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Rafe
I almost groan out loud that was probably the worst thing that he could’ve said, which is proven to be correct when she starts yelling again. Apparently, her boyfriend has had enough because he just sighs heavily and walks away; I kind of hope that he’s going to get back up or something, anything to make the yelling stop.
We’ve got a fight to get to, and even I’m starting to get pissed off that things keep happening to push it back. I can imagine that Jensen is close to losing his fucking mind at this point.
Riot waves his hand to get my attention and then signs, “Can I talk to you?"
I nod because, honestly, I want to escape this shitshow that’s going on right now. Jensen and Luc are watching us with curious looks on their faces.
I shrug and then sign, “We’ll be back in a minute; don’t leave for the fight without us. There’s no way that I want to miss Jensen’s fight.”
“Got it,” Luc signs back while Jensen just grins and starts bouncing on his toes.
The amount of tension in his body is slightly concerning; he is so on edge, and I have a feeling that we’re going to have to keep a close eye on the fight to make sure that he doesn’t take it too far. I do hope that Ryan wasn’t bullshitting when he claimed he was trained in all of the different fighting styles he said because otherwise, the rest of us are going to have to spar with a very pissed-off Jensen, and the last time I did that, I was sore for days.
Even then, he still didn’t manage to burn off all of his energy. We were sparring for a long time, and he’d fought Cash before me, but he still needed to go on the punching bag after me. He doesn’t have to hold back as he would have to if he fought with someone else, but he still had some energy left at the end of the fight and ended up going on one of the punching bags for a bit as well, and he took as many hits as we did. When the guy gets emotional about something that he doesn’t know how to deal with, he fights. Fortunately, his need to fight like a machine doesn’t happen too often, and we can usually predict when it will, like near Ever’s birthday or anything to do with Ever really, and now it will be Atlas, too.
It also doesn’t help that Atlas quickly became the one who fought him when he needed it because he had even more demons than Jensen did. I really wish that Atlas had filled us in on what was going on; I highly doubt that he’s safe, and we all hate it. What worries me is he knows how good we are at what we do; he knows that we do other things that are a lot more dangerous than just having a fight and doing some betting, and that includes the fact that Trev got stabbed. He’s come with us, he’s helped us, which is another reason that we know that he’s been into more of the illegal stuff, not only all of that, but he’s taught us shit too. We work better and safer together now than we did before.
Hell, he’s even pointed us in the right direction of some jobs.
So, with him knowing all of that, if he still thinks that whatever is going on is too dangerous to have us involved, then that means that he’s in so much more danger than we thought, and that means that we should be with him. The other side of it is that he could not be able to tell us for some other reason, for his own safety.
Whatever the reason is, I don’t like it, and I hope that he gets in contact with us sooner rather than later.
“Rafe?” Riot asks as he puts his hand on my shoulder to get my attention.
I shake my head and sign, “Shit, sorry, man, I was in my own world then.”
“You okay?” Luc asks with a frown.
I raise my eyebrow at him, “Are you?”
I noticed the bruise on his chin, and Jensen told me all about his father being in a car accident. Apparently, he was properly fucked up, with broken bones and everything. Luc understandably isn’t bothered and said that he got the bruise from someone trying to mug him, but something just isn’t sitting right with me about the whole thing. He’s been a lot quieter lately than he usually is, but at the same time, lighter; I can’t really explain it. He just doesn’t seem as weighed down in the last couple of days as he usually is whenever he spends time at home.
There’s a chance that I’m reading too much into it, and his reaction is simply because his father is unable to cause him any grief since he’s on bed rest, and Luc can easily avoid him.
I spend a lot of time just watching and listening since I don’t talk, and it’s just something that I’ve picked up on; I’ll talk to him about it properly when I get a chance.
Luc smiles and nods his head before signing, “Yeah, man, I’m good.”
I shrug, knowing that there’s no point trying to talk about it now; it’s not the right time or place, so instead, I just sign, “If there’s anything you ever want to talk about, you know where I am.”
Luc’s smile becomes softer as he replies, “I know, man, thank you. The same goes for you too," his eyes dart to Riot.
I smile and nod, then turn to Riot, “Sorry, man, do you still want to talk?”
Riot nods, looking nervous for some reason, and replies, “Yeah, please. Can’t believe that they’re still arguing with her.”
I chuckle as I follow Riot, surprised when he leads us further into the woods and away from the others.
“I think he had the right idea when he just fucked off. It’s a shame that we can’t just do that and actually have to deal with the crazy,” I sign.
Riot hums but doesn’t reply and I wonder what’s playing on his mind. He’s starting to worry me now, and I wonder if his nightmares have ramped up again and if he’s struggling to sleep. He goes through phases where they get worse again, and he ends up not being able to cope with them before they calm down again. He usually calls me when it happens. To be honest, with all the upheaval recently, it wouldn’t surprise me if they had gotten bad again.
He doesn’t say anything as he stops and moves closer to me. He’s closer than you would typically stand to one of your friends, and I almost stop breathing, wondering if he’s finally ready to have the conversation with me. He doesn’t say anything, as he just studies my face intently, and I can’t help but raise my eyebrow inquisitively at him.
He’s too close for me to sign anything to him, so I can’t ask him what he wants to talk about, but at the moment, I think it’s probably best if I don’t say anything and just let him talk when he’s ready. It’s hard though, my heart is going a mile a minute, and I actually sort of wish that we were anywhere but here because we don’t have a lot of time, and as soon as Trick’s done dealing with crazy number two, we need to get to the fight to watch Jensen.
