Burn it Down

~Tyler's POV~

As soon as I got off the phone with Luke, I called Tiffany, just to make sure no one thought it'd be funny to jump her too.

No one had, thank fuck for that, but I was still pissed off that someone had jumped Megan at all.

When I finally rolled up to Megan's house, Tiffany was already there, I could tell by her car on the street. I got out of my car and headed up the driveway as they all walked out.

When I saw Megan I sighed. Her lips were busted and bloody, swollen to all hell. She had scrapes on her cheek from when they had her on the ground. Both eyes were black again.

What pissed me off was that she was limping.

"Tell me right now that they didn't break your leg." I said to Megan.

She shook her head and sniffled. I could tell she had been crying and from the even blacker stain on Luke's shirt, I could guess she cried on him.

"One of them...accidentally...stepped on my foot...and twisted my ankle." Her weak voice squeaked.

"Luke...are we sure she doesn't need a hospital? Or the police?" I asked him, looking up to see his nearly red face. He was beyond furious and his fury was bubbling over.

"The police will come. I have no fucking doubt about it since I'm going to beat every single one of their fucking brains in with my BARE FUCKING HANDS!" Luke tried to contain his anger, but the more he tried, the more it pissed him off. He was already at capacity, and so he yelled, pointing his finger oh so emphatically at the ground to reaffirm his statement.

"Luke." Megan said, reaching behind her to take his hand. "Please calm down. I have a really bad headache and you yelling makes me hurt."

Luke squeezed her hands then looked over at Tiffany. My eyes tried to follow them.

"Tiffany, you alright to take Megan in your car and follow us?"

I was surprised when Megan ripped her hand out of Luke's.

"I TOLD YOU NO!" She yelled at Luke. "I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE IT ALONE! I TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS STUPID. THAT MY PARENTS WOULD TAKE CARE OF IT! I TOLD YOU THAT THERE WAS NOTHING YOU'D FIX BY GOING AND BEATING THEM UP."

My eyebrows raised and so did Tiffany's. We glanced at each other then looked down while Luke stood silent.

"You're just going to get yourself in trouble, Luke. Really? Do I need that right now? I don't want you to go to jail, I want you to be here with me and just relax and help me not hurt. Find me some pain killers, something, anything but getting yourself in trouble."

Luke was silent for an awkwardly long time. He didn't look at Megan through most of his silence, but finally he looked up at her, took her hand and kissed it.

"I understand. I'll be here with you." He told her quietly.

Megan smiled.

"But," as he continued, Megan's face dropped. "They're going to pay for what they did to you. It's NOT fucking okay for them to lay their hands on you, and they're going to fucking learn that. I'll be back soon." He let her hand go and stepped away from her, leaving her with her hand hanging where he had been holding it.

She couldn't believe he was going to leave her right now.

"Why are you doing this to me right now?" Her sore voice asked quietly.

"Because no one is going to do this to you again." Luke responded, his back to her as he got into his car.

Megan looked at me, pleading with her black eyes as best as she could for me to make him stay, her mouth open in disbelief.

My arms were crossed and I thought about it for a second before I dropped my eyes and sighed.

"Luke." I said, my eyes coming back up to Megan's. Her eyes switched to Luke.

"Yeah?" He said, walking to his car.

"Maybe you should wait. Let them think they won, then surprise them once Megan feels better."

"No. They're going to get the full force of my fist breaking their fucking teeth."

Megan wailed loudly and I saw Tiffany wrap an arm around her trying to comfort her.

"Dude," I said, walking up to Luke's car and catching the door as he was closing it. "Look at her." I gestured my head to Megan. "She's crying because she doesn't want you to go right now. She needs you and those fuckboys, they're going to expect you. We'll pick them off one by one later." I dropped my voice. "Make it excruciating." I dropped my voice even lower and leaned into the car so that I was nearly in his ear. "And then there's April. I think you can afford to let this one go for a few days."

I watched it cycle through his head for awhile. Finally he turned off his ignition, took the keys out and got out of the car.

"'Atta boy." I said as I pat him on the back.

"Don't patronize me. I'm going to fucking destroy them the second the let their guard down."

"I know you are. I don't expect anything less."

"Tonight we're going to drive by their fucking houses and let them know that we know what the fuck they did and that we're fucking coming for them. I've got about 10 pipe bombs in my trunk right now and I plan on shoving them up their asses."

"Don't get stupid." I growled. "You'll give it all up. Get rid of them and we'll go by their houses tonight."

He looked annoyed then looked back at Megan, who was being led away by Tiffany into the house.

"I'll get rid of them. But tonight, so help me, I am going to let them know that I am not their bitch. And neither is Megan."

"Yeah, she isn't their bitch. She's yours." I said, hoping he'd at least crack a smile at me. When he didn't, my face fell.

Instead, he looked at me like Stewie looked at Brian when he said something insulting about the kid with the upside down face. The scene where Stewie's head literally twists like all the way around.

"Funny." He said, when his anger with me dissipated.

We let that awkward silence pass between us, before suddenly he seemed very sad.

"Tyler...when we first met her, it was me getting my ass kicked. Now it's her. They know the best way to get to me is to get to her. What is it about me that pisses people off?" He looked at me, expecting an honest answer.

"That you don't listen to them. That you don't take their shit. I don't know that you piss them off, as much as they just like getting the rise out of you. You don't get pissed off about it anymore, Luke. You don't complain. You take it. Unless they touch her. And she's an easier target, and one guaranteed to set you off."

I saw the information swim through him. He understood all of it.

I didn't know what he'd do with my information. When Megan's parents came home, we filled them in and they promptly went to the police station, hauling Megan with them, with Luke refusing to come. I was disappointed that he wouldn't go, even for moral support, but if he wouldn't, Tiffany would.

Luke and I knocked out 3 mailboxes that night, and that made him feel better. Just knowing that those three specific mailboxes sent a good enough message soothed him.

When I thought he'd moved past it, I got a knock on my door. It was a healing Megan, crying.

"What's wrong, Megan?" I asked her, stepping out onto my porch to join her, my face crunched in confusion.

"Luke broke up with me." Her voice was no more than a whisper.