A Week With Him

Chapter 4 - Games

I tried doing my homework for college but he followed and distracted me all day. I sighed as I had to do the same work twice since I already did it for Kelly. Jeff sat beside me on the bed with his legs crossed and his cheek leaning on one hand, looking bored. "What are you doing now?"he asked, sounding fed up. I was more fed up of him though, he isn't letting me do anything. "I'm trying to do an assignment,"I replied. My words had a confident and slightly snooty tone to it, but Jeff just snorted at that and stopped playing with his knife to smirk at me. "What, you're in college?"he said. I stopped writing and looked up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"I asked. He held his smirk. "You're not exactly the brightest girl, your head was always in the clouds in primary school and you barely scraped a pass in your grades,"Jeff said bluntly. I felt myself go pink from that, he was right. I was forever daydreaming, even in secondary school, and was lucky enough to get into the college I wanted with poor C grades. He laughed meanly when my expression showed it all.

I frowned and tried focusing back on my work, telling myself not to mind his rude remarks. As soon as my pen made contact with the paper again Jeff sighed from boredom. He continued doing this for five minutes, his sighs getting louder and louder to annoy me on purpose until I slammed my pen back down. "Fine! What do you want to do?"I snapped, throwing my work aside. He smiled smugly and just shrugged, I could feel my face go hot from anger. I didn't like the way he was swinging his knife so I walked over to my wardrobe and pulled out a boardgame from the top shelf, I had a feeling he'd still play games. "This?"I suggested, rattling the monopoly box. He shrugged again, seeming uninterested, but slid off the bed onto the carpet and crossed his legs anyway.

We had about a half hour game of monopoly, it was relatively quiet between us apart from the muttering of curse words coming from him and the loud thump sound he'd make whenever he moved his character a few squares on the board. Soon I was bankrupt and lost the game, I didn't really care at first since I wasn't even trying, but of course he made a big deal out of it. "You're still as rubbish as ever Casey, I win,"Jeff said while smirking, but sounding childish. He reached over the boardgame between us and tried grabbing my arm, I quickly moved my arm away when I realised he was going to hurt me. "Stop that! You don't have to pinch me everytime you win something,"I said, already rubbing my arm. He reached out again and grabbed my arm with success this time, dragging me closer over the boardgame causing a mess. "You're right, you're older now so you get something different,"Jeff said.

Before I could move again he held my arm hard in both hands and started twisting my skin, giving me a chinese burn. I shrieked like a toddler and punched his hand with my free arm so he'd stop, but he didn't. When he was done after a minute he let go of me and smiled, but I was near tears, my arm was now red and burning badly. "What the hell!?"I shouted, closing my eyes to prevent the tears from falling. Jeff laughed and pushed me in the chest. "God don't fucking cry, it's not that bad,"he insisted. I wanted to kick him out of the house right then and there, why does he do this to me? But I didn't tell him to leave and simply bit my lip as I packed the game away, I don't want anyone else to die because of me.

As soon as I stacked the fake money to put it away in the box, Jeff stopped me. "No, I want to play again,"he said in a commanding tone. I glared at him and rubbed my arm slowly so he got the hint,"No thanks." He sighed at that then stuffed his knife back in his hoodie pocket and opened his arms. "You get a free punch,"he offered. I just stared at him sadly and carried on packing the boardgame away, even though I tried punching him earlier that was so he'd release my arm. I didn't want to hurt anyone really. I heard him sigh again,"Wimp." I crammed the boardgame back in my wardrobe and headed to the door, I wanted to make something for lunch.

When I turned the doorknob a cold and pale hand was placed over mine, I looked up at Jeff and see him glaring at me. "Where are you going?"he asked angrily. I tried turning the doorknob again,"I'm hungry, I want something to eat." Jeff pulled on my arm so I tripped towards him, he mounted me to the ground and I let out a yelp, thankfully I didn't smack my head. He easily pinned my arms down and smiled. "We're starting a new game. Fight me first,"he said. I wriggled in his grasp to be free, but he was ten times stronger and stayed sitting on me. "Jeff get off me!"I shouted. He leaned closer to my face and let go of my wrists to fold his arms. "No,"he said smugly. I thrashed underneath him and my face went red again from trying. "You're squashing me, I can't breathe!"I shouted in exaggeration, but I did start panting. I knew Jeff was even skinnier than me, but I thought this might make him move. But it didn't work. "Don't be so dramatic, now wrestle me otherwise I won't budge,"he repeated. I felt anxious and started shaking a little when he took out his knife and smiled, but he chucked it across the room and said,"I'll play fair. No knives, just fists." I still didn't want to fight knowing he'd still be stronger with or without a weapon, I continued struggling beneath him until my head hurt.

I gave up and just lied there, my chest heaving from trying so hard, but he showed no mercy and stayed straddling me. I nearly started sobbing just from this, he hasn't been here a day and is already frustrating me. "I don't want to play,"I said, my words wobbling. Jeff stared down at me with an emotionless expression. "Yes well, we don't all get what we want,"he said, his lifeless eyes staring into mine. I started sobbing pathetically then. Jeff leaned down while smiling sickly. "Is Casey going to cry? Still a baby,"he said. I slapped his face as hard as I could when he said that and regretted it immediately, but his smile just stretched from that. "Finally! The crybaby's grown up! Well I'll let you eat now, I doubt you can do any better than that and this wait is boring me,"he said, the slap didn't seem to hurt him at all but he was satisfied from 'playing'. He slowly lifted himself off me and so I sat up and held my head from the blood rushing to it. I turned to see him sitting back on my bed, playing with his knife again. I stared for a while wondering why he let me go so easily but he stopped flipping his knife to stare at me and frown. "Go eat before I slam you to the floor again,"he said nonchalantly. I scurried off then in case he changed his mind, feeling a bit confused.

He didn't seem to follow me anywhere downstairs, and so I made a small portion of pasta and ate by myself. I took out my phone, wondering if I should tell someone there's a psycho in my house, but something told me not to do that. I felt crazy for not calling the police, Jeff has already confessed to many murders and he's done nothing but mock and hurt me since he arrived this morning. At the same time, I didn't think he'd really hurt hurt me, or even kill me. He was the only one I considered a friend in childhood years, did I really want to betray him? I checked my phone for any new messages, there was none. I sighed sadly, feeling alone already.

Part of me expected Jeff to be gone when I returned to my room after lunch, but he was still there on my bed. He was resting his cheek on his hand again like earlier, flipping his blade and looking bored. "Take your time why don't you? Jeez you must have eaten a lot piggy,"he said harshly. I knew I wasn't fat at all, only my cheeks were still round and chubby like when I was little, so I took no notice of his words and sat down on the bed too to finish my assignment. And magically, he let me finish it in peace.

                             *  *  *
Once I had gotten changed into my nightdress and brushed my teeth, I returned to my bedroom and made shooing motions with my hand, signalling Jeff to get off the bed. He kept his legs crossed and faked a pout at me for a second before smirking. "You always let me sleep with you before,"he reminded me. I felt myself blush from that. "That's different now,"I insisted.
"How so?"he asked. I blushed again and just continued shooing him away, he eventually frowned and rolled off the bed with a thump, I winced from imagining how much that hurt, but he didn't seem to care. He remained on the floor while I got comfy under the covers, he was lying on his side, staring up at me, his black hair a mess on his head. I was about to offer him to sleep in mum and dad's bed, but he put his finger to his lips, knowing I was about to speak. "Go to sleep,"Jeff said. Those words reminded me of every night he slept here years ago, I turned off the lamp and obediently settled down.