Mr. Superficial (BWWM)

Chapter 43

She gasps and looks up straight to me, a hard frown dominating her facial expression.

'That wasn't funny, you jerk! You made me feel bad for nothing!' Paise begins to punch my stomach which really, honestly, does nothing.

'It's my birthday.' My simple excuse is accompanied by a victorious smile.

She continues to stare at me, not seeing the obvious humor of the joke which only makes the temptation of laughing again harder to resist. I bite my lip, however, in an effort to prevent from doing so and bring a hand toward Paise's neck where I run my fingers through her sea of braids.

'Thanks for coming,' I shift my gaze to look at her now slightly more relaxed appearance.

'It's all good, you're worth the bus ride,' she smiles up at me, but before I can replicate the expression, her face distorts in confusion and slight distaste all at once. '... What's that noise?'

I'm perplexed for a second before her words click in my mind and I begin to laugh.

'Are you familiar with Skrillex?'

The answer is an obvious "no" as Paise looks blankly to me and I chuckle slightly, all the while having Bangarang continuing to terrorize our eardrums. I immediately notice the flustered look on her face and question it, a concern of my own accord slowly creeping inside.

'I don't think I can stay for long... Not with all the people and partygoers around...' Paise speaks worriedly, her eyebrows drawn and expression pained.

I stare at her for a second as my body fights to withstand an inevitable smile before grabbing her hand and wordlessly leading her inside.

The echoing of Paise's heels turns heads as we present ourselves to the "partygoers". When everything literally freezes in its motion, lest the blaring audio set, I can feel the rippling tension that circulates from her hand and naturally pull her closer to my side.

'Well ain't she pretty?' Monica speaks into the prolonged silence with one of her genuine beams of a smile.

While the mothers all immediately gush and agree with her statement, my gaze casually drifts over to both Kyle and Lucas who have a slightly stunned look on their faces. But before I have the chance to somehow shove her into my pocket for my own selfish endeavors and swim the Pacific Ocean, they smile and politely greet Paise.

'Hey, glad you could make it,' Kyle speaks from the ground before his eyes resume to his game of the latest version of Mortal Kombat he had been playing.

'Yeah, welcome,' Lucas agrees, smiling nicely at her and typing something on his MacBook Pro.

She replies to their greetings with a "'Hello'" and timid wave before releasing her hold from my hand to wrap her arms around herself.

Each day I find myself growing more and more into a jealous prick whenever Paise is around, and I had to fight my emotions in order to refrain from acting like a hideous sociopath and gouging out any peering eyes that looked her way.

But in all seriousness, I knew my friends didn't have the slightest of feelings for her— even if they wanted to.

No, it was against the strict allegiance of our established bro-code to hit on each other's crushes. Provided that they were over said girl, it was to his discretion whether or not they were allowed to pursue them. I find it gross dating girls that my friends had dated in the past, and vice versa, but Marisa was of no importance to me and I was more than happy to finally give her away.

I can't say the same about Paise, though.

'Darling, come here!' Mom calls, her nearing footsteps causing me to redirect my gaze to look at her. But I shortly realize that she isn't asking for me when she turns to greet Paise with a scarily wide grin etched onto her features.