Two Dorks. No Lives. One Love.

The Fight

Notice: This chapter contains content of violence and anaphoric reference to sexual assult.

He hated to leave her. He hated it so much. But, he had to. Ironically, Damian was travelling to New York to visit an old friend. The same place in New York that Lexi had moved from literally three months earlier.
"I just don't get why you can't tell me why you're visiting Tim. You two haven't talked in years," Lexi said, crossing her arms and pouting.
"Just... to visit," Damian said non-chalantly. "Visiting isn't weird."
"It is after four years of absolutely no talking," she countered.
"Well, it's business."
She snorted. "Business my butt! It's not like you do anything important anymore!"
"Are you kidding me? Nothing important? Who do think is keeping TGI's in business by going almost everyday?"
"Quit joking, Damian!"
"I'll quit joking when you quit being so uptight and nosey!"
"I am not nosey!"
"You got involved with me and Hannah."
"She was cheating on you, dingbat! What was I supposed to do? It's not my fault you have bad taste in girlfriends."
"Well I'm starting to see I might have bad taste in best friends, too!" Damian finally shouted, standing only inches away from Lexi.
Her eyes filled with tears, and before she could burst, she angrily shook her head and stormed out of the front entrance of his house. Damian almost called to her, but it was too late. She was already bolting down the street in tears. He sighed and carried his bags out to his car alone.

***

Damian didn't return from New York for almost a week. And in that time, he never received one text from Alexandra. Which was practically a no-text record for her. But it was a pretty upsetting way to set a record. Now he was on the plane, lost in thought, gazing blankly out the window like a sociopath or something. Three words repeated in his head, over and over: Apologize, dumb idiot.

Little did he know, the same thing was repeating in Lexi's head, back in California. Apologize, dumb idiot. Apologize, dumb idiot. Apolo—! Her thoughts were cut off when she tripped over herself and fell face-first to the pavement. Dumb. Idiot. Wait, no one trips over themselves. She looked up at the wide jean-clad legs, her eyes following all the way up to the mans face. Halloween guy.
"Mmmmm, what do we have here? Could it be the little fighter from last week's party?" He said slyly.
"I... don't know what you're talking about," Lexi muttered, laughing nervously.
She looked around for the hero who had saved her from almost being raped by the same man only a week earlier, but saw no one. Doomed, she thought. Damian isn't here and now I'm doomed.
Just then, a taxi was driving by, carrying the dazed and confused Damian. He broke from the trance when he heard what he thought was... Lexi screaming? But it was muffled quickly.
"Stop here!" Damian said to the driver, frantically grabbing a twenty from his pocket and giving it to the man.
He jumped out of the cab and looked down the street, both ways until he noticed a woman's arm disappearing around the corner. He ran for it, and upon reaching the alley, was angry to see the man from the party practically strangling her to shut her up.
"No one ditches Marcus Swanson," he muttered angrily, only inches away from Lexi's face.
He started pulling her away in a light headlock, but he wouldn't get away with it on Damian's watch. Until Marcus brought her through the gate of his trashy apartment building. The locked gate.
Damian cursed under his breath and jogged up to the gate, trying to open it. He had an idea that was stupid enough to work. Fortunately (yet unfortunately somehow), he had a batarang in his bag. He pulled it out and, sighing hopefully, hit the lock with it as hard as he could, causing the gate to fly open, like a servant in awe of its master's actions. He immediately bolted up to the door he saw Marcus take Lexi through, and knocked it down with a single kick.
His eyes beheld the most upsetting thing he had ever seen; Lexi had been kicked to the ground, her shirt torn at the neck, her neck red and swollen from earlier choking. This would never have happened if I didn't get so mad at her. She wouldn't have been walking around all by herself at night, thought Damian.
"I thought I told you to get away from her!" He yelled profoundly. "You made a big mistake trying to take my best friend."
"And you made a mistake interrupting Marcus Swanson, Lifejacket." The tall man said, cracking his knuckles and approaching Damian.
"Pleasure to meet you, Marky. The name's Wayne. Damian Abreeq Wayne Al Ghul."
Marcus responded with an agitated scowl. "Listen, Whiney Wayne boy. This chick ran away from me. And no one runs away from me. So until she stops running, I'll find her. And if you try to get in my way, I swear I'll—"
A kick to the face. Marcus was cut off by a kick to the face—hard.
The bulky man cursed loudly, pinching his bleeding nose. Overwhelmed from all of the fighting and shouting, Lexi backed her self into the back corner of the room, holding the neck of her shirt together with shaking hands. Damian looked at her and how she was was shaking, and it made him feel even worse than he already did. How could he let this happen? She already thought he was a terrible friend, and now he's only scared her even more.
Marcus started to wake up, and Damian was left to act fast. He sprinted to other side of dark and disgusting apartment and picked up Lexi, then ran out, slamming the door behind them. He quickly turned back into the alley, carefully setting her down and shaking her out of her shock.
"Lex, look. I know you're scared, I know he hurt you, but you need to move. I can't carry you, and Marcus is mad." Damian said worriedly, holding Lexi up by her shoulders.
Still shaking, she looked up at him. "Why couldn't you just tell me the truth?" She whispered.
"Wait, is this still about me visiting Tim? Lexi, I..." he paused and sighed, "Tim died! I didn't wanna talk about it and I didn't want you to worry about me."
"Damian...I-I...I'm sorry for everything I said. I shouldn't have assumed—"
"No, I snapped at you too. And I shouldn't have kept it from you no matter what I thought would happen. Now come on, let's move."
Lexi nodded and let out a shaky sigh, getting up slowly.
Just as they began running out of the alley, Marcus rounded the corner, looking out of breath. "You two!"
Lexi froze in fear and Damian immediately began pulling her by the wrist.
"I'll find you two one day! And you'll regret what you did to me! I'll kill you and I'll start with you, Lifejacket!"