THE VIGILANTE: THE SERIES[BOOK 2]

Ep.11 - Lockdown

Two hundred and ninety-seven. Two hundred and ninety-eight. Two hundred and ninety-nine. Three hundred push ups! I jumped up to my feet, shaking out my arms. I was practicing my combinations on the heavy bag when Mike walked in. He turned off my music.

"Why you do that?" I asked, spotting my workout.

"You have not left 'The Bunker'. You have training nonstop, barely sleeping, you need to go home." Mike said, slowly.

"I need to stay limber, focused." I went back to beating the heavy bag. He walked over and stepped in front of me.

"This is not going to help you." Mike said. I was jumping in place, keeping my legs loose. "Being obsessive is not going to help you with your grief. Neither is beating out your pain."

"I can't get over it Mike. I still feel it in my chest. I still hear his voice. A part of me feels like it's not over. Which is why-" He grabbed my fist.

"You still have time Jake. This stuff takes time, you have to let it heal. Go home." Mike said. He unwrapped the tape from my left hand, then patted me on my sweaty shoulder. He was right. I needed to get away from it for a while. I packed my stuff up and headed home.

"Ma! I'm home." I said, walking in the door. The house was empty. Mom wasn't home. Typical. I went upstairs and changed my clothes. I let my phone charge while I took a shower. My had completely blown up with messages, missed calls, and voicemails from Alex. I take it she really missed me. I knew going to school today would be rough, having to confront Don and her. Fingers crossed.

I walked into school and immediately ran into Alex & Don. I was not ready for this conversation.

"Alcohol poisoning?" They both asked.

"Yeah, I don't know, something wasn't feeling right. I ran off to the nurse and she called the EMTs."

"Jake, you were in the hospital for like two weeks?" Don questioned.

"Yeah, me & Danielle went to a little pregame before homecoming, you saw how crazy she was." Don nodded his head, but Alex had this very blank stare. "So yeah, they had me hooked up to all these tubes, sucking it out my stomach."

"Your mom had no idea where you were? And then there's your phone?" Alex said.

"I told them not to tell my mom about it, so my Aunt Mary came to stay with me. I knew mom's trip, so-plus my phone broke in the ambulance on the way there." I pulled out my phone to show them. The entire front and back was cracked, the fall from the rooftop cracked my phone on impact. Mike found my phone in the alley when he was searching for me. Alex didn't seem too convinced, but I could tell she was happy I was back.

"Glad you back boy!" Don said, throwing his arm around my shoulder. "Forreal, no more running off, okay? You have no idea how hard it's been dog sitting your cat" Don said, pointing at Alex.

"Be careful this cat claws faces and break necks." Alex replied. Don & I were stunned by her ruthless comment. That was harsh, even more than normal from her.

"We gotta get together tonight, my mom's not home so we can chill at my place." I needed to make it up to them.

"I'm so down!" Don replied. Alex just shook her head in agreement. We all headed to class together.

Something was weird today, I mean between Alex & Don. They were at each other's throats today, far more than usual. It was like watching an alligator fight a honey badger, just horrifying. Usually their batter is mean but goofy, today it was just straight-lows and knockout punches. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but something felt different, a bit weird. One thing I knew I did not want to be caught in the middle of their monster brawl.