Love To Hate You

Chapter 8

Cas

"Hello, brother dearest!" My sister's voice is bright and chirpy through the phone, and I wonder once again how she has so much energy in the morning. "You know that I love you and appreciate you so, so much, right?"

"What do you need?" 

She fakes an offended gasp. "What, I can't just be nice and not want something from you?" I can practically hear her pout from the little puff of air she lets out. "I'm deeply hurt. I may never recover from this insult to my character."

I grin at the familiar theatrics that she slips into. Some old habits never die. "Well, are you just being nice and not wanting anything from me?" The skepticism seeps through my tone as I raise an eyebrow.

There's a light pause, before, "No, but, that's entirely irrelevant. Just because I need something from you right now doesn't mean that it's the case for every single time. Don't generalize, big brother."

I laugh at her fondly. "Okay, what do you need?" Even though me and Alyssa are only a year apart, she's always been doted upon and treated as the baby of our family. When she was younger, we used to all call her "princess". It didn't help that people said that she looked like one too, with her big blue eyes and blonde locks. Even now, when she's almost an adult, barely anyone ever says no to her.

"Can you come to the gym with me?" Alyssa's tone goes imploring and innocent in the way it always does when she's asking for something.

"Go by yourself." 

"Cas, please. There's this Liam guy who always goes there and he won't leave me alone and I'm scared to go by myself. What if I get kidnapped? What if I get murdered? What will you do then? Whatever will you do without your amazing sister?"

I know that she's just being dramatic, but theres an underlying truth to her words. She has me at that, and she knows it. There's no way I'm going to refuse her when she could be in actual danger. Still, I'm not about to give up my Sunday morning that easily.

"Can't you make Chase go with you? Isn't he your 'bestie bestie' or whatever?" I resist the urge to roll my eyes at the mention of Asher. As much as I usually trust her judgment, my sister can make way better friends than him.

She sighs, exasperated. "Asher's working." She states, as if this is common knowledge and should be obvious. "He always works on Sundays."

Wow, he really does live up to his Golden Boy reputation. Who works all day on a Sunday?

"Okay, fine, I'll go with you. But I swear, if that Liam dude tries anything, I'm gonna kill him."

There's a rustle on the other end of the line as Alyssa squeals excitedly into the speaker. "Deal!" 

~~~

So far, I've just been standing in the corner with my AirPods in like a very tall, very threatening shadow. I've turned the sound of the music up to almost full volume to block out the noise of the heavily whirring fans that are trying to rival the summer heat. It's not all that bad actually, even with the continuous thumping of feet against treadmills and the ceiling so low that I have to duck my head a little.

Or, correction, it hasn't been that bad up until now.

"Y' know, you're really too pretty to be a lesbian." Liam leans casually against the wall, one arm propped on the handlebar of an exercise machine. 

Alyssa turns around, a sweet smile still on her face, and politely flips him off. 

Liam's sleazy grin doesn't fade as he reaches out for her hand and squeezes it in his. "You could take that attitude somewhere else." He smirks, raising an eyebrow in a way that he clearly thinks is attractive. In reality, he looks like a homophobic, womanizing jerk who thinks he pulls when everybody hates him. Oh wait, he doesn't look like that. He is that.

Lyss looks down at his hand, back up at his face, and pulls her hand away from him, eyebrows scrunched together. "Um, I swing the other way. And get off, these things probably can't handle the weight of your misogyny." That's my sister.

"Aww, c'mon. Don't be like that. If you're not into me, just say so, don't make up stories." His voice takes on a patronizing tone. God, who does this guy think he is?

Alyssa's expression goes cold as she glares him down. "Okay, fine. I'm not into you."

He keeps smiling, totally unperturbed by her clear lack of interest, and says, "Look, I know you might think that guys find lesbians hot, but-" He doesn't get to finish his sentence. Instead, he gets my fist in his face. Because if karma won't do it's job, then I will.

Liam doubles over, his hands going to cover his face. It's pathetic, I didn't even hit him that hard. The sight of him holding his face, contorted with his supposed "pain", irks me even more. As he stands back up, I punch him again, and this time, I hear the satisfying crack of his nose breaking.

Over the rush of blood in my ears, I can discern the sounds of a commotion- men's voices raised and women gasping. Liam himself is screaming something about calling the cops this and filing a lawsuit that, looking like a total idiot making a fuss about a nosebleed. The lingering tase of sweat and blood fills the heavily air-conditioned room, mixing with an indistinct smell of disinfectant spray.

A crowd is forming around us, half yelling at Liam, saying he deserves it, and the other half shouting at us to stop fighting. Alyssa is pulling on the back of my shirt, trying to scream over all the noise that "He's not worth it!", and "Mom is going to kill you if you get in trouble again!".

It seems that all pretense has been abandoned as a mob of people start chanting "Fight! Fight!", filling the white-washed walls with noise. I suppose this is their only form of public entertainment in this small town. 

Suddenly, the doors burst open and the entire place goes silent. And the last thing I hear before security comes storming in, is the flash of a camera.

AN

short chapter this time, but i think we're all glad to see liam get the ass-beating that he deserves 😌

you will not believe how long this took me to write tho...

qotc, justiceforliam or justicfornatalie?

as usual, ty for reading! ❤️

-vi