This Feels Right

Four

POV-Luke

Mr. Peters lunged at me, but I knew what to do from past experience. I stepped out of the way, knowing it’d piss him off, but not wanting any of us to get hit. I shoved Alex out of the way as I moved in the opposite direction. Alex looked a little scared, but that look that I saw in his eye earlier seemed to have come back. It scared me. He has always been so sweet and kind. Would never hurt a fly. But when he hit Bobby, that shit was scary, man. I mean, it was pretty rad, but mostly scary. 

I grabbed the first hard thing I saw on Reggie’s messy floor. It just happened to be his skateboard that he hasn’t touched since he got it. I swung it as hard as I could at Mr. Peters, who was staring at me with shock. The wheels hit his skull with a whack! I smiled, amazed that I did that. But then the fucker got back back up and glared into my soul, snatching the skateboard away from me. I stumbled back in fear. His hair was turning from slightly grey to deep red, but he didn’t seem to care. 

POV-Alex

Luke smashed Reggie’s dad over the head with a skateboard. Where the hell did he get a skateboard from? I looked around for something. Anything that could possibly knock out the crazy man that slowly walked towards my best friend. A record? Too valuable to Reggie. Record player? Although durable, probably wouldn’t last another hit to that dude’s hard head. Reggie’s bass? Not in a million years. I finally made my decision as my eyes landed on one of Reggie’s hoodies. I picked it up and grabbed both ends of one sleeve before jumping onto Mr. Peters’ back. I wrapped the sleeve around his neck and pulled as hard as I possibly could. 

The older man’s hands flew to his throat, but the sleeve was being pulled so hard he couldn’t slip his fingers underneath to let himself breathe. It felt great to be violent again. It’s been so long. I finally got to let out all the anger I’ve been bottling up since I left Oklahoma. Punching Bobby felt great, but hurting the man who has caused my best friend so much pain for so long felt good. He deserved to feel the same amount of pain as Luke, Reggie, and I combined.

POV-Reggie

    I watched as my friends beat up my dad. It was honestly amusing. I hated that man. I really hated him. This made me happy. Watching him suffer. And watching him lose to a gay man was even funnier after listening to all his rants about how weak the gays were. 

When I saw his eyes begin to flutter shut, I didn’t hesitate to punch him square in the face. I released all my anger and pain from the past seventeen years of my life onto his face. His eyes shut and he fell limp, crashing straight to the ground. I smiled in amazement as Alex let go of the sweatshirt and looked at me with slight fear in his eyes. 

Luke came over with his guitar in hand and said, “get your bass and let’s get out of here before he wakes up or your mom gets home.”

I nodded and grabbed my bass from where it leaned on the wall, but when I turned to leave, Luke grabbed my hand and pulled me. Alex was leading the way. Oh, how the tables have turned. First, I led them out of hell, and brought them to the safest place I could think of. And now they’re leading me out of hell and God knows where we’re going to go next.

We walked along the beach for what felt like forever. One foot in front of the other. Kick the sand with each step. I started counting steps a while ago. Now I’m at 28,856 steps. And I didn’t even start counting for at least an hour after we left. I suddenly became very aware of how bad my feet hurt even though I was walking on sand. And how tired I felt seeing as it had to be very late at night and I started my day at 3 AM. But Luke seemed determined. He never let go of my hand and continued to drag me along. Alex left a while ago, saying he was going to ask his parents if we could stay at his place. His parents said no and he had to tell us, so he met us at the Orpheum. Where he told us the news and then told us he had to go home or we’d never see him again. So it was just Luke and I.