Fighting to be Free by Kirsty Moseley (30 page)

He laughed and rubbed his arm, looking at me like I was crazy. "I honked you. You forget what my car looks like already?" he teased, shaking his head at me.

I sighed and rested my head back on the headrest. "I couldn't see, it's dark!" I protested, smiling because my heart rate was starting to slow down to normal pace again.

He laughed and put the car into drive. "Put on your seatbelt," he instructed, pulling out again and heading in the direction of my house. We didn't speak through the ten minute drive, I sat there uncomfortably, hugging Jamie's jacket around myself. When he pulled up he smiled at me. "Think I could use your bathroom? I need to pee. Drank too much coke I think," he said, already taking off his seatbelt and killing the engine.

I frowned but nodded anyway. I didn't really want him to come in, but after he'd just driven me home I couldn't exactly say no. He followed me inside and he headed to the downstairs bathroom, while I went to the kitchen to see if there was any food for me to snack on. Thankfully my parents were already in bed so I wouldn't have to put up with my mom shooting me a thousand questions about me and Mark and if we were back together or not. She really needed to give it up too; there was no chance of that happening.

I found some leftover pizza in the fridge so I pulled it out and sat at the counter munching on it.

Mark came in after a couple of minutes and smiled. "That looks good. Can I have some?" he asked, nodding at the plate.

I shrugged and pushed the plate in his direction as he sat down next to me. "Thanks for the ride home. Even though you did scare the crap out of me," I said, grinning and blushing at my stupidity.

He smiled and bit into his pizza. It was a little awkward. Conversation had never flowed easily between us, talking wasn't one of the key points of our three year relationship - then again, there wasn't actually many key points to our relationship at all to be honest. I loved him in the beginning but then it just kind of fizzled out, but by then we'd been together too long to just give up on it so we stayed together and the relationship turned a little sour.

"So what are your plans for the weekend?" I asked politely.

He shrugged. "Not sure. My dad wants me to go into his office tomorrow and help him prepare for a big case he has coming up, nothing interesting really. What about you?"

"I'm seeing Jamie tomorrow daytime, nothing else planned though," I answered, throwing my crust in the trash.

"Want to catch a movie or something tomorrow night? That guy that you like, Chris Pine, has a movie out I think," he suggested, looking at me hopefully.

I squirmed in my seat. "Jamie took me to see it last week," I replied, smiling apologetically.

"Oh. Well, maybe we could see something else? Or dinner?" he asked giving me the little lost boy look.

I smiled sadly. When Mark wanted to, he could be sweet, but this nice guy act never lasted long. He would be nice right up until I wore something he didn’t like, or spoke to someone without him being there, or even accepted a drink from someone at a party. He was crazy possessive. If he was thinking I'd forgotten the reasons that we broke up just because he suggested we go see a chick flick together, then he was very much mistaken. Even if Jamie did break up with me then there would be no chance that I would ever go back to Mark.

"Mark, I'm with Jamie."

A frown lined his forehead as his eyes turned a little hard. "Ellie, it's not right that we're not together! We were a great couple. Just give me another chance, please?" he asked, getting off of his stool and stepping closer to me, his eyes boring into mine.

"Mark, I think you should go. Thanks for the ride home, I appreciate it." I eyed the door as I stood up too, signalling the end of the conversation.

He obviously didn’t get my signal though, because he gripped the tops of my arms, pulling me against his body as his lips crashed against mine, kissing me fiercely. I whimpered and squirmed, turning my head to the side to break the kiss but his grip tightened on my arms, his fingers digging into my skin as he kissed me again.

I got my arms between our bodies and shoved him as hard as I could, making him stumble back a couple of steps. I glared at him as I swiped at my mouth angrily, trying to wipe away the feel of his lips against mine. "Just get the hell out!" I growled quietly, not wanting to wake my parents or sister.

"Ellie," he started, but I held up a hand to cut him off.

"Leave. Now," I ordered, marching out into the hall and wrenching the door open.

He did follow me out there but he didn’t look happy at all. His jaw was tight, his eyes piercing into mine as he stomped over to the open door. "I love you, Ellie. Sooner or later you'll realise that you're dating a waster and you'll come begging me to take you back," he vowed.

I snorted and shook my head, not looking at him as I opened the door wider in prompt. He sighed and before I could stop him, he bent forward and kissed me again for a second before heading out of the door. I growled in frustration and closed the door, wanting nothing more than to scream and kick the wood in frustration.

After locking the door and throwing the rest of the pizza back into the fridge, I headed upstairs. As I got to the top my mom came out of the bathroom, crossing the hallway, heading back towards her bedroom. She smiled at me, a little glint to her eye told me that she'd witnessed at least some of that little exchange that happened between me and Mark.

"Hi, Ellison. How was the dance?" she chirped, smiling happily.

I sighed and shrugged. "It was okay I guess," I replied. "I'm going to bed. G'night, Mom."

"Good night, honey."

I ignored the second smug smile on her face and headed into my room, practically ripping the dress off over my head and flopping down on the bed in my underwear. I buried my face into the pillow and tried my hardest not to cry. I refused to think about Mark and him kissing me. If I started thinking about him then I'd end up getting angry about it and then I'd never get to sleep. My thoughts turned to Jamie, I silently wondered if he made it home okay or if he needed me to go over there and play nursemaid for him. I longed for him to be here with me, to hold me in his arms and kiss me goodnight. I missed him like crazy. I was both excited to see him tomorrow, and scared at the same time because I was dreading the moment that he would say what I knew he was going to say - that it was over. How was I going to cope with that when he said it? My best guess was that I wouldn't handle it very well at all.

~ Jamie ~

I pulled my keys out of my pocket as I walked down the road. Earlier in the day I’d parked my car near her school so that I could drive myself to the warehouse when the time came. Anger and resentment was boiling in my chest. The resentment was firmly directed towards my mother for dragging me into this situation in the first place. The anger, and it was a lot of anger, was directed towards the asshole that had been calling me constantly all night asking when I was getting there and panicking about the boost being late.

I felt like shit right now. I hated everything about my life at the moment, the pressure, the illegality, but mostly I hated the fact that I’d left Ellie stranded at her school dance. I sucked big time and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest when she dumped me for it. I truly was a worthless boyfriend right now and she deserved better than me.

I sighed as I approached my beat up old truck, unlocking it and slipping inside. I pictured Ellie’s concerned face as I started up the car. She was an incredible person. I’d lied and told her I had a headache, and as soon as I said the words, she was nothing but concerned for me. I’d never had anyone worry about me like she does, I loved it. I sighed when I pictured how she looked tonight, so beautiful, almost too good for my sanity. The urge to tell her than I loved her had been so strong tonight that I had no idea how I’d managed to keep the words at bay.

I drove straight to the warehouse, swinging my car into an empty space and slamming the door with way too much force as the anger built even more. Stepping into the warehouse, my hands unconsciously tightened into fists, my fingers immediately aching because of the force of it as I spotted his smug face. Terry. The bastard who’d been calling and texting for the last three hours, ruining the limited time I got to spend with my girl.

I didn’t focus on anyone else; I ignored the greetings of the rest of the team that were standing around. Instead I walked up to Terry, smiling politely as I approached.

“Fina-fucking-ly!” he cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

I didn’t answer; instead I put both hands on his chest and shoved, hard, making him stumble back against the wall. Gripping a fistful of his shirt I smashed my fist into his stunned face. He grunted as his lip split, gushing blood down his chin. I didn’t stop at that though; I wasn’t satisfied with just a split lip. I pulled back my fist and punched his stomach, taking out all of my frustrations on him.

“I said eleven, asshole! Why keep calling me? I told you I was busy, you prick!” I shouted as I punched him in the ribs. He was trying to fight me off, struggling against my hold, but that didn’t matter - I knew his efforts were futile. He was a good few inches taller than me, and probably outweighed me by about thirty pounds, but I knew I could put him down easily.

Arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me back. “Kid, calm the hell down,” Ray hissed, dragging me back a couple of steps.

I could barely hear him through my rage as Terry reached into his pocket, bringing out a silver flick knife. As the blade snapped out, I elbowed Ray harshly in the ribs so that he’d let go. I didn’t actually want to hurt him, but I couldn’t leave myself open like that by being restrained - not when Terry was looking like he seriously wanted to cut my heart out.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you, Jamie,” Terry spat angrily. I smiled at that threat - a couple of months ago, that probably wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest. Death was probably a good out back then, things were different now though, I had Ellie.

I stepped closer to him, watching as rage and maybe a little fear crossed his broken face. He was definitely weary of me; maybe he’d heard rumours about me too.

“Calm down, both of you. Terry, put that shit away,” Ray ordered.

I smiled. “Yeah, Terry, put that shit away before you hurt yourself. You really shouldn’t play with knives,” I mocked, raising one eyebrow.

His lip curled up exposing his teeth that were covered in blood, no doubt from where I’d punched him. “You have to be the most overconfident, cocky little fucker that I’ve ever met. You talk a big game for a street rat, son of a whore, murderer!” Terry mused.

I knew he was trying to goad me into making the first move and it wasn’t going to work. I’d been called a lot worse in my time. Truth be told, I
was
the murdering son of a whore, so I couldn’t exactly disagree with what he said.

He moved quickly, lunging at me with the knife, I stepped to the side and grabbed his wrist, slamming it hard against the wall to get him to drop it, he didn’t though, instead he twisted his body, slamming his knee into my side. I hissed through my teeth as pain radiated up my chest from my almost healed ribs. I gripped one hand around his throat, putting my leg behind his and stepped to the side, twisting his body so he lost his footing, and stumbled over my foot. As he fell to the floor, I let myself go with him, landing on top of him as I slammed his wrist to the floor this time. The knife finally left his hand, skidding across the floor, going underneath a car that was sitting ready for pickup.

Terry made a strangled gurgle as my hand tightened on his throat, at the same time I pushed myself up to my knees and straddled him, using my other hand to smash into his face. I knew I needed to show him that he wasn’t in charge here, I wasn’t going to be putting up with his crap all the time, he needed to learn. I punched him over and over in the face and chest. I hadn’t lost control though; I knew what I was doing. If I had lost control then I wouldn’t be able to hear the people shouting at us to break it up, I wouldn’t be able to feel someone tugging at the back of my shirt, trying to get me off of Terry. I had lost control only once before and I never wanted to do that again.

When I was satisfied, I gripped his shirt and leant over him putting my face inches from his. I looked into his watery eyes as I spoke. “You ever pull a knife on me again and I’ll run it through your heart,” I growled. I let my eyes stay on his for a few seconds, allowing my words to sink in, letting him know I was serious. Ray was pulling at my upper arms as he shouted at me angrily.

Finally, I let him lift me to my feet but not before I shot out one last kick at Terry as he rolled over, my foot connecting with his lower back at the side where his kidneys were. He’d be thinking of me every time he took a piss for the next few days because of that.

I smiled and ran a hand through my hair, dimly aware that my hands were shaking from the adrenalin that was coursing through my system. I turned to look at Ray, smiling reassuringly that I was fine and in control of myself. He was frowning angrily, but that anger was clearly directed at Terry as he glared at him.

“So, are we ready to get this show on the road, or what?” I asked, choosing to ignore the past few minutes and move on. I had a job to do and the quicker I got it done, the quicker I could go home to bed. I didn’t look at Terry as he struggled to get to his feet.

Ray sighed and nodded, turning back to me again. “You okay, Kid?”

I nodded and shrugged, of course I was okay, I was always okay. “Yep. Where’s my pack?” I asked, looking around for the details of the boost tonight. Ray nodded over towards the brown envelope on the desk. As I headed over to get it something slammed into me from behind, making me crash against the hot little red sports car.

“No! Careful of the car!” Ray screamed like a little girl.

I didn’t have time to laugh like I wanted to; Terry was obviously back for more. He pinned me against the car so I threw my head back, connecting with his face. He grunted, his hold on me loosening so I shoved myself back throwing him off of me. My jaw tightened as I turned and looked at him warningly, he seriously didn’t know when to give up this guy.