Early Bird | ✓

37 | warbler

❁

           "YOU are an idiot" were the words that greeted him when his eyes blinked open, a throbbing pain emerging from his head. JJ's whole body felt sore like it usually felt after a particularly tough basketball practice. Beside him sat Lauren who'd sobered up considerably since the last time he saw her. Her head shook as she looked at him, but her eyes were soft, almost as soft as Shadow's fur. JJ closed his own eyes and racked his brain for information on what exactly happened. He remembered leaping onto Mikey, jabbing at his throat; he remembered knowing that he was about to get crushed by a boy-man who was ten times his size. Everything got fuzzy after that—he remembered a couple punches, a flash of lights, cheers coming from all sides of him, fat body parts hitting him from every angle. And then nothing.

           "Why the hell would you fight him, JJ? You know he's, like, all muscle." For some reason, the only part of Lauren that JJ could focus on was her hair. Her hair as knotty and unruly as a bush, vines—hair strands—crisscrossing, zigzagging, becoming unbrushable and tangled beyond belief.

           "He—he badmouthed Lizzy. Well, he said that she—" He gulped, unable to finish the sentence. He plowed through anyway, despite his reluctance. "—that she was dead."

           Lauren leaned over and gave him a hug, crushing his already stinging body.

           "That hurts."

           "I'm sorry." Lauren quickly pulled back. Finally, JJ could focus on the rest of her. The tear stains on her face. Her ripped T-shirt. A blue, blooming bruise on her cheek.

           "What happened to you?" he asked, his voice shaking with rage. If Mikey put a hand on her, he was going to—

           "It's okay, JJ. I pulled you away from Mikey. He wouldn't stop hitting you. You were already passed out and bleeding everywhere and if I didn't get you away, he was going to kill you. He accidently nicked me in the process," she explained quickly, averting her gaze away from his.

           JJ felt as though he was on fire, burning down, his thoughts as dark as ashes. "Please tell me you broke up with that bastard."

           "I did."

           JJ couldn't get Mikey's beady eyes and pudgy face out of his mind. "I'm going to kill him. I can't believe he had the nerve to touch you," he grumbled and attempted to sit up.

           Lauren pushed him back down. "You're not going anywhere. And even though I would approve of your plan, I really don't want you to go to jail. I need you here, JJ. You're my best friend." She started to tear up.

           "Don't get all soft on me now, Lauren," JJ teased. His attention finally slipped from Lauren to the bedroom he was currently lying in. Shock flooded through his veins when he realized it was his own. "How—how did you—"

           Lauren shrugged. "I had a couple of my guy friends carry you to one of their trucks. Asher helped sneak you in. And here you are."

           A strange sense of déjà vu overtook JJ. It was like he had stepped into Lizzy's life. The story she had told him—about when she stepped in to stop a fight between Mateo and another dude—seemed awfully familiar to the one he was living now. God, he missed talking to her.

           "Lauren, hand me my computer," JJ asked, pointing to his desk. Lauren retrieved it for him, realizing his intentions.

           "Do you think they messaged you back?"