Find me, Atlas

Chapter 24

I wanted to gouge my eyes out before going after his, Casey's beady eyes stood out like a forest fire, just spreading destruction everywhere it could. I could barely stand the sight of him, it had been forever since I last saw him, but my feelings toward him remained the same... I despised the piece of trash in front of me.

"We actually decided not to order." I said trying to hold a threatening smile. I kicked Sawyer from under the table and he grabbed his phone in one hand and Georgia by the other, pushing past Casey and his stupid fucking notepad. "Cmon let's go." I rubbed Sky's back and got up from the table.

As I lead her to the exit, Casey turned around with a provoking question, "She's still just as sensitive isn't she?" He flipped the notepad shut and walked over to me, "By the way, your shoelace is untied. Guess you didn't beat me enough to hurt my eyesight."

My heart was practically pounding out of my chest. I ushered Sky to go wait with the others so I could have a more... private conversation. "So is that an invitation to try again? I mean practice makes perfect does it not?" I pointed toward a back exit, "Just like old times."

He smiled devilishly walking toward the back exit, I decided not to let Hitch know about what was about to happen behind his place since I knew I'd probably be the one to get in trouble, because I was about to screw Casey's face for good.

I ended up following Casey around to a back alley, an all too familiar setting. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a ombré blue and black lighter. He lit the cigarette in his mouth and stared at me as he leaned against the brick wall. "I hope you're not too disgusted with me," he said in an overly sarcastic tone, "to be fair you did break my last vape the last time we had a little play date. My dad had a pack of cigarettes hanging around so I decided to try them out, y'know?" He asked blowing out a puff of smoke.

"Nasty story, I don't remember asking for one." I snatched the cigarette out of his mouth before he got a chance to suck in another breath. "Consider yourself welcome, I might have just saved your fragile life." I returned the sarcastic comment.

He rolled his eyes at me and put the lighter away, "Anyways, are we just here to insult each other, or are you going go tie your laces?" I looked down to my laces to see them perfectly tied, and as I looked back up to him, my face collided with his foot. "Picked up that little trick from you, you're a great teacher."

"Wish I could say the same for you," I spat out blood, "I didn't bring my pocketknife with me."

He had an irritated smile on his face as he went for mine again, before he got the chance to strike me, Hitch came out the back with a trash bag. He saw the two of us and Casey bolted like a coward at the sight of him, too bad Hitch saw his face... seems he's out of a job.

"Holy shit kid, you okay?" Hitch said in unfazed tone as he came over with a handful of paper napkins he'd taken out of his apron pocket, "Here, stuff your nose with that and come inside, I'll grab you an ice-pack." He said staring at the side of my face, where it stung from Casey's kick.

We walked inside and straight to the kitchen break room, the temperature difference from the hot steamy kitchen to the fanned lounge room was noticeable, I felt my anger calming almost instantly. "Si'down." Hitch pointed to an open chair, I sat down and looked around the room at the kitchen staff framed photos from every year. There wasn't one for this year yet, so naturally I was happy not to see a certain face on the wall. "Here, don't press too hard. Looks like he got you good." He handed me an ice pack wrapped in a hand towel, I said thank you and figured he'd wanna sit down and talk about what happened. But he just nodded his head and walked out, closing the door behind him.

I sat in the chair quietly, carefully adjusting the ice pack every time it got uncomfortable, and listened to the fan in the corner of the room. The door handle rattled and Sky ran in, embracing me in a hug. "What the hell Atlas??" She put balled fist out ready to punch my shoulder when she saw my clogged nose and busted face, retracting her hand back to her side. She sighed, "You really... I wanted to leave, I said that I wanted to leave, does that sound anything like 'get into a fight with Casey' to you? Because it sure as hell doesn't to me." She started going all psycho on me, but her expression was never angry, it remained in a worried, shocked state.

After about five minutes of her pacing around the room, she finally stopped to check on me. As she looked at the side of my face, her fingertips made me wince when she touched my scraped skin.

Sawyer walked in with Georgia a few minutes later holding a first aid kit. "Sorry we took so long, Hitch couldn't find the first aid kit so we had to help rummage around his office." Georgia said handing Sky the scratched up white box with a scuffed up red cross. She took out some cotton balls and dowsed them in alcohol, and slowly put them up to my face, blowing on the places she'd dabbed the cotton ball with. It was a soothing sensation almost, for the few seconds I felt the breeze on my face.

"What the fuck did you guys do?" Sawyer said pulling up a chair, his eyes sparkled with admiration. "I bet he looks worse."

I chuckled lightly and studied the dusty floor as Skylar kept working on my face, "Nah, he uh, he got the jump on me this time." Sawyers admirable face disappeared but I knew he was still proud of me, I hoped anyways. "You stopped crying." I whispered to Sky as she focused on the lower side of my chin, she looked up at me and blew in my eyes.

"I stopped crying a while ago, soon after you pushed me outside. I don't know whether or not to feel special or some douche bag who keeps letting you get hurt."

"The former. I promise the former." I insured her. She smiled sideways and went back to my chin. She grabbed a big bandaid and put it over the scrape and ruffled my hair. She said all done and put a smile on her face as she pulled me up and out the door into the heat of the kitchen.

As we all left to go home, Hitch pulled Georgia back for a second so we waited. She came back with a large cheese pizza and a note on the box for me. It read, Hope this compensates a little, your choice whether or not to take it to the police, but I'll make sure a certain someone loses their apron. However, the next time you decide to fight behind my store, I won't be a nice guy.

Georgia whispered to me, "I took the liberty of reading it first but you better listen to him, Hitch can be a menace at times and you don't wanna see it." I took it word for word and smiled at the note and pizza, my mood was already lightened from Skylars concern and angry love, but this was the cherry on top.

We got back to Sky's house but her parents were waiting for us in the living room. "Sky, where did you and Georgia go?" Her dad said walking into the foyer, only to see Sawyer and I tagged along. He looked at Sawyer not knowing who he was and then turned to me, "Good God, Atlas what happened?"

I chuckled nervously, Sawyer and Georgia nodded their heads as a greeting and scurried off to the kitchen with the pizza. Skylar stood next to me and looked at her dad, "Atlas and his friend were home alone too, so Georgie and I invited them to tag along to pizza at Hitch's." She explained for me.

"And that friend is....?"

"Sawyer, sir. He goes to school with us."

"Ah. I guess that's fine, but you still haven't told me what happened to you, you look like you got run over by a truck."

As I was about to try and come up with something, Sky's mom came into the foyer after getting off of some phone call. "Who got run over by a truck??" She asked and turned to me. "Oh my God! Sweetheart who did this to you??"

Her reaction was loud and I was afraid even the neighbors would hear it. "I'm alright, really." I said trying to calm the situation. Sky told her mom to quiet down and she went over to rub her shoulders. I didn't know what to say to them, if I told them the whole situation with Casey then Skylars rape attempt would somehow unfold as well. "Just a kid from another school, he was at the pizza place and jumped me around the back. Said something about being 'a preppy Highgate kid' or whatever."

Her mom put her hand up to her mouth, "Oh honey, I'm sorry. Did you get proper treatment?" She asked pointing to my bandaid. I nodded and her dad came up and patted my shoulder.

"You took it like a man."

Sawyer and I went home that night and I said goodbye to him as he hopped in his car, I stepped into the house and saw mom laying on the couch, I was lucky to find her asleep otherwise I don't know how my night would have ended. I went up to take a shower and as the lukewarm water hit my skin, my face felt like it was melting. But I take quick showers so it's nothing I couldn't manage for a few minutes longer.

I climbed into bed and picked up my phone as it buzzed on the nightstand. Sky sent me an I love you text with a blushing emoji next to it, I smiled and sent back a heart.

Tonight was a loss for me, but as long as she's happy, I'm always winning.