuts herself off, grumbling. “Um. We aren’t going to leave my clothes there, are we?”
“The Juminos will grab those for me.” They’d picked up worse stuff than the slightly soiled clothing of Haley Whatever-her-last-name-is.
“Fucking what?”
“Don’t worry about it.” You wave her off, starting the trek to the house—carefully maneuvering Haley so that she wasn’t so exposed to the open air.
Haley sighs, pressing her face to your neck. She nuzzles at the skin there with her nose, and you fight the instinctual shiver. “Do you want me to return the favor?” She murmurs—a quiet, tired sounding question.
“I wasn’t expecting you to,” you say truthfully. “You sound like you need a nap—and after only one round? For shame.”
She huffs against your shoulder but doesn’t deny it.
“...this might be too intimate for you, but do you want to take a bath or something?”
Haley goes very still against you. “What?” She croaks, and you can’t tell if it’s because she’s tired or emotional.
“You should clean up,” you explain to her gently, probably softer than she wants and deserves. “And I should make sure you didn’t hurt yourself too badly, y’know, when you decided you wanted to be fucked against a tree?”
She swats you on your shoulder. “You’re annoying.”
“That a yes?”
“Fine,” she grumbles, and though she sounds annoyed you can see the barest hint of a flush trickling up the tips of her ears. “You’re coming in with me, right? I could use a little pampering.”
You cough, “Pillow princess.”
“I like what I like,” still, she swats you on the shoulder again anyway. “And don’t think I didn’t notice your whole degradation thing... And I thought I was an asshole.”
There’s no denying the small smile that flickers onto your face.