Look at Me

Terry made her feet move away from him. She heard his words and deep inside she knew. It didn’t make it any easier though…
Hayden Peirce was completely and unequivocally in love with her best friend. Even if he wasn’t human, his soul had found its match in hers. They both had twin looks on their faces when they spoke of each other. It was unreal in an almost alien way to Terry. How could two people who had so little in common feel so deep a connection?
Paige was…
Well, she wasn’t like any other girl at the high school. Teenage girls were supposed to flirt and act like idiots. Paige was different though. She always had been…
She’d never had boyfriends and she’d always seemed strangely perfect. Terry had never though about it too much, but her friend was really was an unusually pure person. It was like she just didn’t see anyone THAT way…

And then there was Hayden. He was so much harder to describe. Partly because Terry really didn’t know him, but also because he’d managed to avoid any high school cliché known to man. He had shaggy emo-like hair. It was black and looked like he chopped it with a lawnmower. It also hid his eyes and therefore his emotions…
But he didn’t dress like he was about to skip off to a slit-my wrists-convention. He dressed in an unassuming invisible way, like he was trying to avoid attention. That made more sense now, considering his step-father’s homicidal tendencies.
That made him even less like Paige though. Her parents were happy and… not murdering each other. What did she see in his messed up self that she could relate to?

Paige, her best friend, she couldn’t be turning into a stranger. Terry had known her since she was six, but in the last couple days Paige acted like someone she didn’t know at all. Terry wanted to blame Hayden sooo badly. It was so easy to just say he was twisting Paige and hurting her.
But, the only person hurting Paige at that moment was her. Terry was turning her back on Paige, because she was keeping secrets. Paige never kept secrets or told lies or anything…
Again, it would be so simple to blame the freak show werewolf and his supernatural powers of persuasion. But that would be lying to herself. It wasn’t Hayden’s fault that she wasn’t especially understanding and Paige was afraid to tell her things…

***

Gabriel leaned tensely against the tailgate of the car. He watched Princess Frizzy march back toward him and he noticed she looked sad…?
Well, Hayden had obviously done an awesome job of making her feel better. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. That would sooo not be a pretty sight; a mixture of braces and blubber that would probably scar him for life. He told himself that was why he stepped forward to meet her, but of course his soul [If he had one] knew better. He felt guilty, because it was kind of her fault she looked the way she did.
“Terry,” he said quietly as he stepped into the glow of the rear lights.

***

Gabriel Vern. Bathed in a mixture or red and gold light it was impossible to tell what he was…
Was he good or evil?
Angel or Demon…
Terry was inclined to think the latter. After he’d decided to “surprise” her the way he did. It had been cruel and unfair for her to find out that way. But as he stepped closer, she had to ask, “Just, who are you exactly?”
Sure it was kind of a bitchy question, but she was in a bitchy mood. And he had just sort of popped up out of nowhere. Seriously, WTF???

***

It was perfect, if somewhat obvious question. Who was he? Why wouldn’t she ask that? He was a stranger that had stepped into her sane little life and ripped it to shreds. It made sense that she was curious about him…But Gabriel didn’t know how to answer her.
Who was he? Was he a monster… or just an orphaned boy who ran away from the only home he’d know?
He paused and then said softly, “I ask myself that all the time. If you come up with an answer let me know.”
Terry looked surprised by his response and maybe even a little bit sadder.
Shit, he really needed to try to stop helping, because it was sooo not helping.