Page 34 of What I Should Have Felt

I scanned the entire stadium to find it empty other than those four kids until a shadow caught my eye. A figure emerged from around the bleachers through the main entrance. He walked with quiet, slow footsteps, and I kicked myself for not picking up he was there sooner. Though, I guess I was unusually preoccupied by the fact that Colette was Azelie’s fuckingmom.

He swayed almost unsteadily onto the track with two more boys following behind like birds in a flock. All of them had a similar look about them. Three boys who were old enough to have some facial hair, old enough to not need adult supervision, and a chill swept down my spine as all three narrowed their gaze onto Azelie and Macy.

Shit. I prayed they simply had hit puberty earlier than normal and were nothing more than high school rivals or some such shit to these kids. Like the cool kids versus the nerds. These three guys had to be in some rival clique, right? Not sent by O’Connor.

“We’re fine, so bug off,” Cory replied, standing up.

I had to give credit to the kid, despite still being a skinny teenager, and definitely younger than the approaching assholes, he wasn’t afraid to assert himself.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” the stranger hissed and pushed greasy hair behind his ear.

“We’re fine,” Azelie stated again, and all three kids rose. “Let’s go.” She tucked her hand into Macy’s elbow and shifted to walk around the three strangers.

“Ah, where ya going? Don’t you remember us?” the man said again.

I inched forward to the edge of the bleachers, ready to sprint the couple of hundred meters needed and lay this guy out flat. But I hesitated. Was Azelie as fiery as her mom and would get pissed if I stepped in? Would she be embarrassed that she needed saving by someone who wasn’t one of those two boys with her?

“No, we don’t remember you. So fuck off!” Azelie snarled, and I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth.

Yep, just like her mom.

“Oh, come on, we only graduated last year, you have to know us,” the stranger replied.

Nope. Fuck, no. They were fifteen, and this motherfucker was a grown ass adult. To hell with how embarrassed Azelie might end up.

“We just finished our freshman year. Of course we don’t know you. So, leave, creep,” Thomas said, standing up beside Cory as Macy and Azelie quickly attempted to skirt around the side of the three new adults.

The ringleader threw out his arm and blocked their path with a wry smile. I shot out of my hiding place.

“Fuck off. I won’t ask again,” I snarled and stalked their way.

The eyes on every single kid widened, even the three “men.”

“Get lost, loser. Can’t you see we’re just chatting?” he called out at me, but took a stumbling step backward.

“Why would we chat with you?” Azelie hissed and hocked a huge wad of snot at the stranger.

Rage seethed behind his eyes as he wiped the loogie from his cheek.

Shit. As much as I couldn’t stop the smile from cracking upon my lips, I knew that look.

His focus ripped from me, and he glared at Azelie. “You little bitch.”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarled, stopping the stranger from grabbing her arm.

He whipped his gaze back to me. “What are you going to do, old man? Hit me? Call the cops?”

With three more steps, I got right in his face and stared down at him. “You should fucking hope I call them. You should fucking pray that I call them because they’re the only ones saving you from me if you so much as touch a hair on her head.”

His pointy Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he took another stumbling step backward. Alcohol seeped from his skin, and that musty scent of weed. “I’ll—I’ll—” he stammered.

“You’ll be begging for them. Being in prison as a fucking pedophile would be paradise compared to what I’ll do if I see you so much as breathe in her direction again,” I sneered at him.

Red. Everything around me was red. Like a bull to a fighter, I was the bull. Maddened by a type of devil I’d become familiar with overseas, yet here they were, in my hometown. The beast that had been trained to obliterate men like this one clawed at the cage within me. The steel bars keeping it at bay weren’t going to hold out for long.

“You—You’re—” he stuttered as he and his two companions took another couple stumbling steps back. This time, I stayed still, a barrier between the teenagers and the type of men I knew all too well. Creeps like them had hung around high school when I was a teenager myself.

“Call my bluff. Please,” I teased and tipped my head, keeping my gaze steady on the three of them, my hands curled into fists as they trembled with rage. “Apparently, the town already thinks I’ve murdered someone. Death would be a relief for what I’d do to you.”

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