Thin Lines

Fight

"Your eye" Xela says, concern lacing her words.  She breaks away from me and sits Tread down on the bleachers, standing between his legs, inspecting his wounds. A pang of jealous hits me.

"Xela it's fine, just a scratch." He says. She rolls her eyes and tugs on her shirt hard enough to rip a piece of fabric off. She presses it to his forehead, where blood was dripping.

"He said he's fine." I say, then immediately regret it. She glares at me, then continues wiping off his blood.

"Maybe if he hadn't started a fight with a fucking drug lord he wouldn't be hurt."

"Oh yeah?  What did you want me to do? Let him harass Xela and not do anything?" Tread stands up, clearly angry with me. "You both need to calm down." Xela snaps at us.

"Holy shit that was crazy!" Holly comes running up to us with Aliza and Joey right behind her.

"You're friend got his ass handed to him." I say sternly. I ignore the icy glare Xela gives me.

"We should leave, everything is dying down." Aliza says, and I'm thankful she changed the conversation.

We all walked to the parking lot outside the school. We were all talking the whole walk, I found myself liking her friends. They seem very close, like Denny, Blake, and I.

"You need a ride home?" Tread asks Xela when we reach the parking lot. She is about to talk but I cut her off, "I got her." I give him a smirk. He looks to Xela, "I'll see you guys around? You aren't leaving town yet right?"

"We are actually leaving tomorrow." Aliza says, and I can see Xela's face drop.

"But I mean we will pass through again in a few weeks, we will stop and say hi." Tread smiles at Xela and gives her a playful hug. "You better" she says, hugging him back.

She says her goodbyes to them before we get into my car. It's silent except for the sound of the engine starting.

"They liked you." She breaks the silence once I start driving. Hearing this surprisingly makes me smile, "You think?"

"I can tell. Tread too, even though you were an ass- butt to him." She corrects herself after almost saying 'asshole'.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I play dumb. I was a jerk to Tread, but that's because he had no business being all over Xela.

"How did you all meet?" I ask since I've been wondering all night. The way they talked I could just tell they know each other so well. It's my first time seeing Xela surrounded by people she is comfortable with. She let her guard down around them.

She lets out a sigh, "School." Is all she says. I give her a look. "Really?"

"You don't want to know" she says with a joking tone, but I can tell she is dead serious.

"You know I don't care about your past" I say, catching her off guard, "Or about the size of your house." 

She sighs, "I know"

"Really? I see how you react every time I ask about your past, and I saw the look in your eyes when I walked into your house."

There is a brief moment of silence, "You shouldn't be ashamed of anything."

I realize we are already back at my house, the car ride felt way too short.

"You two outlasted us!" Denny says once we walk inside. Xela never responded to me earlier, so I assumed she wanted to drop the conversation.

I didn't want to push her.

"Someone got in a fight" she says, taking off a jacket she had on and setting it on the counter.

"It was hardly a fight." I teased, giving her a wink.

She rolled her eyes and walked upstairs. I followed her, "Not going to say goodnight?"

She stops and turns to me, "Or I knew you would follow me" she says smugly.

I let out a laugh, "Go shower then meet me here. I want to show you something."

She raises an eyebrow, "Show me what?"

"If I told you it would ruin the surprise." I tell her. She gives me a look, "I hate surprises."

I just shrug, "Too bad. Ill give you 20 minutes." I say before walking into my room.