Burned 2 (4 page)

Shit! He didn’t wait for my cue.

Both Yellow-teeth and I were distracted by Ethan’s fight. Luckily I was the quicker one to react. I grabbed the wrist of Yellow-teeth’s knife hand swiftly and turned to get behind him. I twisted his arm behind him with me.

Yellow-teeth yelped in pain but he still hadn’t let go of the knife. I gripped his wrist tightly and use all my force to kick at his knee from behind. Soundly, he kneeled to the ground. And I stomped on his back with my high heel, hard. I heard the sound of his arm coming out
of the socket and a painful shout. The knife dropped to the ground right beside my foot. I sucked in air sharply and kicked it away.

I looked up and saw Ethan and the homeless guy still wrestling with the blade.

Not good.

Yellow-teeth hadn’t given up. He roared and turned around. He pulled my leg with his good arm from the ground. I got dragged down with him as my back hit the floor. I was not grabbing his wrist anymore. I felt dizzy and out of balance. My stomach was faced up to the sky, leaving me vulnerable. Yellow-teeth kneeled on the ground and threw a fist at my face. I would be smacked! Panicking, I blocked his fist with an X-arm block on instinct, pushing his fist away before he could land it. Damn, my Dad didn’t train me for nothing.

Stunned, Yellow-teeth froze for a second. I was not going soft on him again. I grabbed his head Judo-Style and hit his head with my knee, twice.

“This’s how girly I am, you son of a biscuit!” I gritted on my teeth. He was already knocked unconscious, and probably didn’t hear me.
Bummer.

I pushed Yellow-teeth away and got up to find Ethan. The two of them were fist fighting now. The blade vanished and I sighed with relief.

The homeless man on Ethan was huge, even he was slightly shorter than Ethan. But Ethan was fast like a panther. He dodged the punch the big man throw at him and countered with a fist to the thug’s stomach. I almost cheered for Ethan. Now my body was rocking with fury. I had to admit this was even more exciting to watch than the Royal Ballet. Ethan was fighting for my honor. He was a real prince.

But we shouldn’t remain in the dark street any longer. I ran toward Ethan.
Darn it, one of my heels was broken. Vicky would kill me.

“Dana, run away!” Ethan shouted as he saw me coming toward him. He nearly got slammed.

“Hey, big guy!” I yelled. The brute turned and watched me with wide eyes. “Go now! Or you will end up like your friend.” I pointed at Yellow-teeth on the floor. I was serious. I was so ready for another fight, tasting the victory of beating up bad guys to the ground.

“Call the police!” Ethan reminded
me. He was after all the lawyer-in-training here and the more rational one.

Hearing what he said, the thug
took off and run away. Ethan rushed towards me and examined me.

“Are you okay?” he rubbed my shoulder gently as he looked at me, all worried and concerned.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “You?” I checked on Ethan. His tuxedo jacket was torn but he didn’t seem to be hurt.

He shook his head. He saw Yellow-teeth still lying on the ground and glared at him. “How dare
he!” He growled. He walked toward him with clutched fists. I had never seemed Ethan angry before. He was even hotter when he was angry. I always thought Ethan was skilled with his mouth but didn’t know he was good with the fists, too. He was fighting that brute like a pro boxer. I had to ask him how he got rid of the blade. But now was not the time.

“Ethan, we need to go,” I held his hand and grab his attention away from the Yellow-teeth. “We don’t know if they have back-up.” I threw away the broken heel and stood on bare feet.

Ethan looked back at Yellow-teeth with his fist still clutching. From the look of his fierce eyes, he might want to smash the pervert into tomato sauce.

“Come on,” I nuzzled him. Finally he said okay and we began to sprint.

We ran all the way to the parking lot beside the theatre. Some elders were still slowly searching for their vehicles. I felt so good to see people around. We got to Ethan’s car and stopped, both panting like we just ran for our lives. We sort of did. And we were still alive after all the fight.

“That was the hottest thing I have ever seen in my life, Dana,” Ethan said, gasping.

“What?” I held on to him, feeling the muscles under his shirt. They were still tense after the fight.

“You fighting that guy with your heels,” Ethan said, breathing hard. We were so close to each other. I could felt his breathe on my face as I looked up to him, hot and minty. And I wanted more.

“You watched me fight while you whistled with that brute?” I said, breathless. The adrenalin from the fight never left me. My body was on fire.

“Yeah, I was worried,” Ethan was staring at my lips again, leaning very
very close. “Or I could have taken him down sooner,” he whispered. All I could see now was his sexy lips and nothing else.

“
You were worried about me?” I couldn’t help but smiled. He was really concerned about my safety. He started the fight trying to defend me. His eyes were on me when a brute with sharp blade was on him. I felt overwhelmed with the warm feelings rising inside my chest. I warped my arms on him tighter, closing our distance to zero.

“Hush now,” he whispered and cupped my face. Our lips slammed on each other like they just couldn’t wait to be connected. I closed my eyes and felt each of my nerve-endings sparkles. Ethan’s lips felt
so good as I tasted him. The kiss was messy and not gentle. We just couldn’t be gentle at this moment. I wanted to be as close to him as possible. I wanted to melt into him. I thrust my hand into his hair, feeling the smoothness. Ethan tightened his embrace and pressed on to me. His hand on my back rubbed on my skin back and forth, like he couldn’t get enough of me. As Ethan run his tongue over my lower lips, I moaned. The heat from his body was mesmerizing. I was lost like I was in a free-fall of ecstasy.

Ethan pulled away from me suddenly. He was breathing heavily and looking at me with wide eyes, like I was some world wonder or something. But why did he stop? Did I do something wrong?

“Let’s get in the car?” Ethan ran his hand through his hair. He looked unsure of himself. “I should call the police first.”

Chapter
5

After Ethan reported everything to the police, he decided to drive me back to my dorm. I head was spinning after the fight and the kiss. I couldn’t think. The sensation of his lips on mine was so fresh. I felt like I was reliving the kiss every second.

But why did he stop?

I wanted to ask him but stopped when I saw the grim expression on his face. Maybe he was concerned about the attack. Maybe I did something wrong?

The thought scared me. I was not sure if Ethan could tell that was my first kiss-it sure didn’t feel like one! If I messed up something I wouldn’t be able to tell. I was shaking slightly. I didn’t know what would happen next. But I knew one thing for sure. After all these, I didn’t want to lose Ethan.

“You okay?” Ethan asked, watching me hugging myself with my arms. He didn’t hold out his hand to me like he did when we drove to the theatre. In fact, he barely even touched me since he broke the kiss. What was this? He was hot and switch to cold in a blink of an eye. Now I was in icy-land.

I nodded, still shaking.

“Dana,” he opened his mouth, like he was trying to get some words out. “I’m sorry…” he said with a low voice. I almost could not hear him over the radio and car engine.

“About?” My voice was even smaller. I was scared of his answer. If he was sorry that we were going to break up, because I was a bad kisser or for some other reasons, I would be crushed. I wouldn’t be able to handle it if Ethan left me after my first kiss.  Gosh, I couldn’t even handle it now-the way he was acting and pushing me away. I wished I could just smooth his frowning face with my hand and went back to kissing again. But I couldn’t do anything. I was too upset and afraid to do anything.

Ethan shook his head. “I am exhausted. Maybe tomorrow will be better,” he murmured. I wasn’t sure he was talking to me or himself. He just said something I would say when things got messy. And from my experience “tomorrow” wouldn’t usually get better. The thought troubled me to no end. I wanted to make things better for Ethan. But I didn’t know what was bothering him. I was searching in the dark and could not see the light. I felt so alone even my boyfriend was sitting next to me.

“I hope so,” I said hopelessly. I wanted to ask him “what was wrong?” but I was scared to do it. I was scared that when he told me what the problem was, I wouldn’t be able to fix it. Just like when my Dad told me he was sick, I couldn’t do anything to cure him. I had never seen Ethan looking so grim, so shut down. He was always mysterious, yes, but this time, he was just distant.

When we said good-bye at my dorm, Ethan placed a kiss on my forehead. The kiss was so gentle I could barely feel it. I could barely feel Ethan was with me ether. I didn’t know why.

He stood by his SUV and watched me enter the door. I waved at him and he waved back. I looked at his perfect figure one more time before I got in the building. I was so worried to that this was the last time I see him.

---

By the time I got to bed, it was almost 2:00am. I could not sleep no matter how many sheep I counted. I thought about the fight, the kiss and Ethan’s withdraw. I had no idea what was going on. Tonight was supposed to be a good date night. We were both so happy after the ballet show. Now I just felt confused and cold. I warped the blanket around me tighter.

Suddenly, a loud sound came from the direction of my door. I jumped out my bed. Someone was hitting my door hard.

Did those thugs find my dorm? My blood ran cold at the thought.  I grabbed my cell phone and a baseball bat, looking for a place to hide.

“Ah!
Sweet sweet home!” Vicky busted the door open and stepped in. She was off balance and almost tripped over.

“My goodness!
You scared the shit out of me!” I put down the baseball pat, turning on the light.

“Am I drunk or do you actually have a potty mouth?” Vicky looked at me with her eyes squeezed together. She smelled like the liquor store exploded on her. Her make up were melting from her face.

“If I have a potty mouth, it’s all your fault,” I covered my mouth. “But you look really drunk.” Vicky drank a lot. Everyone knew that. But she seldom came back to the dorm when she was drunk. She usually stayed at some hot guy’s place whose name she didn’t care to remember.

“Not drunk enough if I can still find my way here,” Vicky sounded like she just tore her throat with thorns. She extended her arm to find the chair. She leaned forward and fell. The lipsticks, mascara and mini make-up tools spread out the floor as her little purse hit the ground with her. She laughed loudly like those witches in cartoon shows.

I laughed with her. She looked kind of hilarious. But something was odd about her coming back like this. I wasn’t sure what.

Vicky slowly picked up her lipsticks one by one. I got down to the floor to help her. “Put the…pieces…back together,” she murmured. She sounded like she was singing a song out of boredom but her face started twist. She raised her arms suddenly and threw the lipstick away. It hit the wall and left a
gruesome red mark.

“Vicky!” I
reached out to her. I had never seen her like this. Her beautiful features were all twisted to an expression of pain and remorse. She stared at the floor like she could burn a hole in it. She broke into a sober and cried without sound.

“I will never get it back,” Vicky let her tear run freely down her face, washing the rest of the make up on her face away. She was picking up the lipsticks again and putting them back to her purse. Then she threw some away like a mad person only to pick them back in the purse again. She was frantic. If I didn’t know she was drunk, I would probably get her to a hospital. Actually, I might still get her to a hospital. 

“Vicky,” I spoke to her softly. “Will you talk to me? What happened?” I looked at her messy hair and messy clothing. “Did someone hurt you?” My fists crunched at the thought. She was the huntress, not the prey.

She shook her head and then, as if thought of something, she nodded instead. She pointed at her heart. “This hurt, still hurt…”

I held her shoulders with both hands, forcing her to look at me. “What exactly happened? Please tell me.” I was really worried. Tonight was just full of bad omens. I might already lose Ethan, together with my first kiss. I couldn’t imagine anything happen to Vicky, too. I was holding her but her mind was elsewhere. Her eyes were full of sadness and anger and she looked like she wanted to scream and bang on the wall.

“I
heard some rumors about my ex. Back at my cousins’…my hometown,” her voice was broken as the tears continue to flow.

“Which ex?”
I asked. She dated a lot of guys but never for long. I didn’t even think she could even remember how many men she ever went out with.

Vicky laughed but the laughter was cold.
“My real ex. My first and my last,” she looked up, drawing in her memory.

“Who is your real ex?” I was confused. None of Vicky’s relationship was that “real”. And I didn’t know what her definition of “real”
was. I was pretty sure having sex didn’t mean real for her.

“A
douchebag I met in high school,” Vicky gritted on her teeth

“Well,
you have plenty of hot guys chasing after you now. You don’t have to worry about some guy not worthy of you back in high school,” I tried to comfort her but there was not much I could say without knowing the situation.

“
True, but this one is different,” Vicky waved her hand in the air. “This one made me.” She laughed bitterly.

“
Made you?”

Vicky snorted. “
The messed up shit happen to you, changes you,” She struggled up the floor and fixed her hair, facing the long mirror in our room. “I am not ‘the huntress’ for nothing. My ex was my maker,” she wiped her tears. Her face froze in time as memory flash before her eyes. She looked young and vulnerable without her usual witty smile. I watched her fought with her inner demon before her tears dry up. I wondered if she had a broken heart and if I would break down like her if Ethan ever left me-the possibility of that didn’t seen slim.

“Why? Is he a vampire or something?” I chuckled nervously, trying to lighten the mood. 

Vicky shook her head. She didn’t get my joke. “What he did to me…” She sighed, long and hard. “What was done could never be undone. No matter how hard I try,” she turned and looked at me. The desperation in her eyes shot right at me. I felt her sadness and looked away. I didn’t know what she had been through. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know or If she would share. I came closer to her and gestured a hug. She accepted. “That’s why I am the huntress. I will protect the innocents like…you.” She broke the hug and looked me in the eyes. “You can still have a normal, sweet dating experience with a happy ending without getting screwed by a jerk.”

She sounded serious but I could smell the drunkenness from her. “And you don’t think you need
protection anymore?” I didn’t know why I asked. She looked strong and confident most of the time but she still had moments like this. “You know I can help you beat up your ex anytime, right?”

She chuckled. “It doesn’t matter. What was taken from me was gone forever. I’d rather lose it to a cucumber. At least it’s cool.”

“What?” I blinked, putting two and two together. Oh, she was talking about her first time. Or was she?

“I don’t like that pretty Lancaster boy,” Vicky poked my shoulder with shaky fingers. “He’s going to mess you up!”

“Vicky, you are drunk,” I looked away, hiding my worries. I was already pretty messed up. My insides were twisted into a million knots since Ethan left me with that cold invisible wall between us. Now with Vicky, the dating expect, crying about her love life, I was really losing it.

“He’s…bad news,” Vicky closed her eyes and opened them as she spilled the words. She sounded like she was about to pass out but somehow she also sounded wiser, like a chanting oracle in the ancient tribe. “I see it on your face. You are all over that playboy. Leave him! Or you will end up like me.”

“Some girls dream to be like you and boys fight to be with you,” I tried to made it sound funny. I couldn’t handle the desperation in the room. But I really didn’t want to end up like Vicky. I didn’t want to be drunk and mad and crying on the floor. My Dad wouldn’t want to see me like this. He wanted me to have a boyfriend and be happy. But I was not happy, at least not now. Why? What was happening?

“Boys are bears. They like honey. I have a honey shack,” she pointed down, laughing and walked toward her bed.

“I don’t think Ethan is after my honey,” I said hopefully. To be honest I really didn’t know what he really want from me. I felt like I had nothing to offer to someone so perfect like him. He had the look, intelligence, super rich family and a bright future. What could I possibly give him that other more gorgeous girls couldn’t? At least they were more experienced with kissing.

Ah! The kiss! Thinking about it made my knee weak. But I was also worried that I messed it up somehow and Ethan pull
ed away from me because of it.

“Ethan is not a bear,” Vicky said with her drunken voice. “He is a hunter,” she pointed at me. “You are his prey. A hunter is patient and devious,” she laid down on her bed. “If I were you, I run far
far away.”

“But what is he after?” I asked, not expecting Vicky to give me a sensible answer. She was about to pass out. I was lucky she did not puke all over our room.

“I…” Vicky said something in a low voice and fell asleep. I stood there for another minute, waiting for an answer that never came.