by Tessi, Zoya
Ugh... that’s disgusting.
Alex smiled, put an arm around her and looked over at me as he planted a kiss on her slender neck. I quickly turned my head and tried to discard the twinge of jealousy I felt, burying my face in Paolo’s shoulder. Closing my eyes I imagined being a normal girl who had no need for secrets or bodyguards, without hitmen out to get her, or death waiting around every dark corner.
The song ended and Paolo guided me back towards the bar, supporting my arm so that I didn’t fall. My head was spinning and my feet were killing me in my heels, so I was really looking forward to sitting down again. We were only a few steps away from our place at the bar when Tyler appeared in our way, traces of red lipstick on his face.
“Sasha... You look great... as always,” he smiled in the irresistible way he had and I felt a falling sensation in the pit of my stomach.
“Tyler... You make me sick.”
When he heard my words the sweet smile quickly faded from his features, morphing into a rather twisted scowl, which didn’t suit him at all. In a single motion he shoved Paolo out of the way, almost knocking him to the floor in the process, and grabbed me by the arm.
“You won’t talk to me like that!”
“Ty!” I cried out and tried to wriggle free, but his grip only tightened so that my arm started to hurt.
In a flash the pain was gone. As was Tyler who was suddenly eclipsed by a pair of broad shoulders dressed in black.
“So, we meet again, pretty boy...”
I changed my position slightly, to see Tyler clench his fingers into fists as Alex fixed him with a cold stare.
“You again.” Tyler barked, “Maybe I should introduce you to my pretty fist, huh?”
To see Tyler looking that aggressive frightened me quite a lot, but when I studied Alex a little more closely my fear suddenly had a new focus. His face was expressionless, as I’d come to expect, but the look in his eyes... it was murderous. If I hadn’t known who this man was, I might have thought the devil himself had arrived in town.
“Oh, I would love to see you try, pretty boy.”
“You asked for it!” Tyler motioned to the back door and started to move towards it.
Alex gave a barely perceptible nod and followed him out without a word, and I realized the night was already ruined. Tyler was the sort of guy who knew only one way to leave an argument – standing over another guy bloodied on the floor.
Ignoring Paolo, who was shouting behind me, I rushed after them, trying not to trip over my own feet on the way. On the other side of the door I found myself in a small yard used for deliveries. I leaned back against the door we’d passed through and felt it click behind me.
Regaining my balance, I looked up in time to see Tyler swing a powerful fist towards Alex’s head and shut my eyes tight, afraid to witness what was bound to follow. I prayed that Tyler wouldn’t go too far and imagined the drive to the emergency room with Alex bleeding in the back. Tyler was known to be an animal in a fight.
When the crack of Tyler’s fist against bone hadn’t reached my ears, I cautiously let my eyes open again, blinking to clear the image before me. It took a few moments to process what was happening, my eyes now wide open in disbelief, mouth hanging open.
Tyler was swinging punch after punch, purposefully and with aim, but found only air with every swing. With stunning agility, Alex somehow avoided every blow in a display that ought to have been impossible for someone his size. Not only did he avoid the punches, he appeared completely nonplussed by them. Even his mohawk was unruffled.
“Stop it!” I yelled, hoping that by some miracle this fight might end without any blood getting spilled.
“Go back inside,” Alex said under his breath, glancing over at me but also, somehow, dodging another mighty swing. I was pretty sure I caught a slight smile on his face, like all this somehow amused him.
The last person who’d got into a fight with Tyler had ended up a real mess, in hospital for several days with concussion and a broken jaw. He’d literally never come off worse in a fight and yet, as I watched, he was growing more and more frustrated, hotter and sweatier with every swing that failed to find its mark. With cat-like grace, Alex moved swiftly to duck or swerve everything Tyler could throw at him. And all the while, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he might be just playing with Ty.
After dogging a couple more swings, Alex seemed to decide that the ‘fight’ had gone on long enough. I noticed a change in his posture as his back straightened and a force seemed to gather within him, propelling him forwards.
One fast, hard punch was all it took. Alex shot out one fist, bringing with it a loud, dead thud as it made contact with the middle of Tyler’s face. I watched in horror as Tyler fell to his knees and brought both hands up towards the bloody mess on his face. Bright red blood flowed through his fingers and quickly started dripping down onto the ground. A lot of it.
When Tyler raised his eyes to look over at me, Alex grabbed the back of his shirt collar and yanked it roughly, so that their eyes met.
“Look at her one more time and you’ll wish you’d never been born,” he barked, clenching his jaw, the bones flexing to become pronounced on the side of his face.
“Are you crazy?” I shouted, “You broke his nose!”
“He’ll survive,” Alex let go of Tyler, who collapsed on the asphalt and doubled up.
“You... you're insane!”
“I hear that a lot. Come on, get inside,”
“And leave him like that? No way!”
“Are you fucking deaf? Inside, now!”
“We need to call the doctor. What if...”
Without any warning, Alex bent down, grabbed me around the thighs and lifted me up over his shoulder, leaving my head to hang down over his back, the way a fireman might bring someone out of a burning building. At first I was so shocked that I couldn’t make any sound, then when it was obvious we were moving towards to door to the club I started to howl.
“Savage! Let go of me!” I started pounding his back with my fists.
Not paying any attention to my thrashing, and even less to Tyler, who was groaning, covering his face on the ground, Alex brought me inside the club and approached Paolo, who looked bewildered.
“We’re taking her home in your car,” I heard him say, my guts starting to hurt me as they pressed down on his shoulder.
“What? Well OK,” Paolo answered stupidly and ran to the door as Alex strolled behind as if there were nothing wrong with that scene at all.
I tried to locate Bethany in the crowd, but from my unfortunate vantage point I couldn’t make her out at all in the crowd. As we passed through, people looked at us bemused, glancing from me to Alex, and then back to me. It wasn’t surprising they kept looking, since I guess they all had a right royal view of my panties.
“Aaaalex!” I screamed as loud as I could.
I caught hold of a bar pillar as we passed it and tried to hold on, hoping this might put a stop to everything, but I only succeeded in attracting a wider audience. Seeing the bartender approach us with a quizzical expression on his face, I hoped he would call security to rescue me from the clutches of the beast. It flashed through my mind they might beat him up for good measure, and I hoped he’d end up in intensive care. For a week, at least.
“What’s going on over here?” asked the bartender, shooting a cautious look in Alex’s direction.
I sighed with relief and was just about to open my mouth to speak when I felt Alex’s hand against me, patting my butt. Forgetting immediately what I wanted to say, I twisted my neck around as a reflex and stared at him.
“My sweet angel here can’t hold her drinks”, he said to the bartender, his eyes on me all the while, threatening me from over his shoulder.
“Ain’t that so, sweetheart?” he added, with just a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
It was good that I didn’t have anything sharp in my hands then, because I’m sure I would have driven it deep into his back.
&n
bsp; Dumbstruck and embarrassed, my grip on the pillar was giving way, I stopped thrashing around and kind of accepted my sorry fate. The black and white tiles underneath me quickly started swirling out of sight, one after the other and I was sure I would puke my guts at any second.
When we got to the cool night air of the parking lot outside, Paolo opened the car door while Alex struggled to try to put me in the back. I swung one leg to try to kick him, aiming at his head, and was disappointed when he dodged it in time.
“Stay still!” he ordered and slammed the door.
“You monster!” I shouted after him, brought my head against the seat in front and started hammering it with my fists. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so angry.
They’d apparently both got in, as both front doors closed. I groaned as I brought myself into a sitting position and shot one menacing look in Alex’s direction, who was just starting the car.
I sat forward and rested my chin on Paolo’s seat, between his head and the door, so I didn’t have to look at Alex.
“Did you see that? He’s deranged.” I whispered in Paolo’s ear.
“What the hell happened out behind the club?”
“Alex whacked Tyler,” I sniffed once, remembering what Tyler had looked like when we left him and felt sick to my stomach. “I think he busted up his nose real bad.”
“He doesn’t look like he’s been in a fight. Especially not with Tyler.”
“ Yeah, but ...” I came in even closer and, with one hand cupping my mouth, whispered in Paolo’s ear “I think Alex fell into a vat of some magic potion when he was a baby.”
“What?” Paolo turned to glance at me, obviously thinking I’d finally gone completely loopy.
“Well, you know... like Obelix.” I stated, my tone deadly serious.
“My God, girl, how much did you drink tonight?”
“But I'm telling you really... don’t change the subject. I mean... How else could you explain...” I made a fist and demonstrated a straight punch Alex had used, “Just... Bang... and he went down... That’s still the same rock-hard Ty, you know”.
“I don’t really believe all of this, but if you say so...”
“It’s such a shame too... Ty had such a cute nose...” I sniffed again.
Leaning back in the seat I closed my eyes, hoping my awful head might stop spinning. The alcohol was gradually wearing off as the hum of the car’s engine started to lull me off to sleep, and I was soon dozing.
Roused from my slumber by the feeling that something had suddenly changed, I forced my eyes open to find that the car had stopped moving. Feeling disoriented, I opened the door and started to get out, but it felt like I was in some boat bobbing along the river. Luckily, my hands found a streetlight to hold on to and I threw my arms around it.
“I never applied for this shit.” I heard Alex growl as he took me up in his arms yet again and started carrying me towards the building’s entrance.
Lacking any strength at all to protest, I draped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes against the walls spinning around me. My body ached from top to toe, and I felt I might fall apart at any second. Promising myself I wouldn’t go near tequila again, I buried my head in Alex’s shoulder.
“What was that nonsense in the car? Magic potion?”
“Well, you know... when you fell into it... I hope it hurt” I mumbled, my eyes still closed tight.
“Jesus! I must have fucked something up real bad in a past life to deserve this punishment,” he sighed as he carried me up the stairs.
“Alex?”
“What?”
“Why do you always look so serious?”
“Because I like it that way.”
He let my feet drop to the floor and supporting my weight with his arm, turned the key in the lock. Squeezing my arms tighter around his neck, I clung on to him and pushed my nose deeper into the fabric of his shirt, breathing in his scent.
“Alex?”
“What now?” he nudged the door open and lifted me again.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“That's none of your business.”
“That means you do," I yawned, “Well I feel sorry for her. Guess I’d want to off myself if I were going steady with a guy like you…”
“Feeling is mutual. Trust me.”
“The way you behave... You have a serious problem, you know that, right?”
“How could I forget about it? It’s right under my nose and it doesn’t stop yapping.”
When we got to my bedroom he took me inside and stopped by the bed. I willed my eyes to open and gazed, letting myself study his face, eyes, cheekbones, forehead, finally bringing my eyes down to focus on his mouth. It was as if a fire had started to glow warm in my belly and I felt all fuzzy from it. Without any thought or planning I raised my own lips to his and kissed him.
I felt him draw back and noticed he wasn’t breathing, so I hugged him even harder and let my tongue move gently across his lips. To my disappointment, his mouth remained firmly closed. It felt like kissing a marble statue, so I moved my head back a few inches and searched for his eyes, but they too were shut tight. When he did open them, the lack of emotion there brought me back to reality with a crash.
“You're playing with fire, Princess,” he said quietly, putting me down on the bed. “Don’t do that again.”
Feeling like I’d been stabbed in the chest, I suddenly sobered up. Turning my face to the wall and closing my eyes tight, I cursed myself for being so stupid.
“I hate you.” the words came from my mouth.
“And so you should...” he answered and left the room.
Chapter 5 - Curiosity Killed the Cat
Opening my eyes very slowly, my head pounding like it might explode at any second, I let out a stream of curses so obscene that even a sailor would have blushed. With a painful grimace, I forced myself upright in bed and, more disgusted with myself by the second, realized I was still in my dress from the night before.
“I have to shower right this instant,” I thought or spoke aloud; I wasn’t sure which.
Unsteady on my feet, I clumsily pulled the dress up and over my head, realizing as sparks began to fly that I didn’t have the strength of will to search around for a bath robe. Instead, I dragged a sheet from the bed and wrapped myself in it, small bombs exploding behind my eyes as I made my way in the direction of the bathroom.
Passing the living room, I heard the sound of fast, shallow breathing. Turning my head to find the source of this caused another round of artillery to explode inside my skull, so that I could only shut my eyes tight and wait for the pain to subside. When I opened them again, one and then the other, I found Alex lying on the carpet near the TV, sweaty and panting, just staring at me.
“What do you think you’re looking at?” I managed, “Take a picture, it lasts longer.”
“I think... I’m gonna pass,” he answered after a pause and carried on with his sit-ups.
“What a psycho,” I mumbled, shaking my head as much as the pain would allow, and finally entering the bathroom.
The sight that appeared in the mirror above the sink almost caused my knees to buckle underneath me.
With my tousled hair sticking out like on some shock victim, two swollen and bloodshot eyes and inky streaks of mascara down my cheeks, I might have been a demon from some Japanese horror flick.
Yeah...well, that explains his staring.
An hour later, all pink and fluffy and sort of in order, I was bent over a drawer in the kitchen, rummaging around for some aspirin. When my hand finally closed around a bottle near the back, I flicked the top and swallowed two pills straight off before collapsing in an armchair.
“Sasha!” I heard Beth scream, “You look like shit!”
“Ahh! Not so loud...”
“You’ve got these dark circles round your eyes… Like a baby panda.”
“Should have seen me an hour ago…”
“You gave me a hell of a fri
ght. I tried to wake you couple of times but I couldn’t, so I didn’t know whether to call a doctor...”
“I’m alright.”
“Where the hell did you disappear to last night? I was looking for you and…What’s this?” she grabbed my elbow.
I bent my head and saw for the first time the black bruise on my left forearm, shaped sort of like Australia and almost as big. Narrowing my eyes in genuine confusion, I tried to remember what could have happened. I hadn’t tried to think much up till then, so it was about time memories from the night before started flooding back.
“Tyler…” I whispered, “Did you see him last night? Was he OK?”
“Well… sure I saw him. You were already gone when he appeared, well sort of tumbled back into the club, blood all over his face and his shirt, even his pants. Some guys sure must have stitched him up good…. Wait a minute, does that have something to do with the state of your arm?”
“He was starting to put the moves on me again. When I tried to get away he grabbed my arm, and then Alex appeared. I guess you saw for yourself how it finished up.”
“Are you for real? Listen to me now, I never want to see you anywhere near Tyler again. Is that understood?!”
“Trust me when I say that I don’t even want to hear about him again. Anyway, after that ‘talking to’ from Alex I guess he won’t be bothering me any more.”
“He’d better not, otherwise he’ll have to get past me too,” she frowned and made an effort to lighten the mood by imitating a few ninja moves with her perfectly manicured hands.
“It’s a relief, I guess,” I managed a smile, realizing I actually did feel a little better.
“So Alex was the one who did him over like that! That’s like in some fairy tale when the Damsel’s in distress and Prince Charming rides in on his white horse to save her from the ogre. Oh that’s so romantic...” she giggled.
“Yeah, real funny,” I snorted, “I can look after myself, thanks. And that psycho’s certainly no Prince Charming. One of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse maybe, but...”