“You really want to play little boy?” Kingston growls out, squaring up to my little brother without seeming to give an ounce of a shit that he’s three years younger than him and just a portion of his size.
“No, he doesn’t. Leave him alone, Kingston. Qi, let’s just go home.”
I grab Qi’s arm and steer him away from Kingston and back towards the mouth of the little alley we’re in so we can leave.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, Qiang,” Kingston says tauntingly, and I know he’s baiting Qi.
He couldn’t just let the hit go; my little brother hurt his pride, and Kingston isn’t going to be happy unless he gets his pound of flesh. I’ve seen him act like this on the field during football games, but I didn’t realize it was a flaw that carried itself off the field as well.
Qi pulls his elbow out of my grasp and squares off with Kingston. “You will stay the fuck away from Qiang,” he deadpans without a trace of fear in his eyes.
“You mean like this?” Kingston asks in a deadly voice that has chills racing down my spine before his hand snaps out and pushes me roughly to the ground.
The shock of the fall takes my breath away, and it takes a moment or two for my head to catch back up, but when it does, it’s too late.
The chance to get Qi out of this situation falls to dust when he races forward and connects his foot with Kingston’s jaw. A cacophony of grunts and cries of pain pierce the evening air while the two end up in a tangle of arms and legs.
Qi cries out in pain, and it snaps me out of my shock and propels me to try to interject between them. I need to get Qi away from this menace before it’s too late.
And then everything shifts. I’m not a fighter; I’ve never even come close to raising my hands to another person, so I don’t recognize the flurry of movements beyond the gut-wrenching queasiness of violence and pain.
What Idoknow is there’s blood, and most of it is coming from Kingston. Qi is straddled over him, screaming in a voice that I’ve never heard before, a hysteria that sounds like he’s mentally checked out, while pummeling his fists into Kingston’s face.
Kingston’s arms are raised weakly against the onslaught until they drop completely. Regardless of Kingston’s weakened state, Qi’s not stopping the flurry of blows.
“Qi, stop. It’s enough,” I try to reason with him as his demeanor cracks from one of anger to one of tears and frustration.
My heart cracks because it’s all for me. Qi is as zealously protective of me as I’ve always been over him. He’s warned me time and time again about Kingston, and instead of listening, I rationalized it away, and by doing so, everything Qi was afraid would happen has happened. The trauma isn’t just mine; it’s his too, and I need to get him out of here now.
Dodging the punches as best I can, I shake him out of his stupor before he causes too much damage. Kingston is reduced to quiet whimpers of pain by the time I finally wrench Qi off of him.
“I told you he was bad. I won’t let him hurt you anymore,” Qi cries, his hysteria calming down and being replaced with tears as he sobs into my shoulder.
“No more, it’s over now,” I pat his head as my eyes snag on the three cameras in the area, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this moment is going to have some serious consequences.
For now, I grab Kingston’s phone and, using his finger to unlock it, I place a quick call to the authorities to have him picked up before dropping it back down and getting Qi out of that alleyway and back to safety.
What might have been a final warning has now turned into the calm before the next storm. But it’s not Qi’s fault. He warned me repeatedly, and I didn’t listen. It’smyfault, and now it’smyturn to protect him, just as he didn’t hesitate to step in and protect me.
KNEE-JERK
Qiang’s POV
Back to the present
There’s a painful hitch where my throat is throbbing around a breath that’s caught in it, pulling me out of some of my cruelest memories.
Next time I turn to scan a classroom, I’m going to turn theentireway around to make sure there aren’t any unwelcome phantoms from my past lurking just outside my peripherals—just full-onExorcist-twist that shit.
For now, it’s too fucking late, so I stare straight ahead, trying desperately to master complete control over my body while my brain fractures and spirals out of control.
How the fuck is he here?Whythe fuck is he here?Everything inside of me is hinged somewhere between shutting down and screaming for me to run. Neither option is feasible; I absolutelycannotlet him see the damage he’s done.
As if to apologize for the cruelty it just dropped in the seat behind me, the universe offers me the greatest gift it could in this moment by having the professor dismiss the class and granting me the perfect excuse to get the fuck out of here.
Completely ignoring the voice behind me, hoping he assumes I just didn’t hear him–which is of course completely impossible because he said it right in my ear–I grab my stuff as quickly as I can.
I stand up to throw my bag over my shoulder and turn to leave when his hand wraps firmly around my wrist and holds me there. My skin recoils at the foreign, yet completely familiar touch, and my stomach clenches with painful memories.
