To Love a Fighter

Chapter 8

My breath got stuck in my throat and I stood in front of her for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. Taylor was staring at me, assessing my reaction. Gabriel was fighting...Why did I feel a pang in my stomach? I didn't know but the fact was that I felt a little sick, imagining him getting hurt. Releasing a shaky breath I grabbed Taylor's hand and tugged it, informing her, without words, that I wanted to be taken there.

Nodding, Taylor started jogging down the halls, dragging me behind her.

As we passed, I notice the halls were almost empty, only a few students hanging around in them. Taylor dragged me outside of the main building and lead the way to the sports complex. It was when I spoted the mob in a corner, outside the building. Jodie was waiting for us a few feet away from the mob. When we reached her, she pushed me forward.

"You have to go there, they are killing them!" She told me, panic hanging to her every word. My heart beat accelerated and I forced my way through the crowd. In my mind, the only thought I had was how could I stop the fight.

It took seconds to pass through the mob and when I finally reached the fight, the awful sounds of flesh hiting flesh and groans of pain stopped. Worried, I rushed to the circle formed around the fighters to see a scene that chilled me to the bone.

In the middle of the circle was Gabriel, with his fists clenched, looking more wild than I could ever think was possible. His hair was tousled and messy, his clothes misaligned, and, frankly, he looked scary. I could help the goose bumps that covered my skin when I looked around him, where three guys were on the floor, two groaning and one, I thought, unconscious. And then was Ven, leaning against the wall as another guy was fallen at his feet, as blodied and battered as the other three. The violence and rawness of the scene made me feel sick but, when I saw the dark smiles in my friends faces, my heart fell to the ground. They had enjoyed beating those guys up, they were enjoying the screaming girls, probably friends and girlfriends, that called the names of the boys and the shouting crowd who was cheering for them.

I didn't recognised them and, honestly, I didn't want too.

Taking hesitant steps towards them, I called. "Ven...?" And he looked at me with that same grin I already despised before it quickly vanished. He looked so alarmed, knowing that I had saw, that he didn't spoke just stared. Ven looked at Gabriel, who stepped forward, walking in between the guys groaning on the floor. When he stepped close to me, I couldn't stop myself from taking a step back. He stoped, seeing my reaction.

"They were spreading new rumors about you..." He growled, looking at me. "We were just protecting you."

"This isn't protecting, this is fighting just because you wanted to." I whispered, looking at my feet. "I can handle the rumors."

Unexpectedly, Gabriel stalked after me and I heared the startled gasps of the students around me and Ven calling Gabriel's name in alarm. I should be afraid, I should have ran back when I saw that big muscled guy taking big strides towards me, but I, for the first time, wasn't afraid. I didn't knew why but I knew he wouldn't hurt me, no matter how mad he was at the moment. Gabriel, roughly, grabbed my hand, tugging me while he dragged me out of that place. Looking back, I saw Taylor and Jodie watching us, along with every student in the crowd, with fearful and worried expressions, and, lastly, I saw Ven looking so sad and apologetic that almost made my anger go away. Almost.

I turned around again when I tripped in a rock. Gabriel didn't let me fall but didn't stop either to see if I was alright, continuing to drag me to God knows were.

"Gabriel, stop." I called weakly, trying to free my hand. However, Gabriel was having none of that, as he tightened his hold and kept walking. "Stop!" I said, louder. Only then Gabriel looked at me and stopped.

Looking around, I noticed he brought me to the football field, near the countertops. He released my already sore wrist before starting pacing back and forth in front of me, running an angry hand through his hair. I stood in front of him, without knowing what to do. What should I say?

"You're mad at me." He stated, after a few seconds. "You weren't supposed to see that." He muttered to himself, still pacing.

"Trust me, I didn't want to see that either." I whispered, fidgeting with my shirt. Gabriel stopped and looked at me before walking to me and push away my hand away from my shirt.

"You always do that when you're nervous." He said, looking at the hand he had just touched. "Are you afraid of me?"

I pondered on that question. Was he scary? Yes, without a doubt. Was I scared of him? No, I was not. Why? No idea. Maybe...maybe I had lost all the fear I had in the last weeks. After those first meetings, I had been terrified of him but, since I had stood up and had told him that he was wrong about me, he had changed towards me. I thought he was not used to be defied. I was no longer afraid because he had been showing me a new side of him, a less mean and angry side, that I had quickly got used to. I was disappointed but not afraid.

"No, I'm not afraid, just...disappointed. Why were you, both of you, fighting? And tell me the truth." I demanded.

"I already told you, they were talking about you."

"I don't believe in you." I told him, calmly.

Gabriel looked at me, his eyes darkening, and it was when he snapped. He took two big strides and slammed his big hands beside my head. I was right, he wasn't used to be defied and he didn't look like he liked it either.

"Don't call me a liar!" He hissed at me. "I told you what you wanted to know!"

"Gabriel, you are not telling me the whole truth. Why were you fighting with those guys?" I pressed. I knew I should shut up, but, the fear just didn't touched me when, a couple of weeks ago, I would be probably sobbing in the floor, begging for him not to hurt me. Can a person change so much in a short amount of time?

He was panting, so angry that his whole body was shaking, however, he didn't say I was wrong. We stayed like that for a few seconds, not moving, until my phone started vibrating. Sighing, I laid a hand on Gabriel's chest and tried to push him away enough to pull out my phone. I had a text from Jodie.

Ven is looking for both of you, he's kinda worried. Where r u?

                                                                                              - Jodie

Taking a deep breath, I was going to start writing when Gabrile snatch my phone away from me.

"Hey! Give me that!".I shouted as I tried to have my phone back. Gabriel read the text and then started texting back. What was he doing? He had never done something like that before! "What is wrong you? That's my phone."

Ignoring me, Gabriel continued texting until he stopped, gave me back my phone and started walking away, without saying another word to me. When he was out of my view, I got out of my trance and started seeing what he had sent. He had texted Jodie and Ven.

The first one was to Jodie.

 

I'm fine, don't worry about it. Gabriel is going to take me home so Ven can meet me in the parking lot.

I frowned, not knowing why he had left if I he was the one who was going to drive me home. Huffing, I moved on to the next one, gasping when I read the text Gabriel had sent to Ven.

I'm going to take Dylan home. We're going to the Arena after dropping her off. Be ready.