Page 53 of The Wrong Side of Kai
All the air in here seems to disappear, suffocating me while I stare back at Harrison. It’s not the reply I expected and now I can’t seem to get words to form on my tongue. I feel so helpless, so trapped, and I know the longer I stand here without saying a single word, the more of an idiot I’ll look. I search the kitchen for Chyna, hoping she’ll appear to save me, but she is nowhere to be seen.
“It’s a real shame,” Noah pipes up, stepping around Harrison, “that you’ve made enemies of us.” His voice is menacing, a warning. Noah smiles bitterly into my face, and I can smell the beer on him. It makes me wonder: Are they going to taunt me forever? Noah suddenly grabs my waist and pulls me forward, discreetly wrestling his body into position behind mine. He holds my hips tightly and we stare out into the fascinated expressions of our peers. I can feel Noah’s breath hot against my neck as he loudly asks our audience, “Who else in this house has Vanessa Murphy seduced?”
“Stop it!” I hiss, trying to squirm my way out of his hold. I am mortified. Noah will always use my history as a weapon, making my past into something I should be ashamed of, and as a couple hands shoot up around us, shame is exactly what I feel. Nick Foster pokes up a hand from the back of the room. Blake Nelson sheepishly raises a hand then pretends to only be scratching his hair.
Harrison rolls his eyes and holds up his hand. “Worst luck,” he says, as though the entire school doesn’t already know.
I try to elbow Noah in the ribs behind me, but he is quick to grasp my arms, locking them in place. He pins my body against his. “See?” he murmurs, burying his face into the crook of my neck. He lowers his voice so that no one else can hear him, and he whispers, “No one likes a tramp.”
I wish I could see the twisted expression on his face, and crush my fist straight into his nose. He’s resting his chin on my shoulder and I look at him out of the corner of my eye. “Funny,” I say quietly, my voice uneven. “You didn’t have a problem with me when it was you I was hooking up with.”
He snarls and tightens his grip on my arms.
“Let her go,” a husky voice orders. “Now.”
Kai emerges from the back of the kitchen, pushing his way to me the same way I had fought my way through the crowd to him yesterday morning. And, just like he was then, I am being taunted, abused at the hands of Harrison Boyd and Noah Diaz.
“Goddamn!” Harrison growls, throwing his hands up in exasperation as he turns to face Kai. One hand is balled into a fist by his side. “Did we kill some of your brain cells yesterday or what? You’re insane to come here.”
But Kai doesn’t even give Harrison a second look. He shoves past him, ramming his shoulder into Harrison’s, then stands before Noah and me. I’m still held in place, unable to move, and I stare numbly at Kai.
“Let her go,” he repeats, more demanding this time. He’s wearing all black, including a leather jacket that I would find knee-weakening if we were in any other situation right now, and his eyes are locked on Noah. I can see the worsening bruise beneath his eye, the cuts from the violence inflicted on him yesterday.
Noah’s laugh echoes into my ears like the sharp shrill of a bell. “Alright, Prince Charming. Have her,” he says, then pushes me hard toward Kai. I stumble, nearly losing my balance, but Maddie reaches out of the crowd and takes my hand, steadying me.
“I want to know,” Harrison says slowly, falling into place by Noah’s side. Their fiery eyes are set on Kai, each one prepared to back the other up. Harrison smirks, and I know exactly what’s coming next: something that’ll hit Kai where it hurts. “The tramp’s hooking up withyounow. So, who do you rate higher? Vanessa or Sierra?”
As soon as the words have left Harrison’s mouth, Kai has hurled his fist through the air and straight into Harrison’s jaw at just the right angle. A collective gasp fills the house, and everyone pushes against one another to get a closer view, but there is no fight to see – Harrison spirals down to the floor, his body like a long plank of wood as he hits the ground with a hard thud.
Uproar ensues. A chorus of voices erupt, people are pushing, Maddie is screaming. Someone asks if they should call 911. Noah kneels to the ground, pulling at Harrison’s shoulders and demanding that he get back up. But Harrison is stunned and it’s taking both his body and his mind a while to process what’s just happened. Some of the other guys are quick to rally around their teammate, and between a handful of them, they manage to haul Harrison up from the ground. I look at Kai, but he’s staring wide-eyed at his hand, carefully stretching his fingers. He seems surprised by the power of his single punch.
“I want you both out of my house,” I hear Maddie say, and at first I think she is talking to Kai and me. But when I spin around to look at her, I realize she is talking to Noah and an unbalanced Harrison.
Noah has his arms hooked under Harrison’s arms as he drags him backward out of the kitchen, but he pauses. “He just needs a bed and some water. He’ll be up and running again in ten minutes. You can’t kickusout, Madison,” he says, and his tone is so self-righteous it’s almost sickening. It’s as though those guys believe parties are hosted solely for them.
“Yeah, I can,” Maddie argues, her hands on her hips as she steps forward. For how timid she usually is, it’s stunning to see her this resilient for once. “And I am. Take Harrison outside and get the hell out of here. I don’t want bullies in my house.”
Harrison tries to mumble something, but it’s unintelligible. Kai’s punch has rendered him dazed and unsteady on his feet. Noah glances down at his buddy, then back up at Maddie. “You don’t want to be friends, Maddie?” he asks sweetly, innocently pouting his lips as he plays on Maddie’s weakness. Everyone knows how hard Maddie tries to be on everyone’s good side. That’s why she was swept up into Harrison’s world in the first place.
Maddie smiles, all the power in her hands. “Friends withyou? No thanks.”
Noah grits his teeth, shaking his head at Maddie as though she’ll live to regret her decision, then continues dragging Harrison away. A few other guys from the team go with them while we all watch from the kitchen until they have left the house with Harrison still mumbling, but gradually finding his own feet again.
There is an odd moment that happens where everyone is totally silent and still, and then suddenly normality returns. The music bumps back up, loud and deafening, and bodies start moving around again, drinks clinking as people get themselves new beers and resume their chat. It’s like the past five minutes never happened, and I think I prefer it that way. Noah and Harrison have humiliated me yet again, and I think I would die if everyone dwelled on it.
And Kai waltzing in like some hero in an action movie to save me like I’m some pathetic damsel in distress. . .
How dare he?
“You!” I hiss, pointing at Kai. He’s still massaging his hand, but he looks up, his expression worried. The anger in my voice must be evident. I grab his other hand, and pull him with me out of the kitchen and over into the living room where it’s less crowded. I grit my teeth, doing my utmost to hold on to my anger and ignore how gorgeous and badass he looks right now. “You don’t get to just stroll in here and rescue me.”
Kai frowns, cocking his head to one side. He looks at me gently, his voice soft. “You don’t think you needed rescuing, Nessie?”
“No, I didn’t. I could have gotten out of that situation on my own,” I lie, blatantly, only because I don’t want to give him any credit even though hedid, in fact, save me. “I don’t need you, just like you don’t need me.”
Kai frowns at my words, instantly understanding the point that I’m making. He takes a wary step nearer to me and holds up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I know you’re still pissed at me after everything I said last night—”
“You’re damn right I’m still pissed at you!”
