New Girl in Town Pt. 15

"That's perfectly understandable, ma'am." He nods. "You just want the best for Jess."

"I do and it looks to me like she went out and found that for herself." She answers. "Jake, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Absolutely, ma'am." He answers.

"Can you start calling me Grammy instead of ma'am or Mrs. Keifer? I'd really appreciate that." She tells him.

He nods and smiles. "I think I can manage that, Grammy."

****

"I don't see what the big deal is. I thought you were done with Jessica. What were you doing going over to see her anyway?" Christian Halloway asks Sean as he and their other friend Donny Ramsey are hanging out in Sean's room.

"The big deal is that I nearly forgot how perfect that ass of hers is. Seeing it yesterday got me thinking that it might be nice to revisit Jess and see if those country boys she's bound to be fucking have taught anything special." Sean answers.

"Dude, you tell us that Madison sucks dick like she was born to do it but here we are talking about the girl you started calling Fish. Perfect ass or not, I'd take the girl that sucks me like a vacuum over the one that gags on just the head of my dick." Donny laughs. "Plus, they kicked you the fuck out of their house so you ain't revisiting shit."

"Fuck you, Donny." Sean retorts.

"Nah, I'm saving that for Madison when she's done with your tiny little dick." Donny snipes.

"Tiny, my ass. It choked Jessica did it not?" Sean asks.

"We only have your word that's what happened." Donny answers. "For all, we know she laughed at you when you dropped your tighty whities and you made up the rest."

"Guys, what's that school Jessica goes to again?" Christian asks as he stares out the window.

"How the fuck should I know?" Sean asks. "They didn't print the name of the school across the ass of her volleyball shorts and that's all I was looking at."

"Carver or Carter, maybe." Donny answers. "They had some kind of cat mascot. It was on all of the shirts they wore yesterday."

"Blue and orange, right?" Christian asks.

"Are you writing a fucking paper on it or something?" Sean asks. "Who

cares?"

"You for one might because a guy in a blue sweatshirt with the word Wildcats on it just jogged by your house." Christian answers as he points out the window.

Sean steps over and watches as the brown-haired figure jogs to the corner before turning towards the park.

"That's the guy that was at Jessica's house!" Sean exclaims. "He stared me down and pulled Sarah away after she punched me."

Donny snickers. "You got punched by a first grader."

"Sarah never did like me," Sean states as he gets to his feet and heads for his door. "Come on, it looks like he's headed for the park."

"So?" Donny asks.

"So, get your ass into my car." Sean states. "We are going to go and have ourselves a little chat with Jess's new guy."

****

As Jake nears the park he thinks he hears something over the sounds of Fire Woman by The Cult playing through his earbuds but he sees nothing as he looks so he continues jogging on. Up ahead of him a BMW M6 pulls to the curb and parks. He barely glances at it as he passes it and enters the park. Behind him, Sean, Christian, and Donny get out of Sean's car and fall in behind him.

"He's fucking ignoring us." Christian comments as the trio walk along.

"He's wearing earbuds, moron." Sean points out. "He'll turn around soon enough so spread out a bit."

His buddies do as they're asked and keep walking towards Jake who reaches the center area of the park where the playground is located. He nods politely at a few of the mother's seated on a nearby bench watching their young kids playing. As he turns to jog back he sees Sean standing in the middle of the sidewalk just a few feet away with a smile on his face.

Jake pulls his earbuds out and stops in his tracks.

"I see that you remember me." Sean states. "Sorry, I didn't get a chance to catch your name before you ran off earlier."

"Jake." He answers glancing from Sean to each of his buddies then back to him. He notices how they are spread out to prevent him from getting by them. One has his fists clenched and in his mind, Jake hears his father's voice telling him not to throw a punch with his throwing hand.

"Hey, Jake." Sean states. "So how is Jess doing? The last couple of times I saw her, she wasn't very happy. Well, the time before those she was very happy and very naked but times change. Tell me, does she still lay there like a dead fish when you and her fuck? You have fucked her sweet little ass by now, right?"

Jake hears the sharp intake of breath from one of the mother's who overheard Sean and shakes his head.

"Not here," Jake tells him.

"Not here? Did you just say not here?" Sean asks with a chuckle.

Jake glances over at the kids in the playground and the mother's nearby and nods.

"These kids and their moms don't need to hear you run off at the mouth." He tells him.

"Really?" Sean shrugs then nods his head. "Fine by me. You show me where then, Jake, because I have a lot to say to you."

Sean steps aside gestures back the way they had just come.

Jake starts to walk past him when Sean starts talking again.

"You know what, Jake? On second thought I think here works just fine for me." He states as Jake is a step past him.

Sean throws a punch that Jake sees at the last second. His fist connects solidly with Jake's cheek opening up a cut with his class ring. Jake rolls as best he can with the punch and swings his elbow in the direction of Sean's head. Luck is with him in more ways than one. First, being a lacrosse player, Sean's upper body strength is optimum but his punch was a glancing one instead of full on. The second stroke of luck is Jake's thrown elbow manages to strike Sean's nose with a loud smack.

"Get him!" Sean shouts before grabbing his now bleeding nose.

Donny goes to grab one of Jake's arms while Christian takes another tact. He throws a wild haymaker that clips Jake's jaw. The punch barely connects but it's enough to stagger Jake for a brief moment allowing Donny to get a firmer grip on his arm.

"Grab him, dumbass!" Donny shouts at Christian while he struggles to hold onto Jake.

Christian nods and jumps towards Jake's free arm and utilizes his wrestling experience to grab it in an armbar. Sean let's go of his dripping nose and throws a punch into Jake's stomach causing him to double over.

"How do you like that, fucker? You're just a pathetic fuck just like that bitch Jess." He taunts Jake as he punches him in the stomach again. "She thought I was going to be all loving with her but I fucked that tall bitch like the whore that she is."

Despite having his breakfast nearly hurled from his stomach, Jake jerks his head up with a murderous glare in his eyes but with Christian and Donny holding him, he can't break free.

"Hey! Hey stop!" someone cries out from behind the fight. Sean cocks his fist back for another punch, this time into Jake's glaring face but drops his hands once he looks up for the source of the shouts.

A pair of police officers is running towards the fighting teens having been alerted by the mother's that were there.

"He started it!" Sean immediately states pointing at Jake.

Christian and Donny let Jake's arms go as the cops reach them and begin to separate the teens. With his arms free and Sean's words still ringing in his ears, Jake raises his fist to throw his own punch but the officers arrive before he throws it.

"Don't do it, kid. I see you hit him and you go to jail so think about it." One officer tells him and a reluctant Jake drops his arms to his side. "Smart move."

"Okay, now which one of you wants to tell us what is going on here?" One of the officers asks Sean and his pals.

"We were here minding our business when this guy came up to us and punched Sean here in the face. Like, totally out of nowhere." Christian states.

"He's dating my ex," Sean adds as he's back to holding his nose. "I think that's probably why."

"You didn't provoke him or anything? He just walked up to you and threw a punch. That's your story?" The officer with them asks.

"Our story." Donny jumps in with a smirk at Jake who is with the other officer. "That guy is nuts. We were just protecting our friend because this guy lost it."

****

The route back to Grammy's house takes Dr. Golden and Sarah by the park. As they are driving by, Dr. Golden notices Jake seated on a bench talking to a police officer and holding something to his face.

"Mama, that's Jake!" Sarah shouts and points towards him.

"I see him, honey." Dr. Golden acknowledges as she pulls over to the curb and stops the SUV.

She gets out and helps Sarah down then the two hurry over to where Jake is seated.

"So your story is that the one in the middle there threw the first punch, right?" The officer is asking Jake as they reach them.

"Yes, sir." Jake nods while holding a blood-soaked tissue to his cheek.

"You want to rethink that because I will be talking to those witnesses over there and if you're lying to me..." the officer begins to say when Sarah jumps in.

"Jake's not lying!" She shouts tearing loose from her mother's hand and jumping onto Jake's lap. "He doesn't lie!"

The officer looks befuddled until Dr. Golden steps up.

"I'm sorry, officer. My daughter's a little exuberant when it comes to defending Jake." Dr. Golden tells him.

"He's your son?" The officer asks.

"My daughter's boyfriend. He's staying with us just a few blocks away." She explains then kneels to get a better look at Jake's face. "Move that away from your face and let me have a look, Jake."

"It's fine, Dr. Golden." He tells her.

"I'm the doctor here so I determine what's fine and what isn't. Got it?" She asks him.

"Yes, ma'am." He answers and pulls the tissue that a witness provided for him away from his cheek.

"What happened here?" She asks the officer.

"Those kids say that this one here jumped them when they were walking through the park." He says jerking his thumb towards the trio of teens that are talking with the other officer. "He got cut open pretty good by one of them."

Dr. Golden looks at the trio and her eyes fall on Sean who is looking as smug as he can manage while holding a bloody tissue to his busted nose.

"At least you got the one that started this back." She tells Jake then looks at the officer. "The one in the middle started all of this. His name is Sean Durant and he used to date my daughter. It didn't end well."

The officer looks back at Sean then to Jake. "And this one is currently dating your daughter then? Thought you'd get your girl a little revenge on her ex, is that it? Explains the bloodlust in your eyes when we ran up." He tells Jake.

"That isn't what happened." One of the mothers from the group of witnesses to the incident tells the officer as she steps over to him.

"Ma'am?" He asks.

"The one standing in the middle over there confronted this young man as he was leaving the park. Some words were exchanged and he said something quite vulgar. Insinuating things that were... well, I'll just say not for young ears. We both heard him when this young man suggested they go somewhere else and when he started to pass them, that one punched him when he wasn't looking." The woman states.

"He managed to get the vulgar one with an elbow before his friends jumped in and he was punched again by the lanky one." Her friend adds as she steps over. "Then those two grabbed his arms and the other one punched him in the stomach a couple of times just as you two arrived."

Sarah balls up her little fists and tries to get off Jake's lap but he stops her.

"Sarah, no fighting. Remember?" Jake asks her.

"He hurt my sister and now he's hurt you too!" Sarah argues with a stern look on her face. "I hope you broke his stupid nose."

She pauses and looks over at Sean then yells. "I hope Jake broke your stupid nose you poopy head!"

"Sarah, calm down and stop wiggling around so I can help Jake." Dr. Golden tells her.

Sarah nods and sits back on Jake's lap while Dr. Golden examines the gash on his cheek.

"I can call in an ambulance if he needs one, Doctor." The officer tells her.

"I don't think we need to go that far. I'll get him back to my mother's house and get him fixed up, provided we're good to go now that you've heard from these helpful ladies?" Dr. Golden asks the officer.

"I'll need to see your ID before I can release him into your custody but after that, he's free to go. I'm writing this up as a simple altercation that was broken up with no arrests unless you want to press any charges against those three that is." He tells them.

Jake shakes his head. "I just want to go with Dr. Golden and Sarah here, sir." He answers.

The officer nods and calls out to his partner. "This one's free to go. I've got multiple witnesses that confirm his story of being jumped by these three. He's declining to press charges and his guardian, pardon, his two guardians here are going to take him home and get him cleaned up."

"Hey, what if I want to press charges?" Sean asks.

"He started this and nearly broke my nose."

"I just said that I've got multiple witness statements that tell me you started the whole thing and sucker punched him. If you push this, I slap cuffs on you for obstruction and assault or you can shut your mouth. I have half a mind to look the other way and let him throw that punch he was about to hit you with before we showed up. So shut up." Jake's officer tells him.

As Dr. Golden, Jake and Sarah are walking back to her car they are approached by the pair of mother's and their children.

"Excuse me, young man?" the one that spoke up to the officer calls out.

"Yes, ma'am?" Jake responds.

"I just wanted to thank you for trying to get those others boys, especially the foul-mouthed one, away from our kids. I saw you glance at them when he said what he said." She shares. "It was very considerate of you to try and keep them away from all of that."

"I didn't do that great of a job." Jake comments.

"You made the effort though and as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished." The other mother quotes then turns to Dr. Golden. "You should be very proud of this young man for what he did here today."

"Oh I, I mean we, are." Dr. Golden assures her. "Right, Sarah?"

"I love my Jake!" Sarah announces causing the women to laugh.

"You are adorable." The first woman tells her. "We just wanted to thank you and make sure that you all knew what he tried to do for the sake of our kids. He showed a lot of character."

"That he did." Dr. Golden agrees. "My eldest will be very pleased with him once I tell her about this."

"I'm not so sure of that," Jake admits.

The first woman pats his arm. "Oh honey, she will be thrilled when her mom tells her what happened. Don't you worry about a thing."

****

"Mom!" Dr. Golden calls out as they walk into the house with Sarah playing nurse by holding the napkin to Jake's boo-boo, as she calls it. "Mom, is your first aid kit still in the downstairs bathroom?"

"It is." Mrs. Keifer answers from the living room. "What happened?"

"It's Jake." Dr. Golden answers while steering Jake towards the bathroom.

"Jake? I thought he was on his run?" She asks meeting them in the hallway. "What happened, Jake?"

"Sean hit him!" Sarah answers before Jake can.

"Sean did what?" Mr. Golden asks as he joins them.

"There was a fight." Dr. Golden says. "Let me take care of this cut on Jake's face then we'll talk about it."

She takes Jake into the bathroom and has him sit on the toilet. Mr. Golden moves Sarah out of his wife's way as Mrs. Keifer pulls the first aid kit from the linen closet and places it on the sink.

"What do you need?" She asks opening it up.

Dr. Golden examines the wound then asks for a wet cloth. Mrs. Keifer wets a washcloth and hands it to her. She cleans the wound, carefully looks it over then asks for some butterfly closure bandages.

"These will work better than stitches, Jake." She tells him as she applies them. "It's not that deep of a gash."

"Thank you, ma'am, and I'm sorry about all this." He apologizes.

"I don't know what happened, Jake, but I'm sure that whatever it was, you aren't to blame." Mr. Golden tells him.

"Now's a good time as any to tell Mom and Tim what happened, Jake." Dr. Golden states.

Jake explains what happened, leaving out the exact words that Sean used, while Dr. Golden closes his cut and checks the bruise that is forming on his jaw.

"I'm worried that punch you took to your jaw might swell. Let's get some ice on it." She tells him. "How's the stomach?"

"Sore but I'll survive." He answers.

She nods then pulls him into her arms and hugs him.

"That's for what you did for Jess." She tells him.

"I'll probably need another one of those once Jess sees all this." Jake chuckles. "She's gonna kill me."

"If she tries to kill you with anything but kindness, you just send her to me, Jake." Mrs. Keifer says patting his hand. "I will set her straight."

****

Jessica stretches out her lithe body as warm-ups continue. She has, for the most part, tuned out the chatter of her former teammates but she has heard the word fish being thrown about a lot. The Paladins are in their home white jerseys with red shorts. The Wildcats are in their blue away jerseys with orange shorts.

"Are you doing all right, Jess?" Caitlyn asks from beside her.

"I'm good." Jessica answers. "I'm just ready to get this match started."

"Same here," Caitlyn says. "I want to spike one right into that Madison bitch's face."

"Same here." Jessica echoes with a giggle as Coach Morrison waves them all over to the bench.

"That was a great practice, team." She tells them as they huddle around. "Jess, thanks for not wearing out your hand on spikes like yesterday. We're going to need you fresh and I'm glad you kept that in mind."

"Jake rubbed me down before the team lunch so I am good to go." Jessica shares with a grin.

"Where is Jake?" Tabitha asks looking around.

"Is your back aching for those hands of his, Tabby?" Tonya teases her sister.

Tabitha blushes red while shaking her head. "It's not that!"

"It's partially that." Tonya giggles.

"Tonya, I need your sister loose and ready to play so let's curb the teasing for now." Coach Morrison tells her.

"Thanks, Coach," Tabitha says then sticks her tongue out at her sister.

Tonya mimics the gesture and the rest of the team laugh.

"Jake should be here any minute now, Tabby." Jessica answers and looks towards the doors of the gymnasium.

The students from Carter are filing in at the moment. Staci and the rest of the cheerleaders enter waving their pom-poms and cheering loudly. Jessica and the rest of the team smile at the exuberance of their fellow students as Coach Morrison draws them back to go over her game plan.

****

"Nervous, Jake?" Dr. Golden asks as the family exit the car.

"Yeah, Jess is not going to be happy with this." He answers pointing to the bandages on his cheek and the bruise on his jaw. "This is the most important game of the year and I don't want to be a distraction."

"You'd be more of a distraction if you didn't show." Mr. Golden tells him. "Now, come on and take your medicine."

"I think that should be my line, dear. I am the doctor after all." Dr. Golden laughs as they head into the gymnasium

Jake enters behind Jess's family to try and hide behind them as best he can.

"They'll all notice before too long, Jake. You might want to head to the bench and tell Jess first. She should be the first to hear about it, don't you think?" Mr. Golden asks.

"We'll explain it to your friends and your parents when they get here." Dr. Golden assures him.

"Yes, I do and thank you both." Jake answers and heads for the bench area as the rest of the family go to their seats.