His feet echoed as he ran as fast as he could, which was actually pretty fast considering how many times he’d been forced into this situation. He couldn’t help but think that being able to run away with proficiency wasn’t something you’d look for in a person. A good one at least. “Why can’t I fucking keep my mouth shut!?” He shouted. to no one in particular.

The cry reverberated across the empty halls, not a single person amongst them. The building had been abandoned years ago, his own special little spot to hide in, or to bring his close friends or the girl he liked.

Well, the girls he liked.

Also, he was lying about there being no people. “This’ll be easier if you just stop, Elliot! Maybe we won’t even kill you!” He focused on the different sounds. Seven people, split up into three different groups, the one behind him being the largest. Three men and four women… All in all, not that bad a situation. “Fuck off! All of you!” he shouted. Just before he hit the end of the hall he ducked, dodging the blow of the bat that had come out of seemingly nowhere. His balance was off so he rolled, catching himself on the fall before jumping up and continuing the race.

This was getting ridiculous. “A fucking bat!? You fucking… that could have killed me!” Damn, he needed to stop talking, it was making him tired. He was so out of breath he almost missed the biggest human being on planet earth hiding behind a wall. “That’s the point, dumbass.” He stopped just before the meaty cinderblocks the guy called fists caved through his skull, passing under their armpit while the big guy tried to right himself.

Ok, so, eight people. Three guys, four girls, one fucking troll. This might be bad. He took a step back from him, too shocked to even consider running. “No fucking way in hell you’re my age. What are you, like forty? Did I get your daughter or something?” Grinning, the big man stood straight and cracked his knuckles, towering over him by a good foot. “I’m 17, my sister.” Ah. He didn’t even bother to reply, turning back around and bolting in the opposite direction. He swore he heard the words “get him” but he was too dumbfounded on how genes could be so favorable to someone to make them goddamn superman at his age.

Or maybe the big guy was lying, yeah, that had to be it. As he tackled open a flimsy wooden door that had been decaying for decades now, he came to a stop. Damn, he'd forgotten what floor he’d been on. In front of him was what seemed to be an office building with the windows completely shattered. Broken glass was all over the floor, and by the looks of it, he was way too far up to consider jumping. He entered the room, desperately looking for a place to hide.

What was with this unintuitive piece of shit building? Making it so he didn’t have any other methods of escape besides the stairs that had been blocked. What if there had been a fire? He'd have burned here! Eventually, he gave up, deciding he’d take his chances dodging everyone he’d met on the way again rather than free-falling down the building. At least, that had been the plan. The two idiots blocking the door made it very hard to put it into action. “No way out, loser.” The guy with the bat said, a cruel smile on his face. Elliot grinned, a bad habit that only came about when he was about to piss himself in fear.

It always just got him into more trouble. “Guys, guys… I’m sure we can talk this out. Tomorrow. At like… noon, over a coke? I’ll pay if that’s what you want- whoa!” He moved his head to the right, stepping away from the big man’s right hook. He didn’t seem to be a fighter despite the muscle, especially considering the way he took so long to pick himself up after a hit. He had to watch out if he didn’t want to be grabbed, though. The one with the bat was a lot harder to handle, in comparison.

If there was one thing his dad had taught him, it had been to run when the other person had a weapon. Even if he was armed himself. He had taken that to heart. “Stop. fucking. Moving!” He took a tentative step back every time they swung, making sure to circle the room so he never had a chance of being cornered. It wasn’t long before the two idiots ended up on the other side of the room, allowing him free entrance to the outsi-

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” He didn’t even see the one behind him as a heavy boot was placed on his back, kicking him forward. “Gah!” Luckily he reacted correctly, rolling to the ground and using the shirt on his back instead of his hands to roll back up, avoiding slicing them up. He ruined his second favorite shirt, though. “...Like a fucking cat, right?” “Yeah, bastard just doesn’t go down.” The idiots sneered at him, seeming so fucking proud for going four on one against him That didn’t change the fact that the rest had caught up to them. Fuck, fuck fuck fuckity fuck.

The door was blocked by the two remaining guys and… the four girls. The broken window was starting to look pretty tantalizing right about now. He got in a low stance, tucking in his shirt so they wouldn’t have too good a hold on him if they grabbed him. “Uh, hey Leyla. How’s the wife? Wait…” The girl smirked at his half-baked attempt to make conversation. “Elliot.” He froze at the mention of his name, knowing she was probably the one who decided his fate.

“You know, we could have just had a talk over coffee or something. You guys didn't have to bring your boyfriends to keep watch… or your dad.” He said, pointing to the fucking peak muscle of a human being. One of the girls, Natalie, frowned. “They’re our brothers, asshole. I told him what you did.” the other two girls, Holly and Aubrey, nodded. What? They did that? "Wait, so… none of them are your boyfriends? Then... why the hell....” He swiveled his head to the two behind him and the two in front, absolutely dumbfounded.

“You guys would do this over some simple fucking breakups? You almost bashed my brains in because I stopped talking to them?” The room became silent. The girls had all looked at him with pure anger, while some of the guys raised an eyebrow. The one with the bat snarled, pointing the bat at him. “You cheated on my sister, Holly, with four other girls. Don’t think you can get away with that.” Elliot almost fell over at the claim. The slander, The libel!

…one of those was right.

He pointed at the lying devil woman, “Cheated!? She broke up with me after like, six months! I didn’t even look at another girl while I was dating her! What the hell have you guys been telling them!?” The entire room became silent again as the deranged dude with the bat looked at his sister with questioning eyes. She just looked at the ground, guilt obvious on her face. This time the big guy decided to speak. “The others… my sister. You still took advantage of her.” The big guy pointed at his sister, Leyla, and Elliot almost barked out a laugh.

“Leyla? Leyla!? Leyla…” He looked at her with the most disappointed eyes a man could. He was still technically dating her for god’s sake. She just turned away, no longer looking at him. He sighed, rubbing his temples as he tried to explain. “Ok, so look… Leyla, I think, was friends with Holly, or Aubrey, I don't really remember.” “-It was both. We were all friends.” Aubrey explained from the back. She seemed to be the least angry. It made sense, honestly. He had dated her for only a week before they split up.

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“Yeah… wait, seriously?” The four nodded, looking at him with spite as if him not knowing only made it worse. In a way it did, he supposed. “Uh, yeah. Leyla got mad at Holly when she found out and hadn’t been told or something, and the whole group went on the fritz for a while, I guess. And I guess they made up or fucking something because here we are.” He looked at the four guys and sighed in relief as their faces turned from one of anger to one of just pure disbelief. He’d live past tonight, hopefully.

“And… you didn’t know they were friends?” The one who so rudely booted him in the back asked. He seemed way less scary when he had a dumbstruck look on his face rather than a fucking serial killer smile. He tried to help prop Elliot up, but the hand was slapped away, hard. “Uh, of course not. Fuck… Dad didn’t raise me to be a psychopath, haha... Half of them broke up with me, too. I’m the victim here.” He rubbed his sore back, now that adrenaline wasn’t pumping through his system he had started hurting all over.

At least he wasn’t about to get his legs broken or something messed up like that. He didn’t know if he’d be able to run away quite as fast ever again. The big guy turned to him with a look of disappointment and guilt in his eyes, placing a hand on Elliot’s shoulder. He’d have tried to slap that one away too if he wasn’t so fucking scared of the dude’s size. “Look, man. They told us you had cheated on them. We didn’t know that-” “I didn’t?” He interrupted. He put a hand up, glad he didn’t have to go on his tiptoes to reach the giant’s shoulders. “Look, I’m just glad none of you actually broke anything… well, anything that mattered. …God, I need a nap.”

Tired, he turned to the girls with a sense of defeat. He knew this could happen again if he didn’t clear things up. “At least you all didn’t lie. If even one of you told them I was lying they’d have taken my ass and hung it on the wall.” He smiled as Aubrey let out a chuckle, only to immediately cover her mouth as the others turned to look at her. “Thanks, Aub. Kinda needed that.” He limped over to the desk and sat down on the flimsy office chair in front of him, groaning in relief as he finally got off his damn feet.

These shoes were not built for running.

For some reason, the girls took that moment as a reason to walk near him. He rolled back a bit, still wary of the group. Even if the guy’s no longer had fight in them, four girls could still do plenty of damage to him if they wanted to. Especially Leyla, that girl was a fucking tiger. It was Holly who went up to him first, surprisingly. “...Sorry, Elliot. We only wanted to scare you, but then our brothers stopped listening to us when we told them that… that… We let things get too out of hand.” He looked at the poor guys who had been roped into this whole mess, all standing near a wall trying to make themselves unseen.

Elliot smiled. He expected to be the one apologizing for some reason. “That’s… ok. No one got hurt, right? At least there’s a silver lining, you know?” He chuckled, looking up and realizing the girl had tears in her eyes. Shit. “No… it's not fine. He had a bat, Elliot. He tried… he tried hitting you. I… ugh…” She started crying, messily. Before he had a chance to jump out the window she fell forward into his chest and he instinctively held her. Consolingly.

Goddammit, “Hey, hey… he wasn’t swinging at me, you know. Do you really think I could dodge all those? He was just trying to scare me, right, uh… Hey, what's your name?” The deranged maniac guy with the bat looked at him confusedly, before understanding the situation. “Uh, Tyler. Yeah. I was just, uh… scaring… him? Like... hitting around him, i guess?” Elliot almost facepalmed, for a psychopath who swung a bat without remorse, he sure didn’t know how to fucking lie. The girl only sobbed louder into his second favorite shirt, which was only becoming more and more ruined by the second.

No, this was fine. He was expecting to come out of this way worse off. Like… way worse off. This was a best-case scenario, right? “I… I never should have broken up with you, Elliot.” His heart froze, his head froze, his very fucking soul froze. Him and his stupid fucking jinxing thoughts. His hands shook as he slowly removed them from her, his damn heart beating out of his chest. “Huh? Uh, wha- hubba… Hello?”

Smooth.

She kept going. Dear God, she kept going. “I didn’t… I didn’t know you didn’t know Natalie wasn’t my friend. I thought you were using me to get to her.” The other three came closer, and he almost decided throwing Himself and Holly out the window would be the new best-case scenario. Instead, like a goddamn baboon, he held her closer to him, away from the girls’ evil claws. Damnit, why did his heart have to latch on to every little thing so fast? The girl had even broken his heart! To pieces!

He still put an arm out, defensively. “Uh, can we talk about this? I know a good place by our school, it’s a bit hidden so we can have the whole place to oursel–” “Sushi shop, you’ve taken me there before, Elliot.” Aubrey interrupted. He looked at her with all the fear in the world, and she gave him a cute, if a bit menacing, smile. Well, maybe a bit more menacing than cute. “Wait, why are you angry? I thought we were cool?”

She didn’t say anything, getting closer. So did the rest. “...Holly, run.” He whispered, and she understood. He let go and pushed her to the right, and she took her sweet time to halfheartedly walk away. The girls didn’t care, and for a second he wished some of them had chased her. But they didn't, and soon enough all that was left was him and these three. Great. Leyla walked up to him, her eyes more hurt than angry. That was unfair. “You didn’t tell me they broke up with you. You’re still caught up with them, aren’t you?” He opened his mouth to lie, but the words just couldn’t escape him.

Weird, he was quite good at lying. “… I’ve gotten over Natalie, if that helps.” She slammed the desk in front of him and he jumped in his seat, not hearing the chair groan and snap in a weird place. “That was three years ago!” He moved his chair back a bit, only for her to take another step closer. He could feel her breath on his face. She was mad… He pushed down the weird feeling of arousal he held in his stomach and tried speaking. “I…” He was interrupted. “And Aubrey!? You only dated her for a month! Are you still… ” She didn’t seem able to finish. “...A week.” He said, tentatively. Leyla looked at him, incredulously, as Aubrey burst into laughter in the background.

“What did… what did you say?” Ooh, that was no longer sexy. Her eyes took on something he’d only ever seen in his dad when they sparred. Even Aubrey in the back quieted down, knowing Leyla wouldn’t be holding back anymore

“...I only dated her for a week! But, she was really funny so she kinda left a lasting impression. Not that you didn't leave an impression, you did I just… oh, my god. Why am I still talking… hahaha… ha… You just bought that dress, right? I remember we talked about getting it a few days ago. You should have asked. I would have bought it for y- Whoa!” He almost didn’t see her swinging at him, lunging back at just the right moment to dodge the-

The chair snapped under him.

It was as if everything had been set up perfectly. The position of the chair, the broken glass. The wide-open window behind him. The last thing he could see as he fell was Leyla’s eyes. Even with everything going in slow motion, he could see the incredibly quick shift in emotion. From anger, to fear, to determination. He wondered why her eyes were like that until he saw her running at him. She was stopped from her heroic suicide just in time by the bat-wielding idiot psychopathic glue-sniffing maniac, and just before they left his field of view he saw her elbow him in the chin.

Hah, serves the bastard right.

He didn’t even get a chance at an honorable death. His mind went blank as the air turned his body around, whipping his head off one of the offhand structures connected to the building. He didn’t even get to witness his death as he fell, falling disoriented a good 30 feet before he hit the ground head first. His last, half-formed thought was that he kinda wished he’d gotten back together with the Holly girl. After he’d broken up with that psycho who had pushed him off a building, of course.