Chapter 18: Running Away

Athena’s P.O.V.

“What did you just say? Do you want us to go to the beach, honey? Sure! Fuck the two of you and get lost! Don’t make my angel get mad at us. Can’t you see? She’s my guardian angel who came from heaven above. If her wings came back, she would leave me again and fly away from here. Look at her eyes—green! They were so magical, I am melting with her stares!” The super-thin guy said before grabbing my right arm.

“Ouch! What are you doing? Let me go, you damn loser!” I kept on pulling my arm away from that cobra-faced freak. It was disgusting that I could smell his stench on my skin.

Yuck! It looks like they had never taken their baths for one-month long!

“Wow, bro! I was amazed. Your guardian angel here was so fearless. What I liked the most are those playing hard to get and I guessed, she’s the right one for me! Come to me, baby. I’ll make you happy!” The fat guy said while looking at me from head to toe.

With all my strength and with the faith to get out of here, I was successful enough to get rid of the chaotic guy who was holding me. Using my left hand, I pushed him in the chest and pulled my right arm. I continued flinching backwards… until something made contact with my back. I leaned my body on something behind me and my heart began to jump.

“Helena, are you okay?” he worriedly asked. I wasn’t able to answer him immediately when he gently grabbed me and pulled me to his back.

“Did you think, I’m okay? This is all your fault!” I shouted at him.

“Just stay here. I got your back,” he calmly said even though I yelled at him.

I didn’t know why. The way he said those words? It was just full of assurance. It made me think that he could actually fight those three freaks for me without any doubt.

“Sure thing, let me see what you can do!” I challenged him way far from my thoughts.

After that, he faced them and started to deal with those addicts. “Wait, guys! Do we have a problem here? If my girlfriend accidentally trespassed your territory, I would be the one to ask for an apology. We’ll go ahead, okay?” Rivera smiled at them.

I frowned. What girlfriend are you talking about? Duh! Do you want to die for you to realize some sense? I will kill you first before they could do that to you! I wanted to say.

We were ready to leave when the middle guy interrupted us, “What! Girlfriend? Are you out of your mind? She’s mine! Right, baby?” He immediately went near us and was about to hold me when Rivera mindlessly hit his jaw with his closed fist. After that, Rivera did a spinning kick to the man’s stomach and that caused the latter to go straight to the floor.

Woah, impressive!

The guy was easily knocked out. “No one touches my girl, dude. And I wasn’t the crazy one here, it’s you!” he said while conditioning himself on separate attacks of the two remaining freaks. He even motioned them to come to him.

I was just silently watching Rivera while he was fighting them. What was missing here was just a bowl of cheesy popcorn and I would be all set! I must admit, he was good at hand-to-hand combats and he definitely knew how to use martial arts. But an unknown fear suddenly throbbed me when the fat guy was able to punch him. Rivera only smirked.

I almost cheered for him when he gave the fat guy two consecutive uppercuts before he smashed its awful face with his knee. Then, he effortlessly carried and threw the body of the thin guy who said that I was his guardian angel, to the previous one. In the end, those three idiots were unconsciously lying on the ground.

Rivera held my hand again and we ran away together—away from that alley. This time, I didn’t avoid him. I didn’t pull my hand from his grip and just followed him wherever he would want us to go. I never experienced in my entire life that someone fought for me, not even my own father.

We were already back in school and while we were waiting for our breathing to get steady, I tried to persuade him. “Let’s go to the clinic so we can treat your wounds,” I told him. He had a cut on the left side of his lips. He also had a not-so-black eye and bruise on his right cheek.

“Don’t mind me, I’m okay. But why do you have to run away and avoid me, Helena? You know me, we’re classmates and I would not hurt you. Look at what happened, you almost got hurt from that alley! What if I didn’t follow you?” He threw me a series of questions.

Wow, and since when have you ever been concerned about me?