[This post is from Kailey Astoris’s point of view.]
Peril exhaled a long-suffering sigh, one that suggested the weight of every single one of his teenaged years. Kailey continued to stare parallel to where he was sitting, trying not to pay any attention to him, though the sound was already enough to start to unravel her resolve.
I should have just gone home. I should’ve gone home and locked the door. No one would have come to bother me, especially not with the storm. I swear, what was I thinking?
But that was the question, wasn’t it? She was thinking too much, too many things.
Everything was just too much.
What the actual hell did I do to deserve any of this, really? Why me?
Peril sat down beside her and she jumped, then glared at him. He just offered her a cheeky grin.
“What the actual hell, Peril?”
He shrugged. “You were in your own world. I asked you three times if you were okay and you didn’t answer.”
“I was ignoring you.”
“That was not your ‘I’m ignoring you’ look, Kay. You were on another planet.”
Her nose wrinkled as her fingers tightened around her mug. “I don’t want to talk.”
“Yeah, I heard you say that.” He shook his head. “I just really don’t care that you don’t want to, because I can tell you need to, so why don’t you just spill and get it off your chest and then you can go back to being your bright and sunshiny self?”
“I am not bright and sunshiny.”
“Compared to some of our friends, trust me, you are. But right now, you’ve got a level of attitude toxic enough to take down a buck, so I wish you’d just chill.”
“I’d rather hit you.”
“You’d have to catch me first.”
“Is that a challenge?”
Peril just grinned and it took every fiber of her being not to punch him in the face right then and there.
