Page 31 of Make Me Pretty
“Oh.” Shit, I forgot. I shake my head a few times, trying to clear the fog. “The carnival, right. Yeah, I’ll be there.” I catch Gabe’s expression, which makes me roll my eyes with a snort. “I’m running the ring toss, right?”
She smiles. “Yeah! It’s this Friday. Everyone’s gotta be here by five to set up. Starts at six.”
I nod, already losing myself to the noises around me. “Sounds good.” And to be an ass, I add, “Gabe will be with me, too.”
“Awesome.”
“Hey!” he shouts as Sierra walks away before turning toward me. “I don’t want to deal with kids all night, Peris,” he grumbles.
“Yeah, me either, dude. So now, we’ll suffer together.”
With a sigh, I drop my head, rolling it between my shoulders. All the racket is too much, too loud. Clanging and bouncing around inside my skull.Jesus,I can’t get the sounds out of my head. Or that dude. His white hair, piercing eyes. Those fucking crooked teeth revealed in a smile.
And then, it all goes quiet. The muffled chatter of many voices quickly cuts off into a ringing silence that's even more piercing. I glance up through my fingers, finding the entire fucking upper class at a standstill as someone walks through the opening of the lunchroom.
I shoot upward, heart in my throat as my eyes follow him. Over his pin-straight, white hair. Sharp, crooked jaw. Baggy clothes that belong in the fucking y2k era along with his head full of silver jewelry and pink fucking Converse—stained and scuffed from head to toe.
He doesn’tglanceat a single person as he strides toward the lunch line, which is now empty. He grabs a bag of chips and hands the lady money before striding back across the common room to find a place to sit—a place directly across from me.
I swallow and look around. Eyes still linger on him, whispers persisting, slowly working back up to full volume. He’s unperturbed as he rips open the bag and shovels a handful into his mouth. Lance Garner, who he sat beside, strikes up a conversation like they’re friends. And just like that, it’s like nothing happened.
But… something did.
“Who the fuck is that?” I ask aloud, not exactly meaning to.
“Uh, I think his name is Abel,” Gabe answers with a mouthful of food. I grimace at him. He’s a fucking animal.
“Yeah, he’s new. Foster kid,” Thomas pipes in.
“When did he enroll?”
“Beginning of the school year, buddy,” Gabe replies sarcastically.
“Then, why am I only just now hearing about him?” I ask. “It’s not like this school is that fucking big.”
Thomas shrugs. Gabe lifts a brow, and Corbin shovels more food into his mouth. “Probably because you’re so self-absorbed.” Gabe cackles.
I keep my face deadpan. “You’ve got jokes today.”
“As opposed to every other day?” He snickers.
“There’s been rumors that he sells sex for money,” Corbin interrupts—a little too fuckin’ loudly. My right eye twitches, and I glance up, already knowing in my gut what I’m going to face.
Abelis looking right back at me, those silver eyes still just as piercing as they were the night before, even without the darkness of shadows. I swallow as my teeth gnash together until my jaw aches and screams.
It’s really him.
My eyes drop, following the line of his hands as one disappears into the bag, emerging to bring a salty chip to his full mouth. I watch his lips part, a flash of his wet, pink tongue. A tongue I saw sliding inside someone else’s mouth last night.
No…not just someone.
A guy.
Fuck. Could it be the dude he’s sitting with? My eyes rove over Lance, but I can’t recognize anything. He was too deep in the darkness. I would probably be able to discern hismoans. They’ve been playing like a broken record all night, all morning, but there’s no way in hell I’d ever admit to that, let alone?—
My eyes slide over, meeting Abel’s blank stare head-on. I don’t mean to. I try to look away. To break the seemingly impenetrable connection, but I’m locked in tight, his virility strong and impossible.
Plump, pink lips curve, forming the essence of a word I immediately hate—and know that feeling will remain for the rest of my fucking life.
