How to Save A Life (On Hold)

10. Cigarettes

"You bitch!" Alexia yells in a high pitched and angry voice. It's loud enough to be heard throughout the entire hallway. Drew stands quietly in front of her, she doesn't look angry, but her expression is hard to read from a side view. She doesn't say anything either. "Do you have anything else to say, huh? Do you fucking speak?" Alexia yells again.
Drew says and does nothing.  She looks over to me and we lock eyes.
A small group begins to form around them, but I can still see most of what's happening. I don't see or hear what causes the physical aspect of the fight, but I do see the first punch.
Alexia is the first one to throw a punch.
Drew dodges it and counterattacks with a left hook which goes straight across Alexia's cheek. Alexia screams in pain, and then throws herself at Drew, pulling her down to the floor.
Everything is happening so quickly. One second Alexia's on top, pulling her hair and scratching; the next Drew is on top of Alexia and delivering punch after punch to Alexia's face.
I run up and try to pry them both apart, but Alexia kicks me in the shin and Drew throws an elbow to my chest. This kicks me out of the fight. But I'm not the only one trying to break this fight apart. Mr. Evette, my principal, has grabbed Drew while another male teacher grabs Alexia, who at this point doesn't look like she's got too much fight left in her.
"He could never love you!" Alexia shouts again in a desperate attempt to win this fight. She's got blood running out of her nose and what looks to be the beginning of a very black eye.
Drew looks to me, she's got a split lip and a scratch on her neck, which is bleeding pretty good. Her eyes are full of emotion as she replies, "I know."
I watch as they are both hauled down to the principal's office. The hallways clear out and I am left standing alone, wondering what in the world caused this.
Then it clicks: they're fighting over me.
Neither Alexia, nor Drew come back to class for the whole day. I text Drew every hour to see if she'll reply, but she doesn't. After school I wait around for a while to see if either of them come out of the office, but Mrs. Burrows kicks me out of the school and tells me to go home. At work, I try my best to stay busy, but there just doesn't seem to be anything challenging enough to keep my mind off the fight.
When work is over I get into my car and start it. The engine refuses for a few seconds, but then turns and purrs like a cat. I was the last to leave so no one is around. I take this opportunity to think. I take a deep breath and sit quietly for a moment.
"Hey," a familiar voice calls from the back seat. I look in my rear view mirror and see Drew. The light of the moon shadows half of her face, but highlights her split lip which is healing rather quickly.
I exhale the breath I didn't realize I was holding and turn to see her in the moon light. "How long have you been back there?"
She shrugs and says,"Awhile. Come back here with me." She has her knees up to her chest and her head is resting on them. I climb to the back seat and place my hands between my legs. She puts her head on my shoulder and exhales. After a few moments of sitting like this, Drew puts her knees down and takes her head off of my shoulder. She looks to me and I look to her.
She leans into me and it almost looks like she's going to kiss me, but instead she pulls down my shirt and looks at my neck. "Did I do that?" She points at my hickey and looks back into my eyes.
"Yeah," I grin. "My sister was the first one to notice it."
"You have a sister?" Her blue eyes light up and seem to glow with the help of the moon.
"Yeah, her name is Kari. She's a few years older than me and goes to school at the university my dad teaches at." I say, realizing she probably doesn't care about my personal life at all. 
"Your dad is a professor?" Apparently I was wrong, she seems very interested in my family.
"Yeah, he teaches English."
"And your mother?" She moves closer to me.
"Real Estate Agent," I answer again. I'm afraid to ask about her parents, so I don't. Maybe they're the reason she's so guarded. She moves even closer to me, until we're only a few inches apart. I feel her hand go to my leg and I start to panic, but manage to stay as calm as possible on the outside.
We sit in silence again. I'm enjoying the quiet time spent with her, but I know eventually that won't be enough. I make a quick decision and  I turn to her. Then in one  fluid motion, I start to kiss her neck. I feel her body tense for a moment, and then relax as I continue.  I realize that I kissed the scratch on her neck by accident.
I watch her eyes close, and then close mine. I take in everything about her. The way she smells, the way she looks, how her skin feels against my lips. Only one word describes it all: beautiful.
Things start to move more quickly now. She removes her shirt and then moves to mine, slowly slipping it over my head and throwing it to the front seat. She takes off my glasses and places them in the drivers seat. I slowly lay back across the back seat of my car. Her hand goes to unbutton my pants as she places her full body weight onto me. After they're off and hers are too, she turns on the radio and starts to kiss my body again before we continue.
I hold her tightly in my arms as her breathing slows. I want to kiss her skin again, but I'm unsure of how she'll react. I smile when she turns to face me. She whispers,"well that wasn't bad." I frown. She forces herself out of my embrace and begins to slip on her clothes again. She hands me my glasses and my shirt then slips out of my car. I put on my clothes and climb out after her. I zip up my pants and fix my hair, then look up to see her lighting up a cigarette. She leans against her bike and takes a long drag. Puffs of smoke escape from her beautiful lips as she offers me a drag, I refuse. She shrugs and takes yet another long drag from the stick of cancer.
Everything is quiet and I don't want to ruin the silence, but there's just something I must know.
"How did the fight start?" I blurt out.
She blows the smoke from her mouth into the night air and says, "she started it by calling me a boyfriend stealing whore. I replied with, 'at least he wants to sleep with me,' and then I think you saw the rest."
"Oh," I say looking to my shoes. Everything feels awkward right now between us and I know it's because of what just happened, but I hope it doesn't last long. I have so many questions for her and the awkwardness will just keep her from telling me the full story.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I take it out and check the name. It's my mom. I tell Drew to give me one second and answer the phone.
She's wondering where I am, and I lie and say that I was just finishing a repair and was just about to call her. I tell her I'll be home soon and hang up. I walk back to my car and find Drew sitting on her bike, helmet on head and ready to drive away once again. She calls to me, "she wants to talk to you tomorrow."
By 'she' I assume she means Alexia. "Am I allowed?" I call back.
"I'm not your mother." She replies and starts her bike. Drew drives off the lot without another word.
I get in my car and drive home.  I decide to skip  supper and go straight to bed. I'm not hungry anyways and I feel like if my mom sees me, she'll press me harder for answers to where I have been.
I think hard about all the events of the day, from the fight, to the back of my car, to Alexia wanting to speak to me. This seems to help me to fall asleep quicker and when I wake up the sun is shining and my alarm is blaring in my ear.
I look at my alarm for a few seconds before realizing that if I don't get up right now, I'm going to be late for school again.
As I race to school, and pull into the student parking lot, I see Alexia leaning against the brick building. I get out of my car with my backpack in my hand and take a good, long look at her. I take in all of her injuries so that I'm not shocked when she speaks to me. Her left eye has completely blackened and looks to be swollen shut. Her nose still looks crusty with blood from the fight yesterday. There are no visible scratches or bruises anywhere else. As I walk past her, she grabs my arm.
"Can we talk?" Her tone is upsetting to me, and her good eye is full of emotion.
"Uh, I'm going to be late." I try to be as nice as possible, "how about after school?"
"Okay," she nods. "I'll wait here."
It didn't occur to me that both Alexia and Drew had been suspended from school for two days, until I heard whispering within my classrooms. That wasn't the only thing being said. I tried not to listen to anything that people said about Drew, but it's really hard when everyone is against her. They all said that Drew started the fight, and that Drew was a boyfriend stealing whore. They were spreading all kinds of lies about her, and only I and Drew knew the truth.
When the bell to signal the end of school rings, I go to the exact place I met Alexia this morning. She's waiting for me in the exact same position I left her in, leaning against the school. She smiles at me and we walk to my car together. I notice that she's changed into nicer and tighter fitting clothing and she's done her hair and makeup. The crusty blood from her nose is gone, but her eye is still black as ever.
"Where do you want to go?" I ask, starting my car.
"Somewhere private," she smiles "how about my house?"
"Uh, no," I reply, pulling out of the student parking lot. We need some place private, but public so that she doesn't try anything "How about the pizzeria?" I suggest.
She frowns and then nods, "okay."
We slide into a booth at the pizzeria, on the opposite sides of each other. I fold my hands and place them  on the table top, "so, what do you want to talk about?" I'm hoping to make this meeting short and sweet because of how uncomfortable I feel right now with her. There are several other people here, but I don't think it will be enough. It's like I'm just waiting for her to try something on me. The waitress takes our drink order and we decide not to order any food.
"I'm just going to get straight to the point." She smiles and sighs. "I want you back, Luke." I don't reply with anything because I haven't got a clue about what to say. She grabs my hands and holds them in hers. The waitress brings us our drinks and I take that as an opportunity to take my hands out of hers and place them on my lap. After the waitress leaves, I turn to Alexia and say, "I'm with Drew."
"Yeah, but who knows how long that's going to last." She smiles at me then places her head in her hands. I hear her kick off a shoe and then I feel her foot against my inner thigh.
"Uh, that can stop." I say pushing her foot down. "And what do you mean by that?"
"Well, I'm just saying, she might not be staying for as long as you'd like her to be." She leans back onto the booth chair and crosses her arms. I give her a very puzzled look and she rolls her eyes. "I overheard her and Mr. Evette talking about something, and she mentioned that she wouldn't be here for very long. I just thought you'd like to know."  
She slides out of the booth and walks over to me. As I look up at her, she leans down and whispers softly in my ear, "if you need anything, I'm always here for you," she leans down even further and kisses my lips softly. Then backs out, waves a little and leaves my sight. I sit in shock for awhile before finishing my drink and leaving for work.