Page 56 of Fight

“Hey, you.” Sadie slid in close to Jake with a wide smile as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and slammed her beer down on the table so that it slopped over the edge of the glass and onto Lena’s hand. Lena quickly moved her hand and shot Sadie an irritated look.

“Hi Sadie,” he said shortly as he shifted away from her on the bench, running into Ian next to him. Sadie’s eyes were droopy and unfocused as she followed him down the bench.

“You got a haircut,” she gushed as she ran her hands through the shorn strands on the back of his head. “All those beautiful curls gone…but you look pretty hot.”

Jake pulled back from her touch and looked nervously at Lena who had stared into her wine glass again like it contained all the secrets to the world.

Sadie followed Jake’s gaze to look over at Lena, too, as if just noticing her.“Oh hey, Lisa,” she finally said. “You’re really giving us all a show in that dress, huh? You know you look naked from behind?”

Lena twisted her head to look down at her back and looked back up at him and Sadie with a blush staining her cheeks.

“I think she looks hot.” Morgan’s voice came from next to Lena as she turned away from talking to Ian and Annie, and leveled a confrontational gaze at Sadie.“Not just anyone can pull off a dress like that,” she continued as she shot Sadie a knowing look.

“Well, I wouldn’t be caught dead in it,” Sadie said in a deadpan voice, looking straight into Lena’s face as she ran her hand up and down Jake’s forearm.

Jake pulled his arm away quickly.“Sadie—” he started to reprimand her before Morgan interrupted him.

“Bitch, that can be arranged,” she shouted in a cutting voice. Ian and Annie were deep in their conversation until this point, but they pulled away from each other and looked at Morgan with growing alarm. Cole stopped tuning his guitar and shot their table an annoyed glare as the rest of the patrons started murmuring and looking back at them.

“Morgan,” Ian growled warningly.“Calm down.”He reached across the table to grab her wrist, but she pulled it back swiftly.

Rolling her eyes at Ian, Morgan opened her mouth, most likely to tell Ian to mind his own business when the universe decided to throw one more wrench into this scene with the arrival ofDaniel.

He sat down next to Lena on the end of the bench, straddling it so that she was sitting between his legs.This joker doesn’t know when to quit.

“Hey, Lena,” Daniel said in a soft voice as he rubbed his hand up and down her bare back. “I was hoping I’d find you here. I’ve been texting you.” Jake laughed unbelievingly as he rubbed his hand down his face and held it on his cheek. Could this get any worse? What a fucking comedy of errors.

“Daniel, I’m sorry. I should have texted you back,” Lena said hurriedly as she shifted her attention from Morgan to Daniel, turning around to face him as she simultaneously arched her back away from his touch.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You could have told me though—I was worried,” he chastised her. He continued to graze her back with his hand and although Lena kept shrinking away from it, she didn’t tell him to stop.Why didn’t she tell him to stop touching her?

“I know. I’m really sorry,” Lena consoled him with wide, wet eyes. Jake felt the exasperation boil inside of him. Why wasn’t she holding him accountable for what he did? She hadn’t had any issues holdinghimaccountable last summer on their hike. He watched as Daniel’s hand continued the back and forth motion on her back, and he felt his ability to be rational quickly slip out of his mind’s grasp.

“Why are you fucking apologizing to him?” Jake barked at her incredulously as he finally snapped. “He abandoned you in the woods.”

“Hey, mind your own business, dude.” Daniel looked over at Jake with a disbelieving look. “This is between me and Lena.”

“Thisismy business. Who do you think had to go up there and fucking rescue her when you left her there? She was stuck in the rain and couldn’t get down the mountain.”

Sadie sputtered into her beer. “You had to go save her, Jake? Figures,” Sadie said with an eye roll. “You should have stuck with the gondola, Lisa.”

“Shut up, Sadie,” Lena cracked as the words came spilling out of her mouth in a high-pitched screech. “Just. Shut. Up. Why are you being so nasty?” The words came streaming out of Lena’s mouth like a river as angry tears escaped her red, overflowing eyes and streamed down her flushed cheeks.

“And stop touching me, Daniel. I don’t want you to touch me,” she sputtered inarticulately as tears flew down her face and landed on her chest and dress.

Daniel quickly pulled his hands back and held them up in a surrender motion, a confused look on his face.

“Morgan!” The group turned to see Cole Sutton, his lanky body leaning into the microphone while strands of hair from his short ponytail framed his angry face. “What’s going on back there?” he shouted. “Keep it down! I’m trying to start my set.”

Morgan turned around, her blond waves flowing around her like a banner as she stuck her middle finger up at Cole. “You can stick your set up your ass, Cole,” she sang out toward the front of the bar as the murmurs in the bar became a dull roar.

Lena looked like she was going to pass out as all of the eyes in the bar that hadn’t been focused on the commotion they’d been causing, looked over at them in curiosity.

“I need some air,” she said, as she stood up and swung her legs around to the side of the bench toward Morgan in an effort to get up. Daniel was able to get up more quickly though, and he reached out to grab her by the arm in an effort to help her up.

“C’mon,” Daniel said, guiding her from the table. “Let’s go outside and talk.” When Jake saw Daniel’s hand take hold of Lena’s arm, something inside him snapped. The whole evening had been doused in negative energy, but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Why wasn’t Lena more angry at Daniel? He’d treated her like shit.

“Hey!” Jake barked loudly as he pushed past Sadie to get out off the bench. “Get your hands off her.”

---