You Ain't Bad || Michael Jackson

Chapter 6: The Fight

I stand, eying up each member of The Jax – Daniel is standing in the middle; Michael is next to him, still holding on to me; Kieran Measures; Sammy Otfreid, who is wearing a red hoodie and jogging bottoms and has an evil glare – he's German; Cameron MoHickey, who has a scar over his left eye and black hair done in a sort of "Modern Elvis Presley" sort way; Wayne Simms, who has a blue hoodie and high tops that go halfway up his leg; Christopher Mauf, who's bigger than the rest of them in size and wears a green zip up hoodie; and Miles Hathaway, who has dark skin and matching dark eyes. His black hair is curled tightly.

"Is that a threat?" I ask, glaring back at Daniel.

He stares back at me, a smirk rising onto his face. "Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't," he answers smartly.

My eyes widen as Emma and Mark come forward.

About time, fellas.

"What's going on here?" Emma asks.

Unamused, I shrug. "Just The Jax. Think they're hard; think they're all that. But they ain't nothing," I spit, and Daniel advances on me. He swings his fist but I dodge just in time. "Oh, I see! It was a threat!" I say.

Daniel then strikes again, hitting me in the eye. I wince in pain. Jesus, he can sure hit! The blow causes me to fall back a little, but Emma catches me.

"Just quit, Becky. It isn't worth it," she says.

I barely have any energy as it is, but I stand myself up. "No, they've gotta be shown that I'm not scared," I reply, before advancing on Daniel and looking him dead in the eye.

He does the same for me, not moving, not responding in any way. Then, quick as a flash, his hand violently jabs my stomach, then my air is cut off for a moment. The rest of The Jax and Emma and Mark are watching intently, all eyes on me and Daniel.

I now have a choice – take a chance and go for a hit on Daniel, or let him hurt me further and let him win?

Of course, I decide to take a chance.

Walking forward once my breathing returns to normal, I look at him once more. He goes to strike me again, but I dodge and grab his arm. He seems shocked by this and protests.

"Dude, let go, or I'm gonna smash you!" he says angrily.

All I do is smile, but then I place my hand over his neck to choke him ever so slightly. I pull his head back, too. "See what it's like, now? How'd you like it now, now it's you that's being hurt? Not nice, is it?" I growl, twisting his arm behind him. My head rests on his shoulder, so I can look at his face from behind. "And, may I ask, do you like that? Do you want more?" I ask.

He's struggling to breathe, but a shake of his head is made clear. Eventually I let go, and he falls to the floor, trying to regain a normal breathing pattern. It's not long before I see the other members of The Jax helping him up and brushing him down.

All except Michael.

I turn around to face Emma and Mark, high-fiving the pair of them. Then, suddenly, the pain of the hit to my face kicks in. "Freaking hell that hurt!" I cry, caressing my eye.

Emma comes closer. "Let me see that," she demands softly. Upon removing my hand from my eye, she looks at it closely. "You got a black eye," she says.

Frustrated at this, I let out a sigh. "Ugh, just what I need. People are gonna be asking about that, now," I groan.

"You're a proper badass though, aintcha?" Mark chuckles.

A weak smile creeps onto my face, before I turn around to see what's going on behind me. I find Sam, Wayne, Miles, Cameron, Kieran and Christopher swarming around Daniel, but then I avert my eyes from Daniel to Michael.

He's looking at me, again.

What's with him always looking at me? Those eyes have to look away at some point ... but for now, they're fixated on me ... and mine are fixated on him. Once Daniel is okay, he and The Jax members start to walk away.

"You're going to be in a lot of trouble for that," Michael says, finally taking his eyes off me – his deep, brown, hypnotising eyes ...

All I do is watch him walk away with the rest of The Jax members. "I'll be waiting." After I finish speaking, I walk back to Emma and Mark. "I just want to know what that Michael's problem is ... what Daniel's problem is too," I sigh.

Emma shrugs. "I guess we'll never know," she says, interlocking her hand in Mark's.

We start to walk out the park, but then I remember something. "Wait!" I say, before running back to get my shoe.

The shoe that had started the entire thing. Once I've picked it up, I run back to Emma and Mark, then we all walk out the park gates, and go our separate ways.

~~

-Edited June 4, 2016-