Page 131 of Brainwashed

“Fuck,” I cough, bending at the waist and gripping my stomach.

It was hard as hell. I feel like I might spit out some blood. And just as I see his form rearing back to pummel me in the face, someone swings around the wall and grabs him.

“Byron… hey,” the male voice says, fighting against my attacker while he tries to break free from his hold. “Stop. It’s not necessary.”

“Like fuck it’s not!” the Asian guy roars. “He killed O’Malley! Don’t you fucking care?!”

“Not really,” the other guy breathes, casually impervious.

I straighten up, trying to reach for my clothes while I watch their blurry forms. The new guy is tall, also with black hair, but it looks longer, wet and hanging over his forehead. He has paler skin and a few tattoos. He’s also quite cut. Even my blind ass can notice his sick body without my glasses.

“Fuck you, Ren.” the Asian guy huffs, shoving him away. I tense, but it seems like he’s no longer coming after me. “You’re an asshole.”

“Okay, yes. That’s true.” The other guy—Ren, I’ve definitely heard his name around—nods, grabbing his friend by the arm again. “But so was O’Malley. You can’t pretend he didn’t deserve this shit…”

“Deserve to be slaughtered by this prick?!” he barks, jutting a thumb my way.

I quickly scramble into my clothes, wet, because I don’t have time to search for a towel, and I don’t want to be standing around naked, waiting to get my ass kicked some more. Plus, I’m realizing now that Ren has a towel around his waist, and he’s just handed one to his friend,Byron.

“Yo, Kang, he was sick.” A new voice comes from around the corner, another guy wandering over while pulling up his pants. He’s sort of my complexion, shaved head. Sharp angles I can make out through the blur.

“We’re all sick,” Kang replies, then pauses. “Except maybe you.”

“Thanks.” The shaved-head guy chuckles. He walks over to where I’m standing, looking me over. Then he turns back to Kang. “Give him his glasses, man.”

“Can’t. I fuckin stomped ’em.” Kang shrugs.

“That’s fucked up,” Ren mumbles.

“Sorry, man,” the new guy says to me, waving a hand in front of my face. “Can you see anything?”

I flinch and move away. “Leave me alone. I’m fucking fine.”

“Yea, you’re fine alright, Carver.” Kang scoffs. “I catch you up here again, and I’ll waste your ass. For O’Malley, since apparently these dickheads don’t care.” Then he jerks away from Ren, stomping out of sight.

Ren lets out a breath, stepping closer. “You okay?”

“What’s it to you?” I grunt, feeling all sorts of insecurities after just being attacked in the damn shower.

And now my glasses are even more broken.Great. Hopefully, Dr. Love has that new pair for me.

“Just checking.” Ren bends down and then comes back up laughing. “Kang’s an idiot. He stomped these with his bare foot. There’s blood everywhere.”

The other guy chuckles. “He’s so dramatic.”

He takes my broken glasses from Ren and hands them to me. I try putting them on, but the frames have seen better days, and the lenses are cracked to shit. I end up taking them off and gripping them angrily in my fist.

Ducking away from them, I step into my shoes, prepared to bolt. But the shaved head guy grabs my arm.

“Hey… So you were the last one to see Dash, huh?” he asks, his tone calm, polite and sort of caring. He seems like a nice guy… But then I don’t even know him.

I give his blurry face a skeptical look before nodding slowly. “Yea… so? You wanna kick my ass for letting him out, too??”

“First of all, Lexington didn’t kick your ass.” Ren steps to me. “Byron did, and he’s just mad because you murdered his friend. I’m sure you can understand that, right?” I blink at him. “You can’t possibly tell me you’ve never come for someone who hurt your friend…”

My mind immediately goes to Tom Kline…

I would kill him a million more times for Cam if I could.