Life of a Stranger

Chapter Four

Rowan and I back tracked past eight rooms before we made it. And along the way, I witnessed my first real school fight! I felt strangely proud about it.

This time it was Billy we passed. When I walked by, he tried to shove me into the wall of lockers. Luckily Rowan's hand shot out an caught Billy's arm, stopping it just before it could touch me. Billy's squared face got red as he stated at Rowan's hand on his beefy arm.

Without any warning, Billy pulled his arm back and went for a punch at Rowan's jaw. Rowan ducked an sidestepped it easily.

I wish that I could relay more details, but all I saw were feet and fists after that. But I can tell you that the fight was over very quickly, with Rowan as the victor.

Billy's face was bruised, and it looked like he'd recently had a rabid badger launched at his face, while a ton of bricks was dropped into him from above. Needless to say that Billy, looked rough.

Rowan had a single bruise in his brow bone. I let out a gasp concerned. It's already started to turn an ugly blackish color with purple dots scattered around the point of contact.

Stepping closer, I reached out and checked for a broken brow bone. My heart beat hard with concern at the thought. As far as I could tell, nothing was broken, and I let out a breath I didn't know that I'd been holding in.

I immediately tended up again when I remembered the chance of a hairline fracture. Thinking that I'd seen a dent that wasn't there before, I stepped even closer. Even then I still couldn't be sure, so I got on my tip-toes and leaned in. My heart beat double time when I realized our position.

Just as a blush was working its way up my face, I felt Billy's hand in the center of my back. Before I could react -or even brace myself- billy pushed me. Really hard.

Now my eyebrow hit Rowan's. As it made contact, Rowan doubled over, cradling his face in his hands, and let out a groan of pain. With an angry growl, I whirled around. I was beyond angry at this point.

I stomped the remaining distance until I was at arms length from Billy. I glared into his eyes and feigned a punch to his left. As he tried to block the punch that wasn't ever going to connect, I turned to the right and flexed my knees. Then with an angry snarl I whipped back to his face and brought my half bent leg to his stomach in a viscous kick. The kick had Billy double over, clutching his gut, with tears in his eyes as he moaned about revenge. But I was more concerned with Rowan!

I rushed back over to his side and held his face in my hands as I assessed the damage. Where before there was only a bruise, there was now blood running like a waterfall down his face. It covered his left eye completely. I pulled my hoodie sleeve over the tips of my fingers as I began to gently dab the blood away.

Rowan smiled at me weakly from under the bruise and the blood. The blood had ran down to his lips, and stained his teeth, giving him the look of a wild animal. Even though the picture was gory, I gave him pints for trying.

Suddenly the smile dropped from his face and was replaced with a blank expression for a fraction of a second before a fire of rage took its place in his eyes.

Curious and confused, I followed his gaze over my shoulder and dropped into a fighting stance. Billy was stirring from in the floor. He got up, and though I was half expecting him to demand a rematch, all he did was walk away from us and down the hall. I relaxed for a moment and let my shoulders drop.

I had barely started to breathe a sigh of relief when Rowan suddenly spin me around and clutched me to his chest in a rough and relieved embrace. He softly rested his chin on my head and held me closer.

I gave a soft sigh before I could hold it back and snuggled into his chest, breathing in the scent that was Rowan. It smelled like the forest and summer.

With what was probably a dopey smile on my face I pulled back and looked up at him. He was a whole head taller than me and I had to crane my neck to see his silvery eyes. They seemed darker than usual as he looked down at me. I was still pressed into his chest, and the contact made warm tingles shoot up my arms.

Even so, I pulled back (though his arms were still around me) and have him a determined look.

"You need to go see the nurse," I said.

He nodded and seemed to regret it as another wave of blood ran down his face. He held onto me for balance as we stumbled our way slowly to the nurse's office.