The Tales of Flesh and Blood

'Tis But A Flesh Wound . . . I Think

To say that I was afraid would be an understatement. Fighting was my game. I knew how to fight - and I knew how to take a punch. I've been grabbed at a few times, but each time resulted with me simply turning around to punch the guy in the face. Of course, this usually resulted in a bit of retaliation, but after a while, the attempts stopped. When I fight, I'm one of the guys. When a guy grabbed my ass in a way only guys did with girls, I was beneath him.

And I didn't much like being beneath anyone, least of all guys that thought they could use other girls as potential sex toys.

So, yes, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest at a much quicker rate than when Port told me that I had to comply with whatever Frenice said should he come to me again. I closed my eyes, trying to regain my composure.

"What are you looking for?" I asked calmly.

"The flashdrive, Hale. Where's the flashdrive?"

The flashdrive?

"The only flashdrive I have is in my shoe," I said, raising my left foot to show him where it might be.

"Your shoe," Gunboy repeated. I could hear the suspicion in his voice.

"Yeah. It can easily fall out of my hoodie, and it's bulky enough to see through my pocket."

"Randy, hold her."

I felt the shift of someone else grabbing my arm as Gunboy bent down to tackle my shoes. Shit. I'm going to regret this.

Without taking the time to think, I turned as hard as I could in Gunboy's direction. My momentum took Blonde off guard - but he didn't let go of my arm. There was a soft pop!, and the scream that was forced from my throat was purely an instinctual reaction. Blonde released me, shouting out in alarm, but by this point, I had already shoved Gunboy back with a brutal kick to the face, which gave me just enough time to tear the gun from Blonde's stupefied self. I backed up against the corner with one arm hanging limp at my side and the other raised to point my stolen weapon towards my aggravators. While it was difficult to shoot with one hand, we were all so close together that if I did decide to shoot, someone would get hit.

"Get back - both of you!" I barked, trying to ignore the growing awareness of the pain rising in my shoulder.

Gunboy was climbing to his feet for the second time in the past few minutes, only this time, he had blood flowing out of his nose. He and Randy both froze upon seeing their own gun being pointed at them. Gunboy took a hesitant step forward.

"You won't shoot us."

I looked him dead in the eye and cocked the hammer back. He stopped. This was the first time I had ever held a gun aimed at another person, but right now, if he tried to fight, I was fully prepared to dig a bullet in that cocky mouth of his.

"I have one flashdrive," I said, my voice shaking slightly from adrenaline and pain. "I can get it for you. What the hell you want with security footage from a rest station beats the hell out of me, but I'll get it. However, if you make one more advance towards me, Hadi, or my home, you can forget it."

Gunboy laughed past the blood coming over his lips.

"We can just take it from you at a later point."

I forced a smile to my lips.

"Not before I send word that Landon sent you two to rape me over something he had no involvement in. I don't think he would appreciate that much, do you?"

This made them pause. They exchanged a look that was lost on me, until finally Gunboy pointed a finger at me.

"Tonight, Hale," he warned. "Get it to us by tonight. Back of the apartments."

And then they left, as if nothing happened. Gunboy unlocked the door and swung it open to give his partner room to move, while I stood there with the gun still raised. I counted to twenty under my breath before finally lowering it, my shoulder throbbing something painful. I took in a slow, shaking breath, and the amount of tears that pooled at my eyes was enough to make even Hadi seem stable when she got stressed. I leaned up against the sink, giving myself a moment to calm down.

When I was sure that I could talk properly, I unloaded the gun and tossed the magazine in one of the trash cans and the gun itself in another - while I didn't want to risk getting searched and caught with a weapon on school property, it was also a bad idea to be armed with one around the apartments. Nothing good ever happened when someone pulled out a gun, and I had no sure knowledge if this one was stolen or bought. 

After making sure that both objects were concealed under a big mess of paper towels, I bent over to grab my hoodie and wrapped the sleeves around my mouth to prepare myself for what I was about to do. I sat down criss-cross-applesauce and grabbed the wrist of my injured shoulder, straightening my arm out to the best of my ability. Then I began to pull, my grip tightening with the pain. My curses and would-be yells were muffled by my hoodie. I hoped that it was enough to keep people outside from hearing, although by the time I managed to pop my arm back into place, I barely had any energy left to stand, much less scream. It couldn't have taken longer than a few minutes at best, but damn. Dislocated shoulders hurt. I'd done my fair share of helping people relocate their shoulders, but up until now, I had never had the displeasure of having to relocate my own.

I slipped my hoodie over my torso and fished out my phone, careful not to move my injured arm more than necessary.

"Hello?" a gruff voice greeted me over the sound of a roaring engine.

"Joey, are you in town?" I asked in return, wincing at the sound of my own tone: raspy, exhausted. Anyone who could hear would know that I was not doing all that great, with Hadi's boyfriend being no exception.

"I am. What's going on?"

"I need you to take Hadi out on a surprise date."

"What?"

"I need you to keep her out of the apartments," I clarified. "You haven't proposed to her yet, right?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "I haven't done it yet. Tria, what's going on?"

"Don't let her come home. I'll call you once I have it all cleared."

"Wait, Tria-"

"Can you do it?"

"O-of course, but-"

"Bye, Joey."

"Tria-" he sounded angry, now. Trying to mask his sudden panic. A part of me felt bad putting him in this situation, but it needed to be done. I drew the phone away from my face and hung up while he tried to argue. He would do what needed to be done to keep Hadi safe. I just had to hope that I didn't get my ass beat, or else Hadi would know the moment she walked through the door.

Now, to go get that stupid piece of flashdrive my dear pal Ven gave me.