Hazel's point of view.
I wake up to sun in my face and pain in my limbs. Neil greets me and nothing more. I guess he understood that I won't answer his questions. I can't handle someone else knowing about the way Vince and Eve tricked me.
"Parker is on his way," he says.
I nod, sitting on his couch silently. Parker eventually arrives. He enters the small house, a sheepish look on his face.
"Hey, man," Neil says and pats him on the shoulder.
Parker gives him a thankful smile before walking towards the couch and crouching in front of me. He takes my hands in his. I hope my eyes don't look as puffy as they feel.
"Not feeling well?" he asks softly.
I shoot Neil a glance. Though I begged him not to tell my brother, I wasn't sure he would listen. He offers me a gentle smile. I look back at Parker. His eyebrows crash together with worry. I don't know what to say to reassure him.
"I think it's my period," I lie.
Parker smiles reassuringly.
"Let's skip school and stay at home today, what do you say?"
I smile back at him.
"Okay."
We bid Neith goodbye and leave. The day goes well and I'm glad it's a Friday. I won't have to see Vince until Monday. I lock myself into my room and Parker let me. I don't remember the last time I cried as much. I even ripped Vince's pictures off the wall, heartbroken. Unable to throw them away, I put them into a box and hid it under my bed. Moving on is hard. Of course, Monday inevitably comes around. I walk into the school, faking my usual confidence. I don't see Eve anywhere, but there are cheerleaders everywhere. I don't know who to trust anymore. I don't want to see Vince but at the same time, all my friends are in the football team. I can't just avoid them all. I tell myself that at least Neil and Parker will be there as I head to our usual spot.
Neil is the first one to see me. He smiles softly at me and waves. I smile back, trying to ignore the sudden attention from the other players. Parker nods at me in acknowledgment and keeps on telling whatever story he was telling to some players.
"You feeling better?" Aaron asks, putting a touchy hand on my shoulder.
Neil seems to tense up and his lips move like he's about to speak. Vince stops him by pushing Aaron's hand off.
"Keep your hands to yourself, man," he tells Aaron with mean eyes before looking at me. "Hi, Stiles." His tone is suddenly teasing and casual.
Though it's a bit insulting to see how he's convinced that I would have forgiven him so quick, I feel like answering with a joke and smiling and hugging him. But I can't. I won't. I can't keep being selfish. I don't answer him, I don't even look at him though I'm sure he's as irresistibly handsome as usual. I briefly wonder if knows how much his girlfriend injured me. I wonder if he'd be any surprised to see the bruises all over my body. I decide to stop thinking about him. Instead, I look at Aaron, right into his brown eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine now." I smile, a little fakely, but I think it looks true enough.
Vince clears his throat awkwardly. Some players laugh at the way I ignored him. Before he can try to speak to me again, I decide to go lean on the wall Neil is leaning on and have some small talk.
"How was your weekend?" I ask.
He bends a bit to look at Vince and then back at me in confusion. I raise my eyebrows to avoid any questions. He gets the hint.
"It was alright. I saw my father," he says bitterly.
His father has been in jail for a couple years now and will be for a while. Neil sees him occasionally, when his mother agrees to it. She doesn't have any legal authority over him anymore but he likes to use her as an excuse to only see his father once in a while.
"Wasn't too rough I hope?" Neil shakes his head.
I hear Vince mumble some things to my brother and I have a bad feeling it's about me. I get closer to Neil in hopes that can give Vince the impression that he's interrupting something. Neil gives me a flattered grin. I wink. Luckily (not really), Eve comes by to kiss Vince and talk with him. About what, I don't want to know. Neil must see my visible uneasiness because he offers to go elsewhere and I agree.
Avoiding Vince is hard when he's constantly there, acting like nothing happened. He hurts me, I'm sure he knows he does. At lunch, he spoke to me again. We're sitting next to each other, as usual. I regret not begging Neil to switch places.
"Can I have it?" he asks, nudging my strawberry milk.
I frown at myself, wondering whether I should answer. I look at him briefly. His hair is falling over his starry green eyes and his mouth wears his fucking perfect smile. I hate that smile. I hate how much I like it. No, I can't break. I shake my head vigorously.
"No," I mumble, eyes down, opening it and drinking it all up.
He chuckles, amused.
"Alright, alright. I wasn't going to run away with it, Stiles."
I shrug, raising my head up again. From the corner of my eye, I spot Eve, looking at us. A shiver makes me tremble. Neil bumps into my shoulder on purpose.
"What?" I snap, distressed by Eve's presence.
He giggles and starts telling me the dumbest, craziest story. It sounds fake but it's entertaining enough to grab my attention. Once the story is done, he tells another and Vince is long forgotten.
In the corridors, when Vince greets me, I ignore him. Sometimes, I catch a glimpse of a frown on his face but it disappears as fast as it comes. Even in the locker room, I try my best to reduce our interactions. It's tedious but necessary. It hurts to break the relationship I spent so long building but it would be selfish not to. I'll get over it and Vince too. It's not like I matter much to him anyway. I'm just Parker's dumb sister. Eve is always there, near Vince, to watch me. I'm so sick of all this.
"What's up with you and Vince?" Parker asks as we're eating dinner in the kitchen after school.
I bite into my slice of pizza evasively. What's with everybody and not minding their business?
"You can ignore Vince all you damn want, but you sure as hell can't ignore me," he says matter-of-factly, crunching on some baby carrots.
I roll my eyes and try to find a valid answer. He notices, rolling his eyes back at me. I scoff and he does too.
"I hate you sometimes," I grumble.
He just laughs like a moron before getting serious again.
"So what is it? What did he do?"
"Does it matter?" I answer his question with another. He ignores me and keeps going.
"It's the locker room thing, isn't it?" he offers and I have to admit it would make for a plausible explanation.
"Are you done?" I pretend I'm annoyed so he feels smart.
By the stupid proud smile on his lips, I can tell it worked.
"So that's what it is. Makes sense. I'd be pissed too."
I hum, hoping that's the end of it. But he keeps talking.
"You planning on ever forgiving him?"
I bite the pizza crust, hard. "Hardly."
He's laughing again.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, when I wished for you to move on, I didn't mean like this."
"Doesn't make me feel better in the least," I say honestly.
"Vince can be an ass," he tells me, as if I didn't notice already.
"Yeah."
"But he cares."
I glare at him. I can't believe he's still trying to defend Vince. He doesn't know what I know but still. Shouldn't he take my side and only mine? I make a sound of disapproval through a mouthful of pizza.
"No, because, little do you know, Haz, he actually asked me why you were ignoring him."
My eyes widen. How is that even a question? What an entitled jerk.
"I hate his guts," I spit. Parker snorts.
"Not sure I fully believe that. Anyway, I'll make sure to tell him why you've been avoiding him. He should let you breathe a bit," he says.
I breathe out in relief. "Thank fuck."
"For a week or so," he adds teasingly and I want to strangle him.
Since that day, Vince has been leaving me alone. Mostly. He's still there, he still stares at me. I don't know if he's going to apologize. I hope not. Parker might force him though if he gets tired of us fighting. Neil has been by my side, more than Vince ever has. But I can't just love him. My heart doesn't work like that. It's more complicated than that.