247"I don't know, I think Brianna likes you," Jordyn reassured Kori as they left the store, each delicately holding a corsage in their hands.
"You think so? She sure is pretty. . ." Suddenly, Jordyn stopped in his tracks and his pupils shrank from fear. "Jord, are you okay -" Kori's expression imitated his when he saw the same scene.
"Alexis! He - he just sliced her arm! BASTARD!" Jordyn unconsciously squeezed the flower in his fist as he ran towards the girls and his car, and Kori dropped Brianna's blossom on the ground and chased after him.
"Take your fucking hands off them!" Jordyn shouted, enraged.
"What makes you think we're going to listen?" Nick asked while throwing his head back in laughter. He pulled Brianna closer to him with his muscular arms. The two were bigger than either Kori or Jordyn, and they had an obvious advantage - weapons.
"Do you honestly think that we're scared of you?" Marcus sneered. Jordyn folded his arms across his chest while a smirk appeared on his face.
"I don't think we're the ones you should be afraid of."
"Huh?" In that instant, Jordyn shot a glance at Alex, telling her of the opening. She quickly reacted to it, grabbing Marcus's wrist with one hand and elbowing him with all of her might in his stomach, causing him to release his grip and fall backwards. She instantly turned around, knocked him to the ground and pinned him down to the cement with her knee.
Kori and Jordyn charged at the male that was on their side of the car. Jordyn grabbed him from behind and Kori swung at his face, making sure to miss the girl in the man's grasp. Unfortunately, the punch did no more than make Nick turn his head. Jordyn reacted to his failure by swiftly positioning himself behind the man and grabbed his hair with his left hand and held his right forearm underneath Nick's chin.
"Let her go," Jordyn commanded calmly but sternly into his ear. A smirk appeared on the Nick's face.
"Hmph. I'm not as easily conquered as little Marcus over there."
"Is that so?" Kori said, finally becoming more confident. "Well I wouldn't be saying that if I were you. My friend Jordyn there has you in such a position that with one little twist, he could break your neck." Everyone was silent for a moment. Defeated, Nick snarled and thrust Brianna forward, causing her to stumble over her high heels. She fell against Kori's chest who promptly grabbed her to support her.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now," Jordyn demanded.
"Wait, Jordyn, don't!" Brianna gasped, afraid he was really going to go through with it.
"We'll get out of here, we swear!" the other one pleaded, still under the grasp of Alex's knee. She didn't budge, staring intently at Jordyn. Suddenly a realization struck his mind, and his expression softened a little. He released his grip on Nick and pushed him to the ground.
"Beat it." Alex stood up quickly and the two men scrambled away, both with distraught looks on their faces. The four friends stood silently in shock as they disappeared into the distance.
Silence struck the night air, and none of them broke it for what seemed like hours. All that could be heard was their frightened, heavy breathing.
"Is Brianna okay?" Alex asked Kori, finally being the one to speak up. Brianna had fainted right after being let go and was still asleep, breathing softly.
"She's fine," he responded, finally lifting her over the side of the car so that she was lying on the black, leather seats. "She's just in a state of shock is all."
"Are you guys okay?" Alexis asked, strolling towards the car.
"We're FINE," Jordyn said firmly. "It's you who should be answering that question."
"I'm alright, honestly." Jordyn made no response to her statement. He only stared her down with his dark, ebony eyes.
"For some reason I don't believe you." Jordyn's eyes darted from Alex's face to the wounds on her arm. The cuts were still open, and some of her blood had trickled down and reached past her elbow. Alexis followed his glance and turned her shoulder away so that he couldn't see it. "That's NOT going to help it disappear," he told her accusingly. "Here." Jordyn reached into his pocket and pulled out a white kerchief. He took her arm gently in his hand and cleaned off the blood with the cloth, then carefully tied it around her tricep. He knotted it at just the right pressure so that it wasn't so tight that it would cut off her circulation, but enough so that the gashes would stop bleeding. Alex reached up with her other hand and touched his own.
"You're shaking." She gazed up into his eyes that seemed to be more moist than normal. He squeezed her hand and returned her look.
"I - I wasn't sure if - what they were going to do - "
"Jordyn...I'm fine, really, you shouldn't -"
"Oh God, Alexis, I'm so sorry!" He embraced her into a hug so that her head was softly pressed against his chest. She could hear his heart beating fast, and his body was shaking. Alex wrapped her arms around his waist, for comfort for him but also for herself. Jordyn rubbed his face into her muddled, auburn hair and held her as tight as he could.
"Mmmf."
"Huh?" Jordyn responded to the muffled noise that Alex made. She tried to shove away from his chest.
"Jordyn (cough) ack - I - I can't breathe!" Jordyn instantly backed away from her and a humiliated look appeared on his face.
"Uh - heh heh, sorry." Alexis let out a chuckle. He looked cute when he was embarrassed. They both stared at each other for a minute, neither of them making a sound.
"Hey...guys?" Kori asked after a minute. Jordyn and Alex snapped out of their gazes and turned towards their friend. "You...ready to go?"
"Yeah," Alex sighed. Jordyn looked back at her again, noticing how tired her deep, emerald eyes were.
"Did you still want to go to the party?"
"Of course!" she laughed. "Brianna has been hyped up about this for over a week now!" The boys both chuckled as they saw the redhead that was sound asleep in the backseat of Jordyn's convertible. "C'mon, we can't let a couple of freaky, drunk men ruin our night!"
"You're right," Jordyn agreed. Finally relaxing, he glanced towards the ground nearby and gasped at what was left of the crushed, red rose blossoms on the pavement. "Oh no! Alex - I - I ruined your -" Alex put her fingertip over Jordyn's soft lip before he could say anymore then took it away when she had hushed him.
"I don't care about that. Not now. Let's go - we need something to do to take our minds off of all this."
Alex said that going to the dance would take their minds off of the incident, but she was mistaken. Brianna had finally awoken, but the four of them were so quiet and the previous hour's events were flashing through their heads over and over again. They all slumped around a small table, not saying a word to one another. Jordyn had called and reported the men to the police. He wished he hadn't have let them get away but the less time the girls had to be in danger the better. No one had said anything since he hung up his phone.
"Oh, c'mon you guys!" Kori finally spoke while slamming his glass of cherry punch on the table, causing them all to jump while drops of the red drink splashed out. "We can't just mope around here all night! We should just be glad that we're all perfectly fine after something like that."
That was a lie. Jordyn quickly shot a glance at the kerchief around Alex's arm. The blood had soaked through in spots and was turning a dark red. She was injured, and it was his fault. He could have been there earlier instead of paying so much attention to those damn flowers. They shouldn't have left the girls out alone on a Friday night in that neighborhood anyway. Jordyn had made a mistake, and he hated himself for it.
"Brianna, will you dance with me?" Kori asked, holding his right hand out in front of her. Deciding he was right, she accepted his gesture and he pulled her onto the floor. They immediately started laughing at each other's clumsiness, and joined the other guests in the fast music.
Alexis didn't say anything. She didn't even want to look at Jordyn. It was weird now. The way he looked at her by that store - it frightened her. Not only did she wonder why she saw such sorrow and worry in his eyes, but she wondered why she longed for him to keep looking into her eyes. Was he really going to kill that man if she hadn't of said anything? She shuddered at the thought, but knew it would have only been in order to protect them. That's what she wanted to believe, anyway.
"Do you want to join them?" Jordyn had a quaint smile on his face, and a strand of his untidy black hair fell across his eyes that he attempted to casually blow away but was unsuccessful. It gave him a sort of impish look. Alex couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Sure!" They both hopped up towards the dance floor and were glad to finally be doing something else. When Thriller came on, Alex jumped up and down with glee. It was her absolutely positively favorite dance. She grabbed her three friends and forced them to join. They didn't particularly know the dance, but Alex made sure to quickly teach them how, showing off by adding her own style here and there. Pretty soon all of the people had made a circle around her, amazed at how well and how...strangely she was dancing. Jordyn joined in and it quickly became a line dance of about a dozen people.
"Oh my God you guys were brilliant!" Brianna laughed after the song had ended. Kori took her hands in his and she giggled as he gave her a peck on the cheek. Alex nudged her arm and winked before the two lovebirds ran to another part of the room.
"I never knew you could dance like that," Jordyn said while catching his breath.
"People can surprise you sometimes. I'll bet you didn't know that I could beat you at an arm wrestling match either, did you?"
"Hey! That was so cheating!" Alex threw her head back and laughed. That was the exact reaction she was trying to get out of him. "I love your smile so much better than your frown."
Alex grew quiet and looked over Jordyn's shoulder, not knowing how to respond to him. She wasn't used to all of the compliments - especially not from a boy. He was so nice to her, but what had she done to receive such kind treatment?
"Okay guys!" The D.J. stopped the music and spoke over the crowd. "Grab that special someone and pull them close to you, because it's slow dance time."
"Do you want to?" Jordyn asked Alexis quietly.
"Sure."
Jordyn rested his hands on Alex's waist and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She laid her head against his shoulder as he rested his chin on her neck. They began to sway with the beat of the music, only listening to everything else for a while.
It felt so comforting to her to have someone this close. His body was warm, and it made her feel secure. And yet there was something still wrong. She had to let go of the past someday, but there was something inside of Alex that would never forget the promise she made to Thomas Beckers, and she felt as though she was betraying him by being with another boy. It just wasn't right. And yet, the other part of her mind wanted to be with this sweet, cute, and caring boy. There wasn't really anything bad about feeling something towards Jordyn, was there?
"Thanks," Alex whispered.
"For what?" Jordyn drew his head away from hers so that hey could look her in the eyes.
"For rescuing Bri and me."
"Don't thank me. I didn't do anything. I was the reason why you two were in that situation in the first place. If you had been killed -" he gulped at the thought, "it - it would have been all my fault."
No. He was wrong. It wasn't his fault for their encounter. She and Brianna could have gone inside if they wanted, but instead they dumbly chose to stay outside. It wasn't like her and Tom - it wasn't a selfish, infantile reason.
"Don't say that, Jordyn. You and Kori had no idea. Besides, like Kori said, we're all fine, so why don't we just have a little fun for a while?"
"I guess you're right."
"I think I'm going to go fill up on another glass of punch, okay?" Alexis asked Jordyn after their song was over.
"Alright. Hey meanwhile why don't you check up on the other two and make sure they're not getting into too much trouble?" They both laughed, and Alex strolled over to the punch bowl. She used the clear ladle to pour the drink into her glass, but accidentally spilled some on her skirt.
"Aw, damn. Oh well. At least it's red fabric. Maybe I can wash it off quick in the bathroom." Only paying attention to her skirt, Alex didn't notice the couple standing in front of her and bumped into them on her way to the bathroom. She gasped in shock at identifying the boy - it was Christian! He and his date seem unaffected by her encounter, and they continued to make-out right in front of her.
"Christian, what are you doing here?!" The blond pushed himself away from the skinny, golden-haired girl at the sound of Alex's voice. He blinked at her with surprise, and his eyes widened at the sight of the bloody kerchief wrapped around her arm.
"Alex! What the hell happened to you?!" Without thinking, Christian grabbed Alex's wound and caused her to shriek with pain, making the entire room drop silent.