Perfectly Dysfunctional

He finished his story some ten minutes later and I pulled my head back up from leaning on the back of the sofa. Truth be told, I didn’t listen to half of what he said to me; something along the lines of Nathan being jealous of him for whatever reason and now that he was successful he was out to get him. I’d asked him why he tried half of the stuff I’d believed her had, like spiking our drinks or causing the bus crash, but he’d gotten angry and claimed it wasn’t him... Blah... It was all well-thought-out, I’d give him that much. I’d also tried to find out how he knew where we lived but he threatened me again, so I stayed quiet for the rest of his story.

“Can I look at Jay now, please?” I asked when he was done. He’d agreed to let me look at Jay if I listened to his bullshit story, so I gave him the peace of mind – and gave myself as much safety as I could – and let him tell his story.

He threw the penknife at the table again with so much more force than any other time and I winced. I’d told him so many times to not do it but to no avail; our coffee table pretty much had two and a half normal looking corners left. He paused, “Fine,” he growled through clenched teeth then pulled the knife from the table.

“Thank you,” I said and kneeled down to face Jay with my back to Dave. Probably not the best idea, but I was more concerned about Jay. I’d figured out during Dave’s little speech that Jay was in fact breathing which was always a pretty great start, “Can I untie him? Let’s face it, he’s unconscious; what harm can he do?”

He sighed, “No. You can’t untie him.”

“I don’t see why the fuck not to be honest. You’ve sat for ten minutes pouring some bullshit out of your mouth and all he’s did is lay there unconscious, and you won’t untie him.”

“Shut up!” he raised his voice. I was sure in that moment that I heard a click somewhere so kept him occupied just in case it was.

“Dave, come on! He can’t do anything right now! You literally have total control; you can even tie him back up if he does wake up, yeah?” I tried to bargain, but I hoped that if that were the case we’d get out before Dave would have the chance to tie him back up.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” he screamed and launched the penknife at me. I flinched and covered Jay’s head with my body seeing as it was aimed that way. The blade bounced off my lower back, slicing through my t-shirt and probably a layer or two of skin. I was thankful it was only a penknife, because if it had been a knife any bigger I’d probably be paralyzed right now. My hand flew to the now wet cut, but I didn’t have much time to be in pain, for almost a second later, the door handle popped open then the door was kicked open by none other than Tom Parker with a face like thunder. Max and Nathan walked in on either side of Tom, and with the look that Max gave Dave I wasn’t surprised when Dave jumped up and sprinted towards the kitchen. As soon as he was on his feet Max was hot on his tail; because Tom was in the band Max’s physique was definitely underrated.

Nathan and Tom made a dash towards me both firing questions. Nathan’s were mostly ‘are you alright?’ but Tom’s were mostly ‘what happened?’ and ‘I can’t believe you both done this’, to which I saw Nathan roll his eyes. I didn’t hear any more of the questions they asked so I just stayed quiet and focused on Jay, bringing my hand back around from my back, “Tom no!” I yelled and held my hands out as he was going to kneel on the arm of the sofa that Jay’s head was lying on, “You absolutely cannot move him,” I pushed on his t-shirt and he stepped back a bit.

“Why?” he asked, sounding as if he was dreading the answer.

“He could be concussed, and it’s dangerous to move people who’re concussed. Well, really, it’s dangerous to let them fall asleep, but he was already asleep, so I guess the next best thing would be not to move him...” I doubted myself now and started rambling, “I already tried waking him up and he won’t, so this is the next best thing...” I was panicking, “Tom call an ambulance.”

“I’m on it,” he pulled out his phone and walked away towards the kitchen, “I’ll see if I can help Max too,” he called over his shoulder. I was left with Nathan and I felt a little awkward for yelling at him earlier. We were both quiet and I stared at Jay. I could feel Nathan’s gaze on me, as if wishing me to look him in the eye but I couldn’t, so I didn’t.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly and I nodded, not taking my eyes off Jay. “Jenny, please...” he trailed off and put his hand on my arm. I paused for a moment then threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him and causing him to fall back on his heels a little before he wrapped me in his arms.

“I’m sorry Nath,” I said as I pulled away from him, “Next time I’m a bitch just hit me or something, yeah?” I said and sat up letting him regain his balance.

“I don’t blame you, I’m just glad you’re okay, and I’m sorry for not listening to you,” I smiled at him as Tom returned saying how he couldn’t see Max. “Whoa mate,” Nathan said, “What happened to your shirt?” He pointed and I glanced up to see a bloody handprint on his t-shirt.

I quickly looked at my hand then clenched it shut, “Sorry Tom,” I said then smiled when Tom looked up from his shirt horrified. He pulled it up and over his head and examined it.

“Fuck Jenny, why are you bleeding?”

“I’m not, it’s Jay’s blood, I’m fine,” I lied. We were too focused on getting Jay to wake up; I was too much of a problem thrown into this already pretty problematic equation, “What happened to Nareesha and Siva?”

“We left them there,” Nathan said then inched closer to me and wrapped his arm around me, “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked and I nodded as he buried his head in my neck and started rubbing my back in a comforting motion. “I knew it,” he suddenly said and paused with his hand at the base of my back.

“Knew what?” Tom questioned as I cursed.

“It was her blood, look, her shirt’s soaked through! Christ Jenny, what did he do to you?”

“Nothing, he threw a penknife, it barely touched me!” I defended.

“Barely touched you,” Nathan scoffed, “Jenny,” he grabbed my shoulders, faced me away from him and knocked me forward so I was on my hands and knees. He knelt up behind me and pulled my t-shirt up to reveal the cut, “Look at it!”

“Exactly, look at it! Stop making a big deal out of nothing,” I said and sat back up, kneeling back into him. “Go look out for the ambulance,” I told him as he made to argue.

“Fine,” he grumbled and stood up to walk outside just as Max came back in out of breath.

“I couldn’t... catch...” he paused for a moment and Tom dashed to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. Max thanked him, took a long drink, then continued, “Fucking bastard jumped quite a few fences then must’ve gotten into a car or something, I don’t know...” he trailed off and shook his head. “How is he?” he nodded towards Jay.

“He’s fine... Hopefully...” I trailed off as I heard the sirens of the ambulance come closer and hoped my words were true.