Diamonds in the Rough

Even though she had lived in California for most of her life, she had somehow managed to forget where she had lived. She knew that Johnny had lived a couple blocks from Brian and she was praying like hell that he and Lacey weren’t trying any new sexual things.

Infuriated, she marched down the street to his house. Her prayers had seemed to be answered when Johnny greeted her at the door with clothes on.

“Jasey!” He said a little surprised with a smile. That soon disappeared when he gave her a second look, “What’s wrong?”

“I need…” She stammered, “I need to hit something.”

“Not me!” He said now in fear. Lacey passed by and saw Jasey standing there and Johnny looking pale as a ghost. Jasey told Lacey what she had just said to Johnny and Lacey nodded.

Lacey grabbed Jasey’s hand, bringing her down into the basement where Johnny kept a punching bag that he never used.

He reason for buying it was that it was ‘going to make all the chicks think he was strong.’ Well that plan failed.

“Go ahead,” Lacey instructed, quickly moving away from Jasey. She stared at the bag for a minute, asking herself if she really wanted to do this.

Without warning, Jasey’s fist balled up and struck the right side of the punching bag. She yelped in pain, jumping back a few steps, but that didn’t stop her from walking right back up and hitting it again.

“You fucking cunt,” She muttered, loud enough for Lacey to hear, but not loud enough for Johnny to hear, who was now standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching Jasey with a horrified expression.

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!” She threw her left fist at the bag now, swinging it to the right. Her arm recoiled and she swung again.

“To think I loved you!” She shouted in pain. She felt a now familiar pressure building up behind her eyes as she threw one more punch with salty, heartbroken tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You lied,” She said breathlessly, throwing one last punch before collapsing on the floor, drowning in her own tears.

Lacey and Johnny both stood and watched from a distance as all of Jasey’s walls came crashing down one by one.

“I’ll be back,” Johnny whispered in Lacey’s ear, quietly running back up the stairs. Lacey moved over to where Jasey was and sat down on the floor beside her. She placed a soothing hand on her back, rubbing it in small circles, trying to calm her down as best as she could.

“He never meant any of it,” Jasey sobbed, looking up at Lacey with red puffy eyes and a splotchy face.

“Sweetheart,” She sighed, pulling her into a tight embrace.

Upstairs, Johnny took the phone off the wall and pressed the numbered buttons, putting the phone up against his ear. He grew impatient as the dialing tone kept repeating itself.

“Hello?” He answered hoarsely.
“Gates!” Johnny cried, “What the hell did you do to Jasey!?”

“What do you mean?” He asked. Johnny could hear him shuffling on the couch.

He sighed, “How many drinks have you had?”

“Three sips from the bottle of JD,” He answered, “I was just about to start the heavy drinking.”

“Well don’t,” Johnny ordered, “You need to get your ass over here and talk to Jasey before she goes all psycho and decides to actually start punching people.”

“Is she okay!?” Brian asked, now sounding alarmed.
“She’s fine dude, but I don’t think my house will be if you don’t show up.”

He heard Brian moving around, grabbing his keys off the counter, “Be there in a few.”

Not even five minutes after they had gotten off the phone, Brian was pounding at the door.

“Where is she?” He asked, eyes searching for her.

“She’s downstairs,” Johnny informed. He held out a hand before Brian could go get her, “You need to explain what happened first.”

Brian groaned with frustration and rolled his eyes. Johnny gave him a look and he told him about Michelle coming over and pissing off Jasey and how she now thinks that he and Michelle are back together.

“I flew across the damn country for her,” He finished, “Now she thinks I don’t care anymore.”

Johnny moved aside, nodding his head in the direction of the basement door, “Go.”

Brian gave him a warm half smile, practically jumping past him to get to the door. As he made his way down the steps, he saw Jasey hunched over on the floor with Lacey rubbing her back. Lacey turned her head when she heard the last step creak and saw Brian standing there. Her eyes went wide, but motioned for him to come closer with her free hand.

Jasey remained still as Lacey and Brian switched places. Lacey stepped aside and sat down on the steps, keeping her distance but staying close incase Jasey needed her.

He leaned down towards her, snaking his arms around her, pulling her up into his lap. She was a little unnerved at first, but her body relaxed as she was lifted up into someone’s lap. She managed to rub her eyes free of tears and tried to figure out who was holding her.

It wasn’t until she saw the tail end of a monster on their wrist that she knew.

She panicked and started pushing his arms off of her, but instead of releasing her, he tightened his grip around her.

“Let go of me!” She shouted. Lacey picked her head up and saw her struggling, but Brian gave her a look that told her to stay away.

“Just let me go Brian!” She begged, about to cry for the third time today.

“No.” He loosened his grip, just a little.

“I don’t even want to look at you after what happened,” She muttered, shutting her eyes as tightly as possible, “Just tell me the truth Brian. I know you don’t want me.”

“You want the truth? The truth is I love you Jasey Rae. I love every little damn thing about you and I don’t want anyone but you. You are all I think about and Michelle is just some psychotic bitch trying to piss you off so she can have me back. But I won’t let that happen because my heart is already set one someone else.”

“You know, the truth, makes everything seem like a lie,” She whispered, still a bit hurt.

He let out a frustrated groan and somehow managed to spin her around in his arms.

“Don’t make me resort to desperate measures,” He warned. She glanced up at him and saw a slight fire being ignited in his brown eyes. She felt the same in her icy blue ones. Softly, she bit her bottom lip to keep it from quivering.

“Desperate measures?” She repeated.

He let go of her waist, sliding his hands up to her cheeks and cupping them. He stared at her enticing blue eyes intently.

“I don’t know how else to do this, but I’m just going to go for it,” He said, bringing himself closer to her, pressing his lips up against hers. Her body reacted in a different way than her mind expected. Instead of pushing him away, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to melt right next to him.

”Damnit Gates!” She cursed inside her head.