Floating Face Down (boyxboy)

Chapter Sixteen

[A/N] We're back... we're back... Updates for this book should become much more regular and predictable from now on. But just in case I have my Twitter page (@OkiNeptune) where I update people during delays. Let's go. ᕙ( •̀ ⤙ •́ )ᕗ

I didn't know what it was about the guy, just looking him in the eyes made my skin prickle and the hairs on my back stand on end. Sure it could have been the fact that the memory of him stabbing someone to death in that dark abandoned carpark was still fresh in my mind like some strange imagined scene by an unwell mind, but I wasn't sure what I was feeling was fear exactly.

Awareness, intrigue, something tingling in my fingers, something warming up my neck and hands.

I looked up at him and he looked me dead in the eyes with those black orbs that refused to allow any light in.

"Give me my diary back." I demanded.

He tilted his head, dragging his fingers through his hair. "Don't you wanna confess something before making demands?"

I looked him over, a slight chill running down my spine with the strange way he looked me over as well, a slow icy gaze, maybe he was imagining me laying pale and lifeless with flared nostrils on that tarpaulin as well.

"Confess to what?" 

He eyed me down and drummed his fingers on one of the abandoned school tables behind him as he leaned back on it. There was a scratch on his lip I could see better now, in the full light, it had bled and scabbed over, another on the side of his profile, on his cheekbone, and his hands had a couple plasters on them too.

I wondered what he got up to, outside of what I'd seen that night this guy had to have a full life that I couldn't fathom, he still seemed like some dark entity that had stepped out of the night and into real life.

"You broke out of the room." He stated calmly, inky black eyes watching me.

"You left the key in the lock."

He stared at me, the thought of a smile ghosting his lips. "Thanks for leaving it there for me."

I felt the stammer in my throat before I spoke. Instead it presented as a slight tremor in my voice that I regretted. "No problem."

Giving any amount of power to this guy felt like a mistake I would sorely regret. Just being near him made the hairs on my arms and legs stand on end. The air around him seemed effortlessly electric.

He opened the diary again and I felt something uncomfortable brush inside my stomach, my face felt warm but the feeling associated with that was floating off somewhere nearby, just out of reach.

"They asked us to pair up in science. I wanted to pair up with Victor but Emma grabbed his arm before I could even take a step towards him and gave me a look like don't interfere. She should know that he has a girlfriend. He's shown me pictures of her before. Does she really think she can get anywhere doing some stupid litmus test in science? He's not interested in her."

I felt that abrasive feeling inside me make my stomach muscles tense up. Embarrassed, that was what I was feeling, it wasn't as pronounced but it was there. My face felt hot, but my mind clear, a combination I had never experienced before.

I got up from my position on the floor and Pike didn't stop me, moving to sit on a table near the one Arran was sitting on to look at me with a relaxed grin, apparently entertained.

My fingers itched to grab the diary back from those elegant olive coloured fingers. 

He used no mocking inflection in his voice, no dramatic tones, just his own smooth, low voice, hooded eyes passing over the text, the booklet held just barely by relaxed fingers.