Deep breath humans ... this one is on the intense side.
The sound of a soccer ball slamming into the net snapped me out of my thoughts. It had been an excruciatingly long day... and it still wasn't over.
I didn't even remember if Cyrus was supposed to take me home or if Declan said he would. Either way, I was here at their practice after school waiting on one of them.
"Monty, I want you to set up the line and run that again!" Coach shouted as he neared closer to me.
"Are you okay, Rowena?" He asked when he finally reached me.
"Yes, I'm fine Coach. Thanks for checking up." I add a smile.
He stayed with me for a few minutes, coaching the boys from the bleachers and distracting me with small conversation. I appreciated it.
I think Coach realized he was yelling too much. He reached for his whistle around his neck but came back with nothing. He pats his chest and dug in his pockets looking for it. "Damn, I think I left my whistle in my office."
"I can go get it for you Coach," I say and I'm already getting up from the bleachers to go find it.
"It's right on my desk, on top of the red binder!" He calls after me. I stick a thumbs up in the air.
Coach Clarke's office was in the boy's locker room, but obviously, it wasn't an issue since every boy was out on the field. It was quiet, the only sound being the door slamming shut behind me.
It was like a maze in here. I had to walk down a hallway, past the open wall with the lockers, past the showers and toilet stalls, and finally made it to his office.
I walked to the back where Coach's door was still open. I found the whistle on the red binder almost immediately. When I had it in my hands, I heard the door slam again. Someone had just walked in.
It could have been Declan or Cyrus, coming to check up or to help me find the whistle. But it also could have been one of the other players just coming back to grab a water bottle or something.
Whoever it was, I didn't need to be in here anymore anyway. I took the whistle and made my back towards the locker room door.
I walked back past the showers when I realized it was still quiet. If someone really had come in, I would have thought I could hear them by now, doing whatever it was they came in to do. I didn't hear anything.
I put a little more pep in my step, suddenly spooked and eager to get out of here. I made it through the hallway past the lockers when I blinked and someone had appeared right in front of me, blocking my path to the door.
I halted before I ran into their chest. When I looked up, Jeremey was standing there. His blonde hair was messy and his green eyes were narrowed as he stared down silently at me.
I let out a sigh of exhaustion. "I know what you're thinking, okay? But I didn't write that exposé and I'm getting real tired explaining myself."
"Oh yeah? I think you're a lying ass little bitch, Rowena." He seethes. Every few words bring him a step closer.
My anger flares a spark. "And I think you're a coward ass little bitch Jeremy, what the fuck is your point?"
"You just couldn't leave shit alone, could you?" He asks slowly. He steps closer to me still and I end up stepping away as he goes on. "It wasn't enough to take Natalie away from me. Now my best friend won't talk to me because of you, Rowena. My uncle is in jail now, because of you."
"Your Uncle? I don't know what you-" My words were cut off when he shoved me into the lockers. The sound of my back hitting the metal echoed off the walls. And then it was that glare... the glare of his pale green eyes, the coldness and the anger that showed through them. My stomach plummeted once the realization kicked in.
"He was your uncle...?" My voice was barely audible. "Giovanni is your uncle?" I asked more clearly. That's why Giovanni had looked so familiar when I first saw his picture. Jeremey had the same eyes as he did. The resemblance at this moment became the most obvious thing in the world.
He didn't say anything to my realization. He was just breathing harder as his anger kept building. "Jeremey, your Uncle's in jail because he's a piece of shit. He kidnapped people, he sold drugs, he's most likely murdered before. He's only getting what he deserves and the only thing I'm sorry for is the fact that you can't see that for yourself."
"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled and slammed his fists into the lockers behind me. With one fist on each side of my head, I was trapped now. "Just shut up. You should have kept your mouth shut. My uncle was none of your business. None of it was your business, not with Duncan or Brooke and especially not with Natalie."
"Natalie is my business, but it doesn't matter. What happened with her was your own fucking fault! Get off of me." I shoved him away with both my arms. Then I froze.
He caught my wrist in a vice grip, the same wrist that still wasn't completely healed. He must have seen the fear that flashed in my eyes because he had a nasty smirk on his face now.
"I know you're not sorry, Rowena. But you will be," and with that, he yanked me towards him so hard by the wrist and twisted it up at an angle it wasn't supposed to go. The scream I let out didn't even sound like me and the heat from the pain burned like no other.
He shoved me to the ground and I barely had time to catch myself with my uninjured arm before I hit the floor. I held my wrist close to my chest hoping not to move it anymore.
"Don't worry, Rowena," Jeremey said when his feet were right at my side. I was yanked again. This time he caught me by the upper arms, hoisting me up and slamming me back against the lockers. "You're only getting what you deserve," He teased.
It was a struggle to focus on anything but the pain I felt in my wrist, but I needed to. I took deep breaths and thought of something else. And that's when my brain helped me make a decision.
Because I had helped put a grown ass criminal behind bars just a few weeks ago. It doesn't matter if they're related. It doesn't matter that these pale green eyes are practically the same that haunted me in my nightmares. Jeremey was just a boy in comparison... a boy that hurt Natalie.
So before he could hurt me any more than he already has, I took my uninjured hand and decked him in the fucking throat.
He threw his head back and went into a coughing fit. While he was distracted, I shoved my knee into his groin and he double over as he still struggled to breathe.
"You can't make me sorry for what happened with your uncle, but that's the extent of what I did. I didn't write that damn paper Jeremy, someone else did, but who. fucking. cares." I spoke down to him as he was crouched on the floor. "You did this to yourself. You made your own choices and now you can't even take the responsibility for them. You never loved Natalie, you loved the control you had over her. And now you really hate that she can be happy without you. Well, fuck you Jeremey. Have fun being alone."
I finally caught my breath, holding my wrist back against my chest and cringing at the pain. It hurt to even walk but I turned away from him to do it anyway.
But when I heard him move behind me it was too late. The next thing I knew he had his hand wrapped around my ankle and tugged it back with so much strength I lost my balance immediately.
My head slammed into the floor when I went down. Maybe it was the bang or maybe it was the ringing I heard next that gave me the headache so fast. I know I opened my eyes, but everything was spinning.
I don't know how long it took me to blink away the dizziness. It couldn't have been too long if Jeremey was still on the ground by my feet. I think it was the adrenaline that made the world stop going in circles and I could hear my surroundings without the ringing in my ears now.
He sat up with his hand still tight around my ankle and started to pull me back towards him. I had only just started kicking when I heard the door slam again.
"You must be out of your god damn mind." I had heard a pissed off Declan before, but it never brought me comfort like it did in this very moment. Because right now he sounded like a fucking angel to me.
My head turned back to Jeremey when Declan came over and stomped his foot flat into his chest with so much power that he was thrown off of me. It gave me the room to scoot myself back.
I hit a pair of legs before they tucked their hands under my arms and lifted me up. I might have panicked if I didn't realize so quickly that it had been Cyrus. "Hey, you okay?" He scanned me head to toe before realizing I was holding my wrist in pain.
"Nico, go grab Coach Clarke!" He yelled back. I didn't even realize he and Adam were standing there.
We heard a grunt bringing our attention over to Declan as he yanked Jeremey to his feet and threw him against the lockers. "Go ahead, Jeremey. You want to act tough so bad you can start with me." He shoved Jeremy down, but he didn't land on the floor. Declan brought his knee up and rammed it into his abdomen before he let him fall.
Cyrus watched it all and made no move to stop him. I shifted in his arms and he looked down at me again. "Are you okay?" He asked me again and I slowly nodded my head.
He looked back at Jeremey with a frown. Maybe he thought Declan was doing too much now... but that wasn't it. The frown he made was the same face he had when a thought occurred to him.
"Row, when you- When I took you to Natalie's house, the night you told me they broke up... this isn't the first time he's put his hands on a girl is it?"
When I didn't answer right away, his frown was set, and so was the stance of his jaw when he was angry. It was a rare facial expression for Cyrus, but I recognized it anyway. "No, Cyrus. This isn't the first," I managed to say softly.
I saw him give me a single nod before I slipped out of his arms. I had suddenly felt such an intense wave of nausea I needed to find a toilet. I nearly ran to where I remembered seeing them and I made it just in time to release what I knew was coming.
I managed to keep my hair out of the way but I was still grateful when another pair of hands took over for me. "You're okay, Row," Adam said with one hand holding my hair and his other rubbing my back. "You'll be okay, let it out."
He helped me to the sink afterward so that I could rinse out my mouth. My head was now pounding. I think I said something, or he said something and now I was drinking water from a bottle.
Shit had escalated where we left the others because now it was Cyrus who was on top of Jeremey raining down punches.
"Hey, Rowena. Where did you go? Are you okay?" Declan was there in front of me now holding my face in his hands. I couldn't make what he said after that, everything was so loud. Coach was there now, someone had to pull Cyrus off of Jeremey.
"Declan I think-" The pounding in my head wouldn't stop, the ringing was back again. "I think I hit my head really hard."
I fell into his chest now. I needed to close my eyes, I thought it would help with the noise, so I closed them. He said something back, but his voice sounded so far away. And then I didn't hear anything at all.
A/N: how many people were scared ? Me too. I was really really scared.
the Wattpad Teenfiction account posted this story on their hidden gems reading list. CAN I GET UH HOEYEAHHH
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