Between The Lines

15.

I could almost laugh to myself. Gabriel was doing the same thing I was doing. Granted his way of doing things went farther than what I did, but we were the same; we were someone else's consciences.

It saddened me, though, that Jace was stuck in such a dangerous position. I thought maybe his father could turn him around... just the fact that he could still communicate with him should've been enough. Though Jace seemed ridiculously unlikable, I still worried about him.

Mitch, Olivia, and Frankie hadn't left yet. In fact, they stood outside Mitch's car around the corner, adamantly arguing. At one point, it was Olivia and Frankie against Mitch, but the tables were about to turn.

"Why don't you just tell him?" Mitch yelled at Olivia. "Don't try to use him against me without telling him everything!"

"You drugged me, Mitch!" she yelled, shoving at his chest. "What did you plan to do?!"

"Nothing! I just wanted you to get away from Frankie for a little while!"

"Stop! Stop!" Frankie put himself in the middle of both of them, facing Olivia. "What is he talking about?" he said quietly. "What don't I know?"

Olivia tried to glare past him. "Don't you care that he d-?"

"What is it, Olivia?"

She was trying to find something else, looking past Frankie to Mitch, trying to find a way out. But she knew that was it. Frankie would have to know. I only felt just a little sorry for her. Olivia knew what she did, she knew what she was doing while it happened. She and Mitch were the only ones to blame and they both knew it.

"Remember... back in December," she told Frankie, "when we had that fight?" He nodded. "Danity had already gone to her aunt's house... so I... went to Mitch's and... we-"

"Stop-I can already guess what happened next." He stared at Olivia, disgusted. "I cared about you, you know that? We had a big fight-so what? What could possibly make it okay for you to sleep with someone else-when we never did?"

"You never cared about me-you still liked Danity even while we were dating. You always liked her better than me. You settled for me when it was obvious she wasn't into you-"

"I never cheated on you, did I?! I would've never cheated on you-no matter what." He towered over her. "And I did care about you, Olivia-a lot. I treated you with so much respect, and you didn't care." He turned to Mitch. "And why would you cheat on Danity? She was nothing but good to you-to everyone." Frankie punched him in the same place Jace had, and Mitch fell backwards.

But Frankie didn't stop. He kneeled down on top of Mitch and started hitting him in such a violent way I never thought he was ever capable of. Olivia was screaming for him to stop, even trying to pry him off, but she couldn't.

I'd moved forward, mostly out of instinct, to try and get him off of Mitch myself. I hadn't planned on it, but when I reached for Frankie's shoulders, I felt myself trip and then it was I who was on top of Mitch.

I immediately scrambled off of him and backed away-not thinking about it. Olivia didn't kneel down to help Mitch, but she just stared at me, at Frankie. Behind her, I could see Gabriel's truck make its way towards us.

Being inside Frankie didn't feel so great. I was in the process of being ripped apart from every side I had, but I held onto... I don't know-I just braced myself the best I could against whatever force was trying to pull me out into different directions. I stayed long enough to turn Frankie around and start walking away. I thought over and over for him to just walk home and cool off.