Sorry this took long to post up. And I'm sorry if there's any typos because I hurried to get this up. Also, this one doesn't have as much Possessive Paul in it, my bad. But the next one will have a lot, I promise. And, (sorry) I won't be updating either of my stories next week because it's Prom and I'm going to be busy with that. So please enjoy and I promise the next chapter will have more Paul in it.
"Battle of One" – 30 Seconds To Mars
Try and crush me / Take me / Teach me / I wanna fall
Joseph sped down the road, his arm around my shoulder as I sat next to him. I uncomfortably shifted on his leather seats, their cool touch freezing the bottom of my thighs. This wasn't anything like Paul's car, with the soft seats and all the neat police gadgets up front. Instead, Joseph's plain car was dull, no decoration except for some really lame dice-ornaments around the rearview mirror. He was currently blasting some metal song, the singer doing some weird scratchy-thing with his voice, prohibiting me from understanding what he was saying.
"What's up with your foot?" Joseph asked.
I glanced down at my cast. It had lost its white color, looking a pale brown from my run in the forest. "I fell," I shrugged, deciding not to embarrass myself by revealing that I had fallen off a gurney.
"Don't you have any crutches?"
I shook my head.
"Well I have some in the closet from when I broke my leg skiing up in Canada. It was so cool! I was going down this one hill and…"
I looked out the window, ignoring Joseph's boring story. What the hell is going on? I used to feel some little microscopic speck of feelings for Joseph, but for some reason, it seems wrong for me to be in this car with him. Almost like he's the wrong person to be occupying the space beside me. Maybe I'm just feeling this way because I secretly want to be with Henry, and am just settling for his cousin. That seems logical.
"…the bone was sticking out and I had to get surgery. I can show you the scars when we get o my house."
I perked up. "We're going to your house?"
Joseph nodded, turning down the volume on the radio, thank God. "I don't know where you live and my dad is out for the week, so it will be just us."
What is the coincidence that his parents are gone the same week as mine? I shook that thought from my head. "Where do you live?"
"I actually live in the housing unit next to the movie theater."
Housing unit? What does that mean? "You live where?" I asked, trying to clarify things. Why didn't he just say house?
Joseph turned a little red and hung his head slightly, enough as to where I could tell, but not enough as to obstruct his view of the road. "The projects," he mumbled.
"You're poor?" I blurted, and then clapped my hands to my mouth when I realized what came out of it. "I didn't mean it like that. Like, usually aren't people who live in the projects of a lower income?" It was my turn to look down, embarrassed at my ignorance.
Joseph just shrugged. "My dad's been unemployed for the past three years, so we're kind of making it by on Welfare."
I felt my stomach turn in knots of stringing this guy along just so that I could get with his cousin and avoid a love-sick cop. "What about your mom?"
"Never met her."
I was silent for the rest of the ride, not really knowing what to say to this guy. I felt like crap, playing with his emotions, when I was not exactly interested in establishing a relationship. I saw as Joseph pulled up in front of an apartment complex. It actually looked rather nice: it was made of red brick and all the windows were intact. I didn't even see an ounce of graffiti, but I guess that's just a stereotype of lower income areas. We got out of the car and Joseph led me through a little opening in the building that led to a courtyard surrounded by brick walls.
"C'mon, my place is over here," he said, pulling my arm around his shoulders so he could support me. He was definitely smaller than Paul, and not as warm. If Paul were helping me like this (well he's carry me for one), then I'd have to be on my toes in order to have my arm around his shoulder. I grimaced at how tiny Joseph appeared by comparison. I like tall guys.
We went into one door, finally entering the actual apartment complex, and took a right own the poorly-lit hallway. The heat from outside was affecting the inside here, making it seem like an oven. My breath grew heavy as I continued to hop along, Joseph seeming happy. There was another door that Joseph led me into, making us reach a stair well.
"Sorry," Joseph said, "there's no elevator. Just lean on me."
What kind of ghetto-ass building doesn't have an elevator? Oh yea, I forgot I was in the projects. Even as we passed the third story, I saw graffiti on the wall. It wasn't anything special, just some gang symbol. But I found it! Eventually, once we reached the fourth floor, we exited the stair-well, leading us down another smoldering hallway.
"What's up? The air conditioner broken?" I whined, the sweat from my forehead starting to run down into my eyes, making them sting.
"Sorry Babe, there's no AC. But I'll crack a window when we get there." Eww, he did not just call me Babe. "Here we are!" Joseph opened up a door (without unlocking it) to reveal the smallest apartment I've ever seen! Just going in led you into the living room, attached to the kitchen with just a tiny plastic table near the window that Joseph rushed over to open. He motioned for me to sit on the couch, which had holes in the upholstery and a ketchup (or at least I'm praying that's what it is) stain on the arm rest. Reluctantly, I sat on the couch, gagging when I realized the TV was a bubble screen one, and not even a foot wide!
Joseph noticed m staring at it. "My bad, we only get local channels. Hope you didn't wanna watch some fancy show or anything."
"It's fine," I mumbled, looking around at the rest of the apartment. The shag carpet was disgusting, filled with crumbs and animal hair…where was the pet? The kitchen counters had mountains of dirty dishes overflowing it, flies buzzing around, picking at the scraps of leftovers.
"Let's go to my room," Joseph said, picked me up into his arms. I was shocked by how string he was, considering that he looked like he had absolutely no muscle build at all…at least compared to Paul. Then again, anyone compared to Paul looks like a twig.
Joseph carried me down a short hallway and into the first bedroom on the left. It seemed to be about the same size the living room-kitchen hybrid. There was a twin-sized bed on the far wall, right below the window. The floor was littered with dirty clothes and other stuff that I didn't really want to decipher. Joseph set me on the bed, gazing at my face for approval of his home.
I just looked around and nodded, holding back my frown at the dead goldfish that floated belly-up in the murky bowl on the dresser. "Uhhh, your goldfish is…" I pointed over at it.
Joseph waved it away, signaling me to drop it. "You hungry?"
"No," I lied, really just not wanting to eat anything that came out of that filthy kitchen. I glanced over at the clock, seeing that it was still pretty early in the day. Great, that just meant that me and Joseph would get to spend the whole day in his shit-hole he calls a home.
Yea, maybe I should be more sensitive given that he's less fortunate. But still! If you were going to take a girl you're trying to impress anywhere, make sure it's not a dump!
The rest of the day fucking sucked ass! I tried to watch TV on the so-called box in the living room, but it had too much static and I couldn't even see the picture on the screen. I then tried to play a board game with Joseph, but all he wanted to do was talk about my feelings, making me get a little mad at his sensitive self. The only reason why I didn't lash out was because I needed him in order to hide from Paul, who decided to go all bi-polar on me. When it got night and I went to sleep, Joseph surprised me by offering me his bed, while he just kicked some of the junk on his floor to the side and laid down there; making me feel bad for taking the bed.
Now it's morning, and fucking Joseph decided it would be great to wake me up early so that we could get ready for school together. Asshole.
"Danni," he cooed in my ear. "We have to wake up early because we have to go the school in Forks due to the fire."
I groaned and shoved my face in the pillow, immediately regretting the action because my nostrils were assaulted with the stench of hair sweat and saliva. I sat upright and rubbed my eyes. "Can I borrow one of your shirts or something?" I slurred, tired since I didn't get a good night's rest on this springy mattress that hurt my back. How the fuck does Joseph live this way?
Joseph nodded, walking over his dresser and shifting through bundles of cloth. "Here ya go,' he said, tossing a black shirt at me. I unraveled it, seeing it was just plain, which I was thankful for. I was scared that I'd have to wear some ridiculous metal band shirt that I'd have no idea what the band played.
I decided to skip a shower this morning, fearful of what the bathroom looked like. Joseph just switched his shirt in front of me. His chest was semi-muscular. I could see some definition, but not as drastic as Paul, or even Henry. At least he wasn't just skin and bones. I hate seeing a guy's ribs; major turn-off. Joseph then went to his closet and pulled out the crutches he said he'd let me borrow.
"Thanks," I said, taking them from him. We both left the apartment, relieved to find out that the heat wave was over as the hallway seemed a tolerable temperature. As soon as we were in Joseph's car, he began to blast a stupid metal song as he sped off to Forks.
Every now and then, he'd try to talk to me, asking my favorite music, to which I replied alternative. He scowled, obviously a metal-head for life. When we reached the school in Forks, we had to go to the auditorium for a welcoming assembly. It was pretty lame. The principal there just ranted on and on about how he expected us to obey the school rules and how we should make ourselves at home here. Whatever. At the end of the assembly, we all had to file down off the bleachers and over to a table where the counselors were handing out our schedules. When I got mine, Joseph snatched it out of my hand to compare it to his.
"It looks like we only have English together," he frowned, handing me my schedule back.
I didn't want to admit that I was happy I'd get a break from him. He was just like Paul! Every few minutes he's glance at me, just to check I was real or something and he didn't know boundaries! Everywhere we stood, he was always at my side, his arm around my shoulder. I think the worst part was that he didn't wear deodorant, so I had to hold my breath frequently.
The bell rang and we shuffled off to our second period class since the assembly took up the first hour. I hobbled over to anatomy, at the other end of the school. My armpits ached as I propelled myself on the stupid crutches. People in the hall would make a little path for me; afraid to touch me as if I were contagious. When I reached the room, I took a seat in the back, watching the students file in.
I was about to rest my head on the table when I saw Lauren enter the room.
"Lauren!" I cheered, waving her down.
She looked over at me, shyly smiling as if she were nervous about something. Then she took the desk up front, farthest away from me.
What the fuck did I do? Did I like, piss her off or something? I know I haven't called her in a while, but I was busy dealing with Paul at the time. And I'm pretty sure a love-obsessed werewolf gets priority over a buddy's feelings. I frowned and opened up my textbook, pretending to follow along with what the teacher had to say. Since I slept over at Joseph's, I didn't have my backpack, and therefore couldn't take any notes or use a pencil to do any of my assignments. Oh well; I wasn't in the mood to do work today. With that excuse, all my teachers made faces at me today, each of them annoyed with me refusing to do an assignment.
Eventually the time came for lunch to start and I hurried to the cafeteria. I was starving; the lack of breakfast at Joseph's finally starting to hit me. When I got there, I went to the line, scanning the cafeteria for people I knew. I couldn't see Joseph, so I deduced he was in the bathroom. Henry was at the other end of the line and made his way over to an empty table, one I made my sight on. I grabbed a tray and hopped in line, leaning on the counter and carrying my crutched in one hand.
"What's up Cripple?" I heard the most annoying voice in the entire world ask from behind me.
I slowly turned my head to face the human beach ball Amanda, and her side-kick Tickle-Me-Emo. "What do you want?" I groaned.
"We just happened to see that you and Joseph Tudor are quite the thing lately," Cassandra mused, scowling a little.
"What's it to you?" I demanded, grabbing a turkey sandwich and putting it on my tray, scooting farther down the line.
"Nothing!" Cassandra hurriedly said. "I don't like him; I was just stating the obvious retard."
"Okay?" I said confused. I could tell by her reddening face that something was up between her and Joseph. Shit, I hope I'm not the Other Woman.
"What happened to your leg?" Amanda asked. "Did you pull a muscle trying to scissor your new girlfriend?"
I shrugged her off, trying to ignore her stupid voice that sounded like nails scratching a chalk board.
"No," Cassandra said. "Nobody wants to fuck that dyke. I mean, her vag is all bitter and has cobwebs, it's never been used."
Amanda laughed, her stomach fat jiggling with every chuckle, reminding me of Santa. "I bet she has a toothed vagina like in that one movie. That's why guys avoid her."
"You know," I smirked, turning to look Cassandra dead on, "I can just, give the okay if you will, and Joseph will be all over me. Yea, he wants me that much. I guess you're not his fantasy girl, like me." The pissed off look on her face only made my smile grow bigger.
"I broke up with him!" she screamed. "You can have my sloppy seconds!"
My smile vanished immediately and my jaw dropped. "You guys dated?" I choked, disgusted that I slept on the bed where they most likely fucked.
"Yea."
"And now he's settling for you because you're an easy whore," Amanda added, grabbing Jello.
At first, I was disgusted with the idea of being involved with Cassandra's ex, however, if she's going to be this mad over it, then it may be worth something to me. Joseph originally was a pawn to get me closer to Henry, but ruining Cassandra's love life is ten-thousand times better. "Or, he's with me because I'm not some emo slut or an overweight whale," I smiled.
"Did you just call me fat?" Amanda gasped, looking genuinely shocked.
"Well, those weren't my exact words, but yes, I did imply it," I said matter-of-factly. "Fat-ass."
Amanda's faced turned red with age and her fists clenched. "I'm gonna pull your stringy hair out of your fucking head!" she snorted.
I chuckled. "Bitch, it's hair. Not spaghetti, you can't eat it."
Cassandra scoffed. "Bitch!" she spat.
I rolled my eyes. "Oops, don't wanna get the emo mad. She'll try to cut herself while I'm fucking her ex!" I made sure to lean in closer when I said the whole thing about having sex with Joseph. Sure I lied; I'm not ready to fuck Joseph. I barely know him and if we actually wind up doing it, it's going to be at my house.
Amanda smiled then, narrowing her raisin-like eyes at me. "You know, while you do that, me and Cassandra will just fuck your other boyfriend."
"Other?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow. Do they seriously think I'm some kind of whore who has like ten guys in my bed at a time? Hmm, on second thought, that wouldn't be so bad. I think having all those guys worship me at time would be frickin' beast! Let's see, I'd pick Henry, Joseph (just to piss off Cassandra), Brady, Lauren's friend Mike, that guy who works at McDonalds, and uhh…I don't know. I could throw in Paul just because, but knowing him, he'll get jealous and kill the other nine guys to get me all to himself.
"That cop," Amanda clarified. "Me and Cassandra will just steal your precious cop away from you. Just imagine, him fucking us senseless while you're left all by yourself and-"
I don't know what came over me. The second Amanda started talking about stealing Paul from me, it seemed as if something inside my brain snapped. As she was opening her fat mouth to continue her threat, I gripped the sides of my tray, making sure I had a strong hold on it. I slid it away from the counter, swinging it right into the side of Amanda's ugly bitch-face.
Her head swung back and she grabbed at her face, screaming with pain as it already started to bruise. "Motherfucker!" she yelled at me.
The whole cafeteria broke out into a bunch of hoots and hollers, all egging Cassandra on to beat my ass. Wow, it's great to know that my peers don't have any faith in me. Even the cafeteria ladies seemed to making bets. The husky one slipped a ten on the counter. "Ten says the lesbian cripple won't stand a chance."
"I'm not a lesbian!" I roared, swinging my tray at Cassandra now. She swung her body to the left, dodging my attack. She then looked at me with the craziest look in her eyes and charged, literally. She bowed her head like a bull and charged at me. I think it would've been funnier if Amanda did it, snorting and pawing at the ground, but as fate has it, Cassandra charged instead.
Before I realized it, Cassandra had tackled me to the ground, sitting on my torso. She raised her right fist and brought it down towards my face. I jerked my head to the side, letting her punch the floor. She yelled out in pain as her hand smashed the ceramic tiles, making a sickening cracking noise. She raised it to her chest, whimpering. Taking this opportunity, I swung my legs up, managing to wrap them around her chest. I then brought her down, smacking her head on the tile.
Cassandra moaned as she went unconscious from the head injury I kind of gave her. Secretly, I was praying she wasn't dead that way I wouldn't have to go to jail or anything. Amanda now stood up and dashed over to me. I hurriedly got to my feet and ran at her as well, not really thinking. At this point, I was letting my body take control of my mind. I think that flight-or-fight instinct kicked in, dulling my logic. I probably should have run since Amanda has two-hundred pounds on me, but me being the smart person I am, ran at my attacker.
As soon as she was within reach, I straightened out my arms, grabbing each of Amanda's ears and she tackled me back to the ground. She began to punch my stomach repeatedly, blow after blow starting to hurt my entire body, as if waves of pain from the hits were traveling throughout my core. My head began to ring and I did the only thing I could think of.
I pulled on Amanda's ears, bring her closer to me. Pretty soon she stopped punching, screaming for me to let go as I tightened my grip, digging my nails into her lobes. I pulled her head closer and closer to my body, mainly my face. When she was near enough, I raised my own head, sinking my teeth into her cheek. I don't know why I did it, but I figured if I'm going to fight against two people, I may as well fight dirty in order to stand a chance.
Amanda started to push away from me, only making my jaws pull on her skin. I bit so hard I could taste blood.
"Get the fuck off me freak!" she screeched. Ears began to roll down her face and she began to slap at my face. I released her cheek and she stumbled to her feet, running out of the cafeteria.
I spit out the blood that seeped into my mouth and got to my feet as well, using the counter for support. I looked out over at the shocked students, all of them dead silent. I'm pretty sure I looked like shit now: wild hair and bloody teeth. Oh well. Cassandra was till unconscious, lying on the floor.
"Anyone want some of this?" I yelled out, still riding the high that my adrenaline gave me.
No one made a sound, not even the cafeteria ladies. Soon the crowd began to part and a really buff guy sauntered over to me, looking pissed as fuck. It was Tyler: the bodybuilding jock Cassandra and Amanda tried to get to fight me earlier.
"What the fuck?" he yelled. "You fucking beat up my girl!"
"She started it!" I whined, knowing very well that I technically threw the first punch, all to protect my pride…and Paul in a way. Why the fuck did I start a fight over Paul? Before I could answer, I felt an immense discomfort on my face. My head jerked back and I fell back to the floor. Damn! That's the third time!
I opened my eyes to see Tyler standing over me, menacingly. His fist was coming back to his body, telling me he had punched my face. Asshole!
"Fucker!" I heard an extremely pissed off man yell from the other side of the cafeteria. I peeked over to see that the school had called the police to deal with the fight. And who was sent? Fucking Paul!
Paul sprinted across the cafeteria and took out his taser gun from his belt. He carefully aimed it at Tyler and fired, sending the wires straight into his chest. Tyler immediately began to shake and grit his teeth with the agony of being electrocuted.
"Let's get out of here," I heard a whisper as I was dragged into the crowd. I looked up to see Joseph, dragging me by the arm across the floor out of the cafeteria.
PPOV
I had received a call about a fight at Forks High School, so immediately I took it, speeding over there in a matter of seconds. I desperately prayed that it wasn't Danni who was involved in the fate, however, as always, luck wasn't on my side.
As soon as I entered the cafeteria where I saw a big group of students huddled by the food line, I caught of a glimpse of my Danni, standing up to a steroid-abusing freak.
Immediately as my eyes settled on my imprint, my wolf took control, thanks to Sam's alpha order. I'll take care of this, he said, taking possession of my actions.
Then we both saw a horrific sight. The motherfucker of a jock swung out his fist, decking my Danni right in her chin, sending her falling to the floor. "Fucker!" I roared out in frustration as I pulled out my taser gun. I had wanted to phase and kill the motherfucker who dared to lay his hands on my imprint, but I couldn't risk it with all these students in here.
I shot the taser at the jock, who automatically fell to the ground in pain, especially since I turned the voltage all the way up. My wolf focused his sight on him, hungry for vengeance, and forgetting all about Danni. I ran over to him and began to rearrange his face.
"You! Don't! Ever! Lay! Your! Fucking! Hands! On! Her! Again!" I roared, hitting his face between every word. Soon I heard his noise break and blood rushed out, all over his face. His jaw cracked and it relaxed over on his left, disconnected. Good. I wanted him to feel pain.
Stop! I told the wolf. If you kill him, we'll go to jail and never see Danni again.
I felt a growl rise in my chest and my body straighten up away from the pulverized jock who lay on the floor, sobbing in pain. I scanned the floor for my Danni, but saw no sign of her. "Where is Daniela Chapman?" I yelled out at the students.
"She left with Joseph Tudor," a small nerd shakily answered.
I nodded and ran out of the school, hurrying to my car. Now all I have to do is find out where this Tudor kid lives and hunt him down. Where he is, my Danni is.
