"So red, how's your girlfriend been?" The biggest one asked. The rest snickered, still learning again the car. Michael recognized the voice too quickly for his liking. Cory. Michael looked at them, took a deep breath and kept walking towards where the Christmas trees were. He felt the anger begin to build inside him. As he tried to focus on what he was doing, pictures of Bella began to pop into his head. They weren't the ones of her laughing or smiling, though those were the ones he was trying to imagine. They were of her in the library parking lot, bruised and beaten. Bleeding and drenched in rain. Or of her on the couch, shivering of the cold and pain that was obvious to anyone looking. He tried his best to push them out of his mind by imagining Bella and himself decorating the house and tree with Christmas lights. He just barely succeeded in doing so until something that Cory said. "You know you ruined your popularity with her. She doesn't matter to anyone. Not a single person would notice if she died. She's probably off better that way." Michael stopped everything he was doing. His mind conjured up a nightmare. Suddenly the only thing he could see was Bella in his house. Sprawled out on the living room floor. A puddle of blood seeping out from underneath her head and heart. Not breathing, just silent and motionless. Dead. His anger quickly turned into pure rage. He was fuming but he had a straight face on. He turned around and looked Cory dead in the eyes and walked over to him. Not loosing eye contact, he stopped when he was close enough to touch him. Still looking Cory straight in the eye, Michael growled "If you get with looking distance, if I even THINK you got near her, she will not be the one laying on the ground soaked in rain and blood. You will. Except you won't have someone to save you because there will be no living body to save." Michael put the fear of God into Cory and the other Jocks. Cory tried to play it cool by saying, "Is that a threat Michael?" He pretended to look like he was shocked as he put hand over his heart. Cory laughed as did the others. Without looking back at Cory, Michael said calmly but loud enough for them to hear, "No. It's a promise." Cory just just stopped while acknowledging what Michael had just said. Michael was surprised that Cory hadn't threatened to tell the cops but he knew he wouldn't really. Michael wouldn't have been the one arrested. Cory had done illegal things countless times. Michael felt content when he heard the disgusting yellow car with it's even more disgusting passengers, roar to life and drive of. About thirty minutes later, he had picked out a tree, paid for it and brought it to his truck. He was thankful he had brought it instead of the Impala for two reasons: 1: it wouldn't fit, 2: he would look like an idiot driving down the road with a ten foot tall tree on top of a classic, black car. He turned on the heat and put on some All Time Low. Next stop, the jewelry store.
Bella's POV
Bella was really excited getting the presents for Michael. She had already gotten the hoodie and was going to go to Game Stop. She could barely wait for Christmas. She desperately wanted to see his reaction when he opened his presents. She was extra happy at the moment because she had gotten Michael other small little presents. A box of guitar picks, she had seen Michael struggle to use his only pick that was going to break soon because of the crack. She had gotten him a Green Day shirt and an All Time Low and Fall Out Boy bracelets. Bella had a feeling similar to pride that both she and Michael had the same favorite bands. She had also gotten him some batman socks and a poster. His favorite superhero was Batman and she noticed that out of the many posters that he had, there wasn't a Batman one. When she pulled of to the parking lot, she put one earbud so she could listen to music put pay attention to her surroundings at the same time. She hated being alone especially when in places that didn't have many people around. She had been extremely cautious ever since the, 'incident'. She went in the store and took a sigh of relief. It wasn't crowded but it did have a couple people searching for gifts. It didn't take long for her to get the gift card and pay for it. She felt better that there were two cashiers and that the one that helped her was a girl. She was really sweet and her voice sounded really friendly. She even offered to walk her to her car, which really surprised Bella, put she didn't even think of saying no. She got to her car and once she started it, the girl waved her goodbye and said, "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas to you too!" She replied and drove home.
