Darkness in the Neon Lights (H2OVanoss)

Chapter 21

I then jump when I hear running coming from around one of the corners and I hear another person yell, "Get the fuck away from him!"

My heart races as I hear screaming and yelling, threatens and pleads. As the yelling starts to move away, my eyes follow the footsteps until they get to the stairs. Then, I finally see some of the sources of the screams. Some blond with long, crazy hair is getting pushed away, and Marcel is the one doing the pushing. Once I see them go to the parking lot, I quickly run to the stairs and jump up to the second floor, where I see Smitty leaning against his door with his hand on the side of his face.

I run over and gently put my hand on his shoulder. He jumps, but when he sees me, he starts crying. "Smitty, what happened? Who was that?"

He starts talking, however, because he is crying so hard, I can't understand a word he's saying. I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly, rubbing his back lightly as I shush him and try to calm him down.

After a bit, I hear someone running over, and when I look behind me, I see that it's Marcel. When he gets to us, he kneels down and has Smitty look at him, and by this time, he's more calm than when I had first gotten to him.

"What happened," Marcel asks him.

Through his tears, Smitty tells us, "That was my boyfriend, John. Ever since I told him about the rules of the club, he's been a bit jealous. He doesn't understand why he can't go over to see me, and he had this idea that I wasn't just a bartender."

"So that's why I heard him calling you a whore," I accidentally say out loud.

"That's not the only reason," Smitty continues, turning to me. "A few weeks ago, someone went to a guy's place, and I had him send me the address to the place for safety. John saw that text and he thought I was getting the address to some guy's house for me."

I feel my heart stop. I know what he's talking about. That's the address I sent him when I went to see my Jon.

"I told him that it was for a friend seeing a new boyfriend, but he didn't believe me. Since then, he's been calling me all these horrible things and arguing with me about this. He's never touched me like this before though."

"One time is more than enough though," Marcel says in a strict tone. "You need to break up with him."

"What?"

"Lucas, he hit you! No matter what happens, even if you two are in the middle of a fight, even if he was on drugs or drunk, even if he was under so much stress and you just pissed him off for whatever reason he pulled out his ass, no one, man or woman, should ever put his hands on you!"

He looks down and shakes his head. "But this was the first time and we were so happy before... I was hoping-"

"You love the man you met," Marcel interrupts. "You loved the man you talked for hours and planned a future with. But do you think that man would have put his hands on you like that?!" Smitty slowly shakes his head. "If you love someone, Lucas, you don't hit them or cut them down. I heard the way he talked to you, and even if you were a stripper, which you aren't, you don't deserve to be call any of that."

The tears start to dry on his face. "He came all this way to be with me though."

"That doesn't mean you owe him anything. He came here to be with you, yes; but you didn't start your relationship to be smacked around and called a whore."

He nods and says, "Okay. I'll break up with him after work."

"Do you still want to go," I ask.

He looks back to us and nods. "Yeah. I need something to get my mind off of this."