The Rejects of Richmond University | editing

5. The One With Danger

❝Don't be afraid that your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.❞

-Grace Hansen

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✋SALMA✋

The car gained momentum as it zoomed towards Jaxon. His gaze was not in the direction of the car that planned to end his life, racing right for him. Almost out of impulse, I leaped over to where he was –only a little – and hiked up my leg to his body, kicking him in the chest. I fell back, just as he did, as the car blurred past us. My kick did an effective enough job to get him to fall inches before the car could hit him.

"Whoa." The girl that was nearly panting at the thought of Jaxon was now gaping at me. "You kicked Jaxon Miller. You're so screwed."

Getting back to my feet, I flattened my hand over my shirt and wiped off the dirt. "I saved his life."

My sister started to slow clap, laughing to herself. "You totally Little Mermaid'ed him."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means you saved his life. Duh," she explained. "Or I can say you Edward Collin'ed him. That seems more appropriate since you pushed him away from a moving car." She clasped her hands together, pressed it against her cheek, and pouted at me in a joking way. "Aw, it's so cute. You're his little savior."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "It's not that big of a deal."

I felt almost obligated to go see if Jaxon was okay after that kick to the chest. There was already a huddle around his body, swarming him and asking him questions about his wellbeing. I cut through the crowd and made my way to the center.

There was a clear outlining of my shoe on his white T-shirt. It was a perfect imprint of my Doc Martens. Everyone was looking at him, but no one had tried to pick him up or even try to help him. There was a hesitated glimmer in their eyes as if they were too afraid to touch him.

Ignoring everyone's fear of Jaxon, I did my own thing and stretched out my hand and grabbed his hand. "Let me help you up."

His eyes glazed over me as I got him back up to his feet, flashing a small smile to me. "I've never had a girl kick me without pissing her off beforehand."

"There's a first time for everything." I returned the smile. "I hope I didn't kick you too hard."

He smoothed his hand over the section I'd kicked him and instantly groaned. "I'll live." The driver's side door of the Dodge Challenger flew open, causing Jaxon's dazzling smile to drop. "I can't say the same for that jackass though."

His shoulders raised, and his hands balled up in fists, stomping up to the driver. At lightning speed, Omar and his friends were on the scene, wedging themselves between Jaxon and the guy who tried to kill him. With the screaming going on, I learned that the driver's name was Hector and that the race was about a girl named Jessica.

It didn't take long to learn that Jessica was the girl who kissed Jaxon before the race, and eventually was dragged away from him because of her screaming and shouting. The drama between these three unfolded and it was more entertaining than one of the TV Dramas on my Netflix queue.

Wow, I really need a life.

I was surprised this had only occurred to me just now.

It was true though. The conflict on the tracks was far more interesting than lame excuse of a life. But compared to their way of living, I wouldn't want to trade places with them.

"Relax," Omar instructed, soothing Jaxon with an assuring grin. "We'll deal with Hector. You just go back and get ready for another race."

"Yeah," Hector chimed in. "I wasn't gonna really hit you with the car anyway."

"Then what the fuck where you doing? Practicing?" Jaxon growled, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side. "How the hell did you plan on this going exactly, Hector? There's at least seventy people here who witnessed the attempted murder."

Jessica emerged from the crowd with tears streaming down her face. She was speaking gibberish, grabbing at Jaxon and saying how she couldn't have imaged the thought of seeing him get hit by the car.

"Get your girlfriend, Hector." Jaxon shrugged her off.

"What the..." I trailed off and looked at my sister. She was just as engrossed into the drama as I was. "I thought that was Hector's sister?"

Iman shook her head. "No, it's his girlfriend. The main reason why they did this race was because Hector caught Jaxon hitting on his girlfriend right in front of him. Jaxon didn't really fight over her, and Jessica arranged the race. Jaxon was doing it, so Hector could stop bothering him. Hector did it to win over Jessica."

When I saw my roommate, Helen, with my ex-boyfriend, I didn't want to win him back. "Gets some dignity, Hector," I hissed.

Jaxon's frown faltered as we made eye contact again. The corner of his lip curled into a side smile. In the same tone I had used, he said. "Get some dignity, Hector. No one wants your girlfriend but you."

Okay, that's rude. He literally has no filter.

Jessica sniffled. "You didn't say that the other day."

"I say a lot of things." Jaxon swept his thumb under her eye, catching a tear. "That doesn't mean I'm being honest."

"But I thought after you told me t—"

"Jessica. You're a big girl. You make your own choices. I wasn't the one who told you to come to my apartment in nothing but tube socks and a trench coat last night. That was all your idea."

The crowd responded to this piece of knowledge, chatting up a storm. Jaxon easily dismissed Jessica and Hector with a wave of his hand. Hector's face got redder and redder with each shriek from the crowd. There was nothing he could do to silence us. Omar's friends made a wall of men in front of Jaxon, dividing them. There was no way he could get to him.

"This isn't over, Jaxon," Hector promised. "You're not always going to have your friends with you. I want to see how easy it'll be for you to stay safe when I have more people on my side."

Omar's friends pushed against Hector, forcing him away, but Jaxon stopped them.

"No, I want to see what he'll do," Jaxon admitted while taking off his leather jacket. He handed it to Omar. "I'm feeling a bit generous. Why don't you ask one of your friends to help you? I might even let you get one decent hit."

"Let?" Hector scoffed.

"Yeah, let. I know you couldn't get that shit on your own," Jaxon said.

Omar laughed. "Not now. Not here. You guys can have this fight anywhere else." Without taking a pause, he faced the crowd and broke up the small audience we'd made around Hector and Jaxon.

Omar turned to Hector, pointing a finger to his chest. "And you're leaving. You're lucky I'm in a good mood or I would've let Jaxon drag your ass on the floor, kicking and screaming."

Hector rolled his eyes. He didn't see the seriousness of what he had done. Not a hint of remorse flourished in his expression. Hector kept his last thought to himself. Him and his girlfriend got back into his car and drove off, leaving a cloud of dust behind them.

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