Chapter 6- Breathe Again

‘Okay,’ I said just above a whisper.
‘Remember 5:00, you better be there or else it won’t be fists and feet we’ll be beating your a*s with. And it won’t be only you we’ll be hurting.’ Then, Aaron and his gang was gone. I grabbed Eli’s hand and walked over to the side of the road. Just as we stepped foot on the grass, he collapsed. I caught him so he wouldn’t fall on his face and then I caught my first glimpse. His face was completely covered in his blood, cuts and gashes in various places, bruises already starting to get swollen. As far as I could tell, only his nose was broken.
‘We should go back to the park,’ mumbled Eli.
‘If we go to school we can get the nurse to fix you up,’ I protested.
‘I’m not walking through those gates looking like this. It’ll ruin my rep.’
 I nodded quickly, helped him stand up and we started heading away from the school. We were only a block away from the park, so it took about 15 minutes of trying to keep him from falling down and stumbling until we got there. When we arrived I led him straight to the pond (we have people who clean this pond pretty much everyday so people can swim and fish in it without the fish being dead/diseased). He knelt down and began washing the blood off of his face. After he was done with that he looked at me, ‘Break my nose back into place.’
I gawked at him but he had that serious look on his face and I nodded. I re-broke his nose as straight as I could and he yelled out, pushing me backwards into the icy water. I stood up and went back to him checking his nose to see if it was straight, it was. He lifted his hoodie and shirt to reveal black swollen ribs, either they were broke or just bruised. I felt them gently as he winced, I couldn’t feel any broken bones. ‘No broken bones,’ I said softly.
‘Good,’ he said as he took off his hoodie and gave it to me.
I blinked and pushed it back towards him, ‘I already have one.’
‘It’s soaking wet, just take that one off and put mine on.’
I smiled at him and grabbed it, ‘Thank you.. So what are we doin’?’ I put on his hoodie, ignoring the blood on the neck of it and glanced at my watch. ‘It’s 8:37.’
‘Well since school has already started, I say let’s head home and relax. We have to meet those guys at 5 and god knows what we’re gonna have to do.’ He took his bullet out of his pocket and smiled.
I smiled back and we started walking home. Well I walked, he just sort of limped. ‘So,’ Eli said after about 5 minutes. ‘About Austin.’
I snickered, ‘Are you serious? We just basically got jumped and you’re still worried about me having a crush on your best friend?’
‘I’m not worried Alice, I just don’t want you falling for him. He’s a player, he’s fucked more girls than Jessica has fucked men. Plus I don’t even know why you like him anyways.. I mean what does he have that I don’t?’
‘Eli, he’s not related to me. Not that I like him or anything, but that’s one of the main things that’s a problem. That’s one of the reason why you can’t have me.’
‘Blood is blood, it’s nothing else. There’s nothing wrong with being related and still being together. Look at half of the country, they’re related to each other and they don’t care. Cuz they love each other… what other reasons are there?’
I sighed, not wanting to argue. ‘Nothing.. Can we just drop it for now? Let’s talk about something else.’
I guess he didn’t want to argue either because he changed the subject, ‘Okay so… what do you think is gonna happen at 5 when we meet up with them?’
‘I don’t know, probably to rob a bank or break into a house,’ I mumbled.
‘Or to beat some high schoolers a*s and then give him free weed.’
I giggled and then looked at him, ‘Yeah, I heard that he did that once. Aaron got four football fat asses to beat on a baseball player and take his swimmer ‘girlfriend’ hostage until someone said yes.’ Eli smirked and shoved me playfully. I laughed and stuck my tongue out at him. ‘How is baseball anyways? I heard about y’alls victory last night, 11:0, that’s really good.’
He laughed, ‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘You pitched some really fast balls, I heard too. Nobody even got a hit in, that’s a damn good job if I may say.’ Eli fast balls are clocked at around 120mph. Which explains why he can hit so hard.
‘Well, what can I say? I’m amazing!’ He smiled, scratching the back of his head.
‘You’re so full yourself,’ I snorted, rolling my eyes.
‘Hey! You were the one complimenting me, I was just agreeing. Cuz I know I’m just that good.’ He stuck his tongue out at me and I shoved him teasingly. ‘Watch it! Crippled here!’ he joked. I rolled my eyes and smirked, I love my big brother.