perf*ct (boy × boy) ✔

two: if you can't say it, run

nathan dawson's pov

This is what I know about the guy who had just knocked me on the ground: he had quite a hook and judging by his expression he was furious at something I didn't know I had done.

In fact the look in his dark gray eyes was so piercing I could almost feel it drilling into the very core of my being. His lips were pursed together and his fair skin was red all over. He was just that mad, but was he really mad at me?

"I think y-you got the wrong.. The w-wrong.." For the love of god, not now. All those years of speech-language therapy flew out of the window as soon as things became a little stressful.

Ever since I was a kid I've been dreading to open my mouth, because I never knew what would come out. Would I stumble with my words? Would I get stuck with a syllable and repeat it till the end of days? Would they laugh at me if I did?

"The wrong what?" Gray Eyes accosted, his voice low and intimidating. I pondered whether I should try to explain, which would probably only frustrate both of us, or if it would be smarter to apologize and flee with my tail between my legs. Out of those two options, I chose the third one.

"Hey, I'm not done with you!" The guy shouted after me when I stumbled up to my feet and sprinted out of the scene like a madman. I slung open the main door of our school and let my legs guide me away from the danger.

Social skills? Never heard of those.

When I was done running, or more like I was going to pass out if I took another step, I hid behind a long row of lockers. I stood there, my hand still covering my bloody nose and panting so hard it made me consider whether I should start jogging on a regular basis. Or even walking to school and back more than once a year.

The good news was that I had somehow eluded Gray Eyes, for now. I still sneaked my way across the hallways, glancing around and ready to run for my life if needed. Then I locked myself in a bathroom and frowned as soon as I saw my reflection from the mirror.

First of all, I had this ridiculous deer caught in the headlights look in my blue eyes. It was as if I had just been chased by a chainsaw murdered and not some guy around my age, who most likely wasn't even angry at me.

What can I say, I'm just not a people person. Knock or not, they all scare me to some extent. Although I must admit that I found Gray Eyes more intimidating than all the others.

Beside the deer caught in the headlights look, I was frowning at the sight of blood. It always made me queasy and that time wasn't an exception. I hastily grabbed a stack of tissue paper, turned on the faucet and began to clean the mess.

The bridge of my nose had a ruddy spot, which would probably transform to a hefty bruise. Other than that I seemed to be in one piece. Again, for now. I needed to find Nicholas before I would meet my bloody end.

°°°°

"Don't tell me you walked into a wall again?" Liam Taylor, a.k.a my only IRL friend, started grinning gleefully.

"Come on, it only happened once." I grumbled and slumped on my seat next to him. Only one more class and then I would run to Nicholas and give him a few carefully selected words. No, cross that, I was going to rant at him until his ears burned. I was going to make him regret whatever he had done.

Anyway, back to Liam. He was my only friend at school, probably because he was the only one who had refused to give up before I started talking back to him. He wasn't exactly a popular guy, most likely as a result of his inability to read the room. Liam was all about inappropriate comments and cracking up in situations where you most certainly weren't supposed to laugh.

He wore thick glasses and his curly brown hair was like a cloud around his grinning face. Liam was even shorter than me and most of his clothes were baby pink. Last but not the least, he always wore a backward turned cap. I bet he only took it off in the shower, if not even there.

"So.. A door?" Liam guessed.

"No, I didn't walk into anything." I gave him a disapproving glare and exaggeratedly took my books and other necessities out of my bag to insinuate that the conversation was over.

"Now I know!" What did I tell you about Liam's inability to read the room? "You tripped over your own feet and landed on your face?"

Then I hit him in the face with my book, because that's what he deserved for laughing at my misery. In any other situation I am a man of peace, just so that you know.

°°°°

I was hastening my steps, trying to get to Nicholas' car before a certain Gray Eyes would find me. My idiot twin brother had better be ready to get roasted, because I had had more than an hour to plan everything I was about to say to him. And let me tell you, none of those things were going to be nice.

So, there I was, stomping across the school yard all determined and full of rage. Yet, all of that flew out of the window as soon as I saw my brother hanging out with a bunch of his friends by the car.

One of them was Samuel Gou, who was like two peas in a pod with Nicholas. Then there was Alex Crespo, also an inseparable part of my brother's group. The three other guys looked familiar, but I didn't care enough to learn their names. After all they were just the most popular jocks of our school and whatnot.

"Oh, did you walk into a wall again?" Nicholas asked lazily when he spotted me. He was leaning against the hood of his car.

"W-we need to talk." I was aiming to sound intimidating and assertive, and that was definitely neither of those things.

"Can we do that tomorrow?" Nicholas offered and without waiting for my answer, he threw his car keys to me. They landed right to my chest and bounced to the ground, because I didn't have the reflexes of a baseball player. Apparently Nicholas' friends found that amusing and started snickering at my expense.

"Great, I'll be at Zack's tonight. Don't forget to pick up Jonathan." Just like that Nicholas and his friends crammed into a black SUV and speeded away.

Okay so, my perf*ct twin brother isn't all that perf*ct. He can be a little bit of a.. douchebag sometimes.

I had already bombarded Nicholas with texts and even called him a couple of times, but he hadn't read any of the messages and the calls went right to voicemail. So there I was left with the question: how was I supposed to avoid the wrath of Gray Eyes until I could have that talk with my idiot brother?