ANGELS || jb, au

five

Loosing a friend is hard.

Knowing you're the reason why, but not knowing why is harder.

Each night as I walked through the alley behind Josh's shop I would look into it, almost like I was waiting for him to come walking out the door with a bag of fried rice and a fortune cookie for me.

Months after his death, I noticed construction going on inside of the space that used to be his restaurant. They were tearing down all memories of Josh and building a new store on top of it.

I stopped taking the alleyway as a shortcut home from campus. The world could get rid of Josh's memory, but I couldn't just stand around and watch.

I had developed a habit of not being able to just stand around and watch a lot of things, lately. First the incident in the alley behind my own apartment and then Josh.

Then, the fight at campus.

It was super out of the blue. I was walking to lunch with my head down and my hood up, just focusing on the area around me as I walked.

I did manage to notice two guys in the distance. One of them was tall and muscular and the other was small and lanky. Muscle man was holding onto small guy's shirt, getting in his face about who knows what.

I was just going to ignore it, I really was. Until muscle man's fist flew into small guy's nose and I could almost hear the sickening crunch as I got closer.

"Are we in middle school still?" I called out to muscle man, soon standing in front of him. I grabbed his arm, throwing it off of small guy and pushing him back.

I looked over my shoulder to see small guy fall on his ass. Maybe he caught the look in my eye and could see that he needed to scram, because he soon got to his feet and put distance between himself, muscle man, and me.

"What, are you beating him up for lunch money?" I turned my attention back to muscle man.

"Look at you. The big bad hero." Muscle man sneered at me, a frown stretching across his face.

I let out a dry laugh. "I'm no hero. I'm just big and bad." I took a step closer to him, noticing that he didn't move an inch. "Get out of here and leave him alone before I-"

I was cut short by his fist slamming into my jaw. I stumbled back at first, grabbing onto the nearest wall to steady myself. A stinging sensation ran through my face, but I barely noticed it. The adrenaline was going now.

"You're nowhere close to big and you're nowhere close to bad, Bieber. Everyone knows about you. You're just a fucking wannabe. You act all tough, but when it comes down to it you're just a sap."

I shut my eyes, rubbing my jaw and taking in a deep breath.

Muscle man took a step closer to me. "You're so quiet all the time. Is it because your only friend got killed? What was his name... Josh?" I heard him laugh. "There's rumors that you wanted him dead. Nobody knows what's going on in that sick, twisted brain of yours."

My eyes landed on him again, and soon I threw my entire body at him, ending up with us both on the ground. I was on top of him, driving punch after powerful punch straight into his skull.

His fists flew back at me, but even when they punched my ribs I didn't stop. I couldn't. Not now. This son of a bitch was going to get it.

Sticky red liquid covered my hands soon. His blood. His nose was gushing it and his mouth was full of it.

I finally did pull myself to a stop, my breathing ragged and uneven. The pain in my torso did finally set in, but I knew it wouldn't last long.

Grabbing both sides of his head, I yanked it up a bit. "Look at me." I rasped through a growl. Of course, he didn't.

"I said, open your fucking eyes and look at me!" I got right in his face, screaming. His eyes snapped open and landed on mine.

"You're sick." He spat in my face. Blood and saliva hit my skin and infuriated me even more. I was sure my eyes were as dark as night.

The anger that I was feeling was soon masked by a smile. I let out a small laugh, a smirk pulling at the corners of my mouth. "I'm not sick."

My hands grabbed his face. "I'm your worst nightmare, and I promise I'll be there to put you in your own personal hell every single time you close your eyes."

I dropped his head, watching it fall back onto the ground as I climbed off of him.

As I turned and walked down the path again, I stopped by small guy. I gave him a pat on the back lightly before pushing past him, making my way towards the cafeteria as I had been before.

I really needed to mind my own business, but part of me knew I would never be able to. Guardian angels never minded their own business, and even though I wasn't one anymore, the roots and principles of being one were still deep within me.

Plus, fucking with people was just too much fun.