Last time in Boy Window...Amber flirted
with and then was mouth-raped by a guy name Mark. She kneed him in
the balls and got $20 for it. Later on, she wore sexy lingerie,
was an inch away from anilingus, and fell asleep in Liams arms.
Chapter 10
“'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?'
Jake roared.”
Well, I should be glad that
her phone didn't wake her this time.
“My eyes snapped open,
seeing his murderously angry face staring down at me.”
If he is looking at you, not
at Liam, with murder in his eyes, then I would be very concerned for
Jake's stability. I was joking about the incest, but that kind of
protective/possessive is on the wrong side of the line.
Amber gets her bearings,
realizing that she and Liam are openly cuddling.
“OK, I need to salvage the
situation quickly. 'Damn it, Liam! Yuck! Did you have your hands on
me?' I cried, pretending to shudder in horror.”
I would get on her case for
not just coming clean at this point but some how I think this is how
that would turn out.
Jake wants to know the
meaning of this. Amber tries to explain with the excuse that she had
a bad dream. Despite the fact that this does not explain why she
would be with Liam, Jake
accepts this.
“My
brother gasped and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around me as he
put his chin on the top of my head. 'Oh shit, Amber. It's OK,' he
cooed, rocking me slightly.”
From
murderous rage to gently cooing in two sentences, you really should
be concerned Amber.
Anyway...
Liam and
Amber have the “let's tell Jake” conversation again. Amber votes
“nay” before attempting to follow Jake into the kitchen for
breakfast.
“[Liam]
grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him, kissing me again before he
have me one of his beautiful smiles.”
We
established that the kitchen was next to the lounge (where she is
coming from), and Jake is in the kitchen, and that he was murderous
minutes ago. And you think this is an appropriate time and place for
smooches? You know what? Maybe this is Liam's way of telling Jake.
Maybe he wants to get caught so he doesn't have to lie anymore.
(Anymore being two days, Urðr's shroud, chapter 6 feels like forever ago).
Anyway...
Amber
makes two bowls of cereal, one for her and one for Liam and takes
them to Liam in the lounge. If you'll recall, Liam likes to make a
bowl of the only breakfast food Amber will eat only for it to be
stolen by Amber. This sounds familiar...
I have
no idea why. Oh well. Amber is confused when Liam says he doesn't
like cereal. He explains
“'I
make a bowl of it every day and pretend to eat it before you come in
and snatch it off me […] I like to make you breakfast.'”
This is
sweet until you really think about it. What Liam is saying is that he
knew that Amber would not believe, enjoy, or trust him if he just
made her a bowl of cereal every morning. He has to lie to her
everyday just so he can perform a small kind act and not have her
bitch at him for it. And don't tell me “it's because of Jake”
because I have made my friends breakfast before and not required sex
in exchange. Beside, if Jake is that sensitive to other men around
Amber, then he is reaching Christian Grey levels of assholery.
“I gasped at the
revelation.”
People in this book sure do
“gasp” a lot. About once every 5 pages, according to the word
search function on my Nook. These characters must find themselves
short of breathe often.
“Every day I would come in
and make some nasty comment to him about eating at home and leaving
my cereal alone, and all this time he made it for me?”
Again, because he knew you
would bitch at him for it either way. Why does he like you again?
Actually, I don't think we ever really established that at all. He
has called her attractive in a hundred different ways but other than
that we don't know why he likes her.
Anyway...
Jake walks into the lounge
preventing Amber from saying thank you, so she runs to her room to
text him her thanks.
“'I'll thank you properly
later!'”
There are a lot of
exclamation points in this too. Approximately 425 to precise. That's
3 every 2 pages.
They go to school. Jessica
(the obligatory bitch character from a million pages ago) comes up
and is all up on Liams junk. He firmly rebuffs her but Amber is still
not happy.
“An acrid taste filled my
mouth. The jealousy was rising in me again, so much of it that it
actually started to make me feel sick.”
Just so we are all on the
same page here, three days ago (in universe) she was not jealous
about this same spectacle. She was inconvenienced, grumpy, and crude,
but not jealous. Now that Liam is her boyfriend, is more committed to
her, and has clearly expressed a wish to be monogamous, she is
jealous. When she should feel more secure in his feelings, she feels
less. Why? It's not really explained even when Liam chases after a
huffy Amber to talk about it.
Moseley addresses that Liam
has been waiting for her to get jealous, and Amber finally is, but
what has really changed? They are together, Amber recognizes that she
was biased against him before, but we still don't know how Amber
actually feels about Liam. And this isn't a matter of “show vs
tell”. We get that she is comfortable around him, that she likes
kissing him, that she is suddenly possessive of him, but how does she
actually feel. Even when there are small opportunities to see her
feelings change we don't get it.
To illustrate what I mean,
let's go back for a moment to when she found out he makes her
breakfast every morning. She thinks
“All this time I thought
he was just being a jerk, when really he was being nice to me!”
Okay, Amber, how does this
change how you thought about him? She could just tell us “I liked
him more for it” or some such thing, but she could just as easily
said “it made me rethink all the little times he teased me, and my
heart fluttered.” But she does neither and just says he was "nice" which is possibly the least affectionate, but still positive, term possible.
Anyway...
Liam talks about how trust
goes both ways and how girls should stop pawing him because everyone
now knows he has girlfriend.
“'You told everyone that
you have a girlfriend?' I asked, shocked. OK wow, maybe he is more
serious than I thought about making this work.”
I have written extensively
about my love for Meghan Trainor. One Trainor's favorite themes for
her songs is how if a guy doesn't want to be seen with you, don't
date him. This is an important theme, and works both ways. However,
Amber, you were the one who told Liam that you wanted to keep your
relationship on the down low. He has wanted to shout it from the
rooftops like he is a member of MEST.
Amber goes to class, shaking
her butt to the appreciation of three guys from her class and Liam.
Gods below, let these guys not attack Amber, I just may shank someone
if they do.
In the next paragraph it's
lunch time. No one seems to have a life so they are all grilling Liam
for info on his girlfriend. He says that she is the sexiest woman
alive and when a dude-bro asks if she is good in bed he says he won't
answer that. Then some girl name Rochelle says that she is surely
better.
“He laughed incredulously.
'You know what, you wouldn't stand a chance. My girl is incredibly
beautiful, both inside and out.'”
This is cute, but a cop out
of a compliment. What does being beautiful inside and out have to do
with sexual prowess? Was he just tired of saying that she is sexy?
Jake says that the
mysterious sexy girlfriend doesn't believe in premarital sex.
“I swallowed my laugh. Had
Jake seriously believed him when he'd told him that this morning?”
Actually, Liam said that
yesterday morning. You know when he told Jake he had a girlfriend
before you guys went bowling.
Anyway...
Everyone looses their shit
because oh noes, no sex? That is up there with communism on the scale
of worst things ever.
“'So, the next girl to
nail him wins the pot'”
This is not how teenagers
talk. Okay, none of the one's I have ever known.
So here is the dealio.
Jessica and all the girls in the school decide that adultry is the
only answer. So, like a true 90's movie, they all take out a twenty
and who ever has sex with Liam next will get all the money. The only
rule is that you have to put money in to win the money.
Amber asks what happens if
the girlfriend sleeps with him.
“'Well, if she puts in her
money then she can win, but she's obviously not giving him what he
needs. He'll stray eventually.'”
Feminist rant in 3, 2, 1! He
does not need
sex. No one needs
sex. It is nice to have but he will not die if he doesn't have it.
Stop perpetuating this myth, it helps no one.
“Then I had an idea. I pulled out a twenty and dropped it into
their pile.”
Amber, remember you have PTSD from sexual trauma. Even if you are
having lusty feelings, when actual sex is happening, the chances of
you having an episode and having to stop is high. Not to mention that
this will be the only other sexual experience you will have, so the
chances of painful, uncontrollable flashbacks, is very high. This is
a bad idea. A very bad idea.
Amber, of course, can't hear my counsel, but she hears Jessica say
“'Yeah right! Like you stand a chance, Emo!'”
That line is like using a ghost type attack against a normal type pokemon, not effective.
Amber asks how much money
the winner gets.
“'Well, there's two
hundred and forty here at the moment, but once people hear of it...'”
12 girls care enough about
Liam having a girlfriend that they are participating in this. That is
the saddest thing in this book I think.
“'...well, I don't know.
The last time we did this, it was for Chris. It got up to six hundred
and twenty, but Liam's way hotter and, by the looks of him,
untouchable.'”
They have done this
before...with 31 participants. I've changed my mind. This is sadder.
“Wow, this is going to be
easy money!”
You mean, if it wasn't for
that crippling psychological problem that has “isolated” you from
“everyone” thus far, right? Right, Amber? Because getting over
eight years of abuse in just a few days would be ridiculous right?
Especially when this has gone untreated all this time and you supposedly have symptoms of trauma, right? I'm sure this will all be
addressed.
Anyway...
Amber waits for Jake and
Liam to finish hockey practice. Her friend Sarah walks up to tell her
“'...the pot for Liam's
ass is now up to $1860!'”
93. 93 teenaged girls care
enough about this one guy being in a committed relationship to try to
ruin that relationship and place money on it. I had a fairly large
graduating class, I won't pretend that I knew everyone at my school,
but I don't think anyone would care this much about something so
asinine.*
“That meant over ninety
girls were going to be begging my boyfriend for sex, offering it to
him on a plate, and I was scared to let him touch me.”
...scared...scared to let
him touch you...when have you been scared to let him touch you? There
was that time he tripped then groped you in Chapter 3 and that time
you stopped making out in Chapter 7. Other than that, every other
time you two are together you are all over each other and you make it
a point to say how odd it is that you want him to touch you. If I'm
getting mixed messages I feel bad for Liam.
Sarah “flirts” with
Liam. He says no. Liam drives Jake to work with Amber in the
backseat. Liam is annoyed that everyone wants his dick. Amber laughs
and explains why. Jake suggests choosing one and splitting the money.
Liam is offended. Amber says she is in the bet.
“Jake turned in his seat,
glaring at me angrily. 'You? No freaking way! What the heck are you
thinking?'”
Amber deflects his anger by
making a joke out how she might lose her virginity to Liam. I don't
get how it is a joke considering we all know it will happen, but it
takes Jake out of killing mode. Jake says he should try to have sex
with as many girls in one night as possible with each thinking they
are the first and Amber thinks.
“I gasped, mortified.
Oh crap! Great, Jake, put that in his head, I'm sure that's all he
needs to hear since his girlfriend's not willing to give it up!”
I am convinced that Amber
just likes make outs because she has absolutely no faith in Liam.
It's not like Liam has ever cheated on anyone, and her issues aren't
with commitment or abandonment. Like, if her dad didn't beat and rape
her, but rather withheld his affection and left them, then I would
believe this insecurity. As it is, I don't know why she thinks that
Liam will cheat or leave her. None of it feels real.
Anyway...
Jake goes to work, Liam
drives them home. He apologizes for the bet, she rightfully says it's
not his fault. Liam invites her over to officially meet his parents.
This is cool with Amber because Liam's mom
“...loved me and Jake, and
always said we were like family.”
Which is why when they heard
loud noises and the cries of small children coming from next door,
they called the cops. Or, when they noticed the mom freaking out if she picked out the wrong shampoo at the store. Or the mysterious bruises on Jake. Or Amber's fearful apprehension on Saturdays. Or Ambers closed off nature on Mondays. Just like family, ha!
The chapter ends with Amber
saying how sweet and funny Liam and his parents are. Unfortunately...
Sad, but true.
*I talked to a coworker who
said that teens from her high school would make this kind of bet. After a short
conversation, I've come to the conclusion that the kids at my school
had more problems than money enough to care, and for Amber and my
coworker, the opposite seems to be true.
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