The Four

Melt

Landreth
I found her where she usually was. The exit door was propped against warning, a few estranged voices fluttering in after her raspy one.

Whipping my face clean of tears, I tossed myself out and into the icy cold breeze.

She sat at the bottom of the steps with a blunt in hand and two men sandwiching her against the concrete bounds of the building. One was whispering sweet nothings into her delicate ear as if they hadn't just met, the other sat stoically rolling a second fat blunt tight.

I watched his nimble fingers work as they tucked and rolled at expert speed. He had the thing lit and at his lips before I could make it to the bottom of the stairwell.

"Pat." My eyes stung with urgency, my brain scrambling for a solution to the phantom pressure tormenting my lips. "I need your help."

Her glassy, deep brown eyes shifted lazily up at my face and took in my panic along with a drag of her blunt. She laughed the smoke out at my features before taking them between her soft hands.

"Oh, baby." She cooed. "What happened?"

My nose wrinkled at the intense smell, my hand raising to flap it away. I told her the sobering events that occurred in my room in a rush, my emotions threatening to burst at every word.

Her finger ran lightly over my bottom lip as she contemplated what to do, how to fix this. After a moment of snickering, she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a tube of lipstick. It was long and hauntingly red. When she pulled the stick from the liquid I could see just how thick the makeup was. It was like molasses but full of pigment. I could instantly tell that it could cover up anything. 

And when she smeared it onto my mouth I thought maybe, for the briefest moment, that it had actually worked. I let the feeling of the velvety stick gliding over my over sensitive lips take over me and attempt to wash me clean. But I let hope seep into me all too quickly as the fear of heartbreak split my chest in two.

She shushed the tremble of my lower lip, running her thumb over my chin. My head lowered at the feel of her touch, at remembering the feel of Kev.

Peter
His eyes, red from the taunting of heated tears, burned delicate holes into my skin like a cigarette burn. It smeared into me in slow circles, marking my tormented skin with its toxicity, poisoning my mind and blood. I took in a sharp breath in attempt to snuff out the burning in my chest but it did little to help.

The sweltering ruby red of his lips, lipstick smeared at the corners called to me and I answered with a wave over. He entered, fists tight on his shirt.

"Who put this on you?" I hummed softly as he took a seat at the edge of my bed, his weight making a dip in the mattress. "It looks good."

I could feel the throbbing bulge whince in my pants, tired of friction but still needy for the boy tearing up next to me.

"My lips," he placed his fingers to them and looked away. "Kev kissed me and I-"

I nearly choked on my breath, my mind replaying his words like an echo in my skull. To say the least, I was surprised. There hadn't been a single bit of me that thought the emotionless doll would make a move. It had been Landreth I thought would crack and though he had, it was in an entirely different way than I had expected.

"I can still feel his lips." He pressed his mouth into his palm which in turn smeared the rest of the ruby gloss.

I caught his wrist and released his mouth from the confines of his harsh palm.

"Who helped you with-" I kept my voice low and gentle despite the fire raging up through my guts. "This."

"Pat."