Page 29 of Made for Cyn

Breathing deeply, I ignore the teen next to me, who gives me a piteous stare, and step outside the door. Cyn is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Alone, thank god.

“Hey,” I say, staring at his chin.

He grabs my face between his hands and says gruffly, “What’s wrong?”

“Um, nothing,” I whisper but he chuffs, tipping my chin back.

I drop my gaze to his nose because I don’t want to look into his eyes, afraid of what I might see.

“Beauty?” he says in a warning tone, and I finally relent, meeting his stare.

“Yes?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Cyn. I’m fine,” I whisper.

He searches my gaze before dropping his hands and stepping back.

“C’mon, I’ll take you home.”

The walk back to the vehicle is quick and the ride quiet while I think about the evening, going over the glorious parts and leaving the rest for another time.

When we pull up to the house, I exit on trembling limbs, exhausted from all the walking.

“Beauty?”

I turn with a faint smile, my mouth dropping open when he hands me a stuffed animal.

He doesn’t say anything, just shuts the door, but we stare at each other until they pull away, his eyes dark with an emotion I can’t describe.

???

The next few days, I avoid Cyn and the guys, and it’s only when I finally relent that I realize Cyn’s avoiding me too.

Although Jig is playful in PE, I ignore his antics until he quits. On Friday, I’m morose, and I don’t know if Cyn is angry with me, but I convince myself it doesn’t matter because I’m the angry one.

It doesn’t help much when he’s sitting at his table with another chick.

“There’s a party tonight in the Burg. We’ll head out after we change at home,” Iris says, dropping into the seat beside me.

“The Burg?”

“Yeah, it’s about an hour away.” She swipes up a fry and slathers it in ketchup.

“Why so far?” I ask suspiciously, casting a glance at Cyn, who’s still sucking face with the leach on his lap.

“Because that’s where the fun is,” she says, bumping my shoulder.

Staring into her dark eyes, I’m so happy to see my cousin back to her old self that I decide Cyn can go fuck himself and ignore the fact that maybe my spiteful reaction has more to do with his sexual preferences than anything else.

???

The Burg is a larger city to the south of our small town, and apparently, the kids around here go that direction for rowdier events from time to time. Although I’m not interested in wild per se, I am curious about the party as we roll up to a rundown house in an equally rundown neighborhood.

The inside is lit up with bodies crammed from wall to wall, and bass music pumps through the window. I see the door hanging by its hinges as we pass the threshold, and dubiously, I glance around as I follow Iris.

It’s so crowded I have to fight my way through, and my nose twitches from the sweet smell of weed creating a haze in the air.

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