The TV droned on whilst myself and Michael watched aimlessly from the couch, legs draped over one another’s. I couldn’t tell one second of the show from the next. The plot was lost behind Michael’s rythmic tapping on my calf. I curled my nose in annoyance. It was plainly obvious by the grin he had plastered across his playful expression that the taps were meant to ellicit such a response from me. I cast my gaze upwards to meet his and shot him a haughty glare. All that met me in response was the same easy sneer as before.

“Michael.” I warned exasperatedly. When he didn’t respond I huffed loudly. Instead of feeding into his harrassment by protesting more, I yanked back my leg and moved to stand from the couch.

Michael lurched forward and grabbed my thigh, yanking me back onto him again. I screamed and shoved my elbow back into his ribcage, bolting to the television and out of his reach.

“What the fuck, Michael?” I yelled, tears stinging at my eyes. I shot my head down and moved my hands to inspect where he’d grabbed my leg. There were clear fingerprints the color of eggplants bruised into the skin. My breath caught in my throat and I choked on my suprise, tears threatening to emerge once more.

“What?” Michael finally coughed put between raspy laughter, his arms cradling his now wounded chest.

“Look what you did to my leg!” I screeched, shoving my thigh towards the couch. He did nothing but roll his eyes and continue to chuckle.

The TV broke into a commercial then, making me gasp in suprise. My heart pounded dangerously fast in my chest. It took me a moment to grasp what was happening. A brunette brought me back to reality, displaying a perfectly hairless leg doused in shaving cream. I sighed and released the death grip I had on my t-shirt. I found myself stalling; my desperation to be anywhere but in that living room super gluing my vision to the Venus Razor advertisment before me.

“I know you’re looking for any easy way out of this, Thea, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not Michael.”