Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

"Who the hell are you?" Bailey chokes out as Collin grips his shirt collar.

Collin is wearing jeans with a black flannel overtop a black t-shirt. His backwards hat is barely on his head now, a result of his actions.

He doesn't say anything. He's staring at Bailey. He looks at me, and then back to Bailey.

His eyes are black with rage. I'm frozen, unsure what to do.

"Collin. Please, not here." I say.

He drops Bailey to the floor and steps back.

"Your lucky she's here." He says, and means every word. His chest is rising and falling rapidly.

"Bailey, please leave." I'm careful of my words to keep myself from crying in front of these two.

He begins to walk, but before he can get out the door he turns to us. "Have fun with her. She won't put out."

As the words leave his mouth, Collin lunges and takes him by the shirt, placing a hit right on his jaw.

"Collin!"

He doesn't stop. He hits him over and over. I'm crying now, "Collin, please." I whimper for him to stop fighting in my room.

Blow after blow takes place until I hear running through the hallway, and Clark makes himself appear.

"What the hell?" He yells.

He grabs Collin and throws him to the floor. Clark is much larger than him and appears to be much stronger.

Bailey coughs on the floor, spitting blood on his shirt.

"Does anyone want to tell me what the hell is happening?" Clark shouts to everyone in the room.

Collin never takes his eyes off of Bailey. His heart is pounding through his chest and his face is red.

His curly hair is a mess from the way his hat has shifted on his head and his face is beaded with sweat.

"Nobody?" Clark raises his arms in the air and says.

Bailey coughs and says, "he attacked me!"

He groans and rolls over onto his side, holding his cheeks.

Collin looks at me and he sees the tears on my face. His eyes shrink and I can see the brown become visible in them again.

"Are you okay?" He says as he walks to me and looks me up and down.

"I'm fine." Is the only thing I can say.

He takes his flannel off to cool himself down, I assume, and I realize I've never seen his bare arms before.

They're covered in large tattoos, all of them black and gray. It was the last thing I expected to see on him.

"Bailey, you need to leave." I finally say without looking at him.

"I can't even get up!" He yells from the floor.

"Stop being dramatic." Collin says without any emotion and without taking his eyes off of me.

He rolls over and struggles to stand but Clark helps him up.

He walks out of the room and Clark closes the door behind him before saying, "now, can someone tell me why that happened."

I raise my shirt to show the bruise on my arm.

"He did this to me and Collin was only sticking up for me." I say, defending Collins rash behaviors.

"Oh my god." He says.

The bruise is large and purple now, and it's really quiet sore.

"Yeah. But it's over now. So I really don't want to talk about it anymore."

And I mean it. I don't want to sulk about what is over with and can't be controlled, it only calls for more trouble.

Clark takes a deep breath, showing he doesn't believe me. "Well. I came to fix your car so we can go to the party."

"I already took care of it." Collin flatly says.

"Okay. So we can go now, right?" Clark waves to the door.

I nod in agreement before saying, "Collin, are you going? You can ride with me if you are."

I'm embarrassed by my offer, but I hope he doesn't deny.

"Yeah that sounds good. The party is at my house, after all," he grins.