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“If you don’t fucking let me go, you can consider yourself dismissed as well. I don’t need him, or you, or any of you. You can all go to hell.” I briefly wondered if he realized he sounded like a crazy despot.
“So you’re disbanding Cygnus over this? How very mature of you. I guess it must be fucking awesome to be able to get away with being a totally hypocritical and illogical ass.” As he addressed Xavier, Drew continued to struggle to rein him in, while also giving me death stares over the top of his best friend’s head. “Oh, to be king of the world like you. Is it lonely up there in your giant ivory tower all a-fucking-lone?” He spat the words Xavier’s way, then turned his whole body toward me.
“Meanwhile, down here in the real world. I would really like to know in what goddamned parallel universe that stunt seemed like a good idea? What fucking possessed you?”
“I dunno.” I shrugged. “Probably much the same thing that got into each of you when you fell for the ‘enemy.’ The stench of hypocrisy in here is actually sickening. I’m out.” I pivoted on my heel and strode toward the door.
“Wait. What did you say?”
“The level of hypocrisy here makes me want to puke.”
“No before that.”
“That you both fell for the enemy, and so have I.”
“Yeah, that.”
“What the fuck?” Xavier screamed the words as though it physically hurt to harbor them inside his body any longer.
“Jesus, Xavier! After what you put us through with Rocky, I can’t believe you would even have the audacity to break anyone else’s balls about what they would or wouldn’t do for a woman, and what they’d be prepared to risk. Aren’t you leading by example? They say a fish rots from the head down, and from where I’m standing, you’re the most rotten of them all.”
“You’re into her?” Drew was trying to be reasonable, and I appreciated the effort. I doubted it would do any good against the wrath of Xavier, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.
“Yeah. I think it’s more than that, though.”
“What do you mean?” I looked at my feet and shrugged, leaving them to fill in the blanks. As much as they were pissing me off, they were smart guys—they’d figure it out.
“You’re not telling me you’re in love with that irritating poor-man’s Lois Lane, are you? If you’re going to risk everything, and potentially throw away your future, for pussy, you should at least make sure she’s worth it.” Xavier spat these words at me with a look of contempt that spoke volumes.
It was my turn to lunge this time, but just as I was about to land the punch of a lifetime, Fox and Kane intervened, one on each side of my body, pulling me back with all of their combined might.
It was a good thing there were two of them. Not only was I a whole lot stronger than either of them on a normal day, but the anger and adrenaline that were fueling me gave me the strength of ten men. I would have dispensed with one of them without even breaking a sweat. Hell, I was close to being able to overpower the two of them at the same time, as I jerked and flailed in their grasp.
“Are you saying you love her?” Despite continuing to try and keep Xavier at bay, Drew seemed intent on getting to the bottom of the situation with Honey.
“I don’t know what I’m saying.” I hadn’t even properly considered the idea in my private thoughts, and most definitely hadn’t spoken to Honey about it. I was damned if the first time I vocalized words to that effect would be to those baboons. “All I know is that when I saw her terrified half out of her mind like that, I wanted to tear the world apart.” The brutally honest words sprang from my mouth before I could edit them.
“Hell, I’d have been prepared to face jail if I’d had to, if it would have meant I could stop her from having to go through that ordeal. It was fucking brutal to watch, even from afar. I don’t know how you guys stood there and saw the whites of her eyes, smelled her fear, fucking tasted it, no doubt, and carried on hurting her that way.”
“I hate to be the one to break it to you, man, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s love. A big fat old sloppy case of ‘you’re-so-fucked-itis.’ Good luck with that, dude. Speaking as one who knows from first-hand experience, you’re going to fucking need it.”
“Hey, Drew?” Fox called out.
“Yeah?”
“What do you say we just let them go and leave them to it? Even with Kane holding him with me, there’s only so long I’m going to be able to hang on. I mean, there’s a reason they call this one Bear, and me Fox. He’s one mighty grizzly, and I’m more lean and wily, like my namesake.”
“They call you Fox because it’s your surname.” Jesus, he was a dufus.
“Well there’s that, also, but my point still stands. If these two are dumb enough to tear each other limb from limb over this, or anything else, for that matter, who are we to get in the way? It’s really just a case of survival of the fittest, in the end. I for one am ready to get out the popcorn and watch it all go down. May the best man win, etcetera. Although I’m not sure either of these two are good men in absolute terms.” I could see what he was doing, and much to my irritation, it was working—on me, anyway.
“So really it’s more like ‘may the best of the two bad men win.’ In any case, the more I think about it, the less I see why it’s my responsibility to stop them from inflicting bodily harm on each other. If that’s what they feel they want to do, why don’t we just let them? It’s Darwinism in action, and who are we to stand in the way of nature taking its course?”
“Get the fuck off me.” Sometimes Xavier wasn’t quite as smart as I mostly gave him credit for. For him not to see that Fox was pulling a double bluff was plain stupid. That said, maybe my sporting background gave me the upper hand when it came to reading and predicting my opponents’ behavior.
Drew probably saw the situation for what it was, also, but for whatever reason, decided to take Xavier at his word and let him go. I braced myself for the onslaught. None was forthcoming, as Xavier straightened up and began brushing down his clothes.
“As much as I don’t want Lois Lane’s cerebral matter all over the new suit, nor do I think he’s worth ruining it for. At least if it was brain spatter it would make a good story. He’s not even that.” It was his way of saying he wasn’t angry at me anymore.
