I still can’t believe that I had gotten out of there alive. Everything was so surreal. I was making my way back onto the street after the firemen helped me, and I saw Bailey, Gina, Austin, and Sara huddled together across the street. My God how did they find me? I would have bet been a million dollars that it had to be Gina. Thank God for her!
It felt so wonderful be to held in Bailey’s arms. I never thought it would happen again, but luckily I was wrong. I felt like I was floating in heaven wrapped up in the arms of an angel. Bailey was an angel in fact. He was the one that finally made my life complete, and I am so thankful for him. After everything I’ve been through in life I never thought I would actually find true love. Someone obviously had other ideas and placed B back in my life. Not only did I have Bailey, but also I had an amazing group of people around me. Somehow Gina found her way into my life, and with her she brought Sara and Gen. Austin completed the group.
“How the hell did you get out of there, Miah?” Gina asked.
“Let me give y’all the run down once we get back to the apartment. Right now I need a long hot bath and comfortable place to sit. Besides you all might want to sit down anyways because you just might not believe me.”
The group started back towards the car when a voice called out to us.
“Miah!”
We all turned to see Jeff running up towards us.
“I am so glad you got out of there. I don’t know how I will ever make this up to you…”
I don’t know where in the hell she got it, but I saw Gina pop up beside Jeff with a baseball bat in her hands. Jeff never got to finish whatever it was he was saying. Gina clipped him right behind the knees with the bat and he went crashing down onto the street.
“He would have never been in there at all if it wasn’t for YOU!” Gina snarled at him. “God help me if there weren’t twenty cops swarming the place I would be using your fucking nuts for batting practice.”
Austin walked over to the two of them and stepped in front of Gina. He reached down and grabbed Jeff by the front of his shirt and yanked him to his feet.
“If you ever, and I mean EVER come within a hundred feet of Miah or any of us again you are going to wish she did use you for batting practice.” Austin’s voice was a low, deep growl. “Because if you do you are going to have to deal with me. You don’t want it to come to that because unlike Gina I don’t care if there are a thousand cops around. I will do things to you that will make horror films look like Disney flicks.”
I knew that Austin and I were friends, but I had no clue that he would stand up for me like this. It was like having your big brother threaten the bully in the schoolyard. Bailey would always be my best friend, but now that friendship has evolved into something so much more wonderful. Austin definitely was filling up that position now. Bailey had always been my best friend, but there was an underlying current beneath everything. It was wonderful that Austin was becoming such an important person to all of us. He definitely felt like an older brother, and he was definitely acting like one right now.
Jeff’s face at first was wide with shock, but was quickly covered up in that smug ass attitude he always had.
“And just who the fuck are you?” Jeff said with sarcasm.
I answered the question before anyone else could.
“Jeff, I would like you to meet Austin, my brother.”
Gina, Sara, Austin and Jeff all just looked at me. I could feel Bailey’s arms tighten around me and I could see his brilliant smile out of the corner of my eye. We had talked about Austin before and he understood exactly what I meant.
Jeff’s mouth flapped up and down, but no words came out. Austin let him go and he staggered back a bit. Jeff looked completely frazzled. Gina dropped the bat and stepped up to him.
“Look, Jeff, I know that somewhere inside of you is a really good person.” Gina began with a smile on her face and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. “So I want to give you a piece of advice that has helped me out a great deal.”
Austin, Sara and Bailey were all glaring at her with anger. I knew they couldn’t believe how nice she was being to him, but I knew why. I knew Gina all to well.
“What’s that?” Jeff asked with a sneer.
“It’s always helped me out when I feel down. Now listen very carefully because I am only going to say this one time. Remember that it takes about forty two muscles in your face to make a frown, but it only takes seven muscles to do this.”
And with that she leaned back and delivered the most amazing roundhouse punch to his face that I have ever seen. My only wish was that damn meter maid was here to see how lucky he actually was that he just got slapped. You could practically hear Jeff’s head as it snapped to the side. Gina followed it with a sucker punch to the gut. Jeff bent over as the wind was knocked out of him and Gina clipped him on the shoulders knocking him to the ground again.
“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Smackdown!” I said with a laugh.
I could see the shocked look on the others’ faces. I knew what Gina was up to. She was like a lioness defending her cubs at times. My only regret was that I wasn’t the one to do it, but at least I had the enjoyment of watching. Jeff was sprawled out on the concrete moaning. Gina knelt down beside him and grabbed the back of his head. She jerked his head back and leaned in close to his face.
“I was going easy on you mother fucker. Remember what Austin said you piece of shit because if you don’t then you better pray I don’t reach you first. This is just a very small sample of what I am capable of.”
Gina let go and casually walked back to us. Austin actually looked fearful of her.
“Baby, you were all crouching tiger, hidden dragon there! Remind me to never ever piss you off!” Austin said as he hugged her.
“No one, and I mean no one, fucks with my friends.”
You just got to love her!
“Come on, guys. Let’s get Miah to the hospital to get fixed up, and then we head home.” Bailey said as he pulled me closer.
* * *
A few hours later we were all sitting in the living room and having a few drinks. I had 30 stitches in my side from the cut, and they gave me some stuff if I had any pain. I had related most of everything that happened except my escape. I leaned back against Bailey and lit up a cigarette.
“So how did you manage to escape, Miah?” Sara asked.
“I had gotten lucky actually. When they started to tie me up I remembered something I saw on TV a while ago about escape artists. I took as deep a breath as I could and tried to keep my arms more towards the front of my body. They only tied the rope around our waists. They obviously were in a hurry. Once they left the room though I almost passed out from the smoke. Somehow I managed to hang on. I pushed myself back against Jeff and let out the breath I was holding. Then I moved my arms to my side. It didn’t give me much room, but it was barely enough. My body was sweating so badly from the heat that I was able to wriggle myself down out of the ropes. I almost headed out the door right away, but I couldn’t leave Jeff. No matter what he had done I couldn’t be responsible for his death. I believe that he didn’t know the full extent of what was going on. Those two were so fucking crazy no one could have expected what they did. I was able to wake Jeff up and we got out of the basement. We made it upstairs into the kitchen, but we ran into my dad and Bailey’s dad. They were on their way out the back door, and they were pretty shocked we had gotten loose. They charged at us. Somehow I managed to knock my father down the basement steps, and when I turned around Jeff had knocked out Bill. We hustled ass out the back door and just as we got into the backyard is when the house exploded.”
