Page 116 of This Life and All the Rest
Then it fully hits me how fucked I am. Three against me, and I’m wearing a suit and dress shoes.
I try. I swing and swing and kick, but I’m out numbered, and they’ve got size on me, too.
I do as much damage as I can, and then it’s just a lot of pain.
I feel my lips bust open. Sharp hooks and jabs to my cheekbones and nose. I feel someone’s knuckles cut on my teeth, and the metallic flavor of blood in my mouth could be mine or theirs. I spit it out in between blows.
I bite my own tongue to keep from crying out as a kick to the stomach nearly splits me in half. It’ll have me coughing up blood if I survive this.
God, I have to survive this.
I can’t fucking die here on this back road in a pool of my own blood.
I’m in a fetal position on the ground in front of my car. There’s sticky blood in my eyes and mouth. I might have broken a tooth. Something is probably ruptured inside me. The pain engulfs my body. It’s hard to breathe.
They don’t stop.
They won’t stop until I’m dead, and the only thing I can think of is Lennon.
I left her there without an explanation. I haven’t even told her I love her. I fling out another punch, land a kick on someone, but I can’t get up.
I try, but I fall back into the dirt, and one of the dicks laughs. Someone hovers above me, but my eyes are swollen and bleeding. I can’t tell who it is.
“Tell her I said hello,” the guy says with a growl, and then something gets shoved in my mouth.
I can’t taste anything with all the blood, but I know what it was. He just slipped me the same shit that was in those capsules the night I OD’d.
They’re trying to fucking kill me.
“Why now?”
I don’t even know how I say it. I don’t know where the question came from, only that I have to know.
Winter break was months ago. Why now? Why now, after I finally make up my mind with Lennon and see a light at the end of the fucking tunnel?
I hear one of the guys laugh, but it’s a sad laugh. A painful laugh, and I feel a twinge of sympathy for the dick who just beat me near to death.
“Had to grieve,” the guy says. “Your girlfriend will understand soon enough.”
Fuck.Lennon. This is going to crush her.
I hear car doors slam and then Chase’s voice.
“You can watch me fuck your stepsister from hell.”
The car peels out and leaves me lying on the gravel in the light of my high beams.
Everything hurts. All I want to do is close my eyes, but Chase’s threat gives me just enough adrenaline. I pull my phone out of my pocket, try my best to find the contact through my less swollen, bloody eye, and hit dial.
It only rings three times before the call is answered.
“Macon? Everything okay?”
“Trent,” I cough out, “I need your help.”
I waketo the sound of arguing.
Trent and Mom’s voices.
