Page 63 of Pippin & Nacho

I refused to go any closer, shivering from the rain soaking through my clothes. Cueball huffed and yanked me inside. “Shut up, Blaze,” he said. “Stop being a dick for five minutes.”

Blaze scowled at his friend. “What the fuck crawled up your ass, Cue?”

Cueball didn’t bother to respond and instead gave Blaze a death stare, shutting him up. Fuck, to have a power like that would be awesome. I could shut people up with a glare. No one would ever pick on me.

He tugged on me harder and forced me to sit on the bench. “Talk.”

I chewed on my lip ring and shook my head vigorously, raining water everywhere. At least it hid my tears.

“Speak. I’ve never seen you without a smile before. It’s weird. Talk. Now.”

I quickly glanced at Blaze, not sure I wanted to talk in front of him.

“Ignore Blaze,” Cueball said, as if reading my mind.

“Hey!”

Another hard stare from him shut Blaze up again before turning those ancient amber eyes on me.

My body shivered from the wetness and cold… and maybe a little fear as I held myself.

“Uhm, I just needed to get away from Nate for a bit… er, Nacho. He told someone my secrets, and I got upset.”

Cueball nodded thoughtfully. “Understandable.”

His single word boosted my confidence a bit, validating my feelings toward Nate. It didn’t take much for doubt to creep in, so having someone give it helped a lot.

“It’s just that some… really bad things happened to me when I was younger, and it fucked me up pretty bad. It messed with my brain, and my brain doesn’t work so well, so people get frustrated with me. I’m fake—all fake. My smiles aren’t real half the time. Sometimes smiles hurt when I just want to scream. But smiles help make people not want to hurt me when they get frustrated with me. But Nate told Alpha what happened. I get that he’s frustrated. He had to take a second job because I can’t keep money shit straight, and it makes him tired. I don’t like him not at home. The change is hard, and I miss him. I worry he’ll not come home one day. But I feel betrayed. He promised never to tell anyone, but he did…”

Cueball raised a hand, shutting me up. “Let me process this… We need to break this all down. So, something bad happened to you as a kid. What happened?”

I looked down at my worn Vans. I’d never told anyone else about what had happened to me except to Nate.

“It’s okay if you can’t talk about it.”

“Why are you being so nice?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

I looked up at him, wide-eyed and with a burning face. “Ah… sorry. I don’t know. It's just a vibe, I guess.”

“He’s a fucking teddy bear,” Blaze added. “A teddy bear that bites, but still all snuggly and shit.”

Cueball’s face remained blank as he looked at his friend, but it also seemed like he said a lot with a look, though I wasn’t sure what. “Do you really want to talk about teddy bears and snuggles? We can if you want. I bet Pippin here would love to know more about your fondness for the big, snuggly types.”

Blaze scowled and pointed a tattooed and ringed finger at Cueball. “Fuck. Off.”

I covered my mouth and sniggered. “I already know.”

For the first time, Cueball quirked a small smile, which lit up his entire face.

“That’s it! I’m fucking outta here!” Blaze stood and stomped out his cigarette.

Cueball pointed at him. “Sit. Down. We’re going to help our new friend here.”

Blaze huffed and sat down but didn’t argue. I was starting to believe that Blaze was more bark than bite.

“Do you want to tell me what happened to you or not?”

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