This Cat Has Claws

8: Piece of Shit Human

Sometimes it was like I could perfectly read what Landon was thinking, but most of the time I wasn't sure. When we were at the hospital for the second time together, I could tell he was thinking something along the lines of "wow she has really straight teeth" because he was staring at my mouth. It's not like I have these huge, plump lips that guys, and girls, would just love to kiss so I figured that wasn't what he was looking at. And I have to say, my teeth are exceptionally straight and have managed to stay that way for years after braces.

Landon is totally growing on me, too. At first he was a total assface, but the more I think about it, he must have just been having a bad day. I know when I have a rough day I'm a lot worse than just glaring at someone. In the past, I would sometimes skip class and go to our family gym and let off some steam through kickboxing or something. I didn't skip class often, definitely not to the extent that JayJay does, but my parents never cared anyway.

I was looking forward to the day that Gramps got released from the hospital, which hopefully was soon, and going over to their house. It had already been a week, and I'd only seen Landon a handful of times on campus. I wanted to hang out more. After everything that happened he seemed a lot more interesting and a lot less assface-y. That and I adored his grandparents. Grams was awesome and I loved that she still worked at the hospital and her husband seemed fun. He was very forward, and I appreciated that, though it was still a little shocking that he knew anything about my family and then dared to ask.

It was an oversight on my part not to get Landon's number at the hospital. Now all I could do was wait until we met again and actually had the time to exchange numbers. We had only seen each other in passing from one class to the next, so it wasn't exactly the right time to stop and have a conversation.

I turned into a cat and jumped out my bedroom window to wander around. I had a few hours until my next class and I wasn't working today until evening, so I was bored out of my mind. It was nice and cloudy,as most days are at this time of the year. Thanksgiving was rolling around the corner and I was glad for the few extra days off work. I was hoping Emrys would fly back home from wherever she was and see us, though we probably wouldn't see her until Christmas. My family wasn't big on holidays and traditions, but we always seemed to get together around Christmas, probably because that's when everyone had breaks from work and school.

As I walked around on all fours, I heard a gross sound. And then I heard a familiar voice. All of the sudden I became very anxious and alert. All the hairs on my back and tail shot straight up and I ran in the direction of the sounds. There was Bri laying on the ground, covering her head while a gross man stood above her shouting something. The guy totally looked like a drug dealer. Now I was not happy for two reasons. The more insignificant reason was that Bri was probably doing drugs, though I wasn't at the moment sure which ones, and the more significant reason was that this piece of shit human was harassing my friend. And what were they thinking, doing this is the middle of the day? I turned back into my human form and ran up to them in the middle of the alley.

"Hey! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I yelled and pushed the guy away from Bri.

"You bitch!" the guy shouted back at me. "This is none of your business. Leave before I beat some sense into you."

I scoffed and folded my arms across my chest. "It just so happens that I've made this my business, tough guy, so you better leave before I beat you to death."

The guy looked taken aback, but I was serious, mostly. He took an unconscious step back before regaining his confidence that he could take me. Big mistake.

"Marley?" Bri asked confused as she looked up from the ground. "I'm fine really. You don't have to get involved."

Her lip was busted and bleeding. That pushed me over the edge. Without warning I stalked upto the guy and punched him square in the mouth. He let out a yelp of pain and surprise before teetering back a few steps. His hand shot up to his mouth and he steadied himself.