Oh My...

19.) Is This Love?

It all happened so fast, I could hardly register it all.

Carter was knocked out of his seat and slammed into the bar due to Marshall's fist. But as soon as he recovered from shock, he grabbed Marshall's neck, spun around, and crashed the back of his head onto the granite top. The bartender screamed; I was frozen with fear. Carter was a lot bigger than Marshall, I wasn't sure how to stop this.

There were more shouts and screams, and the more I lost control the more anxious I got. Carter and Marshall were in a full on fight now, crashing into people and swinging their fist around in the smokey air.

Lindsay came up to me from behind. She roughly grabbed my wrist, her long acrylic nails painfully digging into my skin. When she faced me, her eyes were wide and alert. "What the fuck happened?" She demanded sternly.

Tears dripped down from the brim of my eyes. I wasn't sure what I should to--should I tell Lindsay that Marshall is my crazy ex and came to jump her boyfriend because he saw us talking? Something in my gut told me that wouldn't go down well, and I wasn't willing to lose another friend this fast. Instead, I did the most reasonable thing that my panicked brain could think of: shrug and say that I didn't see anything until Carter was already clutching Marshall's neck.

Lindsay ran over to the quarreling boys and I followed her. They were on the ground now, Carter straddling Marshall's torso as he gave him punch after punch. Lindsay started rubbing her boyfriend's shoulders and whispering in his ear; I had no idea what she was saying, but it must have been some pretty calming shit because Carter got up only seconds later.

He spat on Marshall's bloody person. "Stupid punk."

I fell to my knees in front of Marshall's head. His eyes were squeezed shut and his nose was pouring with blood. He groaned a few times, twisting around on the checkerboard floor. I put his head on my lap and ran my fingers through his hair. "You idiot." I hissed.

"I know." He moaned back painfully. "We just had a fight, and I saw you at the bar with another dude, you whor-"

"Are you really doing this right now?"

Lindsay and Carter towered over us. Carter was glaring at us distastefully, while Lindsay just looked confused. "Wait, you know this lunatic?"

"He was my friend..." I sheepishly admitted.

She stared at Marshall, lightly shaking her head. Though, before she could say anything back Carter grabbed her hand. "Lets get out of here," he growled. He had a light red mark on his cheek, but otherwise looked completely fine. Though, when I scanned him again, I noticed his knuckles were bloody and raw. I shuttered. "Bye, Alex. Hopefully forever."

Lindsay playfully smacked his side. "Hit me up when you need weed again," she quickly added. "See ya Alex, it was fun while it lasted."

They vanished into dance floor, just as security guards were pushing their way towards us. I rolled my eyes and lightly smacked Marshall's cheek. "I hate you."

"What's happening?" He asked, struggling to prop himself up on his elbows.

Two big men dressed in all black stormed over us; they reminded me of the cliche, beefy security guards that you usually see in movies. "C'mon. Get up. It's time to go." One of them stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Now, wait a minute-" Marshall tried to protest.

"Shut up." I whispered in his ear.

"No, my actions are justified-"

"They're really not." I stood up and reached out for Marshall to grab my hand. He weakly rose, clutching onto my wrist for support. As soon as he stumbled onto his feet, both of the security guards grabbed our elbows and forcefully escorted us out.

Marshall was wincing with pain the entire time they dragged us, but I didn't feel bad. I couldn't believe what just happened--how did this just happen?

They shoved us out the door, a few smokers having to step back to avoid us. "Wait!" Marshall cried. "I still have a friend in there! Rufus!"

"Make sure he gets home safe, ma'am." One of the men mumbled to me before slipping back through the doors.

Yeah, right. I thought before running over to kick Marshall in his knee.

He screamed in pain and fell to the concrete. A few bystanders started laughing. "What's your problem?!" I shouted. "Who the fuck are you?! Why-"

"This is the second boy I caught you with tonight, Alex." Marshall snarled harshly, holding his knee up to his chest.

"BOTH OF THEM WERE FRIENDS!" I screamed in his face. "I literally caught you cheating, you son of a bitch!"

"I accidentally got beer on my shirt so I took it off!" Marshall shouted. "Jeez, you always assume shit."

"You must think I'm some kind of idiot..." I murmured in disbelief, shocked at what he was trying to tell me. "Bye, Marshall."

"Wait! Okay, technically I was already dating Kim, and you were the-" The small crowd watching us burst into "ooooohhhh shit!"'s.  I took a step back, absolutely mortified. This was worse than the whole club making fun of what I was wearing, I declared. Much worse.

Marshall's face was flustered and red as he tried to think of the correct words to say. "I was gonna break up with her--for you!--and I tried, and well-"

"You fucked." Our audience started spitting insults at Marshall, who was still on the ground. Though he didn't seem to be hearing them, he was just looking at me desperately. I shook my head and raked my fingers through my hair. "Um. Okay. Hope you have fun with Kim, man. I'll, uh, yeah."

I flipped up my hood and walked away, fighting back tears that burned my eyes. Marshall was trying to call out to me, but he was drowned out by the angry mob that watched the incident happen. He was no doubt going to get the shit beat out of him tonight, more than he already did, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get the hell away from here.