The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-9-17 final final 5 Upload

“Stop.” I was surprised by the conviction that was embedded
in my voice. Half of me still wanted him to keep going. But this
wasn’t right.
“Damn it, Chelsea, are you serious?” He whipped his hand
back to his side of the car so fast it almost took my head off. “What’s
your fucking problem?”
His hand might as well have smacked me. His words were a
swift kick in the chest that knocked the breath right out of me. Never,
in all the time I’d known him, had I ever heard Tucker raise his
voice. And definitely not at me. I barely had enough air left to muster
the question, “Excuse me?”
“You’re my girlfriend. I want you.” His eyes were as hard as
his lips had been earlier. This “want” was nowhere to be found
within them.
My mouth hung open, but the words were lost before they
even reached my tongue. I just stared at him for a few moments,
disbelief strangling me, until finally I reached for the door and
stepped out into the snow.
“Wait, Chelsea.” I heard Tucker’s door open and slam shut
again behind me. His sneakers crunched in the snow as he met me
halfway up my front yard and came to stand in front of me. “I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“Then why did you say it?” I demanded. The porch light was
at his back so his face was cloaked in shadow. “You have never
acted the way you’ve been acting tonight, Tucker.”
“I don’t know. I just ... I got carried away.” He moved
sideways and the light flooded his face, and I recognized his eyes
again.
My defenses cracked, but I didn’t let them crumble. “I think
I deserve a little more respect than that. I don’t care how carried
away you might get.”
“You’re right. You’re completely right.” His chin was glued
to his chest. Was he ashamed? Embarrassed? Funny, for the first
time in almost a year, I couldn’t read what was going through my
boyfriend’s head.
148