The Heavier the Chains...

Chapter 10

The chaos that can shut us down.

Talon~

It was finally Friday, and I had a fight tonight, and thank God.

All week had been an exhausting battle of the wills between me and Kenzlee, and that shit had been exhausting as fuck. I needed a fight to purge all the frustration eating me alive with that girl.

While we had gotten to the point where she'd let me walk her to our classes, that was all the give that she had given. If I wanted to hold her hand, I had to grab it and damn near break every bone in it to hold on. If we ate lunch together, I had to abandon my regular table and go to whatever table she chose to sit that day. Any affection between us was in the form of me kissing her on the side of her head whenever I had to leave her, but that was it.

Then there were the rumors running rampant all over school. Because Kenzlee was still walking around with a scowl on her face every time that I was near, people were still confused as to what we were doing. Now, normally, I didn't give a fuck what people said about me, but I cared what they said about Kenzlee.

It wasn't her fault that I had fallen for her. It wasn't her fault that she made me feel what no other girl on the planet had ever made me feel. Hell, it wasn't like she had even tried. She fucking ran into me.

That's it.

That's all.

She had run into me, and I had felt.

She had run into me, and she's all I've been feeling since. I stopped questioning it last week, and if people wanted to label it love at first sight, well, so be it. I still wasn't exactly sure what it was, but whatever it was, it was strong enough for me to know that I wasn't giving her up, no matter how pissed off she was at me. Also, if she was only walking around with me to keep Jason from getting his ass kicked, I'd take it.

Now I was headed towards third period gym, and for the first time in years, I was looking forward to it. I had so much pent-up frustration that I felt sorry for the poor sucker who was scheduled to fight me tonight. The moneymakers might be upset at the quick show, but I didn't care.

I was rounding the corner into the hallway that led to the gymnasium when I saw Tammy Jones leaning up against the side of the building.

Motherfucker.

She stepped to me as I walked past her towards the gym's double doors. "Talon," she said, stepping in line with me.

"Tammy," I acknowledged, trying to ignore her but not be a complete dick about it.

"Do you have a minute?" she asked, even though it was clear that everyone was scrambling to get to class. The second warning bell had already rung.

"Not really, Tammy," I answered, trying not to grit my teeth. "I need to get to gym."

She touched my shoulder, and I couldn't help it; I jerked back and turned to face her. "This will only take a second," she assured me as she snatched her hand back, knowing that she'd gone too far with me.

I've known Tammy for years. We were brought up through the same school system all our lives. We weren't neighbors, but I'd always known who she was. I also knew that she was bad news. Normally, I didn't care about shit like that, but her thinking that she could approach me and touch me was a problem. I'd spoken maybe a handful of sentences to her during our entire lives, so I didn't owe her anything.

"What is it?" I asked as we stopped in front of the gym doors.

Tammy started gnawing her lower lip, and I was quickly losing my patience. She finally spoke up, and I wasn't surprised. "Are the rumors about you and the new girl true?"