Hacking The Heart [Immortal Hearts #1] (#Wattys2016)

[16] - Finch Halbrook (II)

"Come on!" Landon shoved Finch onto his rear, which had roughly hit the pavement in between the practice fields. "Show me who the better man is!"

After having witnessed Finch's words and actions, Landon had angrily dragged Finch outside, for what exactly, was yet to be known for Finch. Kaylee had followed them outside after regaining her composure from the incident, only to see Finch on the ground and Landon standing over him with dominance.

Landon ripped up Finch by his white t-shirt and threw a fist into his jaw, sending him to the ground once. Again, Landon lifted Finch and delivered another, quite brutal, blow to the same area of Finch's jaw. All that existed in Landon's eyes at that moment was rage, however, it was not a wild rage. It was something of a composed rage, where he would be able to not lose himself in the midst of his fury.

Finch was pulled up once again by Landon, except this time around, it had been by his hair instead of his shirt. Landon held Finch in place, and then his foot rocketed off from the ground and his knee was drilled into Finch's face. Following Landon letting him fall, he sent his foot into his ribcage, which caused Finch to abruptly cough out air.

"Come on, you fucking pussy! Get the fuck up!" Landon roared, gaining the attention of the nearby sports teams. "What?! Can you only act like a big man when I'm not around?!"

Another kick into the ribs came from Landon's foot. Landon, as a final blow, kicked Finch in the face, causing a tooth and blood to fly into the air and hit the ground, much like Finch himself. Landon was far from done with Finch, but in the eyes of the coaches who rushed over to separate the fight, saw it as such. They needed to break it up or, by the looks of it, they would have a dead student on their hands.

As Landon began to step towards Finch once again, he was caught from behind by the football team's coach and pulled away from Finch who was being attended to by the baseball coach. While as angry as someone could possibly be, Landon was still aware enough to know that it was over, Finch couldn't have fought back even if he had wanted to.

Landon ripped himself free from the grip the coach had on him and walked a few feet away. Landon stopped as the coach had begun to speak up.

"Wher--"

"I'm not going anywhere. I have to talk to the cops, don't I?" Landon interrupted. "I'm not a piece of shit, like the pussy on the ground over there."

Landon walked over to a nearby wall and sat down against it. Kaylee followed and sat with him, noticing the obvious look of anger in his eyes. She thought that the only reason he was in this position was because of her. Kaylee began to dwell on herself, telling herself that everything bad that has ever happened to Landon was because of her.

"Don't you dare start thinking that this was even close to being your fault, Kaylee." Landon muttered with a tired, deep-thoughted expression. "...I saw it, I heard it, Kaylee. It was nothing more than him forcing himself on you. That's all it was."

Landon opened his hand and looked down at the bloody knuckles of his right hand. Mixed with both his, as well as Finch's. Was that the right choice to make? In Landon's eyes, it was the only choice to make, the only choice that would get the hate, anger, and betrayal out of his system.

"...About that last thing you said; about how your life wouldn't matter if I wasn't around...Don't let me ever hear you say that again." Landon added as his hand brought her head to his. "I am right here. I am right next to you. It's pointless to think about something entirely hypothetical like that, you'll just keep running in circles and never find a decent answer. What matters is the here and now, Kaylee."