Spinning Circles
Chapter 6
Rigs felt uneasy and he couldn't figure out why. The Arnett Mead boys were an interesting bunch and they had just lost. The way that they had been looking at Julie had set off alarm bells in his mind and the whirring, screeching sound of the bells hadn't stopped since that moment. He shouldn't really care, she was just a chick he was lining up to screw then ditch. He convinced himself that he was looking after her out of Dillon loyalty, he could mess with anyone he wanted in Dillon but those guys were another story. Yep Dillon folks looked after their own and Julie was their own.
Sitting in the booth with the boys celebrating their victory was good and all but he wanted some female company. Anyone would do. He glanced around Applebee's and spotted a likely bunch of groupies that were likely to do the job for tonight. He winked and the girls dissolved into giggles. He sighed, they were ridiculous and resembled hyenas, the attraction was instantly gone.
Tyra was working tonight, swathed in her purple polo shirt and swanning angrily amongst the crowd of victorious Panther fans was the personification of pissed off. Tyra hated football and the disdain she felt for the sport, the supporters and the players was clear across her beautiful but defiant face. She was ready to boot someone's ass. She had plunked his food on the table with a bang and strut off like she was walking some catwalk or thought she was Beyonce. The guys appreciated it, the view was awesome but Rigs felt oddly ambivalent. It was an odd feeling.
Rigs looked towards the door of the restaurant, there was a flash of blonde hair and a litany of applause when the Coach, Mrs Taylor and Julie walked in the room. The Coach looked like he didn't want to be there, a begrudging smile on his face and a hand continually raking through his chaotic hair. Mrs Taylor was beaming but Rigs sensed she hated this as much as her husband. He noticed that the Coach's hand lay on his wife's lower back never moving it the entire time people were talking to them or when he guided her through the hoards of people to their table. It was weird for Rigs seeing that, the evident love and connection between two people. He squirmed in his seat, his parents never showed any consideration, love or even like for one another. He wondered what it would be like to be Julie with two parents who loved and cared for one another. Thinking of Julie, his eyes swivelled to her. She looked mortified and extremely uncomfortable to be in Applebee's with her parents.
Her gaze was down her hair acting as a shield from prying eyes. She shuffled behind her parents trying to avoid the attention from community members.
Rigs moved his attention back to the meal and hoovered it down like he hadn't eaten in three centuries. There was a party later on by a teammate's pool and he had been looking forward to it but now he wasn't so sure. He'd lost his fricking mojo it seemed. No girl was doing it for him. Well that wasn't quite true, Julie was but that didn't count. He groaned into his burger, fast food should be making him feel better already. His team had won, he had girls clamouring for him on an open platter and he was eating an awesome burger – he should be satisfied. He wasn't. He wanted her bad and he was going to get her, hell or high water, he would.
Approaching his old truck in the car park Rigs was eager to get the hell out of town and to the hijinks of the pool party. He had ended up staying at Applebee's for much longer than he had anticipated through no fault of his own. He'd been trapped in a booth with a group of individuals that had no intention of leaving the adoring attentions of a pack of panting sophomores that they wanted to take advantage of. All power to them in their conquests but he was bored out of his grease ridden skull, he actually considered bashing his own head in with the wall. He felt a hand on his arm as he opened the door, he spun around with his arm raised ready to strike. He had been snuck up on enough to be prepared to defend himself.
It was the Coach...and Mrs Taylor and Julie. Coach stared at his fist in confusion, Mrs Taylor looked horrified and Julie had gotten a good case of the chortles. Tim quickly lowered his fist and looked bashful. Okay that was awkward. The Coach turned back and stared disapprovingly at Julie which acted as an immediate switch on her hearty laughter at his predicament.
"Ah Riggins, I didn't get a chance to talk to you tonight," the Coach said.
"Yeah sorry about that Coach, the guys were pretty involved with the rally girls," he joked. Julie raised an eyebrow and assumed a haughty gaze and Mrs Taylor just looked amused.
"Great game today Riggins, great game. Look what I actually wanted to speak to you about was more of a favour. Could you give Julie a lift to that party?" Julie looked shocked at that, her neck almost snapped from the speed at which her gaze moved from him to her father. She hadn't known this was coming.
"Ah yeah sure I guess," he was a little confused. The Coach trusted him with his daughter? Was he smoking crack?
"Dad, no, I won't go. Problem solved." Julie suggested. The Coach ignored her, Rigs considered asking him how to do that.
"Tami and I have to attend this thing at the Garrity's and Julie wanted to go to that party. We are running late. Thanks for this Riggins," the Coach slapped him on the back in gratitude and Julie's parents hopped in their car and drove off. He stood there in the darkened car park while Julie stood legs apart, arms crossed and her face as dark as the night sky. She was one unhappy camper that was for sure. She would actually prefer to attend a Garrity hoop-di-doo that spend five minutes in his truck, way to hurt a guy's confidence. Luckily he had a heap to spare.
"Okay Taylor move your fine ass, I have a party to grace with my presence." She didn't move in fact he thought he heard the asphalt wince as she planted her weight some more. She wasn't budging. At least he didn't have an audience, most of the customers have left and the car park was barren. She didn't speak, she just tried to wait him out.
"Seriously Taylor, I am about this close, " he indicated with his thumb and forefinger "to picking you up, hosting you over my shoulder and tossing you into truck." She cocked her hip to one side and looked doubtful. He growled and strode forward, breaching the gap that lay between them. Her face turned from disbelief to shock to anger as he grabbed her and did exactly as he had threatened. Her fists beat out at him ineffective as he turned and moved back towards the truck with a grin the size of Texas on his face.
"You asshole, you..." she stopped abusing him the second they heard the squeal of breaks sound immediately behind them. The cold shiver returned to his spine and he felt Julie stiffen entirely. She was facing the opposite direction and could see the threat. Rigs
carefully placed Julie on her feet, spun around and placed his body protectively in front of hers. There stood five of Arnett Mead's biggest dunderheads with smirks on their face and violence in their eyes. They all moved towards him together and he realised that they had been waiting hours for this opportunity and he was pretty defenceless. It happened quickly, two grabbed Julie as the other three went directly for him. He was swinging but the numbers weren't in his favour. He wasn't worried about himself, in fact his swings were wildly ineffective as his eyes were on Julie and not his captors. He knew about guys like this, he knew what they could do and they had even more motivation with the Coach's daughter. He was sickened and he realised a little desperate. She was struggling furiously against the two guys, she landed a couple of punches and a knee to the groin but they had her pretty good. Oomph. A fist planted itself to his stomach and the wind was knocked right out of him, another one following immediately and he was on his knees. He heard laughter as they took turns to pummel him, he felt blood poring down his face when they had broken skin. He connected some hits and even took one of them down but the punches and the kicks kept coming and he couldn't do anything but take it ... silently. There was no way in hell he would give them the joy of one singular sound. For such an onslaught it was oddly silent, just the sound of flesh hitting flesh and sometimes bone. His head, ribs and stomach burned like fire and yet they were carful to ensure that he wouldn't lose consciousness.
Rigs looked to Julie, struggling to focus as the blood streaming into his eye blurring his vision. The guys were having more problems now. She was screaming his name in a way that would make blood curdle and she was struggling to try and get to him. She was using everything in her power to break loose, she got an arm free and swung at one of the guys, connecting to his jaw and he lost his grip on her. She ran forward and jumped on the back of one of the guys attacking Rigs, pulling at his hair acting like a wild woman. She had no fear. She was a screaming banshee. She was trying to protect him. He saw someone approach her from the side, an arm raised. He opened his mouth to warn her but a slap connected with her face, her head recoiled and she slithered from the back of his attacker. All five re-directed their attention to her as she clumsily rose from the asphalt. Her lip was bleeding and he felt something foreign rise in him giving him a much needed second wind.
"So you're Rigs' chick and the Coach's Daughter? We're going to have fun with you," Rigs heard one of the guys threaten and he shut his mind to the flood of ideas that would be fun for them. Their attention and eyes were off of Tim and he slowly rose to his feet careful to stay silent and not lose his advantage. Julie couldn't see him but he could see her, she stood proud as the five figures threatened her. She would have been terrified but he saw no evidence of it.
"No, you are not, you fucking cretins." She received a punch for that and the sounds of bone hitting bone flicked a switch in Rigs' brain and he felt a berserker like rage like no other fire up in him. He rushed the first guy and connected a punch that knocked the guy out. He launched himself at the nearest two and managed to do some damage as they were sandwiched by him up against the truck. Some well placed punches meant they were out of action. He was ready for the other two but any adrenalin he had possessed was gone. He sank to the ground and through the feet of the other guys coming at him he saw Julie. As they were taking turns kicking his ribs he saw that her cheek was resting against the dirty ground, her eyes closed and her face bloody and beginning to look swollen. Those bastards had knocked her out, the anger he felt was unsurpassable. Her eyes cracked open to a slither and she looked right at him. There was no pain in her gaze, no self-pity just concern for him. Her hand crept out towards him and he wanted to stretch his arms out and touch it. When was this going to end? Was she going to be alright? Was the Coach going to finish the job once he knew what had happened?
A foot made contact with his head and he felt consciousness slip away from him like sand trickling through one's fingers. The last thing he heard was the squeal of another set of brakes and shouting, one of them sounded like Street. Julie was the last thought he had before the lights went out.
Rigs felt pain. Pain everywhere and breathing was an absolute bitch. All he felt was pain and he wanted it to stop already. He heard some sort of loud rumbling and couldn't identify where it was coming from. He interrupting his thought process - Julie? Where was Julie? He opened his eyes and realised he was in the Dillon Hospital, the sheets were white and starched to an uncomfortable stiffness. It was immovable beneath his fingers. The room was dingy and typical of the hospital standard in Dillon. The lights filtering in from the dirty window gave the room light but highlighted its inadequacies. He needed to find out where Julie was. He needed a nurse or something, some information about what had actually happened. He blinked and his sight became clearer and he noticed the blob to the left of him was actually Street asleep on the chair next to the bed. He was scrunched up in the ugly, orange chair and his head was bobbing with that ungodly noise coming from his mouth. Boy could he snore.
He tried to speak but his mouth was so dry that he couldn't vocalise anything. He needed to get Street's attention with something. Rigs was looking around wildly for something to throw at Street's saliva stained mug when the idiot awoke with a jump, a falling dream Rigs
imagined. Street's attention fixed immediately on Rigs' face and he smiled when he saw he was awake.
"Jesus man you scared the crap out of me. I thought you were ready for the grave yard." Street was never that good at jokes. Lucky Rigs thought, the last thing he wanted to do right now was laugh. Laughter pain. Rigs pointed to his throat and gestured for some liquid, Street was always the quick one and brought a cup of water to his mouth. The water trickled down his throat reviving and relieving in one long pour of blessed coolness.
"Julie, " he spluttered as fast as he could. Street looked a little surprised and then grinned.
"She took a few hits from the look of it and her face is a little messed up but I think she's okay," the word okay allowed his whole body to relax and a breath was forced from his body. He stopped a minute to consider his body's response and his immediate thoughts for her safety. He knew he wouldn't be totally relaxed until he saw for himself that she was okay. He had done her a great injustice not saving her from injury. He wasn't used to feeling accountable or worried. What did it mean?
Author's Note – Okay I admit that this is very out there and different than normal. Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate the 10 of the readers that make the effort to drop a line. Big love to Cena, AnsleyRocks, Lily, Gizmossidekick, Scarlett, Wren (no longer MIA), Jodes, lemonlimeb, saderia and benjivy1. You all are the reason I enjoy doing this so much and make me get off my tush when I am having a cactus period. Also a big thanks to the delightfully nutso mind of Kareene who was perplexed by this chapter and still professed to like it. Blame her if it sucks!