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It was bad enough I couldn’t stop reminding myself that Maddox had kissed me, but I couldn’t stop remembering every single detail of that kiss. The way he’d smelled, tasted, felt. The way he’d made me feel… at least before he’d turned his back on me. Well, in truth, I was also remembering the humiliation after he’d walked away too.
I’d read way more into that kiss than I should have.
The man had just been frustrated and pissed and he’d wanted to send me a message. I’d tossed that cruel barb at him about walking away and using his brother and he’d wanted to punish me for it.
God, what a mess.
It was just another reason to leave Pelican Bay.
It would be even harder now to avoid the man at the sanctuary. I’d done an okay job of it the past few days, but it’d taken a lot of effort.
“Those holes in your ears make you hard of hearing, freak?”
I sighed at the pathetic barb. God, bullies weren’t even unique anymore. I stopped suddenly and swung around, surprising my would-be tormenters who nearly slammed into me at the move. Clearly, they’d been hoping to confront me in the privacy of the alley while I was trying to make my escape.
“Okay, what’s the plan here?” I asked tiredly as I scanned the men in front of me. There were four of them. Three were just a few feet from me, but a fourth who looked a little younger than the rest was standing back a bit, looking particularly uncomfortable. I dismissed him as nothing more than a follower and studied the other three. The one directly in front of me was definitely the leader. His pinched expression and triumphant smirk told me as much, not to mention the other two kept looking to him as if waiting to see what he’d do. The leader was older than me, maybe early thirties. In addition to needing some serious fashion advice, he also looked like he needed to lay off whatever artificial substance he used to escape the world.
Based on the smell of pot wafting off him, my guess was that he preferred drugs to alcohol to escape whatever shitty life he led. He was tall but scrawny and had greasy long hair and yellow teeth. His friends looked a little more average, though I suspected with how wide their eyes were and how they couldn’t stand still for even a second, they were indulging in the same shit, just not as heavily. The fourth guy, the quiet one, just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
“Is it just the names thing or are you going to threaten me with a beatdown or actually give me a beatdown?” I sniped. “Because I’ve got stuff to do and frankly, I don’t think your little town here wants the blood of some random fag lining their pretty little sidewalks because some redneck wannabe couldn’t figure out a better way to hide his homosexual tendencies.”
The leader’s face fell in surprise, then quickly grew red. He reached out to grab me by the collar of my shirt and slammed me up against the wall of the building next to his. The move caused my cheek and temple to scrape the brick and while it hurt, it fortunately didn’t disorient me. The man’s fist came back and I steeled myself for the blow, hoping it didn’t knock me on my ass, because that would make it so much harder to come up with a good comeback. But before he could let the punch fly, the quiet man from his group grabbed his arm.
“Jimmy, let’s just go!” the man said, his voice thick with fear. “Mom’s waiting.”
“Shut the fuck up,” the guy, Jimmy, snapped and shoved the other man hard. He hit the ground.
Neither of the other men made a move to help him up, but one blurted out, “Jimmy, your bail—”
“Shut up!” Jimmy bit out. His free hand was around my throat and while he wasn’t cutting off my airway, his hold was forceful enough that I’d probably end up with bruises. Jimmy’s dark eyes landed on me as he pulled back his arm, but I spoke before he could take the swing.
“You’re Jimmy Cornell, aren’t you?” I said. “You’re the asshole who attacked Gentry,” I added. “Takes a big man to prey on helpless animals who can’t fight back. Or queers half your size.”
Jimmy’s face got even redder, but I didn’t care. I had a lifetime of dealing with the Jimmy Cornells of the world under my belt. Besides the manhandling he was doing by holding me against the wall like he was, I doubted he’d do more, and even if he did throw a few punches, it wasn’t like I was a stranger to that shit. But if I backed down now, this guy would be coming after me every time he saw me.
