*Hands over an Oreo*

"NO!" Blondie yelled, moving to grab Brody's shoulder again but it was a little too late.

Brody was lying on the sidewalk, holding his family jewels.

The second guy who, I noticed had a tattoo on his throat, advanced towards me and swung his fist, while I ducked and punched him in the stomach.

The weakness was taking over my body and affecting my speed.

The tattoo guy, grabbed my hand, and twisted it to a painful angle but I turned just in time to avoid any sprain or fracture and picked his weight up on my back and slammed him on the floor.

I got on top of him, punching his face left and right, which was now uncovered as his hat toppled off.

I got chills as I felt movement behind me and I raised to my feel, turning to the sound when I felt a whoosh of air right in front of my face, making my eyes widen in shock.

The couch guy, now recovered from my blow was now standing on his feet with a shiny object in hand, making me gulp.

A knife.

"Brody, boss ordered us to bring her unharmed. What are you doing?" Blondie hissed at him.

"I'm pretty sure he'll understand if we told him that she resisted." Brody said in a menacing tone.

His eyes were wide and full of rage as his chest heaved up and down, making his nose flare.

Wow. He does know how to hold a grudge.

I didn't look away from the weapon in his hand as I calculated my chances of getting out of this unharmed but I was reminded of the bruise of my injured rib, almost making me groan.

He still had a sloppy posture as I scanned his body to know where to attack.

I, usually, don't attack first but the odds are in his favour because of the sharp advantage in his hand.

What a wuss.

I saw all of his sides open and moved, raising my leg to kick the knife out of his hand but he moved his hand away quickly, grabbing my ankle, and threw me to the side.

I was about to get up when I felt someone grab my ankles and looked down to see the tattoo guy, still laying on the ground and holding my ankles in a death grip as well.

Fuck.

Out of nowhere, I felt my face jerk to a side due to an external force, being the couch guy's fist.

My reflexes kicked in at that moment, making me twist in a 360 and snatch my foot out of tattoo douche's grip, kicking him in the face, in process.

He laid there whining, when I suddenly felt an excruciating pain in my lower abdomen and turned to look at a smirking Brody, holding the knife plunged into my body.

I gasped as I felt the pain spread through the area, before I grabbed his hands, holding the knife with all the strength I had and looked him in the eye with the most sadistic look I could muster up.

I could feel the knife inside my skin but it was not deep enough to have punctured any organ. I just had to leave the knife in there, for me to avoid losing a lot of blood.

I pulled his hands away from the knife, leaving it in my body, before bending his hands in unusual angles, opposite to each other. Brody resisted and thrusted his body to pull his hands out of my grip but I didn't let go.

I felt so much anger pulsing inside me that it almost made my blood boil, literally.

The pain that I felt because of the knife in me was blinding, I almost felt lightheaded but I didn't let it show on my face.

Brody let out a groan at first and with a look at my blank face he finally let out a scream of pain when I felt the bones of his hands break with a crack each.

His wrist bones, in both of his hands were in pieces when blondie stepped closer to us with his hands forward in caution.

"Miles, we don't want any trouble. We'll tell King about your clear rejection to the invitation, is that okay?" He said with wide eyes, looking at a screaming Brody, who was now on his knees, in horror.

"Didn't you get a hint before I broke this guys hands?" I roared, turning to face blondie, who gulped.

I turned back to look down at the couch guy before bending to his level, still not letting go of his hands. "You better pray, I don't ever see your ugly face again, understand?"

He groaned, obviously in pain but I wasn't done being a bitch.

He punctured me for fuck's sake.

"I said, do you understand?" I seethe.

"Yes..." He said, gasping for breath, while nodding his head frantically.

I smirked, letting go of his hands, making him stagger back and fall on his back cradling his very broken hands.

"You don't know the mistake you're making. You only had to deal with us till now, but you might have to deal with King himself, if you keep this up." The tattoo guy gritted out slowly backing away with his little group.

"I can think about my own wellbeing, thank you very much." I said before turning to walk away, with a hand on the knife plunged in my stomach, trying to keep it in place.

As soon as I reached a corner and made a turn, I immediately leaned on a wall, letting out a sigh of relief. My chest heaved up and down as I focused on my breathing so I don't lose consciousness in the middle of an empty street.

*****

I punched in the code of the lock at my house with one arm slung around Lexi's shoulder for support.

I had texted her an SOS message as soon as I knew there's gonna be a problem and she found me as I stood leaning on a wall on the sidewalk.

She had sneaked out of her house and we knew that going back to her place could cause a problem.

My parents on the other hand were not home and by the looks of the wound, it looked like I needed to be stitched up.

I know it's gonna earn me a huge speech and a lot of yelling but I kind of need Alec's help, anyway. Alec is studying to be a doctor, yeah, that moron is a genius, surprisingly, and I can only trust him to stitch me up right now.

"He's gonna kill you, if you don't die on your own, that is." Lexi said helping me into the house and settles me on the couch in the living room. "And what's worse is he's gonna ask you for an explanation before he kills you."

"I know." I sighed carefully sitting on the couch so that the knife on my side does not move and sticks out for Alec to remove.

The pain was unbearable and I felt a layer of sweat forming on my forehead. "Just go call him down please."

About 5 minutes I heard footsteps coming downstairs and by the sound of how calm and slow they were, Lex probably didn't tell him what's up.

"Hey, Em when di- WHAT IN THE WORLD." I winced at his volume, as he rounded in front of the couch, laying eyes on my condition.

"Alec, I'll answer all your questions," I said, my eyes slowly feeling too heavy. "just stitch me up first, will you?"

His eyes were wide in panic as he slumped on the couch beside me. "Oh god Em," he breathed out, before grabbing my face and forcefully opening my eyes with both his hands.

"It is very important that you stay awake bud, okay? Can you do that?" He said, going into the big brother mode, as I nod in response.

He barked the names of a few supplies he needed, for Lex to bring, all the while inspecting the knife and seeing how deep it is.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed with me lying there and Alec trying to talk to me, so I don't give in to the tiredness, I feel in my body.

A cloth was pushed into my mouth. "Okay, bite on that. The knife isn't too deep into your body but it's still gonna hurt."

I nodded.

And then came the part I dreaded. I bit down onto the cloth in my mouth as I let out a muffled scream of pain, as Alec pulled out the knife. He shut his eyes for a second to avoid looking at my hurt expression, before quickly getting back to work.

I was breathing heavily as the pain was making me feel lightheaded and I was just trying to stay awake but my eyes just wouldn't co-operate.

"No no no Em! You can't close your eyes." Lex rushed to me and grabbed my face that had loled back on the couch headrest.

"But I'm too sleepy." I whispered, making Alec look up wide-eyed.

"No no Em I swear to God, if you die on me, I'll eat all the snacks you hide in the second cabinet. The ones I pretend I don't see on a daily basis." He rushed out, doing the stitching at the same time.

I slowly chuckle at that, looking at him with a warm smile as a lone tear escapes my left eye. "It hurts."

"I know." He said with a pained look, before letting out a sigh of relief. "Alright the stitching part is done, I'll just wrap it up in gauze so you're gonna have to sit up for that, yeah buddy?"

I nodded, before sitting up, while Alec did his job pretty well. I noticed Lex apply some antiseptic on my lip which was probably busted.

I looked down at Alec who had a constant frown on his face and knew that he had about a million questions in his mind and I know he was scared out of his wits when he saw my condition.

He doesn't deserve this.

I sighed before Alec suddenly picked me up in his arms, being careful with the injured part.

I rested my head on his shoulder while he called out for Lex about getting something again.

I, was then, made to sit on my bed very carefully. "Open" Alec said holding two pills in front of my mouth, while I obliged.

After downing the pills, Lex helped me lay down finally. Alec went to the bathroom to wash the blood out of his hands, before walking back in and sitting beside me, holding my hand.

The pain wasn't completely gone, but the extraction of the sharp object from my body, did help a lot.

"I'm so mad and confused right now, that I could just blow up." He said, as I sighed.

"I know, I'm sorry." I said.

Lexi climbed the bed, to my other side and laid with her elbow supporting her weight, while she played with my hair.

"You can't scare me like that, kiddo." He shook his head.

Unwanted memories flashed before my eyes and I know Alec was going through the same.

"Anyway, the meds you took will kick in soon and knock you out, so just rest and don't move. If you need anything, ask Lex or call me. Understand?" He said sternly, with no sign of the usual playfulness on his face.

I nodded, before holding his hand tighter. "Thank you."

We spend every minute of every hour bickering but through these years we've always had each other's back and I feel like don't thank him enough for that.

"Well, it's not like I could've let you die." He said, with a small smile making me chuckle. "And you need to rest, for being able to explain to me, why you walked home with a hole in your body."

My smile dropped as I nodded, knowing there's no way out of this.

He left after placing a kiss on my forehead.

I turned to Lex. "Told ya!" She cheered making me roll my eyes.

*****

It's Wednesday and after a lot of begging and sad puppy faces, Alec finally gave in to let me go to school today.

After the whole incident on Sunday, Alec made me explain to him why the heck I almost died the previous night.

I couldn't find it in me, to bring up the stupid gang stuff so I just told him that they were some angry bidders who lost a lot of money and wanted to hurt me to make themselves feel better.

In a bargain, where I don't go to a hospital to get a proper check up, he asked me to stay in bed for proper rest, which means no school, till he says otherwise.

Now, I am completely okay with the concept of getting a break from school and the bell and the stupid classes, but the problem is, that for missing out on so much, the teachers are giving me extra credit work.

It's almost like I'm doing double the work that I did, when I actually went to school. And my friends are getting restless. They've wanted to come home and check on me, while I made excuses to escape that scenario.

They're all worried that my health condition is serious, but I'm hiding it from them, since I told them that I only have a fever.

Ryder has been growing anxious about my disappearance and has been spamming my phone with messages asking me about my condition.

Now unlike the others, he has a suspicion that my problem might not be health related, but I deny that as convincingly as I can.

"Bye bro." I yelled at Alec, attempting to exit his car as we reach the school but I get pulled back into my seat.

"Repeat everything." He said raising his eyebrows making me sigh.

"Don't move too much. No putting pressure on the wound. No running. No getting into fights." I said raising a finger with every point like a child.

"And no activity in PE today, you have a note." He finished.

I do have an exemption note. He checked my schedule for today and almost denied me from coming to school when he saw I had PE today but, I gave him an idea that I could get a note for not being well for any physical activity, making him agree, quite reluctantly, might I add.

I nodded before finally getting out and walking towards the building.

As I got closer to the entrance I saw Dylan, Cole and Lex standing there.

Dylan was the first to spot me, followed by the others, due to his overenthusiastic waving in my direction, making the others and me chuckle.

But that chuckle died down when I noticed him almost taking off to a sprint towards me, which would mean, him colliding with me for a hug, and my eyes widened.

Lex noticed it too and quickly placed a foot in front of Dylan's, which made him topple and fall.

Cole and Lex burst out laughing, and so did I before I let out a sigh of relief.

I quickly walked towards them and helped Dylan up, who was muttering curse words for Lex.

He pulled me in for a hug anyway but it didn't hurt that much. It was more like a bear hug.

"I missed you m&m." He said into my hair, before pulling away and turning to glare at Lex, who stuck her tongue out at him.

"You literally saw me on Saturday and what's with the nickname?" I asked as I moved to hug Cole.

"You feel better now?" Cole asked.

I nodded with a reassuring smile.

"I thought everyone calls you Em, except Ryder because he's obviously special to you so I wanted a unique name to call you by, too." He said with a triumphant smile as if he just said something very genius.

"He's not special." I rolled my eyes, before Lex suddenly winked at me, making me frown.

An arm suddenly went around my waist, as I felt a mouth near my ear, making me shiver.

The action was so simple yet so arousing that I almost felt my eyes flutter shut and lean back on his chest.

"I'm not?"

Holy fuck.

*Author's note*