Fighting For Life

by Kylie Alyssa Forte

  I let out a joyous laugh. Her joy was contagious. “Good, I’m glad. I like this whole happy thing that you got going on here, it’s refreshing,” I told her as I smiled at her.

  She smiled back at me; a genuinely bright smile. It was going to be a good day.

  ***

  Training went as I expected it to. She went too hard, and I had to remind her to calm down. She was already so good. I just wished that she’d realize that too.

  However, it only got worse when I told her that she’d be fighting Kenny the next day. He was the first of the Elites that she’d be fighting, so she definitely had to win that fight.

  That made her more determined and more reckless with her body. I had to hand it to her. Her pain tolerance was through the roof to be able to do everything that she had. I quickly had to reign her in and remind her of her promise. She was a bit annoyed at that, but I didn’t want her hurting herself.

  It was lunch, and I walked into the cafeteria quickly. I was excited to see Aubry, I just hoped that she wasn’t annoyed at me any longer. She had to realize that it was only because I cared about her that I made her calm down.

  I walked through the doors that were propped open, and my eyes immediately fell onto the brunette-haired beauty. I stopped for a moment to admire her. Her long hair was moving freely and swooshing around with every move she made. Her smile was much brighter and more present than usual, and her clothes seemed to hug to her just a tiny bit tighter. She looked absolutely amazing that day with her newfound attitude and demeanor. It was lovely.

  I could feel a presence next to me suddenly and looked over quickly, trying to school my expression.

  Brandon was standing there, laughing silently at me. “She really has you sprung, doesn’t she?” he asked, making me roll my eyes.

  His eyes were fixed on the girl’s table as well. “I could say the same about you. By the way, we will be having a word about this,” I stated and walked off towards the table, sitting next to Aubry and smiling at her as she returned the smile a bit brighter.

  She obviously was no longer annoyed.

  “Aww, look at the two lovebirds!” my sister cooed at us, making Aubry blush.

  I quickly turned my attention to her and Brandon who had sat down next to her. “I could say the same about you two.”

  Briana’s face quickly went blank.

  “When were you going to tell me, by the way?”

  Aubry placed a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. I took a deep breath and looked at them expectantly.

  Both of them gave me a guilty look and Briana even ducked her head away from me, hiding her face.

  “We’re sorry we didn’t tell you. We just weren’t sure how you would react, so we just kept it under wraps,” Brandon said finally.

  I rolled my eyes. They were right to doubt my reaction, but that didn’t make me any less annoyed. “When did this happen then?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Well . . .” This time, it was Briana who spoke. “It was actually Christmas . . . after you called me out to the “no dads” club thing.”

  Aubry looked at me and tilted her head slightly with a puzzled expression on her face. I guess that would sound funny to anyone who didn’t know, which she definitely didn’t know anything about it, although, it looked like we should have included her in that tradition after all. I simply just shook my head slightly at her, letting her know that I’d explain it later.

  “So . . .” Bri continued. “I was pretty tipsy from the whiskey, you know that I don’t drink very much. After you and Tommy went inside, Brandon and I stayed out there to finish off our drink and to talk a little . . .” She took a pause.

  “Honestly, I made the first move. Something you know that I would never do if I wasn’t drunk, but I did it. He has always been the only person to defend me and care for me for so long, I just couldn’t hold back anymore.” She shrugged and looked down in embarrassment. “I kissed him, and he didn’t kiss me back.” I looked at her in shock. “I was so upset. I thought that it was because I was ugly and weird, but Aiden . . . he was so sweet. He told me that he had thought about kissing me for a long time, and he didn’t want to do it when I was drunk and not knowing what I was doing, so we left it at that.” She smiled at Brandon.

  “We left it alone for a few days . . . then we talked on New Year’s Eve night. Neither one of us had been drinking, and he told me how he felt about me.”

  “Which is . . . ?” I asked.

  “I love her,” Brandon stated with conviction. “I have for a long, long time. She’s meant everything to me for way too long now,” Brandon said with a nod. “This isn’t a game to me, Aiden. I genuinely love her. I always have. She isn’t just another girl to fuck. She never has been. She’s amazing, strong, forgiving, loving, and resilient. Aiden, please understand. I’m not like Ronnie. I really and truly care for her.”

  “Well . . . that explains a lot about the way you’ve treated her throughout the years,” I finally said understanding.

  Aubry snorted at my answer.

  “I don’t like the thought of anyone dating my sister, but if it has to be someone, then I’m glad that it’s you. However, if you hurt her Brandon, I’ll kill you,” I warned.

  I looked at the girl beside me, who was munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that my mom gave her for lunch, and she smiled at me with an, I-told-you-so look on her face.

  “So . . .” Aubry began after she finished the sandwich. “What is this whole ‘no dads’ club thing Bri was speaking about?” she asked with a clearly amused expression on her face.

  “Well . . .” Brandon uttered. “We started it last year on Christmas. Tom, Aiden, and I all don’t have dads for various reasons, so on any big holiday we’d get together and drink in their honor. Now, we all know that we probably should have included you in it on Christmas, but you lied to everyone about your dad, so we didn’t know.”

  Aubry immediately hid her face when he said something about her lying.

  “Hey!” I said warningly to Brandon.

  He looked genuinely remorseful about the words that came out of his mouth.

  “No, it’s fine Aiden . . .” Aubry said, smiling sadly. I wanted to wipe that look off of her face. “It’s true. I did lie to everyone. He has every right to call me out on it, but um . . . I actually have to go anyways.”

  She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I knew that his words cut her deeper than she was letting on. I knew that she felt bad about the whole situation.

  “I’ll see y’all later,” she said, getting up and almost running towards the door.

  I glared at Brandon.

  “I’m sorry! That came out way harsher than it was meant to,” Brandon said with a guilty look on his face.

  “I’m not the one that you need to apologize to.”

  ***

  Aubry

  “So . . . What is this whole ‘no dads’ club thing Bri was speaking about?” It sounded a little weird. But hey, it also sounded like my type of club, one that I belonged to.

  “Well . . .” Brandon uttered slowly. “We started it last year on Christmas. Tom, Aiden, and I all don’t have dads for various reasons, so on any big holiday we’d get together and drink in their honor. Now, we all know that we probably should have included you in it on Christmas, but you lied to everyone about your dad, so we didn’t know.”

  The statement caught me off guard and took the breath out of my lungs. He was right though. I lied to everyone. Heck, I was still lying to everyone. I was an idiot for thinking that I could ever have a family.

  “Hey!” Aiden said, warning Brandon about what he said.

  Why though? It was the truth. I looked down feeling so upset. I felt awful.

  I brushed it off. I just had to get out of there. The walls felt like they were closing in on me and going to crush me.

  As soon as I made it out of the cafeteria, I took off running, feeling like I was about to have a panic attack. Tears began gathering in my eyes, and I had
to get out of that hallway. It was too crowded and constantly had foot traffic. I couldn’t stay there.

  I was about to breakdown. Over what? I didn’t really know, everything was piling up and overwhelming me completely.

  As I ran, I tried not to think. I tried not to breathe. I tried to pretend that I wasn’t even alive.

  Eventually, I ended up on the complete opposite end of school in the mostly abandoned band hall. It was the most deserted hall in school, everyone knew that. It was only active during first and last period as the band kinds made their way into the room for practice. Other than that, it was almost untouched.

  That was common knowledge. The only people who ever went down it were the people who were trying to skip and not get caught or the couples who decided that the restrooms were too gross for them. Why the school never even put cameras up at least was beyond me, then again, it was a public school. They simply didn’t care.

  When I made it to the abandoned hallway, I collapsed down heavily. My heart was thudding wildly in my chest, my breathing was rapid, and I was very dizzy. I was a mess—a complete and total mess.

  As I leaned up against the cold wall, I was bawling my eyes out uncontrollably. I didn’t even know why. What Brandon said was only the truth; it shouldn’t have bothered me so much. It did, though. I was messed-up and constantly lying, lying to the only people who showed any care for me.

  A loud sob left my mouth. I tried to stop it, but another one racked through my body. I was such a screw up!

  I let my tears flow freely and sat there, questioning my existence.

  Why? Why was I even still there?! Why did I let myself stay?

  I stayed like that for far too long. I didn’t want to move or to face reality. I just wanted to disappear.

  A loud laugh echoed through the empty hallway loudly. I whipped my head to the side quickly as soon as I heard the interruption. Why couldn’t everyone just leave me alone?

  “Aw, the sad little bitch got hurt?” a guy with a deep husky voice said loudly with amusement in his voice.

  I sucked in a breath when everyone walked into the abandoned hallway. Five big bulky teenage males walked towards me menacingly—not a good situation for me.

  Of course, James was a part of the stupid five. I sneered at him. “Did Aiden finally realize that you aren’t anything but a prudish bitch?” he said with a glare.

  All of the guys spread out, blocking my only exit—another not good situation.

  My tears were long forgotten, but I stayed on the ground, trying to come up with a plan.

  “Go away, I’m not in a mood to deal with your bullshit.” I glared at all of the guys. I had to smirk when I admired James’s bruised and swollen face. Afterall, I had to appreciate my own handiwork.

  “You stupid little bitch! We have you out numbered. You aren’t getting out of this,” one of the boys, who was much taller than James said, loudly stepping closer to me.

  I quickly pushed myself to the side and got up. He was right though; there was no way I could win against all of them.

  “I can see that you’re a fighter. I mean look at James’s face. I like fighters,” the same tall boy said with a smirk.

  “What exactly are you going to do? Gang rape me in the middle of a school hallway? That would be incredibly stupid even for you idiots.”

  “Maybe . . .” the tall guy said with a sneer. “Do you think that we’d get in trouble? Us? The five of us? Do you think that you’d actually be believed? Yeah right. You’re looking at almost half of the offensive players on the football team,. He laughed loudly. “Plus, look at you and your new reputation as Aiden’s whore. No one would believe a single word you said,” he said, coming close. He pressed his body on me, making me cringe.

  I wanted to throw up as his body touched mine. I swung my fist quickly at him hitting him in the jaw. His face swung to the side, and he grunted. He recovered quickly and grabbed my hair from the back, pressing his body even harder against me.

  “Now, you little bitch, I won’t be gentle!” he said menacingly.

  My eyes widened at his disgusting words. I let my anger overtake me and kneed him hard in the groin, making him let go of me at once and fall to the ground.

  “Aubry?” I heard from quite far away. I ignored it because I was pretty convinced that I was crazy and just hearing things. I figured that I was just looking for a savior. I knew it was in vain. No one ever came to save me. Everyone was in class, far away from me, not even caring about me.

  “Aubry!” I heard once again, making me inhale sharply. It was clearly Aiden’s voice. I almost sobbed in relief.

  Everyone just stared at everyone cautiously until I finally let myself scream for help from Aiden.

  “Aiden!” I screamed loudly, causing one of the boys to tackle me and cover my mouth. I quickly shook his hand off and screamed again, “Aiden!”

  I could hear footsteps running down the perpendicular hallway closer and closer to me. I wiggled away from the boy that had tackled me to try and run out of the small opening that I had. However, I was harshly dragged up by my hair by the tall boy who had done most of the talking. I tried to twist out of his clutch, but he had too tight of a grip on my hair. I could feel the hairs being ripped painfully from my head. I stopped struggling for the time being, and the guy behind me laughed.

  After what seemed like hours, Aiden and Brandon turned the corner. I almost did a happy dance.

  They both took a minute to take in the scene in front of them. The guy with a fistful of my hair, the four other boys that were slightly in front of us on both sides, and then there was me with my eyes red and puffy, my face bruised and tear-stained, and my body stiff and ready to fight. I’m sure it looked like a freak show.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Aiden asked, his voice livid.

  “Ah Aiden, came to join the party?” the guy who was holding me by my hair asked.

  Aiden let out an animalistic growl. “Leave her the fuck alone and let her go, David.”

  “Nah Aiden, I don’t think I will,” he told in an easy-going tone of his. He then moved his hand from my hair and wrapped his arm around me.

  “James is right; you can’t keep a little gem like this one all to yourself. I mean, look at what she did to James over there. Hell, look at my face,” he said, pointing to his jaw where I had hit him. There was a dark bruise still forming on his jaw. “Besides, I think she kind of likes me.”

  He ran his finger down my back and did not stop until he reached my ass. Then, he promptly grabbed a handful of it, making me yelp and elbow him in the ribs. He keeled over a bit, but his grip didn’t falter in the least.

  Aiden’s face darkened drastically as he walked forward to us. One of the other four guys tried to block his path, however, with only one punch from Aiden, the dude was out. He made it to us and got in David’s face.

  “I’m telling you one more time, let her go,” Aiden said roughly.

  “Make me.” David smirked while pulling me closer to him.

  As fast as I could blink, Aiden had David’s hand off of me with one hand while pulling me behind him with the other. As soon as I got my bearings back from the quick manhandling, I saw what was going on. Aiden had David’s arm in an arm lock and was putting a lot of pressure on it.

  “Aiden?” I asked, worried about what he was going to do.

  “Brandon, can you walk Aubry to her class please?” Aiden called, barely looking at me.

  “Aiden, please don’t do anything stupid. I’m no—” I said, but Aiden cut me off quickly.

  “Do not say that you’re not worth it, Aubry. Now go, let me do what I have to do!” Aiden said angrily at me, making me not want to argue.

  Brandon looked at me and shook his head. “Come on, Aub. He’ll be fine.”

  “Aiden . . . please don’t do anything stupid,” I said once again and turned around to face Brandon. He led me out of the screwed-up hallway.

  After we made it quite a ways down the main hallway, I s
topped and looked at Brandon worriedly. “What if they jump him or something? We should go back.”

  Brandon let out a snort and shook his head. “Aiden can beat all of those boys with his eyes closed. Besides, most of them are afraid of him and wouldn’t dare to try and fight him. He’ll be fine, Aub.”

  “But . . . what if he get’s in trouble? I don’t want him to get in trouble because of me.”

  “Aiden doesn’t care, nor do I think that he’s going to get in trouble. No matter what, those guys deserve it. They signed themselves up for a world of pain when they decided to mess with you.”

  I sighed with a nod against my better judgement, and I kept walking.

  It was silent for a few minutes before B turned to me with a serious expression. “Aubry, I’m really sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier. Honestly, I think that I took out a little bit of the frustration that I’ve been feeling over everything on you, which is totally not fair in any capacity and ridiculous. It’s just . . . Aub, we could have helped you. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes. I’m so sorry that I said that like that, though. It wasn’t meant to come out like that.”

  “B, what you said about me lying was true. Don’t apologize for something that is true. I understand your frustration, so don’t feel bad about it. It’s natural, plus, it’s not like you forced me to leave, or anything. it just seems that trouble follows me everywhere I go . . .” I said, trailing off.

  I couldn’t help but feel that I still deserved it, though.

  Brandon shook his head exasperatedly. “Trouble really does follow you, it’s probably ‘cause you’re so little. I mean you’re what . . . ? A hundred pounds, maybe and five foot? You look like you would be easy as hell to take advantage of. However, you sorely prove them wrong . . . every single time.” We stopped right outside of my class. “You’re a fighter, Aub. But . . . You don’t have to fight all by yourself anymore. Aiden, Tommy, and I will be here to help and protect you. You aren’t alone anymore Aubry. You just need to trust us, please?”