Push

Push [chapter 9]

I just recently realized that the What's Hot list ranking is marked beside the stories so I'd just like to thank every single one of you who are reading this story for somehow keeping it in the mid-200s before it plummeted again a few days ago. Thank you all so much! It really means a lot even though I almost never use the broadcast to fans button to express it. I really appreciate your support.

Also, out of curiosity since I just recently realized that I've got over 150 fans now (my observation abilities need work :/), how many of you are actually active? I'm pretty sure most of you are from a time when there weren't so many stories yet, like when there were still illegal ebooks around and Something Wicked was just starting out so I'm just genuinely curious how many are still really there. I mean, if I were to count, I'm guessing I have around twenty or thirty active fans, whom I greatly thank for sticking with me :D

That aside, I'm really really thankful to all of you for everything :D

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Chapter 9

The encounter had rocked me to my core. After Sophie left, I sat there on the curb long enough for my butt cheeks to numb amidst the cold. My fist - no, it was a hand - still ached from my assault on Reginald, as did the rest of my body. My face which he hit first and my gut felt the worse than most. What was probably the worst feeling of all however, wasn't a physical one.

I knew I had without a doubt, won that bout with Reggie. He lost, I won, period. In fact, I was wondering whether he was already at the hospital after that beating. But why did I feel like I had lost as much as he did? Of course, I already knew the answer to that question: it was because of Sophie.

Sure, I'd won in the technical sense of the word. Reggie was left a puddle of a man back there. But at the same time, I'd lost Sophie, possibly for good. I saw it in her face - how frightened she was back there. Only now could I register that fact. How pale she'd gotten after the fight; how much she flinched as if I would turn on her as well. It had hurt me to see her like that. To see her so afraid of me. The physical pain in my gut became only second to how sick it felt. My head was probably just as bad. It felt light, hot, and aching - I was still furious. And I didn't know at what. Was it at Reggie for starting that stupid fight? For flirting with Sophie? Or was it at Sophie, herself? For abandoning me like a child the same way my mother did?

"Hey kid." The man's voice jolted me out of my reverie. "You can't stay here if you aren't gonna buy anything."

I peered at the man through bleary eyes. He was old and spectacled, manning a trolley of thermoses of coffee and its concoctions.

"You're scaring away my customers," he said, holding his hands up peacefully.

I smiled at him in what I hoped was a friendly way. "Sorry, I'm just a bit...shaken," I said.

"Yeah, I saw that. Girlfriend trouble?" he asked smilingly.

"None of your business," I snapped...and then blinked. The man had flinched when I said that. What the hell was wrong with me? Rubbing my eyes, I stood up. "Sorry," I murmured, my eyes stinging as I walked away.

Dammit, what was wrong with me today? I've never had anger issues before, have I? It must be the stress, I reasoned. With a heavy heart, I trekked across the street, my destination already clear: Campbell's. I needed someone to talk to and Arthur and Jamie were the only ones I genuinely wanted to see. Other than Sophie, that is.

I thought my day couldn't get any worse. But I guess I was wrong. Of course the guy up there with a sick sense of humor would want to see me suffer one more time. On my way to Campbell's, I took a shortcut through an alleyway and saw the last person I wanted to see at the time.