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“Where are you going?” The guy moves forward. “Why do you look so scared? I’m not going to bite.”
His friends behind him laugh. My hand clenches into a fist.
“I have to go,” Jodie tells him in a shaky voice. “I…”
“Don’t go.” He grabs her arm. “Let’s have some fun.”
I step forward and wrench her arm away from the jerk’s hand. “She said no.”
I emphasize every syllable as I meet his gaze squarely. He laughs.
Jodie tugs my arm and whispers in my ear. “Let’s go, Antonio. Let’s go back inside.”
I let her lead me away but stop when the asshole starts talking again.
“Where are you going, kid?”
Kid?
“What? Haven’t grown your balls yet?”
My jaw clenches. My blood boils.
Jodie squeezes my hand. “Antonio.”
“I saw her first, you know, so you might as well let me have fun with her. You look like you wouldn’t know what to do with her anyway. Why don’t you just go home to your mother? Maybe she’ll let you suck…”
I turn and send my fist up against his chin. I know Andrea warned me not to use the stuff he’s taught me to get into fights. I know my mom will get mad when she finds out I punched someone. I know Antonio will be horrified. I know Jodie’s upset. None of that matters.
I’m not going to pick fights, but I’ll be damned if I let some piece of trash just walk all over me.
He stumbles back a step from my blow and rubs his chin, but then he glares and attacks. I avoid his fist but he grabs my arm and pushes me towards the edge of the pool. I grab his shirt and pull him into the water.
The water is cold. And heavy. It wraps around my arms and legs like a thick shawl, weighing me down, making it hard for me to move. Every breath becomes a struggle. Still, I don’t let go of the bastard.
I’m not going to lose, not to him or to the water. But what do I do? Think, Leo. What would Andrea do? What would Cain do?
I feel something hard brush against my arm. A chain. It’s the one hanging around the other guy’s neck. I grab it and pull him close. I grab his belt as well and send my knee into his crotch. Then when he lets go of me, I get his own hand, which is covered in silver rings, and send it smashing against his face.
I don’t hear any sound. No crack of bones. No yelp of pain. But as he goes still, I know I’ve won.
I propel myself to the surface to get a gulp of much needed air. As I swim towards the edge, I hear splashes behind me from people trying to help the other guy. His friends, probably. As for me, no one even helps me out of the pool.
I guess everyone thinks I’m the bad guy again.
Even Jodie is giving me a look of disappointment as I lift myself over the edge of the pool. When I try to walk towards her, she walks off. I take off my drenched shoes and carry them in my hands as I run after her, ignoring my heavy, dripping clothes and the chill seeping into my skin.
“Hey.” I grab her wrist when I’ve caught up to her.
She pulls her arm away as she turns to face me with a glare. “You’re not Antonio, are you?”
I touch the spot on my forehead where my fake scar should be. Shit. Did it come off?
“Antonio would never get into a fight,” Jodie says. “And he would never kiss me like you just did, without asking for permission. Which means only one thing. You’re not Antonio. You’re – ”
“Leo?”
Jodie goes silent and pale at the sound of Antonio’s voice. I meet his gaze over her shoulder and grin.
“Buonasera, Antonio.”
“Leo, what on earth?” Antonio walks over to me and looks at my drenched clothes in horror. “What were you doing?”
“Just swimming,” I answer as I run a hand through my dripping hair.
“Yeah, right.” Jodie snorts.
Antonio looks at her. “Jodie?”
“Your twin brother here had a fight with someone,” Jodie explains. “They fell into the pool.”
Antonio looks past me towards the pool. I, too, turn my head and see the other guy lying on the grass. Someone seems to be performing CPR on him. I can tell Antonio wants to do it himself.
I tap his arm. “He’ll be fine.”
Sure enough, a few seconds later, I hear coughing and gasping for air.
I shrug. “See?”
He grabs my arm. “You think this is amusing, do you? You could have killed a man.”
I give him another grin. “Wouldn’t Dad be proud?”
For a moment, his eyes narrow and I think that I might finally see him lose his temper in public or receive a blow from his fist. But he closes his eyes, draws a deep breath.
