BLOOD-BOUND BULLET

CHAPTER FIVE ☆ Paisley

☆ VERA///

"You are such a bitch, you know that?" Paisley scowled at me, her eyes darker than I'd ever seen them before, like a forest at night.

"Paisley," I tried, but she wouldn't have it.

"I thought you were my friend! Friends don't fucking flirt with each other's boyfriends!" She clapped her hands with every word.

"I wasn't flirting with him! He was coming into me!"

She shook her head. The birds on the electrical wires flew away. "You're just saying that because you know he's popular! I get it, okay? I really do - he's a nice, popular guy, I know he gets a lot of attention! But you're my friend!"

I groaned, mentally bashing my head against a wall.

"I'm telling you, I don't like him like that. I never have! He was talking to me, and I never started anything. Look, I tried to tell you -"

"You tried to tell me?!" She yelled. Her braid fell from her shoulder and onto her back. "What you did was fuck things up. Let me tell you, Vera," She came closer, and now I really feared her.

Paisley was the girl everybody liked. She was smart, kind, and always genuine. She was as genuine as it got, and her realness was what made us friends in the first place. It's also what caused this current problem because she seems to only accept the reality from her own eyes.

"Me and Manny were fine before you told me anything. We were great. But then you showed me those pictures, and for what? He told me they weren't real. He showed me, okay, I've seen his phone."

"Look, I didn't mean to mess things up, I was just trying to look out for you!" I pleaded.

It was obvious she didn't believe me. I mean, maybe I wouldn't either, if I was in her shoes. The whole situation almost didn't sound real.

Rewind: This all originated in February. At that time, Paisley and I were still good friends. I had met her in the seventh grade when we bonded over our common taste in music. Aside from Niveah, she was really the only one I could call my friend - and we had classes together, so I was beyond happy. I found it hard to make friends - for most of my life, it's just been Niveah and me, which is also unintentionally hard because of our age difference. There's just some limitations. She had her group, and all I had was her. Until Paisley.

She was really pretty, with pretty ginger hair, freckled skin, and beautiful green eyes. And her personality was a pleasure. With her, I felt comfortable to be myself. It was like I wasn't so alone anymore, and she accepted me for who I was - quiet, sometimes boring, sometimes too energetic and gullible. She was a crystal, a beautiful, pleasant rock I could lean on. Fast forwards to November. She met Manny. He was a junior at our school, and I remember that freshman year, when Paisley laid her eyes on him, she's been crushing over him ever since.

It was heart eyes, constantly, for a good twenty minutes every time he walked by. I felt happy, knowing she was enjoying herself for the most part. My heart soared when the two of them started talking at the end of the month.

Come mid-December, they were dating. And by Febuary, it was when I got a text. I wasn't on bad terms with Manny, but it wasn't like I was super close with him either. His text was short, a conversation starter.

"Hey, you're Paisley's friend, right?"

"Yes, that's me," I answered.

I didn't think much of it. At school, I'd get these feelings like I was being watched. Sometimes, I'd catch his friends looking at me and then turn away when our eyes met. But I didn't think anything of it because Paisley was so happy, and I wasn't about to ruin that with my paranoia.