Chapter 11
I’m dead.
I have to be.
There can be no other reason for why the surface I’m laying on is this comfortable. Last thing I remember is being knocked to the ground by Harry ‘The Heron’–that’s such a dumb fucking name–by a cheap shot, and then the world went black.
There’s no way that Mickey stopped the fight. He’d rather see me die at this point.
There’s an awful lot of pain for this to be death. I thought I’d simply cease to exist, not be forced to feel the shitty parts of life.
I never catch a break.
There’s the sound of someone walking around me and I jolt up, sitting up as quickly as I can. Protect, defend, is my first thought, as it is every time I hear someone stalking around me.
I keep my mouth shut even though moving causes me severe agony and I want to scream it out.
I’ve learned that crying out, whimpering, any of that, will only bring more issues.
My hand comes up to defend myself, but Asher, kind, big brother-like Asher, leans over so I can see it’s him.
“Hey, killer,” he says with a lazy smile. “It’s really good to see you.”
“Asher,” I whisper, “Oh my god.” I lean over to hug him, but I wince in pain.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t if I was you,” he holds his hand out and in the palm of his hand are two white pills.
I freeze.
And shake my head no slightly.
“They’re just painkillers, Roxie,” he says softly, but based on the look in his eyes I gave too much away. “I promise.”
“I’ve heard that before,” I whisper and shake my head. Goddamn, that fucking hurts. “I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t be stubborn.”
“I said no,” I snap aggressively.
“Give it a rest, Ashe,” a grumbly, sleepy voice says to my side. It’s really him. Ty.
“Ty?” I whisper, breathlessly.
“Yeah, carino, I’m here.” He scotches forward in the seat he’s in by me, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and sitting up. It’s obvious that he stayed right beside me throughout the night.
“What… How…” I do my best to ask questions but there are so many, my words trip over themselves in my head.
“I found you,” he says with an awed smile. “After six fucking years, I found you again. Getting your ass handed to you.” He sighs loudly, running his hand over his weary face still lined with sleep. “What a reunion, Rox.”
“I always aim to make a grand entrance,” I say with a snort and close my eyes, laying back and muttering softly, “I found you first.”
“What?” Ty asks, his voice soft and quiet, like he knows my head is killing me. He probably does. No, I know he does based on all that Mickey’s said and the fights I’ve snuck into.
“Nothing,” I whisper back. “God, my head hurts.”
“Ashe, can you go get the new painkillers? The ones in the bathroom, still sealed?” Ty asks, and I peek an eye open. He’s looking at Asher with a very careful, guarded expression. One that screams protective.
“Yeah, I can do that.” Asher nods and walks off, leaving Ty and I alone.
“What happened?” I ask Ty softly, letting my head fall to the side so I can see him. So I can really see him. Not covered in blood or dirt or looking aggressive because of the fight… Just Ty.
He’s older, of course, but in a way that tells me he’s grown into his looks. He was lean and muscled before, his jaw and cheekbones sharp, but now… Now, he’s a man.
Bigger, broader, rougher somehow. His wavy hair is gone, a buzzcut left in its wake. But those eyes… I’d know those eyes anywhere.
Ty’s looking at me as if he’s cataloguing all the differences in me as well.
Well, that or he’s trying to determine my injuries. I can feel how swollen my eyes are. I’m going to have some not-so-nice words with Harry the next time I see him.
And if he leaves with a new black eye, so be it.
Ty takes a deep breath, and pulls one of my hands in his. The moment his skin touches mine, I’m thrown back into memories. The memories that make me ache with longing. The ones that have become my safe space in my mind. The ones that I hold so close to my chest because they’re precious.
I gasp, and his eyes flash to mine. He knows. He understands.
“I got to The Underground for my fight that my dumbass brother pushed me into and to my surprise; you were there. In the middle of a fight that should’ve been fucking stopped but no one was stepping up.
I saw you,” he says with a far-off look in his eyes like he’s not telling me the whole story.
“You were…laying there, knocked out, and being punched like he was trying to kill you. And I just snapped. I saw red and all I needed was to get you out of there. I stepped in and with one hit, that scrawny fucker was on his ass.”
“No,” I whisper, my heart drops through my stomach.
“Hey, hey, what is it?” I can hear the worry in his voice, the way he’s automatically able to tell that something’s wrong. Even after all this time. But I can’t focus on that right now, all I can see, feel, hear, is the overwhelming panic taking over me.
“Oh god,” I say, nerves and anxiety overtaking me and making my stomach turn violently. He stopped the fight, he stopped the fight, he stopped the fight. I lost, I lost, I lost, the spiraling, ruminating thoughts take over and I can’t stop.
I lean over the edge of the couch, even through the pain, and I dry heave. Throwing up even though I have nothing in my system. Ty doesn’t move, doesn’t jump back in shock, just rubs my back and tells me to breathe.
“Are you alright?” Ty whispers when I stop heaving, and gently wipes away the saliva that’s dripping down my chin as I roll back onto the soft cushions. His strong, rough hands help me move back into a position that doesn’t make me want to curse in pain, and then asks me softly, “What’s wrong?”
“You stopped the fight.”
“Fuck yes, I stopped the fight. You weren’t fighting back.
You weren’t awake. He was going to kill you and I was not going to wait for that to happen.
” Ty looks at me with such a confused look, it’d be cute if I wasn’t about to be killed.
“I finally found you again, and I found you in the dirt in an underground fighting ring getting your face kicked in.”
“But now he—” I say but shut my mouth quickly. He doesn’t need to know about Mickey.
About what Mickey does. About what Mickey doesn’t do.
“What?” Ty asks sharply. “But now he what? Who? Roxie, are you in trouble?” The questions leave his lips so quickly they give me whiplash and cause my defenses to rise.
“Nothing,” I mutter, sliding down into the cushions. This couch is comfier than the inch thick mattress I call a bed. Sighing with a mix of a groan, I let my eyes flutter closed.
I can hear him grinding his teeth.
“No, no, no, carino,” Ty says quickly, squeezing my hand, “You have to stay awake. Now that you’ve woken up, we’re going to have to keep waking you up to make sure you’re alright.”
Asher walks in with the painkillers in hand and my fucking god, do I want one.
Two. The whole freaking bottle, I’m in so much pain, but I won’t let that show.
Not for a moment. I watch with close attention to how the seal sounds when he pops the top under the safety plastic.
Once the top is off, he sets it down and peels back that annoying protective layer before dumping one out and handing it to Ty.
Ty, who’s already looking at me.
He’s watching every move I make, or maybe it’s the absence of moves that has him so interested.
Ty takes the pill, dry swallows it and holds his hand out for more. Asher waits for me to look at him and does the same.
“I promise, on my life, they’re just painkillers,” Ty says the words so strongly and so resolutely that they’re like a vow.
A way to show how serious he is. A way to tell me and ask me to trust him.
“Okay,” I whisper and nod.
“As many as she can,” Ty says to Asher quietly and Asher nods, dumping out four white pills. I can see the manufacturer label printed on each pill. I watched him open the new bottle. I watched both of them take one. They can’t be…
But that fear will never leave me for the rest of time.
Ty opens a water bottle and I sigh when I hear the seal crack open, before he sets it down and helps me sit up. Each movement feels like a breaking bone, a heavy ache, a sharp pain. This is…this is definitely the worst I’ve had. Physically.
“Just a little higher, Rox,” Ty encourages me as I grit my teeth to keep from letting any sound escape. “There.”
“Goddamn, fuck.” The boys laugh when that leaves my lips, but not in a cruel way. In a way that says they know I’m hurting because they’ve both been here. Probably in the same position I’m in; on the couch, aching, hurting, bleeding.
“You want to tell us when you came back?” Asher asks, crossing his arms over his chest and my eyes nearly pop out of my head.
Where Ty’s grown up, and very nicely I might add, so has Asher.
Shaggy hair that’s too long, the start of a tattoo sleeve with open spaces dotted through, and where he was tall and lean back then, it’s like they’ve both been hitting the gym and eating only chicken and beef while chugging protein shakes.
“Asher,” Ty snaps.
“I’ve been in Oaktown,” I confess softly, resting back and sighing.
“Oaktown? That’s four hours away.” Ty sounds shocked.
“Yeah,” I roll my head to look at him and there’s so much meaning in the pause between us.
Asher clears his throat, as if to say, ‘get on with it’.
“I got in the car that day and my foster parents had requested that I give back my phone since it was theirs. And I didn’t have a computer so there wasn’t any way to contact you right away. ”
“It’s been years,” Ty says the words so softly I almost don’t hear them, and I know that was on purpose. Ty takes a deep breath and looks at Asher, gesturing with his head to give us a minute.
Asher grumbles and mutters, “I was there the whole time and would like answers myself, but fine, I’ll leave you to it.” His child-like grumbling makes me chuckle and I hold my rib where it’s stinging.
Ty sighs exasperatedly, rolling his eyes at his friend. I’m so glad they stayed together.