Devon Hartford - Reckless

Jake chuckled.

“Will do,” I grinned. “But don’t wait around. Go find some eligible bachelors. I’m sure there’s some around San Diego somewhere.”

They waved after climbing into their Audi, then drove off.

Me and Jake turned around on the dark city sidewalk and headed back to my Camaro. At the end of the block we ran right into Hunter and his boys.

“Fuck, Hunter,” I smiled casually, “how long have you been waiting for us?” I laughed. “We were in Hooters for three hours. You must want a beating real bad.”

Hunter ground his jaw and curled his lips over his teeth.

“Dude,” Jake said calmly, “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

I knew what Jake was thinking. My trial. Me out on bail. If there was the slightest chance of cops driving by, or Hunter crawling to the cops after getting his ass beat, I was in for a good reaming. Bail revoked. Sitting in jail until trial. The new charges I would get for pounding Hunter would be further evidence used against me in my pending trial.

Jake had a point.

“I knew you were a pussy,” Hunter sneered.

I smirked at him. “I thought I taught you a lesson the other day, Hunter.” The question was, did I need to give him the graduate course on why he should not fuck with me? And would I stop myself before I murdered him? Fuck it. He deserved a full-ride scholarship. I was tired of his shit. “I’ll give you a free swing. Go for it, Hunter.”

I stood tall, waiting.

Hunter glanced at his buddies. They nodded. They were ready to rumble. His buddies were pretty big. Thick-necked gym rats. One of them was busy cracking his knuckles while making fists. Another lowered his center of gravity into a crouch. He maybe knew what he was doing.

Did Hunter?

“Throw it, bitch,” I said.

Hunter was considering.

I knew Jake was down. He turned to a forty-five degree angle facing the other guys. Fighting stance. He shook his arms loosely and cross-stepped to the side, lining himself up so that Hunter’s second buddy, the one beside him, blocked the path of the third guy behind him. It would give Jake more time to take down the second guy before the third guy in back could get at him.

That left me with Hunter and the fourth guy.

“Are we cracking heads?” Jake asked me quietly. It was his way of saying he had my back while giving me a final chance to walk away from this bullshit. He didn’t really care what we did. But we both knew the wisest path to tread in this situation.

Fuck wisdom.

“I’ll let Hunter make that call,” I grunted.

I watched Hunter swallow hard.

This bomb was about to go off.

I glared at Hunter. There was no way I was going to throw the first punch.

Please, I thought to myself, let me take you out. Please, come on, please.

Hunter was psyching himself up.

Shit, was this going to take all week? I was ready yesterday.

Hunter dropped into a boxer’s stance and fainted left with a jab a split-second later. I saw where this was going. Wrong move. His torso twisted as his shoulder tensed to deliver a hard right.

Too slow. I snapped forward on the balls of my feet and slapped his lead hand down before he launched his fist. The backs of my knuckles crashed down on his nose. At the same time, the toe of my boot slammed into his shin. Boxers never expected a simultaneous strike to come from that low. Their nervous systems weren’t accustomed to dealing with a low attack when their hands were busy.

Hunter tumbled to the ground, shocked. He was on his ass, staring up at me wide-eyed. He probably wasn’t even hurt. But he would have a bloody nose in about five seconds.

“Who’s next?” I asked calmly.

Jake laughed and glared at Hunter’s three pals. “Any time, ladies.”

Hunter’s buddies stared at me and Jake like antelopes staring down the barrel of a lion. They knew they were outclassed. The two smaller ones picked Hunter up by the arms.

“Let’s go,” Hunter grunted, pulling free from his friend’s helping hands, as if their grips were acid. He wiped his forearm under his nose, smearing blood.

“Better get that shit looked at,” I said. With any luck, I hadn’t actually broken his nose. I couldn’t tell in this light.

Fuck, I hoped he didn’t call the cops.

Was he that much of a pussy?

Only time would tell.

SAMANTHA

In the morning, I texted Christos, just to make sure he was all right.

I started to worry when I hadn’t heard back from him after I had breakfast, but I had to get to campus for classes. I finally received a text from him during Sociology 2.

Late night with Jake. Just woke up. Sorry. I love you. Talk tonight?

I replied, Dinner at my apartment?

I’ll be there. What time? he replied.

7pm?

Ok. I’ll bring food. ILY

ILY2 <3 <3 <3

I put my phone away and did my best to focus on the lecture. Knowing Christos was all right, I actually managed to take decent notes for once, and not just waste class time doodling in my sketchbook.

I met Madison for lunch at the Student Center after class. We got in line to get Mexican food.

“Do you and Christos have any plans for Valentine’s Day?” Madison asked while we waited to order food.

“Oh, I don’t know. I hadn’t asked him,” I said taken off guard. I hadn’t even thought about it.

“How can you not have Valentine’s plans?” Madison goggled. “I’ve been bugging Jake about it for three weeks! He keeps putting me off by saying it’s a surprise. I think that’s guy code for ‘I haven’t thought of anything yet.’”

“Totally,” I smiled.

“So, do you think Christos is planning something?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been so worried about my parents…” I stopped myself. I hadn’t told her about their freak out, and I really didn’t feel like going into it.

“What about your parents?” Madison probed. “Are they okay? Did something happen to them?”

“No, it’s nothing. Just the usual petty parental annoyances,” I said nervously.

“Ok, girlfriend, you’re holding out on me. I can tell. What’s going on? Is there something I should know?”

I grinned at Madison. I shrugged.

“Tell me, Sam! I’m on a need-to-know basis. As your BFF, I demand to know.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Ah…” I smiled nervously.

She arched an eyebrow. “Sam?”

“Fine,” I grimaced reluctantly, “I told them about moving in with Christos and they freaked—”

“What?! You never told me about moving in with Christos!”

I hadn’t. My life had become so crazy, I was barely keeping my best friends in the loop anymore. Romeo didn’t know either, and Kamiko probably didn’t want to know. “Sorry, Mads. I was afraid I’d jinx things if I talked about it before it actually happened,” I said sheepishly.

Madison swallowed me in a huge hug. “That’s awesome, Sam! I’m so happy for you!” She was jumping up and down with her arms around me while we waited in line.

I couldn’t help myself, I started jumping with her, overtaken by her enthusiasm.

People stared at us like we were crazy teenagers, which we basically were.

I started giggling. “It’s pretty awesome.”

Slowly, we stopped jumping.

Madison asked, “Are you guys getting an apartment, or what?”

“No, the plan is for me to move into his house, with him and his grandfather.” I used the word “plan” because everything was still so up in the air. I really hoped I wasn’t jinxing myself talking about it.