Dude...Thats Not a Guy

37. Right Hook

Alistair's POV:

I stood next to Ashton after we had helped sort out the fight that had erupted in the middle of the dancing crowd. It was of course over something as stupid as someone spilling a drink on someone else by accident, but as I looked at Xavier I could see the look of concern in his eyes.

He was understanding that this could have been worse.

Or at least that's what I hoped as we all stood in a circle near the staircase. Willow tucked safely by my side, Ashton stood next to me, Xavier was trapped between him and Ezekiel. He might not be thinking any of that at all, hell, I never knew what went on in his head. Xav was far too difficult to read.

"Okay, so guys, two things to tell you all." Ashton said, rocking side to side on the balls of his feet. Ashton, however, was terribly easy to read, his body language had always been open and confident unlike Xav's controlled façade.

"Spit it out then." Willow said, a manic smile on her face as she looked up at me with an even more manic look in her eyes. I smiled back as I realised what she was thinking.

"Well, let's just say that if, by some miracle, we see that Soraya and Ashton seem exceptionally close compared to normal, that it is definitely my hard work that brought them together."

"Soraya and I are going to be leaving the party..." He said, a genuinely happy smile on his face. There was no pretentious smirk, nothing like the looks he had given us before when he said he was leaving a party early with a girl.

"This is her birthday party..." Xavier trailed off, his brain a little slow since he had taken a few shots since the party started.

"Yeah, well she is overwhelmed with the amount of people here so we're going to go someplace quiet."

"Why are you going with her?" Xav asked next, I shook my head.

"Part two of what he's going to tell us is that they're together, you idiot. Even though I already knew." Ezekiel said, his words all too blunt as he stared at the buzzed Xav across from me. He tilted his head to the side and looked at Ashton, slowly nodding.

"You did say that when we failed she'd be yours... didn't realise you were serious." Xav said, I gulped as Willow's stare of manic excitement turned to one of confusion and, dare I say, anger.

"Fucking what?" She asked, and I swear that was the first time I'd heard her say the f-word.

"Uh, I'll explain later." I said, she continued looking at me but shook her head.

"You were all objectifying her, weren't you?" She asked, I took a sharp intake of breath but Ashton cut in before I could try and cover our asses.

"Yes, but that was quite a few months ago. I think we could agree that we've all grown a bit since then, and... getting to become friends with her first has definitely made this more than that." He said, a soft smile on his face as Willow turned her attention to him.

"Okay. I guess I will accept that, if you all apologise to her first." She said, I tilted my head back and looked at the chandelier above us for a moment before I looked back down at her.

"Okay, we'll all apologise to Soraya." I said, she turned to look back at me with an approving smile.

"Good." She replied, the silence in the house becoming heavy for no apparent reason. Xav had stopped the music due to the fight, but the audible chatter of the people in the house was almost as loud as what the music had been.

"Anyway, I'm going to go and get her and then we'll go. See everyone at school Monday." He said, already looking to where I assumed Soraya was supposed to be waiting for him. There was a concerned look on his face as he looked though, his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes began flicking around the entire open area.

"All good?" I asked, he looked back at me and nodded.

"She's not in the kitchen where I left her, she's probably just waiting outside." He said, waving his goodbye as he backpedalled a couple of steps before turning around and scanning the room as he made his way to the front door.

"Well, are you going to start playing some music again?" I asked Xav, who smiled at me while pulling out his phone. He had just unlocked his screen when a sound cut over the noise in the house, a sound that made my heart skip a beat and forced me to stop breathing.

It was Ashton.

Ashton's voice.

Ashton's horrified voice.

His horrified voice calling out Soraya's name from outside.

I didn't think twice as I let go of Willow and sprinted past the crowd of people who had now gone silent, hearing the fear and panic in Ashton's voice. When I reached the front porch, I realised why.

A man was holding an unconscious Soraya under her arms, dragging her along the footpath that led from Xavier's house to the road. That had to be Adam, the fucker who abused Soraya years ago, who had been stalking her.

"Someone call 911!" I shouted as I heard the commotion of the partiers coming outside to see what was going on, instead of waiting for someone to respond or even check that even one person was pulling out their phone, I started sprinting down the footpath as I heard Ashton shouting at Adam to let go of Soraya.

"You fucking piece of shit!" He shouted as Adam did indeed drop Soraya, but it wasn't to end this all now, it was so he could run. I could see that Ashton was about to go after him, but I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay with Soraya, I've got this fucker." I said, smirking as Adam looked at me. I stalked towards him, readying my hands by my sides into fists. He knew he wouldn't be able to run, that it was too late for that now, so I saw his fingers curl as well, getting prepared to fight back. "You messed with the wrong girl, pal." I said, squeezing my fists tight before relaxing them into the prime position for breaking someone's nose.

"You don't know her like I do, she's mine, I love her and she loves me." So, he wasn't just a piece of shit, he was a delusional piece of shit.

"Fuck off mate." I said as I finally got close to him. "Do you get off on it? Pushing your power onto people? Onto girls? Is it because you have a tiny dick?" I asked, which made him quite angry to say the least. He swung his fist at my face, but I easily dodged it, and decided that second that he deserved a bit more pain than me just immediately breaking his nose and knocking him out.

I first punched his sternum, knocking the wind out of his chest, hopefully breaking a rib or two.

Followed by a harsh kick to the balls.

A left-hand punch in the throat next.

Promptly chased a right hook directly into his nose.

Blood sprayed as he fell to the ground immediately, his head hitting the pavement with an audible crack, and there was a small part of me that hoped the hit was hard enough he would have brain damage. I knelt next to him, just to make sure he was still breathing, which he was.

And that was where I stayed. Keeping guard over him, making sure he didn't so much as get the opportunity to look at Soraya. I looked over my shoulder and saw Ashton holding Soraya against his chest, Zeke, Xav and Will around him as he cried from the panic he felt. She was breathing, I could see that from here.

And I saw the entire group of partiers, all of them watching and I saw a handful of them on their phones, some were recording, but were now stopping as they realised the action was over. The others were talking, hopefully on the phone with emergency services. None of them went to leave, no one ran so they could get away with being at a party. Most of them didn't know her personally, but had heard about her, which was how they ended up here. That was the impact she had, that all these people were willing to protect her.

I looked back at Adam.

He didn't know it yet, but there was no way he was going to weasel his way out of this one.

We had over a hundred witnesses to his attempted abduction of Soraya, video footage of it, and there was proof that he had been following her around.

"You really messed with the wrong girl."