"What the hell is going on? Where's Lisa? What's he doing here?"
I ignored the questions and kept my focus on him. It looked like he was coming down from whatever high he was on, so I waited. The whole time I wanted to go to her and reassure myself that she was really okay. She must be scared out of her mind, and I was here dealing with this piece of shit.
I think my dad would say that I was growing up because the old me wouldn't have taken the time to get information out of him before breaking his stupid face. It took a while, but eventually, I was able to piece the story together, as convoluted as it was.
My take is this clown was obsessed with my girl, and somehow Susie found out and has been playing him. She was the one behind the staged picture of him and Lisa, and I finally figured out what it was that had been plaguing me about it since I first saw it.
In the first picture, the one that was supposedly me, the guy has a little growth on his ear, something I didn't pay too much attention to, but seeing that same growth on Jeff's ear made everything click, even before he admitted that she was the one behind that picture as well.
"You're high; what're you on?"
"I'm not high; I just smoked a joint in the car on the way here." My ass! I don't smoke, but I've been around enough people who do to know that weed doesn't make anyone that fucking stupid. I almost felt bad for him because it was obvious she'd used him, and he wasn't too bright, to begin with.
Add his natural stupidity to whatever she'd laced the weed with, and you get this mess that was blubbering in front of me once the drug started to wear off, and he realized the situation he was in. I still had my hand on his neck, and the look in my eye must be the reason for his sudden bout of the shakes.
"Annalisa, don't come out here." She'd opened the door for Jess and Alexis, and I could hear them talking in the background. I knew for a fact that if she came out here and he even looked at her, I'd end him because I was close to that point already.
"We should've done something about that bitch a long time ago." Chad knelt down beside me to glare at Jeff.
"What did you plan to do once you got here, Jeff?" He didn't seem to have an answer ready. I doubt he even knew himself as high as he was, but I had a pretty good idea.
It was hard to know who to be angrier at, him or Susie. "I'm going to say this only once. You listening? Hey!" I shook him a bit harshly until he focused on me.
"If you ever come near her again, they'll never find you. She doesn't even know you exist. Susie's been lying to you." I was feeling good about myself. I was going to be fair. I can't exactly blame him if he was under the influence, though I wanted to, oh how I wanted to.
Providence was on my side because the idiot didn't know when to quit. "Let her tell me that herself." His eyes widened at my smile a split second before my fist landed in his face. It felt so good I did it again. What the hell, might as well go for broke.
I'm not sure how many times my fist landed in his face, but I knew when I felt the first splatter of blood spread across my fingers and the satisfaction I felt. I guess I didn't mature as much as I'd thought; whatever. The only thing that would make this better is if I had Susie lined up next. My stance on not hitting women flew out the window about two seconds after I realized what she'd done.
"Yo, bro, stop, come on." I felt hands pulling at me and realized that half my team was in the apartment and were now to a man trying to get me off him. I wasn't done, not by a long shot. The adrenaline that had sent me rushing home was finally wearing off, but instead of that dull calmness one usually gets at this point, I was filled with rage.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted. I'd held onto my temper for the better part of ten minutes, but from the mess I'd made of him before they pulled me off, that's my limit, it seems. Chad and Steve held onto me while the others dragged him away. My hands were raw and bleeding, but it felt good.
"What did he say?" I shook my head as if I'd gotten nothing out of him because my mind was already moving two steps ahead. He'd basically just described a well-orchestrated attempted violation of my woman and didn't even seem to know how close he came to death.