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"AND THAT'S WHAT I TOLD HER!" Kevin Porter chuckled, his voice echoing off the walls in the purple and yellow hallway leading to the Staples Center's exit. The walls were painted beige except for a rupture near the doors that was the size of a fist.
Jalen simply shook his head at his friend's anecdote as they walked side by side out of the stadium, "Nah, what you should've told her was to get a life. People are so weird bruh."
Kevin pushed open one of the frosted glass doors to reveal a dimly lit parking lot and a sky full of stars, "Aight, bro. I'll see you." Kevin lifted his fist and Jalen knocked his knuckles against his friend's.
"You better be ready to put in work in practice tomorrow! You were slacking!" Jalen replied in a mocking taunt as the pair diverted their paths to their respective cars.
Kevin simply put a middle finger up as his response before opening the driver's side door to his car, getting in, and driving away. Jalen palmed his jacket pocket to begin searching for his own keys when a feminine voice nearby let out a yelp for help.
Jalen immediately paused and raised his head in alarm to search the parking lot around the stadium, eyes narrowed. When he saw that the area around him was still vacant, Jalen shrugged, figured he might've imagined the sound, and then continued to rummage for his car keys.
"Stop! Stop! Get away from- AAH!" The feminine voice raised several decibels in both volume and level of panic.
Jalen's head turned quickly over his shoulder towards the sound when another scream pierced the silence around him. This time, Jalen didn't hesitate to withdraw his hand from his pocket and walked away from the car to the right side of the stadium.
Squatted up against the eggshell-colored wall was Leilani with her hands up to dodge blows to her face from the mystery assailant that was hovering, their face covered by an oversized black hood.
"Where's my money?" The assailant forced Leilani to rise by gripping her shoulders and then roughly shoved her into the wall.
"Aye! Stop!" Jalen yelled, running forward to intervene, and used all of his body weight to force the stranger away from Leilani. The man lifted his head for half a second and then sprinted in the other direction.
Jalen managed to slow down in front of where Leilani was still crouching by the wall and extended his neck in an effort to look for the assailant. He was about to take another step forward in a more profound effort to search for the stranger when Leilani gripped his wrist tightly, almost stopping the blood circulation.
