I mounted my bike first so I could steady it for her to get on. Carefully and slowly, she fell in place behind me, wrapping her bony arms around my torso like usual. Without telling her, I decided to take a little detour from just going home first. Driving past the strip malls, I stopped at one of the few places that stood away from others, and one of the best stops in town, in my opinion anyways. When I cut the engine, her head pulled away from my shoulder blade, looking around slightly confused until she saw the small building in front of us. Well, building was an overstatement, it was more like a food shack. I got off my bike and helped Coraline down and started to fish for my wallet. I grabbed her hand, pulling her gently to the counter.
The owner, Jimmy, flashed his crooked teeth from behind the sliding window. "What'll it be kiddos?"
"Two large fries and a large Sprite please." I pushed a ten dollar bill towards him and he handed me three dollars and 75 cents back, walking away to start the grill. We waited for about ten or so minutes for Jimmy to pass us our food.
"Enjoy, thanks for stopping by Wybie, Caroline." Coraline, who normally would throw a fit at someone using the wrong name, remained silent, looking at her scuffed shoes. I nodded to Jimmy, picked up our food and walked with Cora to a rusty, rounded picnic table. I sat on the bench right next to each other so we could share our drink. She ate as slow and as carefully as ever because of her fear of choking. I tried to slow down, but as usual, I finished way before her and was left waiting for her to eat. Finally, she finished and we hopped back on my bike and I drove her home. I walked her up to her porch, kissed the top of her head and asked,
"Are you going to be okay Cora?" Her eyes were misty but she nodded anyways and I let her retreat into the pink house. I got back on my bike and head to my own home. As soon as I returned, I started my planning. "Valerie Farce, dating Trent Michaels, Summer Newburg, the boo of Cameron Browne, and finally, Kate Dailey, Ryan Velett's bitch. Lovely coincidence that all boyfriends are close and all girlfriends are close. In fact, Trent, Cameron, and Ryan are all inseparable, they all meet at Lydia's Lounge for underage drinking and dancing on Wednesdays. Perfect time to talk a little sense into them." With thoughts of revenge still lingering, I decided to at least start my homework.
...
For the next couple of days, I hid my plans from Coraline, joking and asking for homework answers. She was completely unsuspecting of me, and smiled through the pain of her slowly healing bruises. Almost everyday after gym she had new little marks scattered on her body, I didn't ask questions, I just kissed the broken skin and held her hands in mine.
Everyday I would correct my form while boxing, going over the three main punches and the two main kicks. Right one. Left one. Right two. Left two. Right three. Left three. Right four, right five. Left four, left five. Repeat.
Wednesday rolled around and dropped Coraline off at home, holding both of her hands in mine again, bringing them to my mouth to kiss, then taking my hand and holding her face.
"Be safe Jonesy" I whispered, which seemed ironic because I am the one who could get hurt tonight. She just smiled and nodded, pulling away and going inside. I hopped back on my bike and left for my own home. I got home and quickly finished my math homework and headed back out after grabbing some grub. I had some time to kill before my targets got completely shitfaced at Lydia's so I decided to polish my switchblade and brass knuckles. I didn't plan on using them, but they were a good back up if things went south. I was more comfortable with the knuckles mostly because they seemed more like an extension of my already capable fists, the switchblade just appeared more unnatural.
At 1:00 a.m. I had drunk six red bulls already to stay alert with a slight jitter. By 1:45 a.m. the targets stumbled out of the bar. I waited in the rear parking lot, where the streetlight just couldn't quite reach. Trent and Ryan clung to each other's side singing some shitty rap music and Cameron just joined in with the few verses he knew. Once they were five feet away, I decided to make myself known.
"Good evening, well, I guess it's morning now." I stepped forward and they took one back.
"Woah, what the hell man? Coming out of the dark like that? You scared the shit outta me" Ryan laughed and tried to straighten himself up.
"That was my point" I rolled my eyes and took a step closer. Even when they're able to stand up completely, none of them reach my height which is an obvious advantage for both intimidating and fighting in general. Stopping a few inches from Cameron's money maker, I swung a hard right uppercut to his jaw, the force causing him to bite his own tongue, resulting in blood spurting from his pretty boy mouth. He stumbled back, falling flat on his ass, clutching his jaw in shock. Ryan and Trent once again tried to stand up but before they could I roundhoused them in the stomach. I watched them both stagger for a second, slipping on my brass knuckles and delivered a left hook to the side of Trent's face. I did a double jab to Ryan and went to do a sidekick to Cameron's shoulders. Trent's face had bruises forming all over and his ear was bleeding down his neck. Ryan's nose was crushed and dripping on the pavement. Somehow in the back of my head I knew Summer Newburg was the initiator of the beating of Coraline so before heading back on my bike, I pulled out my switchblade, put it up to Cameron's neck and cursed,
"Next time, tell your hoe to keep her hands off my bitch or it won't just be your tongue that's bleeding, got it?" I saw the fear in his eyes as he gave the tiniest nod, trying to avoid my blade the best her could. "Good," I mounted my bike, put on my helmet and then looked back, "Oh, and if you say a word of this to anyone, you better bet I'll be packing heat next time we have a tussle." With that, I drove off.
…
Luckily for me, Grandma was always out of town for some weird old lady festival or something so the house was empty, or so I thought. I looked down at the blood covering my black trench coat and knew it was in my hair and my face. Well, at least it wasn't mine, it should be easy to wash off. I opened the front door, listening to the creaking and watching as the moonlight flooded the the foyer. I rubbed my gloved hands over my tired eyes and trudged in. I shut the door after I switched on the lights. I continued into the living room and now thinking back, I probably should have heard the sound of cartoons on the TV. I walked on in, ready to sit before I headed to the showers.
Perched on the sofa with a throw blanket was Coraline. Oh god it's Wednesday. Every Wednesday, she comes over for her fix of cable-exclusive cartoons since Mel decided cable was rotting her daughter's brain. The glow of the TV reflected off her face and her eyes flickered over to me and back to the TV then back to me, where her eyes stayed. She blinked a few times and her eyes widened.
"What the hell happened to your face?" She started to stand up, making the blanket fall to the carpet. I took a step back into the unlit kitchen to try to hide the blood stains from her. She followed my steps quickly and I began booking it upstairs as fast as I could, Coraline hot on my heels. "Wybourn! Get back here!" I dashed through the dining room and towards the stairs and charged up to my room, slamming the door and locking it. Coraline was at my door banging her fist on the wood and jiggling the handle. "Wybie what is on your face, open this door right now, let me see your face!" She yelled.
I slid down the door and put my head in my hands, thinking about what to do next. She'd already seen me, I couldn't wipe it off on a towel. I heard her slide down the other side of the door. I can't hide in here forever, I have to face her at some point. I took a couple of deep breaths and slowly opened the door.
"Wybie? What happened?" She had her knees clutched to her chest and raised her head to look at me. I sighed and rubbed my eyes.
"I got in a fight with a few kids," I took my hands off my face, "and beat them to a pulp." She stood up and took my hand, sighed, and tugged me to the bathroom. I sat on the toilet seat lid and watched her run warm water over a towel. She squeezed out most of the water and rubbed the dried blood off my face with it. The whole time she kept going back between sighing and knitting her eyebrows together in frustration.
"Wybie," she paused and continued to scrub the blood that had somehow wound up in my eyebrow hairs. "Why were you fighting?" She kneeled in front of me and pressed her forehead against mine.
"Because they made you cry." She reeled back and gasped.
"Wybie! Did you beat up a bunch of girls?!" She slammed her hands on my knees and squeezed hard.
"No, just their boyfriends." She put her head against mine again and cupped my face.
"Wybie, you could get in serious trouble, you could get suspended."
"Yeah, well, those girls should have gotten suspended!" She moved her thumb across my cheek slowly, worry evident all over her face.
"Wybie, you can't fight-"
"Fire with fire I know. But sitting on the sideline doing nothing doesn't work either Cora!" She sighed once again.
"Just-just don't do it again okay?" I nodded in response. "Promise?" She held up her pinkie finger and I laughed but locked my own pinkie with hers. "Alright, you're all clean now you wanna catch up on Adventure Time until we pass out?" I nodded again and let her lead me down the stairs to the living room where we bundled up in throw blankets and had "Come Along With Me" lull us to bed.
...
Y'all I'm I so sorry this took so long my computer had been malfunctioning for a while now, I did get it as a hand-me-down, so what did I really expect? I just got a new one so everything should be running smoother now. Also this is a re-upload because my last posting of this had a bunch of hogwash coding in it that made it un-readable. Anyways, it's here now! Your fix of Coraline and Wybie!