The Peacemaker

Chapter 4: Mondays

"Hey girly, where you headed?" His words slur together and it takes me a moment to decipher. I glance around for an exit, or a weapon. Seeing none, I glance to the door behind him praying for Mr. Hero to walk through it but I can hear the all familiar chant of "fight, fight, fight" and I know I am on my own.

The guy takes another step forward and I step back,into a car. Crap. I've cornered myself. He takes another step, and now I can smell his nasty cigarette breath.

"Come on, baby. Let's have some fun." He grabs my neck leaning into me and I bring my knee up into his groin as hard as I can. His reaction wasn't near as staggering as I had hoped.

"Fucking bitch!" He yelled, and then pain exploded on the side of my head. I fell to the ground throwing my arms over my head. He brought back his leg, preparing to kick and I realized he is wearing shorts. A brilliant (or seemed to be at the time) idea struck me. When his foot struck my stomach, I welcomed it with open arms.Literally. As soon as it connected I grabbed on and sunk my teeth into his calf.

This time I got more of the reaction I was looking for. He started shouting in a Spanish dialect that I didn't recognize, but I knew a few of the words and none of them were nice. A few of his buddies heard the screams and came to see what was up. I decided to run. I headed toward the house, hoping to lead them away from Aria passed out by her car. I was about to jump up the steps and through the door when someone came crashing out of it, knocking me over.

Ryder ended up on my leg as he cussed out Joshua standing in the doorway. My hero had arrived. I didn't even care that he just bowled me over with another human.

Concern covered his face when he saw me, blood covering my mouth. "Oh man, are you alright? I'm so sorry." He ran to me taking my face in his hands inspecting me closely. Too close dude, my heart can't take this.

"Uh, I'm fine. It's not my blood."

He looks confused for a moment then sees the three jersey clad gang members behind me, one of them missing a rather large chunk of his right calf and laughs. He helps me stand and then faces the guys behind me.

"I think the lady has given you her answer,gentleman. Why don't you just go inside and enjoy the rest of the party."

They whisper to each other for a moment then begin slapping each other on the chest. "She ain't worth it anyway."

Monday, yay. I walk to my locker and pull it open then lay my head on the shelf. I bet I could probably just sleep here. Think anyone would notice? The first bell rings. I force myself to grab the books I need for class, and the one that I will actually be reading, "Shadow Demon Chronicles", book two.

My heart stops as I am startled by a figure standing beside me when I close my locker. He must have had his nose right upon the door to be that close.

"Holy mother of pearl! Don't do that!" I punch Joshua lightly in the chest. Wow, he has a hard body... and now I'm blushing.

He smirks. I bite my lip to keep from gasping and his eyes gaze down at my mouth. Yeah, that's going to make me less red.

"I was thinking we could work on the project today after school at my place if your parents don't mind."

"Why would they mind? They're already planning our wedding." Wait, what? Why did I just blurt that out? I mean, they kind of are but did I have to say it out loud? Mother trucking mouth speaking before I'm ready!