Slow It Down

Part 17

Nate's hands released me, but in a rough way that shoved me away from him. My body fell to the hard, cold sidewalk with a hard thud, but my adrenaline was high enough to not even feel it. I laid stretched out on my side, my arms sprawled out in front of me to catch me from hitting my face. Too shocked to realize what was currently happening, I took several deep gasps of the night air like it was water and I had been stranded on an island without any for weeks, desperately trying to get the smell of cologne and sangria away from me.

Sobs racked my body as I quickly looked around on the ground, desperate to find anything, even a piece of trash, to smell. When I whipped my head to the left, I noticed the dark grey cloth still wrapped around my shoulders and wailed as I desperately tore it off of me.

Throwing it against the sidewalk, I quickly used the palm of my hands to crawl backwards and create space between the shirt as if it was going to attack me too.

"I will fucking kill you, you hear me?" A male voice shouted, bringing me out of my hysteria.

The sound of something heavy colliding into something soft followed by a low grunt had my spinning vision desperately try to focus to see what had just happened in the last few seconds. My whole body shaking, I bit my lip to try and calm my crying as I lifted my gaze from the dark grey shirt sprawled along the sidewalk. When my eyes had began to focus, I started to think that Nate had possibly slipped a drug in my glass.

Although I was drunk and the street was nearly pitch black, there was no mistaking the two hands covered in ink that had Nate pinned up against the brick wall by the collar of his t-shirt, his feet barely touching the ground.

Jackson.

With Nate lifted to equal height, the warm glow from the street lamp shined along the side of his face that revealed a streak of blood running down from his eyebrow. He must have gotten punched or hit his head against the wall, or both.

Pulling him closer, Jackson then threw Nate back up against the wall with ease as if he weighed nothing, a small grunt escaping Nate. Nate reached across to grab onto Jackson's collar, trying to find a way to throw a punch at him.

I remained frozen in place, my mind still spinning with the feeling of Nate's lips touching me and his arms trapping me against him. Everything seemed to move in slow motion like I was in a movie, visioning myself struggling against Nate. My hand shakily reached up to cup the base of my throat where it felt sore from screaming, and all I could do was curl my legs into my chest to comfort myself while I cried.

"You ever go near her again and I will kill you. You hear me?" Jackson's voice boomed despite his clenched teeth showing from the snarling look on his face. His blue eyes were nearly glowing underneath the street light, frantically looking over every inch of Nate's face.

Jackson lowered Nate down to the ground, making him stand two to three inches below him, but kept his hands tightly fisted around the collar of his t-shirt. He leaned forward, getting up close to Nate's face with a look of wanting to rip it off.

"If I ever see your face again, that will be the last time you will be seen. You will go fucking missing, and it'll be me who hid your fucking body." His voice came out in a low, controlled tone that scared me.

I had witnessed Kayce and him both get into fights, but I had never seen either one of them this angry. My body was still uncontrollably shaking, and I couldn't tell if it was from the cold or my adrenaline. The knots of dread in my stomach made me believe it was from the adrenaline.

My hand was still lightly cupping my sore throat as my other hand helped keep me stable and sitting upright. The wine was still not only making me feel intoxicated, but the smell was horrific as well. The feeling of nausea was rising as everything in these last few moments flashed through my head, along with many other bad memories from high school, and it took everything in me to choke down my throw up.