March 3rd, 2010

Jesse’s P.O.V.

I whistled as I walked down the street, eyeing the people as they walked by me. I always felt uneasy while walking alone at night. I might have had my license, but that didn’t mean my mother let me borrow the car whenever I wanted…

When I passed by the alley, I thought nothing of it. But when I was suddenly being grabbed, I knew I shouldn’t have been walking all alone out at night.

“You’re apart of Hunter’s gang, aren’t you?” the smallest of the four men asked, and I didn’t know if I should have told them the truth or not. Either way, I was sure I was going to get the crap beaten out of me. “That asshole stole money from me a few months ago.

I tsked. “Sorry, boys, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m sure we’ve already spent all your money anyway.”

This got me a strong punch to the stomach, which caused me to double over in pain. I coughed a few times, not believing I had gotten myself into this mess.

“Okay, I’m sure we can settle this like gentlemen,” I tried as I stood back up straight, knowing that my mom would freak out if I came home battered and bruised. “We don’t need to involve any type of violence…”

“Oh, yes,” the biggest one started, cracking his knuckles, “we do.”

When he swung for me, I ducked, swinging my foot and letting it connect with his ankle. He fell to the ground and before I could even react, the three other guys lunged at me. I was punched and kicked, and I knew if these guys had a knife, it would have been used. But much to my own surprise, I was actually winning after a few minutes.

“Let’s get out of here!” one of them shouted, and I couldn’t help but smirk even though I was in pain. The four of them quickly ran off, and I didn’t collapse until they were out of sight. I wasn’t about to show any weakness.

I laid on my stomach for a few moments, trying to catch my breath as I tried to think of what to do. If I went home like this, my mom would definitely freak out. But then again, I didn’t know how bad my injuries were, so I might have had to go to the hospital…

“What the hell was that?”

At the sound of this voice, I nearly jumped right out of my skin. I looked up to see Jordan staring down at me, as if I was the craziest person on the face of the planet. I only continued to lie there, trying to think of an excuse to tell her, but ended up with nothing.

“You must be insane,” she gasped, out of breath for a reason that I didn’t know as she kneeled down onto her knees and pulled me over so I was now resting on her lap. She hadn’t been the one fighting, so why was she breathing so hard? Well… she could have been scared… “Fighting with four guys… and winning. That just can’t be possible for a normal human being! Especially a seventeen-year-old!”

“Let’s just say I’ve got a lot of training…” I groaned, trying to get up but failing miserably.

“What?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing at me.

I then realized that I had said too much. “Never mind. It’s not important.”

If she knew why I really had gotten into a fight… everything with her would have been different. She couldn’t ever know. She was the last person I wanted to know.

“We need to get you to a hospital,” she said, trying her best to push me up onto my feet but failing miserably. “You’re way too heavy for me to carry.”

“Thanks for calling me fat,” I grunted, readjusting myself on her lap now.

“I’m not calling you fat!” she snapped, glaring down at me like she always did. “You’re a seventeen-year-old guy, and I’m a sixteen-year-old girl! Do you really think I could pick you up? It’d be really sad if I could!”

“I’m just joking,” I told her, waving my hand in front of her face to shut her up. “It really would be sad if you could carry me…”

“Why did you even fight those guys anyway?” she asked me now, brushing my hair off of my forehead and cringing when she saw the gash on it. “That was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do, and I’ve seen you do a lot of stupid things in the two and a half years I’ve known you.”

“I thought it’d be a little fun to mess with them,” I lied as I grabbed onto my side, which was throbbing. “I guess I was wrong.”

I couldn’t tell her the real reason why I had been fighting with those guys, because I was sure she’d never want to have anything to do with me ever again. Even more than she already did. I didn’t want to lose her forever… even though I knew I was going to have to someday.

She blew a piece of her hair out of her face. “You really are an idiot.”

I would have shrugged if I could. “I guess I am.”

I really was an idiot. I joined a gang only because I was bored, and I fell in love with a girl who hated my guts because I had acted like an inconsiderate jerk. If there was one word to describe me, it was definitely an idiot. 

“Well, you need to go to the hospital or you’re going to die,” she told me now, and I wasn’t about to admit that she might have been right. This would have been the second time she brought me to the hospital, since she had done it a few years before on Halloween because I had nearly taken my hand off on a bike because I wasn’t paying attention since Jordan’s skirt was so short…

Can you blame me?

“I’ll take him from here,” the familiar voice said, and I felt my stomach drop. The alley might have been too dark for them to see what each other looked like, but they were still so close to each other. And for some strange reason, I felt something in the air between the two of them. “Just run home now.”

Jordan looked at me, and then back to the dark figure looming over the two of us. When she looked back down at me, I gave her a look that told her I was going to be okay. I could barely see the outlining of her face, so I knew that she could just barely see me as well.

“Fine,” she sighed, standing up and picking up her backpack from beside me. She gave one last look at me before turning away and heading out of the dark alley and into the lit sidewalk. She didn’t even look back, but I was glad that she didn’t.

“So that’s the girl you love so much, huh?” Hunter asked, looking in the direction Jordan had left in. “She’s a cutie.”

“You saw her?” I asked, actually afraid of Hunter for the first time in my life.

“Nah,” he shook his head, not looking away from the direction she had left. “I can just tell.”

And for some reason, that bothered me. I didn’t know if it was because I was jealous or because I was afraid of what he might have done if he actually did meet her for real. If I ever did anything to upset him, I knew the person he was going to go after first was her…

I wasn’t going to allow that. I’d never let the two of them meet. I was going to keep my secret about the gang a secret until the day I died. Jordan Emery was never going to know that I was in a gang, no matter what I had to do to keep it from her.

“We should get you to a hospital,” Hunter now said, helping me up without any trouble at all, unlike Jordan had. “We’ll say you got mugged. Since your fake ID says you’re over eighteen, your mommy doesn’t even have to know. I’ll call her later and pretend to be one of your preppy school friends and say that you’re staying over at my house or something.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

He shrugged. “No problem. It’s the least I can do for a faithful follower like you. Sticking up to four guys of that side and coming out alive? Now that’s impressive.”

I didn’t have enough energy to shrug, so I just grunted. And as we left the alley, I looked in the direction that Jordan had left in, happy to see that she was nowhere in sight. She was safe for another day…

But every day I was going to worry that that was going to change.

J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J~J

Jordan’s P.O.V.

“Is it done yet?”

“No, Jordan, it isn’t,” AJ sighed, and I couldn’t tell if she was just tired from the project or if she was tired of me asking if she was finished yet. “I’m nowhere near being finished yet. I’ll tell you when I’m done.”

“Was there even a point in me being here?” I demanded, leaning back in my chair now as I continued to wait. “You said you needed my help on your science project. I’ve been here to help for the past four hours, and yet you haven’t even asked for help once.”

AJ grinned sheepishly at me. “Honestly, I just didn’t want to be in the library all alone…”

I felt like hitting her over the head for making me sit in the school’s library for four hours with her for absolutely no reason! She had nearly begged me that morning to stay with her, saying how she needed her only smart friend to help her with her really hard project. But once I had gotten into the library, I didn’t do one thing to help her at all.

“I’m going home,” I told her, getting out of my seat and turning toward the door once I picked my backpack up. “You should go home too, AJ. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She made a face at me. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

I always missed Austin so much more when I had to walk home. I hadn’t gotten my license just yet, even though I was sixteen, and it was mostly because I was kind of scared to start driving. I was scared of driving even when I was just sitting in the passenger’s seat, so that was sure saying something…

Normally, walking home didn’t bother me at all. But now it was nighttime, since I had to stay after school to help AJ with a school project. I probably should have just called one of my parents and told them to pick me up, but I didn’t want to bother them because they were probably working or either asleep so they could get up for work the next day…

When I passed by an alley, nothing struck me as odd. It was a natural reaction for anyone to want to pass by it quickly, especially at night, but something stopped me before I could pass. I looked into the dark alley, my eyes widening when I saw Jesse Jacobsen fighting off four guys as if it was nothing at all.

“Let’s get out of here!” I heard one of them shout, and I quickly moved out of the way so I wouldn’t get trampled my any of them, which would have definitely happened since they were so huge.

I looked over to see Jesse collapse onto the ground, and I just stared at him for a few moments, trying to comprehend what had just happened. I was in shock, and I honestly was a little scared. How long had that fight been going on for? What had happened before I had gotten there?

“What the hell was that?” I finally asked, stepping into the alley now as Jesse tried to get up off of the ground.

He actually looked scared for a moment, which surprised me greatly. I couldn’t think of a time that I had seen Jesse Jacobsen actually scared. His face was bruised, but I was sure the rest of his body was as well.

“You must be insane,” I now said, and I could hear that I was out of I kneeled down on, grabbing onto him gently and pulling him closer to me so he would be lying on my lap. “Fighting with four guys… and winning. That just can’t be possible for a normal human being! Especially a seventeen-year-old!”

“Let’s just say I’ve got a lot of training…” he groaned, trying to get up from my lap but failing miserably.

“What?” I couldn’t help but ask as I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

Something in him changed for a moment. “Never mind. It’s not important.”

This boy really was nothing but trouble, and I was sure that that was all he ever would be. Why would he be fighting with four random guys anyway? It was obvious that that wasn’t safe!

“We need to get you to a hospital,” I now told him, and I tried my best to push him up onto his feet, but there was nothing I could do. He was just too big for me to move on my own. “You’re way too heavy for me to carry.”

“Thanks for calling me fat,” he grunted, readjusting himself into a more comfortable position. I stared down at him for a moment, not sure if he was joking around or not.

“I’m not calling you fat!” I snapped, very tempted to hit him as I glared down at him. If he wasn’t so beat up, I definitely would have hit him. “You’re a seventeen-year-old guy, and I’m a sixteen-year-old girl! Do you really think I could pick you up? It’d be really sad if I could!”

“I’m just joking,” he informed me now, waving a hand obnoxiously in my hand to get me to stop talking. “It really would be sad if you could carry me…”

“Why did you even fight those guys anyway?” I had to ask now, brushing a piece of his hair off of his forehead, I cringed and turned away just a little bit when I saw the gash on his forehead. “That was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do, and I’ve seen you do a lot of stupid things in the two and a half years I’ve known you.”

“I thought it’d be a little fun to mess with them,” he told me uncaringly as he grabbed onto his side, and I knew he was in a lot of pain. I felt bad for him because there was nothing I could do to help him. “I guess I was wrong.”

Something was weird about him, but I decided to ignore it as I continued to stare down at him. I blew a piece of my hair out of my face before saying, “You really are an idiot.”

He looked like he didn’t care at all, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t. I had come to learn that Jesse Jacobsen didn’t really care about anything at all. The complete apathy that was laminating off of him was almost ridiculous.

“I guess I am,” was all he said in reply.

This wasn’t like him at all. I knew he was really hurt, but if something wasn’t bothering him, I was sure he would have been acting like he normally did, even when he was nearly beaten to a pulp. Was something on his mind? Why wasn’t he acting like a smartass back to me? I felt like right then wasn’t exactly the best time to ask him, so I kept my mouth shut about that and pushed it into the back of my mind.

“Well, you need to go to the hospital or you’re going to die,” I sighed, not about to let him deny it. I really thought that these injuries could have killed him if he didn’t get them treated. Even though he got himself into this mess on his own… The least I could do was help him. This wouldn’t have even been the first time I took him to the hospital…

“I’ll take him from here,” the new voice now said, and I jumped a little bit before turning toward the source of the sound. The alley was too dark and this person was too far away for me to see them, but I was sure that it was a male from their outline. “Just run home now.”

It was weird. For some reason, I felt some kind of electricity in the air around this new person. I brushed it off, knowing that it was probably nothing important at all. He was probably just one of Jesse’s stupid friends from Cambridge… Even though I didn’t recognize his voice at all.

I looked back over at Jesse before looking back over at the looming figure that was a few feet away from us. I then looked back down at Jesse, who gave me a look that told me everything was going to be okay. I didn’t really believe him for a reason, and I didn’t know why. Something was just telling me that something wasn’t right…

“Fine,” I finally sighed, standing up and ignoring my tingling legs as I picked up my backpack. I shot Jesse one last look before turning away and hurrying out of the dark alley and into the lighted sidewalk, where I knew I was much safer. I didn’t look back at Jesse or the guy that had interrupted us, because I knew that that was for the best. I could just tell.

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I couldn't resist adding in some Jordan/Hunter... It's just too hard not to!

Only seven chapters left! :D

I can't wait for school to be over... I'll be able to write more! :D

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