Summertime Strawberries

4

"Oh my god!" Aaron pushed past Sarah, looking at me with disbelief. "Look at that absolutely faggy outfit!" I swallowed the lump in my throat as one of my coworkers looked at the uniform we all wore today and shifted uncomfortably, taking the tray at his side and putting it in front of him to hide the fact that he wore the 'faggy outfit' as well. "You know, I would totally expect you to work in a place like this. It's so girly and delicate that you would fit right in." Aaron slowly advanced as my brain screamed at me to get away, but my body was frozen and not moving any time soon. Aaron stopped right in front of me, sneering, as everybody watched, silent. "Jackson Grant. The fag." His eyes narrowed in disgust. " Boo." He launched his fist at my face and I screamed, falling onto the broken cup beneath me. I shivered in the puddle of coffee as Aaron cracked up, laughing so hard that tears streamed down his cheeks. I was humiliated and terrified, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"He- hey you!" One of the girls at the table I had just served was standing on her chair with a fork in her hand, pointed directly at Aaron. "Were you the one who hurt Jax?" I had forgotten about the cuts on my face, out in the open for anyone to see, I was surprised that nobody had pointed then out yet.

He glared at the girl with distaste and wiped the tears away. "Yeah. So what?"

Stacy froze with shock. She had no clue about what Aaron had done, but then her face clouded over with fury. "Carmen, sit down." The girl quickly sat back down, shaking with fear. Stacy than grabbed one of the large metal trays, slipping it under her arm, and glared at Aaron. "We have a certain policy here." Sarah stood in the corner crying, but Aaron only had eyes for Stacy at the moment. "We treat our customers like our best friends, but we treat our employees like family." She stepped forward, rage boiling in her eyes. As I saw her approach Aaron, I wanted to yell at her to get back, he didn't care whether you were male or female, if you got in his way you were his prey. I couldn't move from my spot on the floor, I was still terrified, but I couldn't talk either, my jaw locked in place. Stacy glared at Aaron, barley a foot away from him. "If you want a fight, you better fucking take it outside you asshole." My jaw dropped as I stared at Stacy, she hated swearing. She would constantly chide all of the employees about their filthy mouths, but if it got serious, she could cuss out any one of us.

"Fine." Aaron then stepped towards me. "I'll take it outside." He then grabbed me by the hair and dragged me outside as I gasped in pain.

"Stop!" Stacy followed us out, clearly scared. "That's not what I meant!" I breathed heavily, not allowing myself to cry out. I wouldn't let Aaron have the satisfaction of hearing that I was in pain. I had my hands wrapped around his wrist to ease up the pulling, though it did little to help. "Let go of him you monster!" Stacy ran forward brandishing the tray, but Aaron quickly released the main part of my hair, moving his hand to grasp the bun and yanking it upwards so that he could move around easier without my moving getting in the way. Aaron quickly disarmed Stacy and grabbed her wrist, a bruise inevitable. "Let go of me!" We were drawing a crowd in the quickly fading light, the bystanders watching in horror. All of the shop's customers were pressed against the large picture window and the glass door, unable to do anything in a fight. Nobody had called the police or found someone who would help, so Stacy and I were on our own, but when Stacy cried out in pain, I knew that I needed to help. I had a knife in my back pocket, but to get to it, I would have to release Aaron's wrist and he would know I was planning something, so instead, I released his wrist with one hand and punched him as hard as I could between the legs.

While he was in pain, I grabbed the knife from my pocket, flicked it open, and aimed for the hand that was holding my hair. I am not very proud to say that I missed, but I was in a panic and about to pass out, so I would say that it was an accomplishment that I had still gotten his hand off of my head. I quickly rolled away from him as he angrily dropped my bun on the cement and pulled Stacy towards him, pinning her arm to her back. "That little trick isn't going to save your friend!" I heard a snap as Aaron tightened his grip and Stacy screamed bloody murder. He had broken Stacy's wrist. I did the first thing that came to mind and bolted to my feet, keeping close to the ground as I ran past them and slid to the side to distract Aaron and then came up underneath his arm with a clear shot at his rib cage. Before I could hit him though, he threw Stacy to the ground and whipped out his hands to defend himself. Since I wasn't really trying to kill him, I dodged and tossed the knife to the side. "Ha! That was a mistake Grant!" He charged at me with the full force of a football player, coming in contact with my body and sending us both to the ground. "You are going to fucking die this time! I'm not holding back like at school!"