Battling the Enemy

by M. E. Clayton

  I didn’t bother looking back. It wasn’t as if Mrs. Joy was going to interfere. “Delaney was lost, Mrs. Joy,” I called back. “I’m just helping her find her way.”

  And then Delaney Martin really got my dick hard. “You motherfucker!” she ranted.

  I took a seat, and with my hand still wrapped around her neck, I forced her to the seat next to me. Linnie was sat on my other side, wisely not saying anything. “Sit your ass down, Delaney,” I snapped. “Sit the fuck down or I swear I will drag you out of this school and no one will hear from you all week.” Her bright brown eyes were shooting out sparks, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew I could do what I just threatened and that no one would stop me. There’s a chance Ava might, but I knew Delaney wouldn’t want to put Ava on my bad side.

  Delaney sat down and slammed her book on the desktop in a show of rage and defiance. She didn’t bother to look at me when she said, “Go ahead and think you have me under control, Deke,” she hissed. “But rest assured you do not.”

  My arm shot out and snaked a fist full of her brown hair in my hand and I twisted her head towards me. I had my lips mashed to hers in a bruising, forceful kiss. She opened her mouth to let out a grimace at the pain, and the second she did, I bit down on her bottom lip until I tasted blood. The warmth that flooded my tongue made me damn near delirious with need.

  I pulled back and, have you ever been so enraged that tears burned in your eyes? Well, right now, that was Delaney Martin. The look in her pretty brown eyes was pure unadulterated rage and hate for me, in this moment.

  There was no way she was sleeping anywhere but in my bed with me.

  Ever.

  Chapter 8

  Delaney~

  In a surprise move, five minutes before the bell rang for fourth period, I had jumped out of my seat and ran out of the classroom before Deke could stop me. I ran out past the teacher and didn’t stop until I was safely secured in the girl’s restroom. Windsor had three different girls’ restrooms, so I ran to the farthest one from class and Deke’s locker.

  It might have been cowardly to flee like that, but the rage I had been feeling all through class had given me no choice. It was either run or beat Deke Marlow within an inch of his life.

  I knew the more I fought, the more it called onto his predatory instincts, but what else could I do? I wasn’t going to just follow him blindly, nodding my head like a tool. Or maybe that’s what I needed go do for him to lose interest.

  When I had suggested I let him be my first as long as he left me alone afterwards, I had suggested that for a lot of reason. Even though I still had another four years to commit before I couldn’t change my mind, if I married Winston, I planned on being faithful even if he had no plans to. I might not be marrying him for love, but that wouldn’t make my marriage vows any less sacred. A part of me kept going over Ava’s suggestion of having a fling with Deke before giving myself to Winston for life, but I wondered if I’d be better off not knowing what I was missing. I didn’t suspect Winston would be horrible to me or even horrible in bed, Lord knows the boy’s had enough practice if the rumors were to be believed, but I didn’t feel anything with him. Winston didn’t inspire any emotions out of me; not love, like, lust, excitement, anger, jealousy, warmth…nothing. And I had a feeling that if I let Deke Marlow in my bed, and then, had to settle for Winston afterwards, I’d be sorely disappointed for the rest of my life.

  “Delaney?”

  I whirled around, and there stood the guy occupying my thoughts. “Winston,” I breathed out. “This is the girls’ restroom. What are you doing in here?”

  He walked towards me until he was standing in front of me, looking down into my face. Winston was an attractive boy, with his dark brown hair and startling blue eyes, but he just did nothing for me. “I left class early, so I could catch you by your locker and I saw you running this way.”

  “Let’s go talk outside,” I suggested. The bell had rung a few seconds ago and I knew girls would be coming in soon to use this restroom. He followed me outside and we kept walking until we found a little alcove on the side of the building. I pressed my back up against the wall and looked up at him. “Why were you going to wait for me?”

  The look he gave me would have cut through a lesser person, and it gave me pause. In all the years I’ve known Winston, I’ve never seen him upset. This was new. “Why the hell do you think, Delaney?” he snapped. “There’s a goddamn video of Deke Marlow kissing you and you slapping the shit out of him.” I closed my eyes and sighed. When I reopened them, Winston’s expression hadn’t changed. He still looked pissed. “What the hell is going on between you and Deke Marlow?”

  I dropped my backpack on the ground next to me and crossed my arms over my chest. “Nothing is going on between me and Deke,” I denied. “And, even if there was, what business is it of yours?”

  His dark brows shot up. “Are you serious? We’re supposed to get married one day,” he reminded me. “Anything you do is my goddamn business.”

  I laughed at that. “Are you serious?” I didn’t let him answer. “You haven’t made my life your business since the day I met you, Winston. And now, suddenly, you give a shit?”

  “You’ve always been my business, Delaney,” he repeated. “You’ve just never had any business to get into, until now.” His eyes darted to my split lip, to Deke’s bite mark.

  Wow.

  Talk about some nerve. “So, suddenly, you’re jealous?” I asked. “You’ve slept with half the school and you want to stake claim now that someone is showing me interest?”

  His jaw ticked and I could tell he didn’t like being called out on his behavior. “Delaney, if you wanted to spend your high school years sowing your wild oats, I would have understood. Just like you gave me the freedom I needed, I would have done the same,” he said, lying through his teeth. “My problem is you wait until we’re seniors, when our arrangement is getting closer, to start getting involved with other guys.”

  “Getting involved with other guys,” I murmured. I cocked my head at him. “I’m not even involved with you.”

  “Cut the shit, Delaney,” he barked. “You know damn well what I mean. All those other girls? I made it clear I was unavailable for more than sex. Does Marlow know you’re taken?”

  I uncrossed my arms and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “No,” I told him. “He doesn’t know because he doesn’t need to know. There’s nothing going on between us.”

  “That kiss suggests otherwise, Delaney,” he argued.

  I dropped my head back, closed my eyes, and let out a deep sigh. For four years I’ve been ignored by everyone, and in the span of one weekend and one crappy Monday, I had the attention of two guys I didn’t know what to do with.

  This fucking sucked.

  I could hear and feel Winston step closer, and when I opened my eyes, he was towering over me, and I wished-oh, God-how I wished he did something for me. If he had, we would have begun a real relationship years ago, and I would have never had been at that stupid party, and I never would have gotten caught in Deke’s crosshairs.

  The look of irritation was gone, but not forgotten. I needed to make a mental note that Winston wasn’t as laid back as he seemed. He reached up and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. It’s the first time since the last time we kissed, when we were fourteen-years-old, that he’s shown any affection towards me. “Delaney, you’re mine,” he stated. “You’ve always been mine no matter what…may have transpired over the years. You need to tell Deke.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” came a voice that froze the both of us.

  The bottom of my stomach fell out and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had fallen out in a full-blown panic attack. Winston turned around, and then we were both face-to-face with Ramsey Reed. I was pretty sure I was going to be sick.

  “Reed,” Winston acknowledged.

  “Reynolds,” Ramsey acknowledged back.

  I stepped forward, and the movement made Ramsey’s eyes focu
s on mine. “Uhm…”

  Ramsey threw up a hand to stop me. He looked back and forth between me and Winston as he said, “I’m going to make this short and sweet. Someone-I don’t care who-better explain what I just walked up on and heard.”

  I had to give Winston credit. He stepped up and explained the situation. “Delaney and I are engaged to be married. The arrangement was made years ago by our parents, and we’ll be getting married after we graduate from college.” Ramsey’s eyes shot to mine before returning to Winston’s as he went on, “I was just making sure Delaney was…being honest about her situation.”

  Ramsey addressed Winston with his questions. “So, you’re telling me that you and Delaney have an arranged marriage agreement, and you’re just making sure she’s not stringing Deke along. Is that it?”

  “Yeah. We…we agreed to get…some stuff out of our systems before committing to marriage, and since this is the first time Delaney’s shown any, uhm, interest in anyone, I just wanted to make sure she was being forthcoming.” I wanted to argue against Winston’s explanation because he was half-ass lying, but I wasn’t sure if I was up to going against Ramsey Reed, so I kept quiet.

  Ramsey gave Winston a terse nod, as if he was mulling over Winston’s words in his head. He finally cocked his head and told Winston, “Here’s what’s going to happen, Reynolds. You ever touch Delaney again while this thing with her and Deke is going on, you won’t live to ever touch her again.” I gasped, but Ramsey wasn’t finished. “I don’t care what plans you two have set for when you graduate college, but right here, right now, you will stay the fuck away from her until Deke tells you otherwise, got it?” Ramsey didn’t wait for Winston to agree or disagree. He walked over, grabbed my backpack off the ground, grabbed me by my arm, and dragged me away.

  Shit.

  This was bad.

  Ramsey was literally dragging me behind him and wasn’t even bothering to look at me as he spoke. “I have nothing against you, Delaney, so I’m doing you a favor here. You better tell Deke about Winston, and you better tell him before he hears it from someone else.”

  Maybe if I appealed to Ramsey…

  “There’s nothing going on with between me and Deke, though,” I tried to point out.

  Ramsey stopped in his tracks and I slammed up against his back. Motherfucker. Ramsey turned and stared down at me, and Ramsey Reed’s sole attention was something to behold. But my fascination was shaken loose at his next words. “I always credited you with being a smart girl, Delaney. But you’re stupid if you think there’s nothing going on between you and Deke.” He paused, and then sighed as if he didn’t want to utter his next words. But he did. “It’s over for Deke, Delaney. And he’ll kill Winston if you don’t fix this.”

  Well, hell.

  Chapter 9

  Deke~

  Emotions were a funny thing.

  You could go from being birds-chirping-sun-shining-happy one second to hot-white-murderous-anger the next. Now, granted, I didn’t have much of a birds-chirping-sun-shining disposition, but I didn’t walk around in a perpetual state of hate and anger, either.

  I had been mildly irritated when Delaney had run out of class earlier, but I knew she was pissed, so I didn’t have a problem with giving her time to calm down. Fourth period had done that.

  That mild irritation had morphed into annoyance, though, when I had seen Ramsey dragging Delaney into the eatery pavilion. For Ramsey to put his hands on a girl, there had to be a good reason. And Ramsey would never touch what was mine without cause. I should have known something was up when he had texted that he’d meet us for lunch. Ramsey and Delaney sat down, but I could feel the tension.

  Once we were all seated to eat, that annoyance had turned into aggravation when Winston Reynolds had stormed into the pavilion and headed straight towards our table. I knew immediately that Winston approaching us had something to do with Delaney. My suspicions were confirmed when he stopped are our table, and Delaney stood up as he said, “We need to talk, Marlow.”

  I stood up, and that caused the entire table to stand with me. Even the girls stood up. I faced him head-on. “Do we, now?” His eyes darted towards Delaney standing behind me and I almost hit him without even knowing what he was about. His eyes on Delaney were just a little too much for me.

  “Winston, now’s not the ti-”

  I cut Delaney off. “Well, say what you have to say, Reynolds,” I ordered. I knew it was going to be bad because I could feel the anxiousness radiating off Delaney. And I could even feel the tension vibrating off Ramsey from the other side of the table. He knew whatever it was that Winston Reynolds was about to tell me. My only guess for Ramsey’s not telling me first was that he had been giving Delaney a chance to tell me.

  “I just thought you should know that…” That little hesitation showed his hand. His bravado was false, but whatever he needed to say was important enough to fake it. “Well, Delaney’s mine, Deke.”

  ‘Delaney’s mine.’

  Those two words; two words that shouldn’t be uttered by any guy but me.

  Winston Reynolds approached me to tell me the Delaney belonged to him, and I knew he wouldn’t be braving that unless it was the absolute truth.

  You know those scenes in Science class when something iced over? When the water was cracking, yet forming a bond all at the same time? That’s how the blood in my veins felt right now. The cold was deep and relentless.

  I want to say I might have handle this better had Delaney not jumped out from behind me and gone to stand next to Winston, but the truth was, I wouldn’t have handled this well, no matter what. No matter what Delaney said, Winston’s claims, what the school thought…in my head? Well, in my head, Delaney was mine the second our kiss had ended, and she had slapped me. And here, another guy was trying to tell me she wasn’t. Rage was replacing the cold rushing through my veins, and nothing good was going to come out of it.

  “Deke-”

  My arm snaked out, and grabbing Delaney by the nape of her neck, I forced her next to me. Ignoring Winston, and our entire audience of lunchtime students, I snarled down at her, “Align yourself with another guy like that ever again and I will fucking kill him before I make your life a living hell.” I shook her body for emphasis. “Understand?” Delaney’s eyes were wide and wild, but I turned my gaze back to Winston. He looked at Delaney like he wanted to save her and that just aggravated me even more.

  Winston made things worse when he said, “We’re engaged to be married, Deke. I…I just thought you should know that before, uh, you think of taking things further with Delaney.” Murmurs ran through the pavilion like a wave.

  Because I still had my hand gripping Delaney’s neck, I felt her turned her body towards Winston. Now she was standing next to me facing him instead of the other way around. “What is wrong with you?!” she yelled. “I was going to tell him. You didn’t have to do this, Winston. You didn’t have to do this, here and now!”

  Delaney was engaged to marry Winston Reynolds.

  “So you say,” Winston countered.

  “I was,” she argued. “Ramsey gave me until the end of the day because I wanted to do this privately, with a chance to explain everything.”

  Reynolds quickly showed that he had a pair, and I was mildly impressed. “What’s to explain, Delaney? You’re mine. You have always been mine. Deke needs to know you’re temporary if you’re anything to him.”

  Those words again.

  The corners of my vision became hazing, and the next thing I knew, I had my fists wrapped up in Winston’s shirt, slamming him down on the table, food flying everywhere. His hands wrapped around my wrists, but that was the extent of his fight. I knew fright, and Winston Reynolds was frightened.

  “Deke!” Delaney screamed. “Oh, my God! Stop it!”

  I ignored Delaney because I knew Ramsey or Liam wouldn’t let her get hurt. I lifted him and slammed Winston down on the table one more time for good measure. This motherfucker needed to grasp just how serious my
next words were. Loud enough for the entire school to hear, I made one thing absolutely, irrevocably clear to this guy, to my friends, to the whole fucking school. “Delaney is not yours,” I corrected. “You might have thought she was at one time, but not any longer. Delaney’s mine. She’s mine. And if you ever go near her again, I will fucking kill you, Reynolds.”

  He didn’t immediately cower like a little bitch. “You don’t understand. She-”

  “Stay away from her!” I roared, not caring who heard. “Stay the fuck away from her. Delaney is fucking mine. She’s mine, and…” I was at a loss. My anger was so palpable, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t speak the words that would suggest Winston might have gotten to Delaney first. That rage-infused thought had me losing my shit.

  I hauled Winston upright and I couldn’t have stopped my right fist from forming even if I had wanted to. Delaney had asked me how did I know she was a virgin, and now faced with the knowledge that Winston Reynolds might know her in a way I believed only I would have, had me fucked-up.

  My fists started raining down on Winston, and it took both Liam and Ramsey pull me off him. Winston dropped in a bloody heap and I prayed-prayed-Delaney wouldn’t go to him. I’d kill him if she did. Then probably her.

  “Deke…” Delaney whispered.

  I ignored everyone around us. I ignored the phones that were out. I ignored the teachers rushing our way. I ignored my friends. I ignored everyone and everything but her. I turned towards her, and I’m not sure what she saw on my face, but her eyes widened a fraction before she turned and ran.

  She ran.

  Delaney ran, and I ran after her, and as I ran, I heard footsteps thundering behind me. Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, and Linnie were hot on my tail. I knew Ramsey and Liam were following as accomplices, whereas the girls were running after me to make sure I didn’t kill Delaney.

  Because I couldn’t say I wouldn’t once I got my hands on her.

  I could admit this thing with her was happening rather quickly, but she’s had plenty of opportunities to tell me something was going on between her and Reynolds. She could have mentioned him when I kissed her. She could have mention in all throughout second and third period.