If Looks Could Kill - Vance Hopper

ten

Vance strikes Robin in the center of his face and Robin stumbles back, stunned and confused on who just hit him and why.

Vance grabs him by the his hair and yanks him down onto the grass where he starts throwing punch after punch after punch. "Fuck away from my girl!" He shouts in his face, momentarily pulling his punches to spit on him. I lunge at Vance and throw myself onto his back.

"What the..." I struggle to pry him off of Robin. "Fuck are you doing, dipshit?!" I mutter in his ear through gritted teeth.

He grunts and shrugs aggressively to get me off of him. I wrap my arms around his neck but he's stronger and grabs both of my wrists, hurling me onto the grass. He stands, fuming, chest rising and falling rapidly. I can hear his ragged breaths while he glares at me with his angry eyes. I squint up at him. His hands are balled up into fists and he turns back to Robin.

Next thing I know, Robin's already back on his feet. He bolts towards Vance, knocking him off of his own with his forearms.

A small crowd has formed around us. The boy Robin was talking to is cheering. I get up and stare at the two boys in front of me.

Robin is on Vance, straddling him with his fist raised. He brings it down, not on Vance's face, but his throat. I hear a half-choke, half-gagging noise and then Vance's hands go from trying to push Robin off, to clutching his neck.

The crowd has doubled in size. People shout in excitement when they see Robin get thrown off of Vance. The shouting increases once Vance stands and Robin scrambles to his feet. They glare at each other, both daring the other to strike first.

Robin does. He lowers his head and lunges at Vance's torso, trying to get him on the ground again. Vance expects this, and grabs Robin's shoulders, pushing him away hard enough to get him to trip over his feet and nearly fall.

He grabs a fistful of Robin's shirt collar with one hand and uses the other to strike a blow deep into his gut. Robin doubles over and groans. Blood and a trail of saliva drips from his mouth.

When Vance strikes his gut a second time and aims for a third, that's enough to get me going.

I'm behind Vance in an instant, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and yanking it. I lean back on my heels and Vance throws his head back, screaming in agony. I pull again, harder and sort of crouch to get more of an impact because Vance is still holding onto Robin.

Vance throws him onto the ground and turns to see who's attacking him, his hair now out of my reach. There's long blonde strands in between my fingers. I study Vance's face. His nose is crooked and bruised and bleeding. His bottom lip is busted and cut and trembling with anger. His throat is turning a nasty blue colour and his nostrils are flaring. I take a step back.

He looks terrifying.

He glares at me and then at Robin, who's on the ground, clutching his middle with both arms. Without saying a word to anyone, he walks away from the school.

I stare after him as he leaves, as does everyone else in the crowd.

What is it with him? One minute we're cool, he wants to be cool with me. The next, he's back with his fucking glare.

I crouch beside Robin and the crowd slowly starts to lessen, no longer interested.

"You okay?" I ask, helping him up.

He grins and shakes his head. His nose is bleeding and when he spits on the grass beside him, blood comes out.

He wraps an arm around my shoulders and I wrap one around his waist to help him back into the school. "You think the nurse is still here?" I ask.