Sheets | ✓

TWENTY-NINE

"Ugh, and you could? Get a grip," Jamie spat, wrenching her arm out of his grip, shaking it as if his hands left some kind of poisonous goop all over it. Turning to me and grabbing my hand, Jamie quickly said that we should leave. I nodded, agreeing instantly. As we started to walk, Isaac swore loudly, his vice-like hand clamping on Jamie's shoulder, pulling her back. Her hand slipping from mine, Jamie hissed as she was whirled around, Isaac's smile only growing icier and icier, though the upturned mouth did not match the livid expression in his eyes. 

"Did you think you can just leave after talking like that to me, bitch?" Isaac hissed, his eyes narrowing as he only smiled wider. Jamie's usually stoic face faltered a little, and her hands balled into fists by her sides. Swallowing thickly, my stomach churning and my heart thumping out of my ribcage, I forcefully wrapped my arms around Jamie's waist and pulled her back behind me. 

"Don't touch my sister, you asshole!" I yelled, my voice cracking a little as Isaac's teeth gnashed together, before returning to their usual position in a snake-like grin. 

"Oh, sister? What, do you two have some weird thing going on? You keen on your sister or something, fucking psycho," Isaac snorted, some of his friends chuckling at his jibe. Stepping forward until he was towering over me, my eye line only meeting his upper chest, my legs shook as I struggled to maintain my ground and not run out of the bowling alley peeing myself.  

"I'm not keen on my own sister, you prick. And frankly, she's even less into you," I spat, my voice surprisingly stable despite the tremor in my hands. I felt Jamie grip the back of my shirt nervously, trying to tug me backwards and away from Isaac, but it was already too late. Once my words registered in his brain, Isaac's smile was wiped from his face and his fist was already arcing through the air. 

Instinct made me raise my arms up to shield my face, but it did little to stave away the blow, since Isaac was not a petit guy and I wasn't a strong one at all. His fist collided with my forearm, immediately making me let out a grunt of pain. The sheer force of the blow made me topple over with my eyes clenched shut, my body crashing to the ground. I let out a second noise of pain when I hit the floor, my leg twisting as it collided with the side of the bowling ball dispenser. My arm burned with a bruising, throbbing pain, but my leg felt like it was on fire, as if someone had grabbed it and tenderised it with a meat hammer before throwing it onto a charcoal barbecue. 

"HEY!"

A deafening shout was unfurled and there was a second crashing noise, followed by a few gasps and a series of grunts. I felt hands grabbing my shoulders and Jamie's voice by my ear, her usually teasing tone drenched in concern. Opening my shut eyes, my mouth opened with an audible pop when I saw the cause of the second crash. 

Isaac was on the floor, hand across his jaw and his eyes open wide in shock as he looked upwards. Nico was standing over him, his booted foot on Isaac's chest, and his fist throbbing red around the knuckles. His back was strained and his jaw was locked tight, his blue eyes hotter than the burning in my leg. His mouth was curled downwards in a snarl, his lip ring somewhat menacing as he pressed flexed his leg muscles, pushing a dazed and injured Isaac further onto the ground, like a bug under his shoe.

Finally snapping out of his stupor, Isaac shoved Nico's foot of him, getting up hastily to grab Nico by the front of his shirt. Nico didn't move to stop him and just continued glaring at Isaac, his fist shaking in anger. 

"What the fuck, Nico!" Isaac gritted, Nico's eyes narrowing.

"What the fuck?" Nico scoffed, grabbing Isaac's wrist, his fingers digging into the flesh there without remorse. Isaac's mouth twitched in pain, but Nico did not relent, and just shot out his knee into Isaac's stomach. Isaac visibly paled and was again sent to the ground, clearly not expecting Nico to hit him again. They were best friends, and Nico had never hit him before. Hell, they hadn't even argued before, which most found surprising since Isaac was a hothead and Nico never held back on his words. "You start punching people, and you ask me 'what the fuck'?"