MI MILAGRO, JJ maybank

Chapter 17 - Awkward

"Let go of me, Rafe," Maria demanded.

The guy had her arm in a grip that felt almost superhuman. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't break free.

But it was Rafe's expression that truly terrified her. Empty, purely empty. There was no emotion or humanity in those eyes.

"So, you like messing with human trash?" he taunted.

"Rafe, if you don't release me—"

"What? What are you gonna do?" he interrupted, his grip tightening even more.

In a surprisingly instantaneous move, without thinking, she lifted her leg and kicked him in, well, you can imagine where.

Rafe let go, doubling over in pain from the impact, and Maria stepped closer to whisper in his ear,
"No me vuelvas a tocar así en tu puta vida, estamos? (Don't you ever fucking touch me like that again, got it?)"

'Why are you like this?'

Maria was totally baffled, staring at Rafe as if he had just spouted the biggest load of nonsense in the world.

'You can't be serious. I give you a thousand chances, and you let me down every single time!'"

Heading towards the party, she could hear Rafe's shouts from behind.

"He's not gonna bring anything good to your life! He's a worthless Pogue, good for nothing!"

Maria turned around to shout back, "He's perfect! And you're a jerk!"

She realized she had reached the event and everyone was turned towards her. She nervously smiled at everyone and headed to the bar to grab a drink.

As fate would have it, she bumped into Topper. Now, it seemed like smoke was coming out of Topper's ears.

"Hey, you haven't seen your little friend Sarah, have you?"

Maria surveyed the scene and in the distance, she saw what seemed to be her friend, blonde in a white dress, with an unidentified guy. Suddenly, spotting a really familiar bandana around the neck of that mysterious dude, she realized he wasn't as much of a stranger as she'd thought. She knew that if Topper caught sight of them, he'd probably try to off her friend. Instinctively, she came up with a quick excuse.

"Uh, no! I think she's in the bathrooms fixing her lipstick."

"You're not lying to me, right?"

Maria placed her hand over her heart, "Dead poets honor."

"What?"

"Never mind, just go have some fun."

Maria saw her chance when Topper was out and headed to the common changing rooms. She strolled up to the mirror and, resting both hands on the marble sink, locked eyes with her reflection.

But the reflection looking back at her was a far cry from the one she knew. You know that saying about eyes sparkling when you're in love? Well, her eyes were practically twinkling stars. She had this massive grin, couldn't wipe it off her face! She was ecstatic, I mean, seriously over the moon.

"No me lo creo! (I can't believe this!)" she whispered to herself, her hand grazing her lips, outlining them and replaying in her mind what had just happened.

"Hold him still. So, what do you think? A four iron, right?" Maria turned her head.
Was this Rafe's voice?

"Very Rafe of you. Five on one?"

And that was unmistakably JJ's voice. She quickly headed to where the voice was coming from and there, in the middle of the locker room, she saw two guys holding JJ while Rafe pretended he was playing golf.