Another Lifetime

Chapter 4

DeAnna Kastell

"What's up with you?" Brian asked me as I just stabbed at my lunch.

"Just still tired," I said and Jessie came over to us, looking all excited.

"Griffin is in a fight with Parker," she said and that was not good. Griffin could kill him and he'd go back into prison. We may not still be together and I helped put him away the last time but I couldn't see him go back in.

"Dude's been here two days and already got into a fight with Parker?" Brian questioned her with a hint of disbelief.

"In the parking lot," she said and I just got up. I walked out of the cafe and they both followed me. Normally, I wouldn't go to a fight but this was different. This was the man who I loved more than anything and he was being stupid, even for him.

Griffin wasn't throwing punches though; he was just dodging Parker's very weak ones like it was nothing and to him, they really were nothing.

"It's like Karate Kid but buffer," Jessie said and it wasn't. It was a gang lieutenant versus a 'bad boy' jock who didn't know what he was letting himself in for.

"He could kill him," I muttered and I didn't mean to say it aloud but I did.

"What was that?" Jessie asked me.

"Frank knows Griffin's parole officer, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon," I told her and that was probably a lie; Frank didn't cross paths with parole officers except in court but Jessie didn't know that.

"Yeah, Parker's going to get killed," she agreed then I did something. It was something that old DeAnna would have done, when she was an NYC badass.

I stepped into the middle of it and they both stopped. "You're on parole," I said to Griffin then turned to Parker, "and you, you're not going to win this fight so kiss and make up or I will make bad stuff happen to you," I threatened them and Griffin just held up his hands, knowing not to push me.

"You? You're the biggest pacifist I've ever met," Parker said and I was so tempted to take the switchblade from Griffin's front left pocket then threaten Parker with it, because I forgot mine this morning, but I didn't. I controlled myself, went back to being mild mannered Clark Kent.

"Yeah but I'm not," Brian said and stepped up, "so lay a hand on my girlfriend and I will end you," he threatened and it wasn't that intimidating when you've dated Xavier Griffin Kingsley.

Brian calling me his girlfriend triggered something in Griffin so he just walked away. "I'll be back," I said and went after Griffin. He was probably going to go sit in his car until the end of lunch or just leave school.

I climbed into the passenger seat and we sat there in silence. "I can't be around you when you're with him," he said and I leaned back in the seat. "Do you understand how hard it is for me to see the woman I love being with another guy?" He asked me and I didn't. I guess I'd have to see him with another girl to understand how he was feeling.

"He's a beard, X, just set dressing in this new life I've built here," I told him and looked down at my hands in my lap, not being able to look him in the eyes and tell him that I wasn't just going to leave Brian for him because that would be a lie. If he asked me, like really asked then I would drop Brian faster than my parents dropped me.

"So hypothetically, now I've left the Kings and if I serve my parole with no infractions," he said and leaned across me. He opened the glove box and there was a small blue velvet ring box sitting there, a very familiar box.

"I don't know," I told him, "things have changed, Griffin, and I don't know if we can go back to the relationship we had," I said and he took the box out. He opened it to reveal the promise ring that I'd mailed back to him when he was in prison.