Page 90 of A Vicious Rumor

"You see, he thinks Lily White should be his girlfriend, even though he used and dumped her this summer."

Hushed whispers went through the crowd, this time focused on Lily. I was basically seeing red now at the fact that Scissors would put her reputation further at stake.

"Oh yes. By all accounts, he took her virginity, and then decided she wasn't good enough and moved on to someone else."

Jeers and boos continued to move through the crowd, and I stood there, fighting every urge to rush over there right now and kill the bastard.

"But, I guess the poor sucker wasn't over her. Even though she moved on to," he brushed his shoulder, "something better, he still pined for her. Wah, wah," he said, making a crying motion with his hands.

The crowd laughed and all started to do the same.

"So now, we're here, because of him, and his stupid hard on for a girl who he threw away. If he wins, he gets her, but if I win," he looked me dead in the eyes, "I'm going to take all of her."

Paper grabbed the microphone back from him.

"Thank you, for that riveting introduction. The fight starts at the sound of the buzzer. Keep it clean, or I call it off," he said.

I took one last look through the stands. Maybe Lily had shown after all. In a way, I almost wanted her to hear all the things that Scissors had just said. Maybe it would show her how much this guy needed to be brought down a notch.

A flash of white caught my eye and I turned to look, but I shouldn't have. Paper sounded the buzzer, and Scissors turned and rushed at me before I was even looking back in his direction. He came in hard with a right hook that I didn't have time to dodge. It hit me across the face, and the pain was excruciating, far worse than it should have been.

I stumbled backwards onto my ass as my vision went hazy. Someone shouted something about brass knuckles. Scissors lunged for me again and I blocked as best as I could, but he hit me across the other side, my arms flailing uselessly given how disoriented I was.

The flash of white that I'd seen had been Lily. She screamed as she watched me go down. It was as if the entire scene was playing out in slow motion. Paper came up behind Scissors and wrapped his arm around his chest, stopping him from landing another excruciating blow to my face. Lily came over and kneeled next to me.

She was trying to speak to me, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. I wanted to talk to her, to tell her I was sorry, that she was right, this just wasn't worth it. I'd never been on the receiving end of this, but now I understood how it felt. I never wanted to make someone feel like this again. It felt like absolute shit.

My vision started to flicker, just as people started to look towards the parking lot. I was trying to get her attention, but she wasn't looking at me. Black spots filled my vision as I started to collapse backward.

Her hand was wrenched out of mine. Big, dark shadows surrounded me and her as she was pulled roughly to her feet. I tried to sit up. I tried to fight back. Someone was taking her away from me, and even my concussion-riddled mind knew who it was.

It was everything I'd tried to stop by keeping her away from me. I shouldn't have ignored their calls. I shouldn't have gotten involved in any of this. I should have protected her better.

She was screaming. I could see it. They were pulling her by her beautiful blonde hair and she was screaming in pain as she tried to fight them to get back to me.

She was the only light left in my world, but they were taking it from me.

I lifted my hand out to try and reach her, but everything faded into darkness the more they pulled her away.

LILY

I ran from the car to the field. Just as I arrived, Paper sounded the buzzer, and I watched in horror as I saw a much drunker than I'd left him Scissors running at Tyson. He had leather gloves on, which was strange, because I'd never seen Scissors wearing leather gloves before. Tyson locked eyes with me, and I could almost see him smile. I tried to tell him to look out!

He shouldn't have been looking at me. He needed to pay attention to the fight.

Scissors came in fast with a right hook. The crowd roared their excitement as I screamed my fear. Tyson went down far too hard for just one punch to the jaw. He stumbled backwards onto the field, and I couldn't take this anymore. Scissors came in to hit him again, and I knew I had to make this stop.

It was as if we were replaying the scene where we had met. I rushed over to him just as Scissors hit him again. I could see the light starting to fade in his eyes. Someone yelled something about brass knuckles, and it all made sense. There was no way that Scissors would be able to hit Tyson hard enough on his own. He just didn't have the training or the size.

I'd never expect Zachary to do something like that, but then again, he'd just found out information that threatened to bring down his entire life and the legacy that had been set up for him.

I knelt down in front of Tyson. His speech was blurry and his eyes kept trying to roll into the back of his head. I screamed for someone to call 911 just as Paper came over and all but tackled Scissors to the ground.

"The fuck's the matter with you, hm?" he yelled at his friend, losing his composure in a way I'd never seen him do before.

Tyson reached his hand out for me, and I took it. He was trying to tell me something, but I was trying to tell him just to rest. The entire crowd in the stadium was going wild with excitement, and I wished that somebody would care just enough to call a doctor.

Just as I was about to pull my own cell phone out of my purse, a gunshot was fired somewhere near the parking lot. The tone of the crowd changed from excitement to one of fear as a group of five guys, all armed to the hilt with a variety of weapons, walked onto the field.

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