Midnight Pleasure

Chapter 3: Fight, Flight, or Freeze

I was frozen in place, I always wondered what I would do in a fight, flight, or freeze situation, turns out I freeze. Jackson was standing behind Colby, arms crossed, eyes fixated on his target. Colby threw his head back in laughter and walked towards Jackson, undoubtedly underestimating how tall he is. He stopped a few feet away from him, eyeing him up and down, sizing up his competition.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here? A brave new soul trying to stick up for the poor damsel in distress?" Jackson closed the gap between them with just a couple of strides, now towering over Colby.

"The only damsel in distress is you." The crowd snickered at Jackson's comment and Colby shifted his stance to try and appear taller than he was.

Colby was a lot of things, but insanely tall was not one of them. He was five foot ten, maybe ten and a half, Jackson had several inches on him.

"You've had your fun, you can leave now." Colby said, dismissing Jackson like he was one of the outcasts in school trying to fit in with the cool kids. He got increasingly more frustrated when Jackson didn't move.

"Listen, this is between me and her, not you. Now get the hell out of here before I make you leave." He walked back towards me, but Jackson let out a low laugh, catching Colby off guard.

"Make me, huh? I'd like to see you try." The crowd had doubled in size, it was split in half between who would win the fight. I was on my own side, just wanting to get in my car and get out as fast as possible. I tried to sneak away, but Colby put out his arm, trapping me behind him. I started to freak out, I didn't know what either of them were going to do, and I didn't want to be here for it. I ducked under his arm and ran as fast as I could towards my car.

That's when Colby did something I never thought he would do. He put his hands on me without my permission. He grabbed my arms and pulled me towards him. I let out a scream along with everyone in the crowd, nobody expected Colby to get violent towards me. The only person who didn't gasp or scream was Jackson, he was perfectly still, but his jaw was clenched and his hands were balled into fists so tight that his knuckles were white.

"Now where the hell do you think you're going? I told you we are going to our special place." His voice was so guttural it didn't sound like him. Where the hell did my sweet Colby go? Even Jade wouldn't tell him to do this, he was doing it all on his own. I looked in his eyes and I saw something, regret maybe? Sadness? I didn't know which it was or if it was even really there, but I couldn't help but feel like Colby wasn't in control of his emotions. Or was I just trying to think of any reason to explain his erratic behavior?

"Let her go." Jackson said through his gritted teeth.

"Make me." Was all Colby had to say, Jackson gladly took his invitation and walked towards him. I was trying to break free of his grasp when he whipped his head towards me and murmured something so soft I couldn't tell if he really said it.

"Help me." Then his eyes glazed over, and an evil grin appeared on his face. I screamed, and yanked my arms away from his grasp. I ran towards my car, Jackson placed himself between me and Colby, taking on the role as my protector. As much as I didn't want it, I knew I needed him to be there. Colby had gone off the rails, he was completely unpredictable. He was smart enough to not try and take on Jackson, he just turned around and shoved people out of his way and left.

Jackson immediately turned around and walked over to me. I broke down, tears streaming down my face. I tasted the saltiness of them when I took in a long, deep breath, trying to calm down. Jackson didn't say anything, knowing that even if I wanted to answer him, I couldn't. He simply opened the passenger side door and I got in. He walked over to the driver's side and got in, starting the car and peeling out of the parking lot.