Uni-Q

Jaxston-16

The feeling that he was being watched just wouldn’t leave Jax alone. He tried to shake it off all day and school, like his friends had, but it just wouldn’t leave him. Somehow he knew that whoever was watching him was female so he tried to look at all the girls he came in contact with, but none of the registered in his mind as potential stalker.


Clara Jones, greeted him after school in her usual way, and he felt a pang of jealousy not from himself. He pulled away quicker than he would have normally and gave Leon a high five. He didn’t say anything about his feeling until Clara left them on the way home and when he did he got the same response from Leon as this morning. He even tried telling whoever it was to go away.


By the time he reached the apartment where he lived the feeling was gone, which was good. Having someone watching him at his own home was one of Jax’s few fears. The others consisted of large spiders, rats, and getting gunned down by a sniper.


He opened the door to a cloud of smoke and pulled back coughing. A few of his brother’s druggie friends stumbled out the door following the cloud of smoke. Jax entered the compact room and turned on the fan, opened all the windows and dumped a cold glass of water over his brother’s head. “Give me some money. I am going to order pizza.”


Carl held up his hands, “I spent it.” Jax sighed and went to his room to get his money.


After their parents died in a car accident, Carl got custody of Jax. Little did anyone know that he would fall to drugs and spend what little money that had to curb his addiction. When their parents died they left what little money that had in their savings, Jax had taken this and hid it from his brother, but even that was dwindling.


Jax entered his room and froze. A bright orange bowling ball sat on his bed, perfectly on his pillow. “Now where did this come from?” He said and glanced around suspiciously before moving the ball to the floor. It was light, obviously meant for a girl. Maybe it was one of his brother’s jokes, he thought.


He then rummaged around in his closet, pulled out a pair of old converse and pulled a wad of money from inside them. He grabbed ten one dollar bills and put the rest back where he got it before going to call for pizza, the strange bowling ball all but forgotten.


He picked up the dirty clothes around the house and threw them into the laundry basket. He was just about to watch T.V. when his phone buzzed. Holding it to his ear, Leon’s whiney voice echoed through the receiver. “Hey man. My parents are both working late, can I come over to your house?”


“Yeah.” Jax said and flipped on the T.V. “I just ordered pizza.”


“Sweet!” Leon said quickly. “I’ll be over in five.” The line went dead and Jax set his phone down, ready for Leon to come bounding through the door. For Leon ‘five’ meant ‘two or one’ since Leon never walked anywhere, he was always skipping, walking, or running.


He heard Leon’s footsteps hit the stairs below and went to the door counting down in his head. Five… Four…


“Three… Two…”said Carl, who was sitting by the couch, right on beat and covered his head.


“One.” Jax swung open the door just as Leon flew in, coming to a complete stop only by throwing himself on the couch, barely missing Carl’s head with his feet. “When is the pizza getting here?” He said and started flipping channels on the T.V.


Jax shut the door and wandered over to sit next to his brother on the floor. “I just ordered it so about half an hour…” He wrestled the channel changer from his friend and flipped through the remaining channels. He sighed when nothing was on and Leon stood up. Jax followed him to his room and quickly kicked the bowling ball under his bed.


His phone buzzed again and Clara’s picture popped up on the screen. He picked it up as Leon sat on his bed and threw the baseball up and down.


“Come here now.” Clara said as soon as the ringing stopped. Her voice sounded raw and like she had been crying. Jax felt his temper flare and tried to cool it off.


“Where are you?” He said turning away from Leon feeling his hands get hot and knowing what would come next. “What happened?”


“I... I’m at my house... um… Cali told me you were dating another girl.” Jax could read the definite lie in Clara’s voice, but still his hands caught fire. He cooled his temper off enough that the flame died down till his hands were just a red color.


“I’ll be right there.” He hung up and threw a shirt at Leon. “C’mon. Clara needs us.” Leon sat up threw the shirt on to the floor and stood all in one fluid motion. “Where and who?” Clara was like a sister to him seeing as he had grown up with her, Jax was more like a brother than just a friend.


“Her house and I don’t know.” Jax slipped some shoes on and was out the door, with Leon right behind him. Carl just watched them go, and took another drag on the new cigarette he had lit.


Jax and Leon ran down the street to Clara’s, the lights were off as always but as they approached the light in Clara’s room flickered. Leon paused and then caught up with Jax whose footsteps never even hesitated.


“I thought they turned Clara’s electricity off?” Leon said, and watched as Jax’s footsteps faltered. He came to a complete stop and glared at the house. “They did.” He pulled out his phone and called Clara.


To the boys’ right Clara’s ring tone went off and was immediately shut off. A gun clicked and a bunch of kids appeared out of the bushes and weeds one of them holding Clara by the back of the neck and the hands. “s***.” Leon said. Slowly, he pulled a gun out from under his shirt, but Jax stopped him.


“Lets do this a different way.” He said to the guys that had now formed a circle around Leon and Jax.


“Like how?” The kid holding Clara said slowly. “Have your friend put his gun on the ground and we will talk.”


Jax nodded and Leon glared around before dropping his gun to the ground. “You do the same.” Leon spat only calmed by Jax’s hot hand on his arm.


The guy nodded like Jax had and the rest of the circle lowered their guns to the ground but not so far out of reach that they couldn’t grab them short notice. “So what is your proposal?”


Jax nodded slowly as he spoke. “We’ll settle this with out the guns with hands, you send out your best fighter and if I beat him than you will let Clara go and not touch her again.”


“And if you lose?” One of the kids in the circle asked and received a glare from the one holding Clara, but he didn’t say anything else so Jax took that for him to answer the question.


“We’ll discuss that if it happens.” Leon couldn’t help but smile at Jax’s smart-alec response, but Jax felt his temper getting hotter. He knew who these people were but it still pissed him off that they dare mess with Clara.


Jax and Leon had had a falling out a while back, when Leon got into a gang type situation. Jax had somehow saved him and they were close ever since but Leon was still troubled by the guys in the gang, and they came after Jax and now Clara. They were really starting to piss him off.


He saw a glance ripple through the crowd because that was how he had saved Leon. They all new how good of a fighter he was. Or so they thought. Actually to Jax saving Leon had been easy the one they put him up against was so weak that he fought him off easily. But it was after that that when Jax got mad his hands caught fire so he had tried to avoid fights since then but this was a situation that called for one desperately.


Finally the leader, the one holding Clara, nodded. “Okay… we have some new fighters but we won’t do it here.” As if on cue sirens wailed in the distance though coming closer. “I will send a messenger to tell you where we will meet. And as for this…” He grabbed Clara’s chin and forced her to look at him. “She’ll come with us for now.” Jax wanted to protest but knew he shouldn’t for the sake of Clara, and the fact that they all needed to split before the cops showed.


“Fine.” He said and backed away into the bushes. “But if you lay a hand on her I will make sure you never want anyone to see that pretty face of yours again.” He turned jogged into the bushes and Leon followed him after retrieving his gun.