Life's not easy when your mum's nuts, your uncle is becoming your aunt, and one of your crushes could -- and probably would -- break your face if he found out how you felt about him. That's Tab's life, though, malevolent gods and all. His text-flirting with Demi, the brother of his best friend, is going nowhere: Demi already has a boyfriend and anyway, who dates their best friend's twin? But then, the pining after Nick is going nowhere either, because Nick probably likes gay-bashing on Friday nights for fun. He's gorgeous, but he's dangerous, and Tab knows better than that. So what's a bit of harmless flirting, when one is taken and the other is straight? It's just a bit of fun. That is until Demi is suddenly single, and Nick is not looking as straight and scary as he was before.

The Suicidal Peanut

But it wasn’t Nick. The boxer wasn’t quite Nick, despite the shaved head and the intense stare. The crooked little smile wasn’t there. The deadly way he stilled before he struck wasn’t there. The huffing laugh and the deep, rasping voice weren’t there. And it felt like it wasn’t Nick because…because it wasn’t Demi. Like Tab had left something vital out, and so the picture was just a picture, and not a proper likeness.


Tab hated portraits—because they had to look halfway realistic, and yet captured so little about the subject. His portrait showed a young man, a boxer, someone with physical strength and a powerful body…but it wasn’t Nick


In the end, he had opted for the simplest title possible. Someone. It was someone, but it wasn’t Nick. Or Demi, or anybody else that Tab knew. Too much was missing for the portrait to be of somebody Tab knew.


Chapter 52