Weak (BoyXBoy)

Chapter Seventeen; Stupid

~Abel*~

"I dunno, Kal. I don't think I like it," I said with a curl of my lip. I held one hand out in front of my face, tossing my backpack over my shoulder with the other. I sent Kala a glare as they chuckled. 

"Why not?" They asked, grabbing my hand and examining the shiny black nail polish for themselves. "I actually think it looks good on you. Like, weirdly good. What does Riley think?"

I snorted and shrugged, my cheeks suddenly feeling oddly hot. "He says it looks 'cute'."

"Yeah, well, there you go," They laughed, dropping my hand. I leaned up against the lockers as Kala began to open theirs up, stacking books inside. I sucked in a breath and cast my head back, jamming my hands in my pockets.

"Are you sure it'll actually help?"

"I mean, I think so," They said with a heave of their shoulders. They glanced over at me, pursing their lips. "That's what my sister said that she did to stop biting her nails. And since you refused to get acrylics, gel was the next best thing."

"You can tell her that I'm questioning her methods," I sighed, allowing my head to fall forward. I pulled a hand from my pockets and peered down at my nails. I can't argue; the lady at the nail salon really did a great job. But as a man who has never painted his nails in his life, it feels a little weird. "Instead of biting my nails, I'm just biting the skin around it. Which hurts."

"Have you tried gum?" They asked, quirking a brow and I shook my head. They held up a finger and rummaged around through their bag for a minute before finally pulling out a pack of gum and tossing it to me. Slamming their locker shut, they turned to me with a grin. "There you go; we'll call that plan B just in case the gel polish doesn't work. It'll keep your mouth busy."

"Don't worry; once I'm around Riley, my mouth is usually pretty-,"

"Don't you even say it, you nasty," Kala interrupted, wrinkling their nose and holding up a hand to silence me. I beamed and tucked the pack of gum into my pocket. I playfully jabbed at them with my elbow, waggling my brows.

"Awh, what's wrong, Kal? Are you jealous because you don't have anyone to keep your mouth busy-?" I started, but was cut off by a loud, familiar voice calling my name from down the hall. I furrowed my brows and turned to see Marlowe, bounding towards us with a huge smile on her face, dragging Carson behind her. Seeing him, I instantly grit my teeth and clenched my hands into fists. The closer that they got, the angrier I felt.

"Abel! Hey!" She called in that voice of wind chimes. Today, her chocolate curls were pulled into a loose ponytail, with spare locks falling out and framing her face. I could see her eyes light up as she realized that she had gotten my attention and her kind smile grew.  Carson, on the other hand, looked like his face had been put through a meat grinder. Although his clearly broken nose was bandaged up, you could see that it was still fairly swollen, and the bruises around his eyes made it look like he was the one who had been jumped. He didn't have a gentle smile like Marlowe and instead wore an angry scowl. They came to stop in front of us and Marlowe instantly released Carson's arm that she had been dragging him by. "I was wondering if you had a minute to talk."

"For you, baby doll, I've got all the time in the world," I drawled, not taking my eyes off of Carson, who was doing just about anything that he could to avoid it. I curled my lip. "For him? No. He can choke."

Marlowe snickered and grabbed Carson by the shoulder, shoving him forward. Her voice was sickly sweet. "Actually, it is Carson who wants to talk. He has something to tell you."

Carson sent her a glare, crossing his arms over his chest. He sucked in a deep breath and muttered a quick, "I'm sorry."

"And?" Marlowe pressed, tapping her foot on the ground, returning his glare tenfold. I blinked slightly in surprise and I glanced over at Kala, who didn't even look phased. They looked as though they could kill him on the spot.