Keeping them safe and untouched at all costs.
Atanyfucking cost.
When her brother reaches me, I nod at him. “Ledger.”
His chest is moving up and down in agitation. I can hear his furious breaths.
He’s always been a hothead. Not a good quality in a soccer player, but extremely helpful when you want to screw with someone. And I have. Screwed with him. A lot.
Just because I could. Just because it was fun.
Just because I was at war with my father and I wanted to win and Ledger was in my way. He’s more collateral damage. SoI don’t blame him when, instead of using his words, he uses his fist on me.
I even see it coming.
I see his shoulders twitch and tighten, his right arm shifting back a little before he swings it and lays one precisely on my jaw.
Fuck.
He’s gotten stronger, hasn’t he?
The pain explodes in my jaw and I ricochet back, almost stumbling. But somehow, I don’t go down. I manage to stay upright, and that pisses me the fuck off.
This is all he’s got?
After what I did to his sister.
So when I finally straighten up, crack my neck and tap my pulsating jaw to get ready, I decide to up the ante. “Well, good to see you too, Ledge.”
My casual response enrages him more, as I knew it would. And so the next time he comes at me, he does it harder. So much so that I go back a couple of steps, my jaw on fire.
Yet I don’t go down.
Yet I straighten back up and face him, his wrathful eyes, his furious face as he bites out, “You fucking asshole.”
What the fuck is he doing?
He’s embarrassing himself. He’s embarrassingme.
I need him to do better than that.
“Yeah, same to you.” I jerk my chin at him. “Not that I don’t enjoy our witty repartee but care to enlighten me on why we’re meeting like this? Feels like old times.”
The vessel on his temple seems to be on the verge of exploding. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
I pretend to think about it. “Not really, no. If I was, you’d be laughing. Trust me. I’ve got a killer sense of humor.”
Another punch.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
“You know, we could go back and forth like this,” I tell him, panting, wiping the blood off my chin, “or you could just tell me what the fuck your problem is. So I can properly thank you for this special treatment.”
That does it, I think.
That gets him going and he stares at me like I’m the lowest of the low. “Yeah. Yeah, let me tell you what you did. Let me tell youexactlywhat you did, you motherfucker.”
With that, he launches himself at me.
