I was trapped in a cage of light, frozen in time, and unable to move. My arms hadn’t been fast enough to shield my eyes and they now hovered in an awkward purgatory between my waist and face. A new sense of blindness had overtaken me as spots danced before my eyes. I was aware that someone stood in front of me, but I didn’t know who they were and they hadn’t made any move to clarify it with me. With no more shadows to conceal me, I felt painfully vulnerable. Before I would have given anything for a glimmer of light to save me from the dark, but now I could only curse it for revealing me.
The first drops of rain began to fall on my skin, melting me from my marmoreal form. My arms slowly returned to my sides. I began to shiver as the cool water dampened the bare skin of my arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake. There was an audible sizzle that broke through the silence as the rain came into contact with the asphalt’s warm surface and evaporated, creating a thin mist that licked at my ankles. The moment stretched on and on before the light granted me back my sight, only to mock me with the scene before my eyes.
He stood just feet away from me, watching me with dark, calculating eyes that looked like they should’ve belonged to a child stalking a butterfly before it ripped off the creature’s wings. I watched as he swayed lightly back and forth, like a tree in the wind; watching, waiting. We were about the same height, but he still managed to make me feel like I was a child he could look down at.
His clothes were wrinkled and his hair disheveled. The sloppy brown curls nearly covering the bruised lump that stood out on his hairline. I couldn’t help but snicker when I saw the damage that Simone’s anger could inflict. Then all at once I remembered what he had done to my best friend, and my amusement was replaced with a rage that burned so strongly within me I thought I was going to combust. Luke was going to pay for what he did—I would make sure of it, even if it was the last thing I did.
My change in expression must have amused him, because his disgustingly bright smile beamed down at me and he began to chuckle to himself. His antagonizing laughter rang through my ears, echoing inside of my head until I couldn’t handle it anymore. I felt my temper boil over, and heard the words fly from my mouth before I could worry about the consequences of being so rash.
“I bet you weren’t laughing much when Simone gave you that,” I snapped gesturing to his head. His laughing stopped, and it felt like he was looking at me without really seeing me. He seemed confused, like he was trying to comprehend what I was saying. A pleased smile slowly spread across my lips, “Having trouble remembering Luke?”
“I—,” he stammered, scrunching his face.
“Here let me help,” I said in a sickly sweet voice, “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I’m not sure,” Luke stumbled sounding frustrated, his hands rubbed his face. He was getting angry, but I had a feeling it was more at himself than me.
“That’s interesting,” I paused, “Do you remember hitting my best friend?”
“Wha—,” he began, but I cut him off. I wasn’t finished with him yet.
“How about Simone hitting you back,” I spat at him taking a step closer and getting in his face; daring him to back down, “Do you remember that Luke?”
There was a shift in the air in that moment. The reek of the alcohol on Luke’s breath hit me before his fist did, but I still didn’t have enough time to react. My eyes lost track of his hand as it flew through the air, but I heard the moment of impact when it connected with the side of my face. I fell flat onto my back, my head bouncing off the asphalt with a sickening thud, while my arms scraped against the rough surface. An agonizing moan escaped from my lips, followed by a loud crack that echoed from my jaw as I tried to open it.
