Shades of Pink

by 33 authors

  “My head hurts.” Pays said softly.

  Kyan looked at him. “Well, you did bang it pretty hard on that bench.”

  “Someone had to save you.” The young man reached for her hand, brought it up to his lips and kissed placed a kiss on it.

  Her cheeks flushed as pink as her hair when he did that. Kyan was actually speechless as he still held onto her hand.

  “You are free to go.” The nurse said. “And don’t even look at the other four kids. You two just go.” She told Shanna and Robert.

  The two teens started to walk by, but Robert couldn’t help himself. “Dumb freak.” He whispered in her direction.

  Even though his head throbbed, Pays was on his feet unbalanced, but was able to slam Robert into the nearest wall. “Say that again…I dare you, cocksucker.” He shoved the guy again. “I dare you.”

  Robert laughed. “She’s a freak, because she hangs out with freaks like you she-male.”

  Anger distorted Pays face and he cold cocked the other boy with a right hook. Once Robert was down and forgetting his throbbing painful head, the half Korean boy went to town. Sitting on top of the other and hitting him.

  Kyan’s hands covered her mouth. No guy had ever stood up for her. Anasazi was beside her as they watched Ceres try and pull his cousin off him.

  “She’s…a...FREAK!” Robert yelled out the last part.

  “SHUT UP!” Pays hit him again. “Stop saying that. I won’t have you disrespecting the girl I’m in love with.” He hit Robert in the nose breaking it instantly.

  The other boy went limp and found some strength to cover his nose. He was able to roll over as his attacker was pulled to his feet. Robert was helped up by another student. Blood was running through his fingers. “You bastard.”

  Breathing hard he glared at the other and after a moment he turned and faced a crying Kyan. “Ah…Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap like that.” Brown eyes looked at his hands. “Crap.”

  “All of you go home for the day.” The Principal had come into the room. He was told everything that just happened. “Get your belongings and go.”

  * * *

  Ceres was driving. He and Anasazi were talking, while Pays and Kyan were sitting quietly in the backseat. Her hands were in her lap and she was twirling her thumbs around. She wanted to ask him if he really meant what she heard him say. Was he really in love with her?

  “Would you still like me to tutor you?”

  She turned her head, looking straight at Pays. “Ah…Um…How are you feeling? You did hit that bench pretty hard.”

  “Nah. I’m cool. My head is starting to feel better.” He replied.

  She hesitated for a moment. “If you want.”

  The remaining car ride was full of silence. She stared out the back window she sat at. Watching the houses, people and trees pass by. She wanted to ask Pays if he really meant what he said many times, but she couldn’t get the courage to do it. At least not right now. She felt the car come to a stop and realized Ceres had parked in front of her house.

  Before Kyan knew it her door was opened and Pays held out his hand for her. She reached for her bag grabbed it and took his hand and didn’t care if blood was still on it. “I’ll see you later, Ana.”

  “Bye, Ky.” Anasazi rolled her window down and made a phone with her fingers. ‘Call me’ she mouthed and she nodded.

  “Yo cuz. Call me when you’re ready to come home. I’ll smooth things out with my mom and dad. I’ll make sure to tell them you were defending a woman’s honor, like the gentleman you are.” Ceres drove off.

  Kyan walked him up the walk way and into the house. “Mom, Jani, Kevin, dad.” She called as she closed the door.

  “Sweetheart. The school called. Are you okay?” Shirley hugged her youngest daughter.

  “Yeah mom. I’m fine. Some of my old friends were picking on me and the boy right here protected me.” Pointed her head to her side, she made the introductions. “Mom, this is Pays Kwak. Pays this is my mother Shirley Overton.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Overton.” He extended his right hand. “Oh, forgive me. I still have that boy’s blood on my hands.”

  “Oh, aren’t you Soo Hwang’s nephew?” asked Shirley.

  “Yes, ma’am. She’s my aunt. Aunt Soo and Uncle Banner took me in after my parents died.” He said.

  Kyan grabbed his arm. “We’re going to my room. He’s helping me with some school work that I am having trouble with.”

  “Well, okay. Have fun. I’ll bring you some soda in a little bit. Would you like a snack?” she asked.

  “Yes, that’ll be great mom. We didn’t get to finish lunch.” She called from the stairs.

  Once in her room, she closed the door set her bag down, helped Pays with his schoolbag and walked him into her bathroom. Turning on the faucet she took his hands the soap and started cleaning them. She never lifted her head up as she spoke. It was better that way for her.

  “Did you really mean what you said?” she asked.

  Pays looked down at her. “About what?” his cheeks turned a bright pink. He knew exactly what she was talking about and he was hoping she didn’t hear that.

  She lifted her head and she met those chocolate brown eyes as he looked at her. She noticed how pink his cheeks were and they were probably as pink as her own were. “About being in love with me?”

  “Oh.” He watched her get a towel and start drying his hands off. “Yes. I’ve been in love with you since I first laid eyes on you. I’ve been too shy to tell you. So I watched you. But those friends of yours made it hard.”

  She set the towel aside. “Ex-friends thank you.” Kyan paused. “You know what happened to me.” The pink loving girl took his right hand and placed it on top of where her breast once was. “You were in love with the old me. This is the new me.” Tears stung her eyes.

  “No. You are still the Kyan I fell in love with. It doesn’t matter if you had a…um…” he was embarrassed to even say the word. Gentlemen to him never say a word like that. Even though it was a decent word.

  “I am not. I’m a freak with only one breast. How can anyone love me like this?” she walked out of her bathroom and sat on her bed, hands over her face and her elbows on her knees. She began sobbing.

  Pays sighed and went back into her bedroom. Sitting beside her, he wrapped an arm around her and spoke softly. “You’re still a woman. Even if you had to have both of them removed you would still be the Kyan I fell in love with.” He moved his hand up and down her arm. “Look, you may look a little different to yourself, but to others you are perfectly normal. You should embrace yourself.”

  She removed her hands from her face. Eyes a little red from crying and unable to look at the cute boy beside her, she stared at the floor as her mouth opened and the words came out. “How do I look to you?”

  The young man moved his arms away from her, entwined them together and placed them on his lap. “Let me tell you something first, before I answer that. You see my parents died when I was younger, so, my cousin Ceres’ parents got guardianship of me. A year and a half ago my Aunt Soo was diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctors did everything and when chemo wasn’t working the next step was a mastectomy.”

  As blue eyes stared at the floor they widened as she heard the words. Did she hear that right? His aunt had the same thing done?

  “I know what you’re thinking and yes it’s true. I swear on my parents grave, I am telling you the truth. My aunt had her right…um…” Pays swallowed. “She…um…had her right breast removed. Like you, she was uncomfortable and didn’t feel like a full woman. My aunt did go through depression over this. One day I bought flowers for my aunt brought them home and went into her bedroom. She looked at them and then me. I told her that she was as beautiful as the first day I saw when I was a toddler and she still had that beauty even if she was down to only one breast. I even told her that she has been my second mother and I haven’t seen her in a different light then and I still don’t till this day. You know what? What I t
old my Aunt Soo that day changed her. She went out there and showed everyone who she was.”

  Pays stood up and squatted down before her and took her hands. He already knew she couldn’t look at him and that was okay. Just as long as she could hear him. “Now…You just asked me how you look to me and this is the truth. When I first saw you in Junior High I was smitten. I fell for you hard, but couldn’t get the courage to talk to you and plus you ran with the popular crowd. Then you started missing school and I had no idea why and as you weren’t in school for a while Anasazi told me why. I couldn’t believe that could happen to you…”

  “It happened because I was cruel to other kids. This is my punishment and my other punishment is you. Because I’ve been in love you with you too, but honestly how could anyone love me?”

  “Listen to me.” He placed his hands on her face gently and got her to look at him. “Look at me. My looks are feminine so other girls are threatened of me, but you…” he smiled. “You just said you’ve been in love with me too. Which means you see past my looks?” Browns locked on those sapphire orbs. “You are beautiful, especially in my eyes. I love you for who you are, not for the way you look. I’m not like most guys. I’m not a boob guy. You know what attracts me to a girl?”

  Even though his hands remained on her face, Kyan couldn’t get the courage to look at him and that was mainly because those words coming out of those slender full lips were telling the truth and her heart knew it, but why wasn’t her brain registering it. “What…” the words caught in her throat. So she cleared it and tried to finish. “…attracts you to a girl?”

  “Her smile and blue eyes.” Pays hands left her face, his right hand was under her chin and he lifted her head so he could see her face. “Even though you’ve been crying you’re still beautiful. Your eyes have a sparkle to them when you’ve been crying. I like that.”

  She lost her voice before she could even talk. Swallowing she stared at him. “I’m still beautiful to you?”

  “Yes. You are more beautiful to me than you’ve ever been. I love you and I would love it if you would be my girlfriend.”

  “Yes.” The word left her pink slender lips before she even thought it. Kyan’s arms were around his neck and they both stood up.

  Pays wrapped his own arms around her waist pulling her closer. If he was going to feel her, he was damn well going to feel all of her. That also meant feeling her one boob against him.

  “You have any idea how I feel right now? All this time I was feeling sorry for myself, but you opened my eyes. I love you so much Pays.”

  He pulled back to look at her. “You are beautiful like a rose.” Pays ran his fingers through her long pink strands. “As beautiful as a pink rose.”

  As they stared at each other for the longest time, Pays finally took the next step and kissed her passionately on the lips.

  ~~~

  Perci T. Brooks is a California native who lives with her family, 2 dogs and 4 cats. She first got into writing when she read R.L. Stine books and wanted to write just like him, but she couldn’t write thrillers like him. She got help from her sister who told her to write what she knows and she worked on her craft over the years. Now writes in young adult, romance, romance suspense, LGBT genres. You can follow Perci at https://www.facebook.com/PerciTBrooks

  FATE, FREE WILL & FANCY

  The Cloie Chronicles: One Time at God Camp

  Torie James

  In a time when the Gods were new and the world was already old, an innocent’s secret holds both the beginning and end of all things. Between destiny and free will, the lines are always blurred and Fate loves the fearless.

  ~~~

  Far beyond recorded history, further beyond human imagining, there was only Abbattis.

  Long before the Titans, before Uranus and Gaea, before the stars and heavens it existed. It was a shapeless void, a ghostly ether. Alone and aware, it decided to build worlds for its amusement. And so galaxies and universes formed, worlds, suns and stars. Then came the life for each realm, world and dimension. Abbattis was responsible for all. But the more it built, the weaker it became. Soon the creations began creating. And thus, at some point, Gods and Pantheons were defined and wars began between the Abbattis’s creations. There’d once been twenty-seven different domains, pantheons. Now, only the Greeks, Egyptians and Norse survived.

  Perhaps the Abbattis knew its time was over. All things ends. Whatever its reasoning, it called on the last bit of its primality, reaching inward to pluck out the strands of strength, wisdom and hope. Body, mind and heart. All the viable and most important parts of its own self and fashioned the Moirae. The Great Balance. Birth, life and death. These sentient beings would keep the Grand Design of All Worlds, be the bearers of it all. Even Gods would harken to obey the words of Destiny and Fate. Abbattis formed three spheres of light, shells to keep these creatures safe until he found a female to bear them. They were Primal in nature but would be Divinity born.

  And so they were for Abbattis searched among all his worlds and found a vessel for them. Her name was Anayat’Inskle and she was the last of the Shangrian pantheon. They were a race of demonkyn whose profound healing skills and mastery of bladed weapons was renowned and revered. They were gentle, peaceful and protective.

  When Zeus the Great Olympian God King came with his Titan Armies, he annihilated all in his path. No mercy was shown and no quarter given. Anayat, heavy with the children of Abbattis deep in her womb, begged for her life and that of the babies she’d been entrusted with. Pausing in his cause, the Greek God listened as the female told him what she knew, laying a clawed hand on his shoulder, her thoughts became his entirely…

  A voice that lingered hauntingly, of whispering sighs, water over rocks, the snow falling on fertile ground. A rustle of leaves, a cacophony of sound that both horrified and soothed in a strange way. Abbattis was the beginning. Abbattis had brought it all about. But now, such chaos abounded, Abbattis was resolved to fix it with the last of its own powers. As all things begin, so too must they end. Abbattis would fix it, leave guardians in place. They would be so strong. Whomever ruled the Moirae would rule all and have dominion over Birth, Life and Death...

  Zeus watched through Anayat’s memories the knowledge Abbattis had allowed her: three tiny, glowing balls of pure light. One, thrummed red with burning untold strength and would be able to rise time and again above the cruelest blows. The second one pulsed with a phosphorus, translucent blue, full of quiet intelligence and philosophical insouciance. The third shimmered softly with a violet hue, infused with hope, faith and a type of love that no other creature would bear. An innocence that would survive despite the rigors of eternity.

  The King of the Greek Gods saw all the secrets Abbattis had never meant for any but his precious Moirae and Anayat to know.

  And now, Zeus coveted the gifts these children would bear. If he controlled them, he would rule all. All!

  Zeus slew the demonkyn without thought, cut the Moirae from her womb and took them to Olympus. He claimed them before one and all as his children. Only Hera knew the full truth and despite her cold, imperious nature, she took them to her heart. When they came of age, Zeus had them swear fealty to him, the Olympians and Olympus itself. They didn’t realize their word was binding, their words sealed not just the fate of others, but their own. If they swore to something, they had to hold to it. Or they died.

  * * *

  Mount Olympus – 12,000 years ago

  “Do you think I like punishing my children?”

  A few snickers circled around the marbled chamber, snickers that quickly turned to low coughs when the piercing blue eyes of Zeus, King of the Olympian Gods swung around the room to meet those of each member assembled.

  “Children or pets, Father?” Ares, the God of War, was bold enough to throw the question out, earning him a shoulder shove from his mate, Eris. She was the Goddess of Discord and Chaos and normally the tension in the room would fill her with glee, she thrived on such but right now, sh
e was more concerned and focused on the three tiny females standing before Zeus’s grand, ivory and gold carved throne. Small, hardly bigger than children, each Goddess’s head was bent, a symphony of sharp contrasting colors; ebony, flame and snow.

  “Don’t push me right now, Ares.” Zeus rose, shaking off the soft hand of Hera, his wife and Queen and descended the dais, hands clenching in both fury and frustration. Fury because his direct command had been defied and frustration because there was only so far he could go with the sisters.

  If the three before him knew the exponential power they carried, Olympus would fall and he would suffer for it. The Greek pantheon was one of the last surviving ones, followed by the Norse and Egyptian. He, powerful Zeus, God of Thunder and Sky, had taken down his enemies and laid waste to their Gods and Goddesses. He’d allowed some to assimilate within his own domain, Gods and Goddesses whose powers in no way challenged his own authority. The rest, he’d killed and absorbed their primal energy as his own.

  But he couldn’t kill the three before him. Ever. What they were was far too critical to helping him maintain his own hold over not just the Gods, but man as well. Through them, he ruled supreme.

  Something he planned on doing for countless more millennia.

  Staring down at their bent heads, his regal voice boomed through the Council Hall. “Answer me, do you three think I like punishing my children? For all intents and purposes, I gave you a home when I could have easily turned you away.”

  “We were babies. You took us. We didn’t ask for your charity.”

  Thus spoke the dark haired one, raising up her piquant face, eyes glistening like polished peridot, a curious, swirling mixture of green and yellow, shot through with the barest streaks of gold. Her voice was husky, laced with defiance and more than a little boredom. The sheer fabric of her black gown clung to her curves with maddening seduction, setting off the pale perfection of her flesh. Unlike the other Olympians, she, along with her two sisters, held a mysterious, mixtured skin tone of a milky, light pink iridescence. Vital and thriving, every line of her body bled with radiance and power. He found himself staring down the scooped neckline of her dress, creamy full breasts pushing the material slightly and causing him to growl again. When had they grown? Changed from weakened infants to curious toddlers and onward towards adulthood, now they were full grown women and he was losing control.