“What’s up?”
“We need to have a little chat about Jasmine.”
He gave me a cocky grin, “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“It’s fine dude.”
“Look, I’m talking to as your brother, not just your friend.”
He gave me a look to humor me, “So talk.”
I didn’t want to tell him what happened before I told Sarah, so I decided to stay vague “You know she’s not what she appears to be. You know her history and that we need to stay wary of her. Don’t let the wrong head do the thinking.”
“I told you, I’ve got it under control.” Before I could say anything else he walked away
“God damn it,” I growled.
The rest of the day was spent working on the fence, dinner and then resting. We were all in the living room talking when I caught a glimpse of Michael and Jasmine getting a little too close. I decided that I needed to stop this before it went too far, so I whispered to Sarah, “We need to talk.”
“About last night?” she asked. I nodded. “Ok, what’s going on?” she asked, getting to her feet.
We went to our room, and a lit it with a battery powered lantern. I paced back and forth as she sat on the bed and tried to get my thoughts in order, “Sarah, the first thing I want you to know is that I love you, more than I’ve ever loved anyone. What I’m going to say is going to make you mad, and you’re going to want to react, but I need you to be calm.”
She frowned deeply, “What’s wrong James?”
I sighed, “Two nights ago when I fell asleep in the chair, I was woken up…I was woken up by someone kissing me. First I thought it was you, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t. It was Jasmine and once I realized who it was I put a stop to it. I held her by the throat and told her that she had two options, to either leave me alone or I would choke her until she passed out and I would leave her on the ground. She said she would leave me alone. Then, last night before you came in, she showed up again. I was asleep but woke when I felt someone climb on top of me. I knew it wasn’t you and so I threw her off of me and told her that if she ever tried to do something like that I would have to do something worse than just yell at her and scare her. Now she’s out there flirting with my brother, and he can’t see that he’s making the wrong choices. I wanted to tell you first before I told Michael to warn him.”
She had crossed her arms in the middle of my story and remained silent even after I had finished. After an extremely long moment of silence, she finally spoke, “I’m going to kill that little bitch.” She stood up and tried to make her way past me.
I wrapped my arms around her middle and held her from behind, “Hey, I told you that you needed to stay calm.”
“Why? Why shouldn’t go out there and punch that slut in her face?”
“Because we don’t need to cause a scene, because I can handle this.”
“Fine,” she said after struggling against me and realizing that she couldn’t get away.
I was shocked. I figured that she would have been furious with me and fought tooth and nail to get at Jasmine. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re not mad at me?”
She laughed, actually laughed, “I’m fucking pissed, but not at you.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” I laughed nervously.
“What are you going to do?”
“I haven’t thought about that yet. I was more concerned about telling you and handling the fallout from that.”
“Well, you better start thinking about it, or else I’ll take care of it.”
“I said I’ll handle it.”
“Good, now come on,” she said opening the door.
“Where are we going?”
“To handle this.”
Chapter 22
When we got back out to the living room, I saw that Michael and Jasmine were gone. “Where’d they go?” I asked, gesturing to where the two had been sitting.
“They got up and left a few minutes ago,” said Liz crossing her arms.
“Where?” she pointed towards the girl’s room. I reached the room quickly, but before I even touched the door handle, I saw a dim light from underneath Michael’s old room. No one else would have a reason to even go in there, especially this late at night. I didn’t knock, I just opened the door and found my little brother and Jasmine locked in a rather, personal embrace. They were still clothed, mostly, and I was thankful for that. I pulled Jasmine off of him, and she let out a little scream.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” asked Michael angrily.
“Stopping you from making a big mistake.”
“Dude, I fucking told you…”
“Just stop talking before I hurt you,” I growled. I pulled him up off of the futon by his arm, “Go wait in the hall.”
“James, you're an ass.”
“Hallway. Now,” I barked.
One of the girls, I think it was Hannah poked her head out of the girl’s room and began to ask, “Is everything…” but after she saw the expression on my face, she ducked back inside without another word.
Michael brushed past me, and I turned my attention to Jasmine who was still sitting on the ground. “You really must be stupid. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Me?” she grinned. She actually grinned. “I’m not doing anything really. It’s not like it was all that difficult. I didn’t have to do anything. A smile, a giggle. Easy,” she said confidently.
This got me even angrier than before, “Why?”
She shrugged, “Why not?”
I was ready to wipe her smug little smile off of her face, but I knew that would be the wrong way to handle this. I took a deep breath and turned to Sarah. “Stay with her?”
“Yeah. Where are you going?”
“To talk to Michael.”
“Ok, don’t be too harsh on him.”
“He’ll be lucky if I don’t kill him.”
I stepped out into the hallway where Michael was waiting as I had told him to, “What the hell are you thinking? That was…”
“Come with me,” I said before walking away and preventing him from saying another word. I walked into the living room and waited for Michael to join me. There were still a few people in the room. “Could you give us some privacy?” I asked them.
“Sure James,” said Thomas before limping out and taking everyone with him.
I paced back in forth of Michael, trying to keep my temper in check. After giving up on trying to form a logical argument I asked, “What were you thinking? You know who she is. You know who she’s been with. You were supposed to think.” I realized that I was raising my voice and I brought it back under control. “I don’t know who you think she is or who you are but…”
“Me?” he yelled back, “Who I think I am? You’re the one who’s acting like someone else.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? I’m…”
“You’re not dad,” he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.
I think I actually took a step back. That simple remark felt like he had punched me in the stomach without any warning. After regaining my composure, I said, “Is that what you think I’m trying to do? Be like dad? Act like him?”
“Yeah pretty much.”
“Well, you’re wrong. All I’m trying to do is keep you from getting fucked over. I’m trying to watch out for you.”
“I’m fine,” he said folding his arms.
“No, you’re not. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh and I suppose you do. Listen, just because you’ve been lucky doesn’t mean you know…”
“She’s using you,” I interrupted.
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s using you. She pretty much admitted it after you left the room.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No, she’s not.”
“Sh
e came after me too you idiot. I woke up to her kissing me one night. Then the next night she climbed on top of me while I was sleeping. I refused her advances and threw her off. I think that’s when she came after you.”
“You’re so full of shit.”
“What? Michael…”
“You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie about this?”
“You’re jealous.”
I laughed, “What? What would I have to be jealous over?”
“You can’t stand that the pretty new girl went after your little brother and not you.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I have the best girl I could dream of. Why would I wasn’t some slut like Jasmine?” That got him. He finally lost his cool and charged me. I wasn’t ready for it, but I was able to prevent myself from falling backward. He wrapped his arms around my back as he hammered his head into my middle. I felt the air leave my lungs in a rush but recovered quickly. I grasped my hands and formed them into a ball, bringing the solid mass down onto his back. This caused enough pain to force him to let go. “You need to calm down,” I said panting, trying to get my breath back.
“Go to hell.”
“You don’t want to do this. Not over her.”
“You don’t know what I want,” he snarled.
“This is a bad idea,” I told him calmly.
“Yeah well, according to you those are the only kind of ideas I have.” He came at me again. I was ready for him this time. He didn’t try to punch me, which would have put him too close to me. Instead, he tried a kick to the head. He pivoted on his left leg and used his forward momentum to bring his right leg around in a roundhouse kick. I caught his leg in both my hands and moved inside his guard. I swept his other leg out from underneath him, sending him hard to the ground.
“Chill out,” I said, his leg still in my grasp I put a foot on his chest.
“Let me go,” he yelled.
I moved my foot to his throat, “You need to keep it down. You’re going to wake the whole house.” Instead of grasping at my leg or ankle he punched the inside of my thigh. “Ah fuck,” I said as I fell to my knee. Up until now, I had been trying to get him under control without hurting him too much, but now I wasn’t going to play around anymore. “Look you little shit. I’m trying to help you but if that’s the way you want to do this, fine.” I said getting to my feet. He rose as well, and I moved in to finish his little tantrum. I feinted with a right hook and struck him square in the side of the head with my left. He grunted in pain and stumbled back. “You want to act like a man? Then fight like one.” Failing to learn from his past, came after me again. He was angry, not thinking, and that made him sloppy. He swung at me, and I sidestepped, tripping him and sending him back to the ground. “Come on, get up. You want to choose her over me then you’re going to have to do a lot better than that.” He pounded his fist on the ground and got to his feet. As soon as he got close enough, I blocked his jab and returned with one of my own, nailing him in the jaw. He roared in anger and came at me again. “You’re making a mistake,” I yelled at him. “Michael, think about it,” I said deflecting him to the side again, “Have I ever lied to you? Ever?”
He came at me, fist raised, and I watched as all anger bled out of his face, my comment piercing his guard and doing more damage than my fist ever could. He let his hand drop limply to his side “No,” he said so quiet it was almost a whisper, “No you haven’t.” He looked sad, embarrassed and ashamed at the way he acted. “I’m sorry James. Man, I’m so fucking sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t listen.”
“You just weren’t thinking,” I said taking him into a hug. I became aware of the eyes on us. A large portion of the house was gathered around watching.
He hung his head and shook it slowly, “She just…I don’t know, made me feel good again.”
“I know,” I nodded.
I let go of Michael, and he asked, “What now?”
“Well we still have a little problem to deal with,” I said quietly.
“Ok,” he nodded.
“Um guys,” Liz interrupted, “What’s going on?”
I sighed and tried to think of the best way to tell them, and all I could think of was to just tell the truth. “I’ve been lying to you, to all of you. Well, I guess it wasn’t really lying,” I said lamely, “I’ve just been keeping some key facts from you. That day we found Jasmine…” And I told them everything. How Michael knew who she was, who she hung out with, my decision to keep an eye on her, to keep the truth from them. Then I told them what Jasmine had been up to the last couple of days and what she had just been doing and how Sarah was watching her now.
I expected them to get mad, maybe tell me they felt betrayed or that I couldn’t be trusted. Any number of things but I certainly didn’t expect what actually happened. Liz, who had previously been sitting silently on the couch, shot up and snarled, “That bitch.” Before I knew it, she was halfway to where Jasmine was being kept. The next thing I heard was the crack of a slap and the yells that followed it. I ran towards the sound and found a shocking scene. Liz was slapping the shit out of Jasmine. My first thought wasn’t to stop it or pull her off of her but rather, Terrible form. I taught her better than that. Sarah simply stood by, watching and trying to hide the smile that was determined to make an appearance. When the fighting deteriorated to hair pulling, I decided to end it. I picked Liz up off of Jasmine and set her on the futon. I had to stop her as she jumped to her feet to get right back at Jasmine and told her “Stop. Now. I’ll handle this” She looked like she wanted nothing more than to go through me to get at her, but she stood quietly. She didn’t calm down, but she didn’t attack either. “Stand up Jasmine,” she stood shakily, and I took a look at her. Her face was covered in dozens of small scratches, each creating a thin red line. Her hair was messed, and she had several red marks from the slaps she received. All in all, she was fine other than the shock of being attacked. “You’ll live,” I said glaring at her before turning to look at Liz.
I wasn’t sure if I had heard correctly, but I think she mumbled something like, “You won’t,” before two things happened very quickly. The first was that Jasmine came at me with a knife, aiming to stab me in the back. The second was Liz sending a perfectly aimed punch directly at Jasmine’s nose. It was all over before I had the chance to turn around. Jasmine was crumpled on the ground, bleeding and holding the knife. Where she was hiding the knife, I have no clue, but she must have been able to get a hold of it sometime during the struggle. I looked at Liz who was breathing heavily “Now that’s more like I showed you.” Her glare melted away, and she laughed nervously. I smiled before turning back to the heap on the ground. “Tie her up, throw her in the laundry room and lock the door. We’ll deal with her in the morning,” I said to Jason who was standing just outside the door, mouth open wide. “And make sure to stop the bleeding, I don’t want to have to clean up a mess.” I brushed past them without another word and headed to my room. I could hear some congratulate Liz on laying out Jasmine and others ask to be told what happened. I was in no mood for questions, I just wanted to sleep and forget that Jasmine ever entered our lives. I was also cursing myself for being so careless, dropping my guard and nearly getting stabbed in the back. I was suddenly angry, I had killed dozens of Walkers, even more, armed men, I’d almost died too many times to count doing things that most people wouldn’t believe, and I almost died because some crazy chick tried to stab me in the fucking back. I let out a cold laugh, it was just too funny.
I was sitting on the bed when Sarah came in, “Hey, you ok?”
I laughed again, “Yeah, I’m just fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Some crazy bitch just tried to kill me, why wouldn’t I be fine?” I chuckled.
“That’s not funny James.”
“But it is true.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Right now I’m going to go to bed.”
“You know what I mean. What are you go
ing to do about her?”
“I don’t know yet. What should I do?”
“I’m not the one to make that decision.”
“Why not? Just this one time, tell me what to do”.
“I can’t.”
“And why not?”
“Because I’m not the one that everyone looks to. I’m not the one that’s had to make all the decisions. You are. You’re the leader, so it’s up to you.”
I laughed bitterly “Leader. Some leader I am. Ok, whatever you say.”
“James…”
“No, no you’re right. I’ll handle it tomorrow,” I said taking off my boots, “Can I just sleep for now? Just for a little while?”
She smiled sadly, “Of course you can,” she said sitting next to me and hugging me.
I finished changing and climbed into bed, Sarah following my lead. “Everything’s going to be ok,” she said quietly.
“You know, I remember a time when I was the one telling you that.”
She put her head on my chest and smiled, “I remember that.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Of course, I do.”
“How could you? You were passed out in my arms.”
“I heard you, or at least I think I heard you. I remember falling and being scared and then I felt calm like everything really would be ok.”
“That was probably just a side effect of being unconscious.”
“If you say so,” I heard her say quietly, she was falling asleep.
I closed my eyes and held her in the dark. I didn’t have many thoughts before I too fell asleep. I was woken up by an odd sound. It was scratching at the door. Sarah had shifted in the night and was no longer sleeping on top of me. I got to my feet and opened the door, muttering “What now?” Standing in the hallway was Bear. “Bear, what the hell man?” Once he saw that the door was open and that he had my attention, he walked away. After a second he returned and let out a low growl, giving me the feeling that he wanted me to follow him. Bear led me to the laundry room where the doorknob was being twisted and pulled uselessly. The rope holding the door was strong, and the knots were tied tight. Bear walked up to the door and growled loudly. The pushing and shoving stopped. Smart dog, I thought before kneeling down and petting him “Good boy,” I whispered. Bear’s tailed wagged vigorously before he went and lay down next to the door, growling whenever Jasmine made a noise. I smiled and decided to go back to bed, Bear had everything under control. Back in bed, I tried to go back to sleep, but thoughts of Jasmine wouldn’t let me rest. I wondered how I would deal with her. I didn’t want to kill her even though she tried to stab me in the back. It made me angry, but everyone seemed to be trying to kill me now, so I was used to it. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I was sure that she couldn’t stay here. She represented a threat to not only me but the rest of the group, besides if she did stay she would probably get her ass beat by someone in the group and I had no intentions of protecting her.
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 27