Mine (Unedited) (Discontinued?)

Chapter 40

Jeff gave a shout of frustration, stabbing his knife in the wall next to his head. He'd been pacing for an hour, trying to think of a way to escape and warn Slender about what was going on. Every idea he had come up with required either him or Kendra leaving the room, and that was impossible thanks to the damned chains the crazy bitch had left on him.

"Jeff, you need to calm down. Stabbing the wall isn't going to help, and you know it. We'll just have to sit tight until an opportunity presents itself," Kendra said, sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest.

Jeff glowered at her, ripping his knife from the wall. He noticed the girl flinch, and had to suppress his instinctual reaction of tormenting her.

"That's easy for you to say," he snapped, resuming his pacing, "you don't seem to have a problem with feeling trapped. You don't see the walls closing in on us."

Kendra frowned, tilting her head as she watched Jeff and listened to him talk.

"Jeff, are you claustrophobic?" she asked, worry filling her tone.

"No!" he snarled, stopping his pacing to level a firm glare on her. He didn't like having the one thing he was terrified of being pointed out so easily.

Kendra sighed, repositioning herself so that she could lean her back on the wall behind the bed, then patted the empty space next to her.

Jeff hesitated, then rolled his eyes and complied, sitting in front of her on the edge of the mattress, though his leg bounced anxiously.

Kendra shifted again, moving closer to Jeff so she could put her hand on his shaking thigh. He stopped, looking at her with open fear. He trusted her, she realized. Jeff trusted her not to expose this one simple thing about him, and her heart warmed at the thought. She smiled softly, moving her hand from his leg to his cheek.

"Everything is going to be okay, Jeff," she said, gently stroking her thumb across his face.

Jeff felt his heart stop. Kendra was so close, her face only inches away from his. It would be so easy to just lean forward, close that little bit of distance between them, and press his mouth to hers. He almost did exactly that, almost kissed her, until he remembered that he had been the cause of so much of her pain.

Suddenly coming to his senses, Jeff sighed. He grabbed Kendra's hand, gently removing it from his face and setting it down on the bed between them. Now wasn't the time for him to pine after her.

"Jeff?" Kendra asked softly, frowning at his actions and totally unaware of how badly Jeff wished he could kiss her right then.

"Listen, Kendra," Jeff started, unsure of exactly what he wanted to say to her, "you should probably stay away from me."

"What?" Kendra asked, shocked and hurt by the suggestion.

Jeff was just as surprised as she was, but he recognized the sense of the statement, so he continued, doing his best to explain what he meant.

"Okay, that came out a little wrong. I didn't mean that as you did something wrong. Honestly, it's the opposite, you're absolutely perfect. It's because you're so perfect that we should probably avoid being in close quarters like this," he started, watching Kendra to gouge her reaction.

"You're not making any sense, Jeff," she said, frowning as she tried to figure out what the hell he was getting at.

Jeff sighed, rubbing that back of his neck as he glanced around the room. At least the walls weren't closing in on him anymore, he supposed, but then he would almost prefer to deal with his panic than talk to Kendra about this. Almost.

"Kendra, I..." he stopped, frowning as he tried to come up with a way to explain without telling her that he loved her.

"You what?" Kendra pushed, tilting her head to get a better look at his face now that he was looking away from her.

"I can't control myself around you very well," he said, flinching at how crass that sounded.

Kendra blinked, staring at Jeff with a blank expression, as if she was expecting him to say more.

"That's it?" she asked incredulously, her frown deepening. They were trapped in the guest room of his best friends house, and he was afraid he was going to jump her?

Jeff realized he may have said the wrong thing, so he rushed to try and fix his mistake, though he wasn't sure what that mistake was.

"Just now, I had almost kissed you. You were being so kind and understanding and you were so close, I almost gave in and let myself kiss you. If it weren't for the fact that I had been the cause of just about everything going wrong in your life and that I feel absolutely terrible about it, I would've kissed you," he explained, and understanding dawned on her features, and then a smile that he didn't expect pulled up the corners of her lips.

"That is so incredibly sweet of you, Jeff," she said, giggling when his face turned into one of total surprise and confusion, "you're worried that I'll get upset with you again, that you acting on impulse will make me mad. You want to make up for what you've done in the past by restraining yourself, and that's just about the sweetest thing you've ever done."

After her explanation, Kendra leaned forward and kissed Jeff's cheek in gratitude. He's changed so much since she had started living in the mansion with him, and she was so proud of him for doing his best to change the way he treated her.

Jeff blushed, looking away in an attempt to hide his red face from her. Kendra had noticed, and the action made her giggle again. He really had turned into such a sweetheart.

"Let's get some rest, okay? We need to build our strength for the next time Althea decides to come in and ask me weird questions."

Jeff nodded, standing to sit in the chair that was positioned in a corner by the window. The spot would give him the ability to keep an eye on Kendra and both entrances into the room. Thank God that crazy bitch hadn't taken his knife from him so he could protect his favorite rose.

Kendra sighed, laying back on the bed and getting comfortable. She wasn't stupid, she figured Jeff had some kind of feelings for her, but she had no idea of the extent. If it weren't for the fact that she still felt pain over her breakup with BEN, and if they weren't the captives of some psychotic woman that controls shadows and was super curious about Kendra, she might consider giving Jeff a chance.

But those things were happening, Kendra's heart was hurting, and they both had shackles on their ankles to keep them in the room, so having another relationship was the last thing on her mind. She was honestly glad that Jeff seemed to understand that, and as a result was making an effort to restrain himself.

Kendra would have to figure out some way to thank Jeff when they got out of the mess they were in. With that thought, the redhead pulled the blanket over her shoulders and closed her eyes.