The Pale Boy

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

My heart pounds against my chest in a flurry; the action it is making must be noticeable to the entire universe, the sound was deafening in my own ears.

Bryce spits out words, his face twisting into a furious scowl as he shakes his head with the weight of a boulder.

Hale clenches and unclenches his hands; my heart speeds up faster, the beating threatening to break my rib cage, I was sure my heart was already bruised.

The pounding throughout my body refuses to send signals to my brain-I want to run out there, push Bryce and Hale apart, pull Hale away, yell out for them to stop-but nothing comes. Maybe Hale doesn’t want you to pull them apart though, a voice in the back of my head says, maybe he doesn’t want you here at all.

I’m stuck in the corner of that hallway watching as they slaughter each other with more insults. My body seems frozen in place-it’s fight or flight signal broken.

“You’re a fucking liar, Hale,” Bryce says, his low voice resounding around the halls, seeming to slap everything around him, even me; I take in a breath.

“No,” Hale says in a haughty voice, taking a pause, “that was always you.”

I see Bryce’s fingers grip together into a fist, and rapidly, all too soon, he’s pulling his arm back.

The pounding in my head stops-my entire body is silent, my heart ceases. The signal is sent to the brain.

“Stop! Please stop,” I cry out, desperately trying to gain Bryce’s attention before anyone is harmed.

Bryce and Hale whip around to my voice as I pant frantically, Bryce’s hand lowers almost instantaneously. I let out a hasty sigh. Bryce’s face is open in surprise, so is Hales, but Hales is calculating, his eyebrows furrowing almost immediately.

I study them both, looking like a fragile scared cat, my eyes wide in panic. My sigh was let out too soon. Bryce may not have allowed his fist to fly, but it didn’t seem that I was going to stop him. His expression hardens at my sight and I feel the looseness that had entered my body for a quick second, depreciate.

Bryce turns to Hale first and my hearts back in the wrong place, my body bound up like before. I watch Bryce’s hands, praying they don’t make any more sudden moves. There wasn’t any more I could do besides shout again and I don’t think it will have the same effect on him as it did last time.

The same rigid stances were back, the sneer tracing Bryce’s face was gut-curling, his air was all but welcoming and he was radiating cold like I thought was only words from non-fiction books. I couldn’t see Hale.

Their silent looks had me on edge though. Their conversation was full of hate, their eyes conveying more than their mouths ever could. The silence was worse than their hurtled words before.