Compositions of Us

04 · The Irony of a Trade Off

However, the third one was not taking my threat into consideration. "The little bitch said that she has our pictures. Let's show her not to mess with us."

Oh, shit.

Before the trio could move another step, the solo ranger must have regained their conscious and knocked them down once their backs were turned. That was quite a good comeback. The moment the three were on the floor, the shadow ran towards me. Taking a few steps back, I had a thought that maybe the individual was another bad guy. 

Like a surprised deer to the headlights, the individual charged at me before grabbing my arm. Practically dragging my body along, I was close to dropping all my treasured belongings during the process. 

Having no time to look back, we continued to run in the speed of light, zigzagging from street to street until I eventually grew dizzy. I had the urge to scream and tell this person to let go of me, but my legs were just moving on auto-pilot. The amount of epinephrine released took over. The grip the person had on my arm was unbreakable. 

As my eyes observed who I was forcibly running with, the figure was the outline of a male. My natural instinct assumed this would be bad.

"Hey! Hey!" I ran out of breath that I couldn't even recognize my own voice.

After another sharp turn on an unrecognizable street, I had no clue where we were.

And, who I was stuck with right now. 

When the individual pulled to a stop, I nearly bumped into him because of the sudden brake. My heart was racing from fear and exhaustion. The person was breathing heavily as he had his back turned. I watched him run his fingers through his brown hair in frustration.

"You are most craziest person in the world!" he spat out.

Wait a second.

The figure flipped around, and those green eyes were filled with fury, panic, and worry. "You could have gotten yourself killed, you know that!"

Now that we were face to face, it occurred to me that he didn't have a clue who his running partner was either. The dumbfounded eyes and the huge gulp that bopped from his throat were evident signs. 

Not being able to blink at the time, I took in the damage the trio had done to him.

Speechless, I could only find enough energy to say, "J-Joshua?"

There wasn't even a proper way to explain the stunned look on his face.

Joshua's mouth dropped before he muttered, "Oh, fuck."

                                                     +        +        +

"Quit moving. You're only making it worse," I scolded as I attempted to apply rubbing alcohol on Joshua's injuries.

"Shit, shit!" Joshua winced as his eyes shot darts at me. "How about you just not do that? I'll be fine."

Suppressing a laugh, I commented, "I really don't understand you boys. You can take a punch, but when it comes to this, you all wimp out." 

"It's kind of hard when your nurse has hands like sandpaper," Joshua grumbled under his breath as he rubbed his jaw with his left hand.

"What was that?" I innocently asked, pressing the rubbing alcohol harder.

"Mother fu — nothing!" Joshua finally shut up.

From the looks of it, the trio weren't able to catch up to us which made my pumping heart ease up a bit. After the big revelation that I — barely — saved Joshua from the unknown trio while Joshua was the one who bought me along his running marathon, the two of us were now crouching outside a gas station's convenience store that happened to be nearby. I bought a cheap first aid kit to treat Joshua's injuries.