They Don't Know About Us (BWWM)

Chapter 2

Even after the girls finished up their burgers, the rain continued to pour outside, thunder and lightning seeming to shake the restaurant as the storm raged on. They gazed out of the glass door at the downpour, a displeased look adorning all of their faces. By the time they finished up eating, the sun had set, casting darkness onto the city, faint lights shining from nearby street lights.

"Well, I have a meeting to get to, so I have to brave this," Jackie sighed out, refusing to ruin her perfect attendance streak for her club meetings. She shifted her leggings farther up on her hips, preparing to make a mad dash back to campus.

"So much for getting my hair done," Stephanie muttered as she brushed her dark brown hair back behind her bare shoulders.

Ava grabbed the door handle, counted everyone down, and then flung the door open. She ran out into the rain, immediately feeling her clothes get soaked. She darted along the sidewalk in front of the other girls, the streetlights blurring from the rain and making it hard to see.

"Cut into that alley!" Jackie shouted through the loud pounding of the rain, pointing to an opening through two buildings up ahead as they ran down the sidewalk.

Ava slowed down to head into the alleyway, keeping close to the brick wall of the building to hide beneath its small awning. She leaned her head back against the wall, panting quickly to catch her breath as her friends huddled beside her. She felt calm until she heard a sharp groan farther down the alleyway, prompting her eyes to the side just to see a man wearing a dark cap taking a sharp punch to the stomach by a man wearing a black hoodie. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest as she started to back away toward where she just came from, her eyes widening as she watched the tall man in the hoodie land blow after blow on the other helpless person.

The man with the cap eventually crumbled to the ground, completely giving up and just trying to protect his face as more punches and rain thundered down on him.

"Let's go!" Jackie urged Stephanie and Ava, her voice trembling some as she turned on her heel and darted out of the alleyway with Stephanie right behind her.

Her shout caught the man in the hoodie's attention, prompting him to glance up just as lightning crackled across the sky, lighting up his face for a second as he noticed Ava still standing in the alley.

Ava felt frozen in place for a second, her mind begging her to move, but the fear and shock stilled her. Through the lightning, she caught some of the man's features, like the fair color of his skin and the sharpness of his jawline. It was a face that she would never forget, but she knew better than to keep staring at him. Breaking free from her anxiety enough to move, she ran back out of the alley and into the rain, hurriedly making her way across the street to catch up with Jackie and Stephanie. Even if she was across the street from the man, she kept pushing herself to run all the way back to the dorm, not wanting to risk the chance of the man coming for them after he finished with the man wearing the cap.

"What in the world was that?" Stephanie gasped out once they shut the dorm room door behind them, the sound of heavy breathing filling the room as they recovered from running so hard and so fast.

"He just kept hitting him and hitting him," Ava murmured as she grabbed a towel from the bathroom to gently pat dry her hair, her head shaking in disbelief at what she had just witnessed. She had never seen an actual fight before in person, and it was way more intense than she had ever imagined it to be. She couldn't believe how harsh the man in the hoodie had been to the other person. She couldn't help but wonder what made him so upset to do all of that.

"Cap guy must have messed up big time," Jackie sighed out as she kicked off her wet shoes, goosebumps erupting over her skin as the air conditioner continued to run in the dorm. She headed into the bathroom to change out of her soaked workout clothes into casual clothes that were dry and warm.