Firebomb (The Jewel Project #2)

13.2|| Pueblo

Billy hissed something at him and Tom finally moved next to Angie. Jerry looked away from them, wanting to give them privacy. As much as he hated public display of affection and found it incredibly inappropriate, he was glad the two were talking. He didn't like the chill between them.

"It's always you, isn't it? You, you, you!" Angie suddenly said, fiercely. "You first and the rest of the world afterwards."

"Hey, you started this," Tom snapped back. "You're the one who pushed me back."

"No, you've decided to keep your distance. I wanted to make it up to you. But instead, you stopped talking to me."

"No, I haven't. We're talking now, aren't we?"

"More like screaming," Jerry said weakly.

"You're just pissed that I didn't kiss you back," Angie replied and Tom looked like she'd kicked him below the belt.

For a few moments no one said anything, then Tom turned and walked away from her. "We're done here."

"Oh, so mature, walking away." She stomped after him, but stopped once he whipped around to face her, a furious snarl on his face.

"I don't care if it's mature or not, I just want to get away from you. I've been worried all this time, worried I did something wrong. Okay, maybe my timing wasn't perfect, maybe we're all affected by that crappy water we've been drinking, but I never ever dreamed you'd just stand there like a rock if I kissed you. But you did and I got the obvious message. So I stayed away because I didn't want to mess up anymore, I wanted to do the right thing, even if I hated it."

Angie opened her moth to argue, but Tom raised his hand to stop her.

"There's no pleasing you, is there?" he continued. "I've been racking my brain, trying to understand what I've done wrong, if I hurt you in some way. But I now realize that you never do that. You just do what you want, when it suits you, me and everyone else be damned. And then you have the nerve to come and say I'm selfish." He turned away from Angie, his fists clenched.

Sam pushed off his wall and strode to Tom. "You idiot. You're the one hurting her. You just can't stop, can you?"

Tom turned to Sam. He seemed to look at Angie who was crying silently behind Sam and tilted his head. Then his fist shot back and collided with Sam's face. Sam groaned and fell to the floor.

Jimmy and Jerry immediately jumped to their feet and hurried towards them. Before they managed to reach them, Sam scrambled to his feet only to be floored by another punch from Tom.  Jimmy grabbed his arms and twisted them behind his back. Jerry helped Sam up, but held on to his forearm in case he wanted to hit Tom back.

"Stop fighting, you two! What's wrong with you?" Jimmy said holding on to a struggling Tom.

Sam jerked his hand out of Jerry's grasp, stepped back and kicked Tom in the jaw. Tom toppled over Jimmy and both of them fell to the floor.

"Sam, stop," Jerry said desperately, but didn't dare grab him again. "This isn't like you."

Sam thoroughly ignored him and charged at Tom. Tom got to his knees and tackled Sam to the floor. They wrestled around, each trying to get on top of the other. Jimmy scrambled to his feet and headed for them, but Angie was faster.

She charged at the two, grabbed Tom's shoulders, and pulled him off Sam and to the floor. Tom looked at Angie confused. Sam got to his feet and kicked Tom in the ribs. Tom rolled over, his arms around his torso, moaning in pain. Sam got another good kick in.

Jimmy finally reached them just in time to block a third hit he'd aimed at Tom.

"Stop it. Now!" Jerry yelled, trying to make his voice as authoritive as possible, but no one listened.