26. Blaze #2
“Blaze!” Zayden grabs my arm and yanks me back, away from Brock. “Christ, man, we get it. It was just a bit of joking around!”
My fist itches with the desire to punch him. “Joking around? Then you’d better keep them in line, oh illustrious leader, because where I’m from, we don’t disrespect each other’s women.”
“Blaze,” Asch says, his voice quiet. “He’s not worth it.”
“Not worth—” Zayden sputters. “I’m still the Kappa Alpha leader, Alvarado. I can get anyone kicked out!”
I roll my eyes and give him my darkest grin. “Yeah? You want to try it? Because I think?—”
“Shut up!” River suddenly shouts. We all look over to him.
He’s holding his hand up and is looking around the yard.
Outside of our circle with the firepit and the tiki torches, it’s fairly dark.
A few windows in the house are bright, but River’s attention is beyond the yard, closer to where the woods start.
I tense and get on the defensive.
“What?” Zayden asks. “Rivera, stop acting weird. Brock, Tate, you can apologize to Franklin, and?—”
Asch claps his hand over Zayden’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” he hisses.
I edge away from Zayden and toward a darker spot of the yard, away from the lights. My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I see what River noticed.
There’s movement in the trees beyond the yard.
My phone buzzes, but I ignore it.
The guys still by the firepit start whispering to themselves, looking around blindly.
Zayden pulls away from Asch. “If you ever touch me again, Alvarado, so fucking help me?—”
A loud pop rings out, familiar but off, and suddenly there’s a bright red stain on Zayden’s chest. He cries out and stumbles back.
Everybody jumps up and starts moving, right as several large guys dash out of the trees wielding guns. The pop pop follows, and I’m still confused about the sound until one of the bullets hits me in the arm.
I look down and find my shirt stained in bright red. I touch it, and although the bruise stings, it’s nothing like a bullet wound.
Paint.
They’re shooting us with paint guns.
“They’re fucking paint pellets!” Asch shouts. He dashes forward, River on his heels, to meet the attackers.
It’s hard to tell what’s going on. Most of the attackers are large, and they’re all wearing masks that cover their entire faces, completely white except for the eye slits and a few holes near the nose and mouth.
When one of them gets close to me, I throw a punch. I’m surprised when the guy manages to dodge, although I use my momentum to redirect myself and slam my arm against his neck. I hear him grunt, but he doesn’t go down.
I’m too close to avoid the punch he throws at me, directly into my stomach. I wheeze, but I’ve taken a few blows in my time, so I know how to breathe through it.
Everybody joins the fray, Tate and Brock and Zayden all taking on their own attackers. I try to keep track of Asch and River, but with the low light and my own opponent keeping me occupied, it’s an impossible task.
Then Franklin comes rushing in my direction, holding his spatula up. His shirt has several splatters of red paint on it.
“Stay back!” I shout, but Franklin ignores me and starts swatting my attacker with the spatula.
My attacker stops and looks down at Franklin. There’s at least six inches of height difference between them, and Franklin isn’t anywhere near as built as this giant of a man.
“Move,” the attacker growls.
Franklin shakes his head. “N-No! I won’t… I won’t let you hurt my brothers!”
What an idiot, I think, but I’m kind of proud of him too. Maybe he does deserve to be in Kappa Alpha.
While Franklin has my attacker distracted, I do a sweeping roundhouse kick against the back of the guy’s knees.
The guy buckles forward, and I use the opportunity to punch him in the throat.
What I really want to do is remove the mask so I have a clue who the fuck I need to take out later.
Whoever these people are, they’re going to regret attacking my fraternity.
They don’t know who they’re fucking with.
The guy gasps audibly, but before I can grab the mask, his hand whips out and wraps around my wrist. It’s the only warning I get .
Then I’m sent flying, my world turning upside down as I slam hard against the dirt.
“Blaze!” Franklin cries out. “Leave… leave him alone!” He tries to go for the guy again, but he gets a fist directly into his face for the trouble. Franklin crumples to the ground.
I hear footsteps, and someone else approaches with quick, light steps.
There’s red dripping down his face, and it takes me a second to recognize that it’s River.
I can’t tell if it’s all paint or if any of it is blood, and the idea that he might’ve taken a hit to the face that would result in blood infuriates me.
I don’t understand that reaction. River is nothing to me.
River gets in the way of me and the big guy, and with a series of quick blows, he manages to push him back so I can get back up to my feet.
I note River’s stance, the kind boxers use. It’s so different from mine or Asch’s fighting style.
The big guy lunges forward again, but River blocks him with his forearms before going for an uppercut. He catches the guy square in the solar plexus, stopping him in his tracks.
Just how strong was his punch?
“Get the fuck out of here,” River snarls.
The guy coughs, then reaches up to adjust his mask. “You think you’re untouchable?” he growls. “You might have the administration wrapped around your fingers, but we know who you are. We know what you do. And none of us give a fuck about your mommies and daddies.”
I stand next to River and get into a defensive stance. “You think this is all because of our parents? Fuck off. I’m going to track you down, asshole, and I’m going to destroy you.”
One of the other masked guys lets out a loud laugh. “Yeah? With what army, Bouchard?”
I look toward the others. Only Asch is still on his feet, with Tate, Brock, Zayden, and the others moaning on the ground and curled up into balls .
Franklin tries to get up, but I put my foot on his shoulder to keep him in place.
“Funny. Next time, we won’t be playing with toy guns,” I snap back.
“Enough!” the masked guy in front of me shouts. “This is a warning to all of you Chaos assholes. If you try any of your usual shit again, we’ll come back, and that paint is going to be real blood.”
He picks up his discarded paint gun and waves for the others to follow him. I notice one of the guys lingering, but another barked command has him following the leader.
I want to chase after them, but my fists are killing me, and I can feel the bruises on my stomach and chest growing.
Fuck.
In the distance, I can hear the distinct sounds of motorcycles starting up.
“Um, Blaze?” Franklin asks. “Can you let me up?”
I glance down, then remove my foot from Franklin’s shoulder. “Sorry.” I extend my arm to him to help him up. “You did good, Franklin.”
He beams at me, then looks toward River. “I helped?”
“You helped,” River confirms, clasping his other shoulder. “But next time, you can be a little less brave.” He glances over at Asch, who’s approaching us with narrowed eyes.
“You okay, Blaze?” Asch asks, glancing between us. He looks a little worse for wear, but his voice is steady as he looks me over. When he’s satisfied, he glances at Franklin and gives him a slight smile. “What about you, Franklin?”
Zayden and the others get up too, grumbling and plopping into the camper chairs around the still blazing firepit.
“I’m good!” Franklin says with excitement. “I helped in a fight! I did my fist like River showed me!” He motions punching, with his thumb properly covered by his fist.
I bite my lip and don’t mention that he’d mostly used the spatula to swat at our attacker .
“I saw.” River grins at him and ruffles his hair. “Well, we’ll have to have more lessons. You should be able to knock their asses into the dirt.”
There’s no universe in which Franklin will be able to knock someone like that big guy onto the ground, and trying could get him seriously injured, but Franklin looks so excited that I can’t really bring myself to say it.
Who’d have thought I’d develop a soft spot for anyone, especially some freshman?
“I’ll help,” Asch says, and River looks at him with narrowed eyes. “What?” Asch shrugs. “We have different styles. Some of what I know might be more suited to him.” Grinning, he adds, “I don’t fight fair.”
Everybody grumbles, until smoke starts billowing from the grill.
“Ah, fuck, the burgers!” Keegan shouts. He hobbles over to the grill and curses. “Fucking burnt to a crisp.”
Franklin walks over to help Keegan, and I drag myself over to the chairs and grab another beer from the cooler. I hold the cold bottle against my cheek and enjoy how it feels against my bruises.
Zayden sits down beside me. “We need to find out who they were.”
“Yeah,” I agree, my eyes still closed. “Tomorrow. Let everybody recover first.”
My phone buzzes, and I pull it out, not sure what to expect.
Pandora
Is your frat thing going to run long?
I’m so fucking bored.
And the newest text.
Pandora
Tell River to send me a dickpic.
I laugh about it, and text back
Blaze
only if you share it with me.
My eyes meet River’s.
I raise my beer to him, and River raises a bottle too.
He’d held his own really well.
I think I can see why Pandora keeps him around.