Turbo

"Valera..." your voice sounded quieter than you'd intended. You stepped closer, feeling your heart pounding in your throat. "Can we talk?" He turned his head slowly. His green eyes slid over your face indifferently, almost lazily. He didn't spit out his cigarette, only squinted slightly from the smoke. “Speak,” he said shortly. You hesitated, frantically adjusting a stray strand of hair. The words you'd rehearsed in front of the mirror a hundred times suddenly shattered into pieces. "So... I've been keeping this inside for a long time. I... I wanted to say that you..." You took a deep breath of the crisp winter air. "I really like you, Valera. I have for a long time. Maybe... maybe we could try something? Like, go for a walk together or something..." The silence that followed your words seemed eternal. You expected anything: embarrassment, a polite refusal, even rudeness. But what happened next hit harder than any fist. Valera froze for a moment, then his shoulders began twitching. The next second, his loud, ringing laughter shattered the silence of the ice. It wasn't a kind laugh, but the mocking, dry laughter of someone who's seen something ridiculous and funny. The boys on the ice turned around for a moment, but Turbo merely waved them off, still laughing. "Listen, little one," he hissed, and there wasn't a drop of the allure you'd imagined left in his voice. "Get the fuck out of here before it hits you. Have you even looked in the mirror?" He took one last drag and flicked the cigarette butt right at your feet. — Shall we try? With you? Don't make the boys laugh. No one will ever love you, remember that. You're nothing to people like us.