Page 14 of Make Me Scream
Abel sniffles, face blotchy and perfectly pink, bloomed in his favorite color.
“You don’t know what’s about to happen, do you?” he says—his first words in so long. His voice is so weak, it cracks, and his words are barely distinguishable.
My brows furrow, and my stomach sinks simultaneously. “What do you mean?” I ask, but I don’t think I want to know the answer.
Why can’t we just keep living in our weird hate-fuck situation we’ve been in? It was working just fine—better than fine, even. When it was all so much less complicated apart from our fucked up internalized shit cohabiting into a disturbingly toxic vortex.
“It’s over, Peris.”
My heart stops cold.
“Over,” I repeat, deadpan. “What could possibly be over between us?”
At this, Abel laughs. It’s a wet, choking sound. I hate how fucking hot it sounds, the way it makes my groin tighten and my dick twitch, like he’s been choking on it.
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Fuck you, Abel,” I snap as shove him, needing him thefuck away.I can’t touch his skin, see the flush of it when I graze each scar…
“Yeah, baby.Fuck me,” he snarks, andgoddamnit!I bend down and wrap my fingers around his throat—just like he wanted me to. I slam him down to the floor until his head cracks against the tile. I bend over him, teeth bared and skimming the tip of his crooked nose.
Abel’s eyes are half-lidded and so bloodshot, each vein is burst from the intensity of his cries. It makes it look as if his eyes are bleeding, and I’ve never seen anything more apt. I close my fingers around his windpipe and cut off his oxygen until he begins to choke, reveling in the sound as it travels through my ears likeharmonious music.
“I think I was starting to forget how much I fucking hate you, runt,” I rasp against his nose, slowly dragging the edge of my teeth along his skin, leaving vivid, red marks along his pale flesh in my wake.
The drag of his lips against me burns hotter than the sun. I pull back just enough to notice he’s trying to speak. Narrowing my eyes, I debate for a moment whether I want to hear his voice or not before I finally give in and release my grip on his throat just enough to allow air in.
Abel sucks in oxygen, gasping and panting like a bitch in heat. “It’s better if you hate me,” he finally chokes out, and my world stops spinning.
CHAPTER 7
PERIS
“How is he?”
“How should I know?” I mutter, flipping aimlessly through the channels. I can’t really see the T.V. through the blurry sheen of my unfocused eyes.
Ma’s hand on my arm nearly makes me jolt out of my skin. “What’s going on, Peris?” she asks softly. Her eyes, nearly the same color as mine, are narrowed in sadness and despair. They look so similar to how they did back when she found out about Luke, and my stomach curdles with the reminder while simultaneously filling with venom knowing she’s feeling the same for Abel as she does for me.
I look away. I can’t fucking stand the sight—the sorrow, thepity.“You know more about that than I do, Ma,” I finally answer, swallowing the lump of bile lodged in my throat.
“You heard the same as I did.”
“Exactly.”
“But the way he was…”
I pull in a deep breath and release it slowly. “Yeah.” Part of me understands why the little runt is acting the way he is. He’s going back to his roots—deception and aloofness and cruelty that’s bitter and strange.
But the other part of me—the biggest part—is mostly justpissed the fuck off.Because he has to know what’s happening with Lucy doesn’t have to change much of anything. Sure, he’ll have to move out, but maybe that’s for the best. We won’t be foster brothers, and that’s one less obstacle for us to worry about… and what the actual fuck am I even thinking right now?
I’m talking about obstacles between me and Abel like it’s an actual possibility for us to ever be together… like that’s something that could happen, or that I even want to happen.
My body loses tension, and I drop back into the cushions, heat filling my face as sickness swarms my gut at the realization.
I want Abel. And I want him to myself.
I don’t want to share him, and I don’t want him to leave.
