He Called Her Cinderella

Chapter Eleven

        I turned around to see who Charlie was looking at. It was Jason Aldridge, a boy who had left school last year after getting in a fight with a couple of other students.

        "What's he doing here?" Louise hissed.

        "My question exactly, I'll go find out," Reuben murmured.

        "Don't you dare!" Louise grabbed his arm. "He probably has a gun and is going to kill you!"

        "He's nineteen, it's fine," Reuben shook her off, then he smirked. "But it's good to see you care."

        Louise rolled her eyes, "Preserving you from dying and caring about you are two different things."

        "Good, I was almost worried there for a second," Reuben sighed with relief.

        "Sure, like it's not a stab to your ego that I'm not head over heels for you," Louise nodded.

        "Ego? What ego?" Reuben looked around.

        "Oh please, just go see what Jason wants," Louise huffed.

        Reuben walked over to him slowly, "Hey, Jason! Haven't seen you in a while, how'd you hear about the party?"

        "Blunt as ever," Louise whispered to me.

        "I was looking for someone, and I thought I might see them here," Jason shrugged. "I decided I'd come and check it out."

        "Well, maybe I can help you find who you're looking for and then, you know..." Reuben trailed off. "You could leave?"

        Jason tightened his jaw, "I can be on the beach if I want."

        Reuben chuckled, "Uh, funny story: the Simons bought this beach. It's privately owned, and that makes you a trespasser."

        Jason's eyes flicked around the beach until they locked with Charlie's.

        "I'll be leaving soon," he said and began walking over to us.

        Louise grabbed my hand, her manicured nails digging into my palm.

        When he was five feet away, Jason stopped walking.

        "Hey man! Long time no see," Charlie said cheerily.

        "You're dad ruined my chance of having a career, you're gonna pay," Jason growled.

        "Oh, you mean colleges won't accept you because you've been expelled for fighting? That wasn't my dad's fault, or anyone's except yours," Charlie took a step forward.

        Jason's fists doubled, jaw locked, and eyes narrowed. There was going to be a fight. 

        I saw Jason's arm raise, and without thinking I ran in front of him. That was actually a really stupid thing to do, looking back, but at the time, I wasn't thinking.

        Jason's punch connected with my left temple, and everything went black. Stars appeared in front of my eyes, but in a couple seconds, my vision was back to normal. 

        Jason was standing with his mouth open, the fight knocked out of him.

        "I... I..." he stammered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I mean..."

        I forced a smile on my face, ignoring the pounding pain in my head, "It's okay, I should have watched where I was going."

        I really felt kinda like I was going to puke. I mean, Jason used to play football and... yeah. It wasn't pleasant.