•| Nefarious |•

18

"Well that's annoying, what is he doing here?"

Tyler asked looking towards the door. Everyone's eyes drifted to the front of the arcade and saw none other than Barron.

"Oh it's Barron..."

Taylor gave him a disgusted look,

"I doubt he'll do anything, the coward hasn't messed with Logan since he's too scared of me "tattling" to couch."

Tyler crossed his arms.

"...but still... it's kinda awkward isn't it? We've been here for a while anyways, maybe we should just get our prizes and spend the rest of the day at Ashlyn."

Taylor picked up all the tickets Ben won from the punching game.  Everyone kept staring at the group in silence till Logan spoke up,

"No. I don't think the guy with the blue hat is part of their friend group. I've seen him with Barron at school a few times and I wasn't certain at first but... Barron just replaced me with him."

"Right now I'm pretty sure that guy is doing Barton's work while he hangs out with his buddies. That's what happened when he invited me somewhere. That's what he does, he manipulates you into being his friend and 'helping' him with his work and when that stops working..."

Logan paused for a bit remembering what he previously had to go through.

"...he starts threatening you physically."

"I'm not sure what your plan is, but you're wanting to help the guy right?"

Tyler asked Logan which in turn he nodded,

"I want to at least warn him."

"Then go do what you need to do, we'll be here to help out if you need it."

I smiled at Logan and helped him stand up. Logan went to the door that Barron and his group exited from while the rest of us went and sat behind the arcade to come in if we needed to.

I stand with my back against the wall next to Tyler while Taylor and Ben sat on the ground listening to music. It was probably for the best since we don't want Ben to lash out like he did in his past, it's heart breaking seeing someone so sweet get bullied so much that they had to change. I feel eyes on me as I turn my head and see Tyler staring right at me.

"Has he pulled anything with you? Last time we ran into him you did piss him off."

He whispered lightly,

"Nope he hasn't bothered me since thankfully, I'm still hoping I can give him a piece of my mind though."

I smile at him, his hand slips down to slowly grab mine and give it a light squeeze. The feeling in my stomach erupts again but I ignore it, 'I'm just hungry.' I thought, I went back to listening in on Logan and Barron when I heard a yell.

"Oh Just shut up already!"

Barron yelled making my head peak around the side of the building, a lot of thumps were heard and then it was silent. I started to worry thinking Barron punched down Logan again but I'm pretty sure that's not the case when his friends come out and yelled at Logan,

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Everyone ran immediately to the scene to see a group of people holding up Logan. Taylor yelled at Ben to calm down since he grabbed the face of one of the people holding Logan and slammed their head into the ground. A girl pulled Taylor's hair making Tyler get mad, a boy punched Tyler on the side of the head making me throw my fist right into his face.

I kept fighting the boy, him landing some punches but me also. It felt like my body was being taken over with rage and I couldn't stop the way I felt at the moment. I kept punching the kid till he threw me off of him and slammed his foot against the side of my face.

Barron's group quickly stopped and ran back inside while our group tried recovering from the fight, my head throned as I sat up and put my hand on my face. My nose was bleeding and I had some scratched that probably would leave a mark for a couple of weeks.

Tyler held his hand out for me to take helping me stand up, his fingers touched the scratch on my head making me wince.

"I'll help you clean that up when we get back to Ashlyn's."

He said quietly giving me a small smile.

"Just...what was that?"

Taylor wrapped her arms around herself freaking out,

"...I'm not usually that...violent."

"Yeah well they attacked us first. Maybe we did go overboard...but at the very least they deserved it."

Tyler scoffed.

"I don't think that's the problem. Taylor's right, this could be...bad."

Ashlyn stared at the ground in terror.

"What are you talking about?"

Tyler asked her,

"You guys, we were making the same sounds the phantoms do."

"...what happened to you guys?"

Ashlyn's dad asked us when we arrived to the car, we all kept quiet trying to play it off. When we made it back to the house as Tyler pulled me aside.

"Let me help you real quick before we go back to the graveyard."

We went into Ashlyn's house and found her mom standing in the kitchen,

"Hey Mrs.Banner where can we find a first aid kit?"

Tyler asked her,

"One should be in the bathroom, you guys look like you've been roughed up a bit."

She gave us a chuckled. We gave her a quick thanks and made it to the bathroom. We made it to the bathroom, I sat on the sink while Tyler pulled out the first aid kit. He started to tend to my wounds as I winced from the string,

"I could've fought the dude you shouldn't have stepped in."

Tyler said rubbing some dried up blood from my forehead.

"Everyone decided to fight, I was just trying to get revenge on Barron even if it meant I didn't personally fight him."

I said biting my lip a little from the stinging sensation.

"Now look what happened, I thought you got better after all the training we did."

He chuckled a bit and started to clean up my nose.

"I did get better you ass!"

I laughed as I looked up at him meeting his eyes, it was silent just the sound of him cleaning my wounds filled the room. The feeling of my stomach turning happened again, but this time I'm not mistaken for being hungry...I know I've caught feelings for him.

"You're staring."

He said lightly while fishing some bandaids out of the first aid kit making my face turn red, his hand grabbed my jaw lightly pulling my face closer to apply the bandages. I felt his breath on my lips while I looked at his eyes again.

If I could kiss him right now I would but I'm not trying to ruin our friendship by my dumb actions. He finished putting on the bandages and looked me direction in my eyes, his hazelnut eyes poured into mine, his hand was still on my jaw as his thumb lightly rubbed against my face. It felt like the whole world has stopped, it was only us here just like during the night except no phantoms were around.

His face inched closer to mine as his other hand found its way onto the counter next to me, I could feel his breath on my lips as I closed my eyes enjoying the silence. Before anything else can happen a knock erupted from the door,

"Can you guys hurry up, we're waiting on you guys to discuss what Ashlyn said."

Aiden said. Tyler quickly pulled away from me putting the first aid back while I hoped off the counter. What a beautiful moment killed off.