The Hat Trick (ON HOLD AS OF 2/17/16)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Bailey

A strangled cry tore from my throat as I watched J in slow motion lunge for his target, on impulse I snatched at J’s coat the wool material ripped past my fingers the momentum sent me stumbling backwards. J was fast, faster than he ever was on the ice; I felt my eyes shutter close as the sound of flesh on flesh flooded the room quickly followed by a gargled cry of pain.

“Stop,” the word comes meekly from me, shock still wafting over me. “J, stop!” I reach again for his arm managing to get a good hold I wrap myself around him like a spider monkey. “It’s not him! J, it’s not him.” A sob tears through my throat when J stops long enough to notice me attached to him and the sound of sheer panic in my voice. “It’s not A-Adam.” I cry petrified of the sight before me of my boyfriend attacking my best friend.

J mechanically steps away from a battered and bloodied Kade, anger and a little bit of confusion radiating off of him, his blue eyes sizzled with rage. Tears stream freely down my face as I choke back another sob, pushing past J I fall to my knees in front of Kade. My hands shake as I run my fingers across his cheeks, his lip is busted and his nose continues to bleed profusely but nothing is broken.

His lashes flutter open and I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see those warm brown eyes of his. He blinks again a pain filled groan crosses his lips, my breath hitches in my throat when the corner of his mouth tips up as he recognizes me even without his glasses.

“Bails?” he mumbled as he tried sitting up his hand touching his lip gingerly. “What the hell happened?” That’s exactly what I would like to know.

Gently I ran my fingers across his quickly bruising skin, seeing that Kade would indeed live I jumped up from my crouched position and went after J, guns blazing, fully loaded I saw nothing but red if you want to get cliché.   

“What is the matter with you?” I screamed shoving him across the small living area. He actually had the gall to look offended and hurt, which did nothing to cool my inane anger for him right now. “You can’t just go around clobbering people like a Neanderthal. You can’t do things like this, you don’t have any right!”

“Me?” he exclaimed matching me step for step until we were chest to chest. “Try telling that to the guy who broke into your dorm room, while he creepily held one of your photos in his hands! That’s who you should be freaking out over.”

A frustrated cry tore through me, damn him, I tried shoving him back again but he was like an unmovable boulder. I knew he was right, that I should be more concerned with why Kade was in my dorm room all by himself but I claimed Kade like I claim Harper and Emma, and no one not even J messed with my friends.

I stomped my foot in true three year old form, I was beyond words at the moment all I wanted to do was scream and throw a tantrum. J just stood there taking it all, his hands clenched down at his sides he was looking at me like he knew me. Like he understood me and holy cow did that freak me out. I took a step back the logical part of me deciding to deal with J later because Kade needed me now.   

“You locked up, Smalls.” He said in a whisper his long fingers wrapping around my wrist holding me in place. “What the hell am I supposed to do when my girlfriend who was physically and mentally abused by her psycho ex freezes up at the sound of some stranger’s voice coming unannounced from her dorm room, did you want me to invite him over for tea?” 

“You saw that?” he nodded somehow drawing me closer. The question was irrelevant; J wouldn’t point out something like that without some truth behind it. I shook my head dismissing the comment regardless of whatever truth it held.

“Bails, why is JT Dillions in your dorm room?” Kade asked picking himself up from off the floor pressing his dark t-shirt to his still bleeding nose.