The Serpent (Excerpt 3)

"You don't trust me." He was doing that thing again. That thing where he looked directly into my eyes and I felt like he was touching me. He was! It felt so strange. No one had ever done that to me before, and I'm not even kidding.
"Its so early. Do I have to trust you with everything?"
"I just..." I could feel him pull back from me a bit. But he didn't move. It was all in his eyes. They drove me insane. "I want to know you love me as much as I love you."
"But I do love you." His face was pained, just a slight little bit.
"You just said, though..."
"There are different levels of love," I said.
"Well what level am I on?"
"Look," I started, "Don't rush this. What we have found is not meant to be rushed."
"And yet I've lived all my life without you. I have so much time to make up for."
YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I AM! My head shouted. I shook it off.
"Then we have all our lives to do that. Don't. Rush it," I said. He clearly wasn't accepting this. I could see it in his face. "Haven't you been hurt before?" He nodded slowly.
"Yes, I've been hurt."
"Well I was hurt a LOT. Okay. I was hurt a lot, and I don't rush in with my eyes closed any more. I told you my parents divorced, right? Well thats NOT going to be me. I won't let you rob me of determining what is best for myself." No matter what forces of good or evil were propelling him toward me, toward my freaking soul, apparently, if it were up to those probing eyes, I could not let myself be washed away in it. I had lost too much of myself too many times before. In fact, what did I even have to give him?
And if he really was what I had been looking for all this time, why would he rush me to make a declaration that meant nothing because it was clearly impossible to make.
That thread, though. That thread that ran from his eyes deep down into me, drew me back away from my mind.
"I do love you," I said. "And I will love you more, later. Be patient with me."
"Yes..."
He leaned in closer. His face was inches from mine.
"Please be patient with me."
"I will."
"Please don't hurt me."
"No..."
It occurred to me, as I got out of the car, that he could really be a serpent in disguise. His eyes and his voice and the set of his gaze all making my skin hum and pushing my consciousness into a near coma. It kinda scared me, just thinking about it. I wrapped my sweater tighter around me before running inside.