Frigid Flora

twenty-nine - parker's speech

Chapter Twenty-Nine

When going through tough times, I always liked to think of those less fortunate than myself that would kill for my minor problem. It never really made me feel any better, but it would always make me feel guilty for my self pity and expose just how much I'd blown the situation out of proportion in comparison to much more important issues that were happening elsewhere.

As I sat parked in Axel's truck outside one of Ian's houses at five in the morning that Monday, I couldn't say my internal scolding was helping what with the two boys beating each other senseless mere metres away from me. Every fibre of my being screamed at me to get out and put a stop to the fight between Parker and Jason, but if I was going to help out I had to think things through first. What help would I be if my legs were shaking so much that I could barely support my own body weight? That even being this close to Jason, behind the safety of a locked car door and all of Parker's friends, still made my teeth chatter. Never mind pull Parker free from his demonic clutches, how would I stand? If I was to be logical in my response to this insane situation, I had to sort myself out before I worked up the courage to sort out the fight.

This was the twelfth punch I'd seen to Parker's face, not taking into account the five minute meltdown I'd had within the vehicle where I hadn't looked at the pair at all. Having only the soundtrack to the brawl was somehow worse than the visual. The pained grunts that I couldn't be sure escaped Parker's lips or Jason's had soon driven me stir crazy, and although the sight of crimson coating almost the entirety of Parker's face made bile rise in my throat, it was better knowing he was still upright. Alive.

I flinched as though I'd been hit myself when Jason slammed Parker into the garden fence. One of the pointed spikes tore through the back of his shirt, but from my distance I didn't know whether or not his flesh was included in the rip. He bent down to pick something up and Jason took his doubled over position to his advantage, kneeing him in the abdomen. Hard. Parker fell to the grass but I could no longer see him. The fence was in the way.

I clambered out of the car without so much as a single thought. Selfish. I was selfish for accepting his demand to hide in his car. I was hiding and it was my fault that he was here in the first place. That he was fighting his old friend. That his old friend, the guy he'd actually hated and had no longer lived here, was back. Screw thinking logically. Screw sitting back and spectating. I was the one to blame but Parker had somehow wound up as the punchbag. It didn't matter that I was scared. It didn't matter that I was afraid of touching, either. He was mine, and nobody laid a finger on him but me.

"Get off him!" I screamed as I ran. It didn't feel very windy, but my jerky legs were moving so fast that my hair was whipping about my face. I flew past Hayden who was standing as still as a statue just as he had been throughout the fight's entirety. I whizzed past Axel who was struggling to hold back a snarling Matthew, the harmless puppy that Jason had turned into an enraged Staffordshire Bull Terrier ready to rip his throat out. "Don't you dare hit him one more time!"

A hand grabbed my upper arm, pulled me back. Topher.

"Let go of me," I panted, squirming to reach Parker.

Forget planning how to intervene. Parker was on the ground with Jason looming over him painted in angry red. There were broken shards of a terracotta flower pot littering the frost coated grass and Parker's bloody hand was inching toward a jagged piece.

"I've tried to split them up, Flora. It's no use. This used to happen before you came into his life. Not with Jason, but these type of fights. The type where he's the one to decide when it ends. You can see it on his face-"