Page 12 of Make Me Pretty
PERIS
“Yo,he’s staring at you again,” Gabe comments as he dribbles the ball, standing resolutely in the middle of the court. I pull up short, whirling around to exactly where Abel Silver is, unable to hide the fact I knew where he was because I can fuckin’ feel his eyes on me like nails on a chalkboard.
“Yeah, I know,” I grit out, pressing my hands to my knees, bent over as I catch my breath. The sun is hammering down, hot as shit for September still.
It’s been two weeks since I saw Abel fucking around with another guy at school. Two weeks since I came in my pants, gaze locked with his in the shadows. Everything hidden laid bare to a stranger.
A stranger who saw. Who knows. And now he’s just always… there. A devil on my shoulder, only bigger and more annoying… andprettier.
Gabe snorts. “You’ve got your own little stalker, eh?” he teases, coming up close. I feign switching to the left, but he knows me and keeps moving forward. He bypasses me and shoots the ball, landing a perfect three.
“Fuck off. Goddamnit,” I growl, yanking at my sweaty hair, pulling it back from my face. My teeth click, muscle pulsing under the pressure.Don’t look at him. Don’t look…
Our eyes meet. His bright, silver irises flash, lashes fluttering. He purses his lips and… He fuckingdidn’t.
“Did he just blow you a kiss?” Gabe balks at my side. A growl bubbles in my chest, seconds away from spilling out between curled lips before Gabe’s laugh shatters my train of thought. I whip around to face him, balking at his laughter. He’s hunched over, ball rolling around his feet, discarded.
“What the hell is so funny?”
He catches his breath long enough to choke out, “He’s obviously flirting with you.”
I rear back, blinking rapidly. “He isnot.” Absolutely fucking not. I don’t know what exactly heisdoing, but flirting he isn’t. He’s just… fucking with me.
Because he knows.
He saw, and he knows, and he’splaying me.Like a goddamned fiddle. And I’m trying so hard to resist. To keep this… charade in place. But just looking at Abel makes it obvious how frivolous it really is. Because the only other person to ever break through is Gabe. But it’s… different with him. He’s seen some of the darkness and stayed, let me play the part I needed to survive. To make it through every day mostly intact.
Abel just wants to dismantle me entirely, it seems.
“He is, man. Hate to break it to you. Are you that obtuse?”
“No, but?—”
“Does he know you don’t swing that way?” Gabe asks conversationally, back to it, ball back in hand.
Do you know that I wish I fuckingdidn’t?But Gabriel doesn’t know. And now that Abel saw me, like… that… I can’t forget it anymore, either.
So much for living in denial.
Fucking shithead.
“He’s not flirting with me. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say shit like that again.”
Gabe narrows his eyes. “Don’t be fucking homophobic, Peris.”
My feet stumble to a stop. “I-I’m not,” I stutter, thankful I’m already beet red from exertion so my shame doesn’t display so sharply. “I just don’t like what he’s doing.”
He scoffs, back to utterly unbothered in a flash. “Yeah, dude. That much is obvious. But he seems to have latched onto you for whatever reason. Like a lost puppy.” That makes him snort. I roll my eyes, which find their way over to Abel again.
This time with that word ringing around in my head. His clothes are always so big when his body is so small. And sharp. Like his bones could slice right through his skin if he moved the wrong way.
“Did something happen?” Gabe asks innocently enough, but I still tense at the proposition.
Should I lie? Should I confide in him? I know he won’t judge me. Wouldn’t dream of it, actually, but… he can’t know who I really am. I’ve worked hard to be this person.
Pretending to be good and kind and in control.
I can’t lose that, and even speaking of Abel and what’s happened between us, albeit however small, would change absolutely everything.
