Make a run for it

"Oh God." You say to yourself as your eyes dart to exit. You have to leave now. You just lost control...again. And Melody probably won't forgive you this time.

"Jack?" You hear her ask weakly. You can't even face her now.

"I...I'm sorry." You manage to **** out before you dash from the bar. The rain pounding down on your head reminds you that the weather sucks, but you don't care. The cool water actually helps calm you ire and it feels good on your cuts and bruises. There was some shouting coming from behind you, but you don't turn back. You have to get away.

You tear down the street, not stopping until you are a few blocks away from the bar. You dart into an alleyway and press your back to the wall. You close your eyes and look upward, letting the rain pound on your face. You clench your fists and curse in a low voice. You pound your already tender fists into the wall behind you a few times out of anger. This is where bottling up your anger will get you; unleashing it once you lose control.

You shiver a bit from the cool air and rain and realize that the adrenaline must be wearing off. You'll be sure to feel all the damage you took sooner rather than later. You wonder what you will do next. You have to head back ton the dorm, but what will you tell Melody? How are you going to face her? Maybe Scott and Dirk will let you crash with them, at least for the night. At least until you get your head back in order.

"Jack?" A familiar voice asks from outside the alley and you freeze in place. Looks like your decision was just made for you. You begin to push yourself from the wall when the voice continues. "Don't. Jus' don't. I know yer thinkin' 'bout runnin', but ya betta not." You can hear her enter the alleyway. Her footsteps slosh in the rain puddles. "Are ya okay?"

"Melody..." You start off, still not daring to open your eyes. "Look, I..." But you don't get to finish your sentence as a pair of hands grab your shirt collar. Your eyes open as Melody yanks you off the wall and pulls your head down until you are looking at her eye to eye.

"Are. Ya. Okay?" She asks again, this time accentuating each word sharply.

"Yeah. I...I'm all right." You nod, not knowing how else to react.

"Good." She replies, then reaches out, grabs one of your nipples and gives it a rough twist."

"Ow!" You exclaim and hunch over. She let go of your color, so you could freely grab your smarting chest and stumble back a bit. It seemed silly for that to be so painful considering you just had the shit beat out of you, but the lack of adrenaline probably had something to do with it.

"Watta ya tryin' ta do? Give me a heart attack?" Melody exclaims. "Do ya have any idea of how worried I wash? Ya got inta a brutal fight an' jus' left!"

"I...I couldn't..." You try to mumble out some sort of explanation.

"Couldn't wha? Lemme know ya were okay?" She crosses her arms and glares at you. "Ya've pulled shome shtupid shit before, Jack, but this takes tha cake."

"Hey!" You try to be indignant as you straighten up, but neither thing goes very well for you. "How was I supposed to react? Huh? I saw the look in your eyes. You were scared of me, Melody! How was I going to face you after wailing on your ex like that?" You look right back at her and a hurt look crosses her face, then a sad one.

"Oh, Jack..." She walks back over to you and puts her hand on your cheek. Then she slowly slides it down to your chin you close your eyes and drink in the feeling of her soft hand over your cuts and bruises. She lingers for a moment, then drops the hand and grabs you other nipple, twisting it violently. You react about the same as you did before.

"Gah! Not again!" You hiss, clutching the newly sore nipple. "Fucking ow!"

"Scared of you?!" She exclaims incredulously. "SCARED? Of YOU?" She looks like she might laugh if she wasn't so upset. "You idiot! I have never been, and never will be, scared of you. I was scared FOR you!"

"For me?" You ask. The idea honestly never crossed your mind.

"YES!" She yells. "God, you don't think I don't feel it every time you get hurt? Every time Keith punched you?" All that yelling and rain must be sobering...her speech isn't slurring so much. "Every time you went down to the ground, I thought this might be the time you don't get back up. Keith does not have a gentle touch. He takes boxing lessons and plays football, for God's sake."

"Ah. Yeah, I think I felt those lessons paying off." You remark.

"I'm serious!" She says. "And then you started winning...but that wasn't much better. You looked like a wild animal...like you did back in high school when you fought Lukas Williams after he humiliated me in front of the school. You...went nuts on him too."

"See? You were scared of me." You reply. Melody reaches for your chest again, and you wisely back off. "Okay, okay!" You hold your hands up.

"No, I was still scared FOR you. After what you did to Lukas...you became so distant for a while. You hardly spoke to me during the your week suspension from school. You seemed so ashamed of what you did."

"Or ashamed of what I must have seemed like." You finish. "To you."

"I hated seeing you like that!" Melody put her hand to her chest. "But I especially hated that it was because of me. Don't get me wrong I was grateful for you...just like I am for how you stood up for me tonight. But I didn't want to be the reason you felt the way you did. That you would have to suffer so much for me."

"Is that why you made me promise not to get into any more fist fights on your behalf?" You ask. She simply nods. You let out a bitter laugh. "Looks like I broke that promise too."

"Don't be a moron." She sighed. "Do you really think I expected you to keep that promise?"

"Huh?" You ask in confusion.

"You now as well as I do that there is no power on the planet that would keep you from getting into a fight for me. To you, I will always be the princess locked away in the tower and you will always be my stupid little knight, willing to risk himself to keep me safe, even if I am able to handle it myself."

"Yeah." You shrug, looking down at your feet. She knew you almost better than you knew yourself. "Sorry." Then you feel her hand on your shoulder. You cringe involuntarily, but this time, she moves her hand back up to you cheek and keeps it there.

"Every girl should be lucky enough to have a stupid little knight." She replies softly with a smile. "To have someone who cares about them that much." You venture a look up at her face to meet her eye to eye again. "And you know that if the roles were reversed, I would don that armor for you, whether I wanted to or not." You look at each other for a few minutes before you attempt a grin.

"I think you would look better as the princess than me though." You say. This gets Melody to laugh a bit. Then the smile drops and she looks serious again. she leans forward and puts her forehead against yours.

"Please don't scare me like that again, okay? Whether you get hurt physically or emotionally...just don't run from me."

"Yeah, okay." You reply. "I guess I was scared too. Of what you were going to think of me." Her hands reach out and grab yours.

"I think you are my best friend who just acted very brave for me. Very stupid, but very brave. And he got hurt and needs some rest and someone to take care of him." She smiles. "Thankfully, I know just the place and I know just the person."

"That does sound pretty good." You reply.

"C'mon. Let's get you back to the dorm." Melody says.