"Come on J, roll up your sleeves like a good boy." Abigail said with a poker face.

Jason didn't know what to do. Even though the marks on his wrists were fade, but they were still there and he somehow just knew that Abby would be able to figure it out.

"You know you once told me to stay away from you. Well I'm gonna listen to you and stay away, starting now." Saying this in a little nervous tone, he walked towards the door.

"Oh no, you don't." She almost screamed and grabbed his arm. He gave a surprised yelp and tried to move away but was too late.

Abigail had already pulled up this sleeve and was staring wide-eyed at the fade marks on his wrists.

"Who did this to you?" She asked in a soft tone.

Jason sighed. There was no use to lie now. She already knew.
"I don't know yet." He said in a dejected tone.
"Does anyone else know about it?" She caressed his wrists and quickly pulled her hand back when Jason flinched.
"No one except you and Elise."
"Elise? Why did you tell her and not one of your friends?" She said her name with bitterness in her voice.
"I didn't tell her. She was the one who saved me."
"Oh." Abby didn't know what to say about this. "There's no arguing left to do anymore, lets talk to your friends about it."

In an instant, she was pinned to the wall by an angry looking Jason. Her heart was beating wildly because of their proximity but Jason didn't seem to notice it yet.

He brought his face closer and hissed, "You won't utter a single word about this to anyone."
"But someone tried to kill you. You need help." She breathed out.
"I don't. Now if you try to disclose this little secret, I'll pull out all your hair one by one and after that I'll feed you to my dog." Their foreheads were touching by now.
"But you don't have a dog."
"I can always buy one."

Abigail gulped looking at the seriousness in his eyes. He would do it, she was sure now.
"Fine, my lips are sealed."
"Promise." He asked, his voice getting a bit husky.
"I promise. Now will you please get off me? I can't breathe." She wanted to shout but her voice was merely a whisper.

As if struck by lightning, Jason hurriedly stepped back and basically ran out of the class leaving a confused Abby leaning by the wall.

******

Elise was going towards the cafeteria when she saw Jason with his head sticking into the locker.
She decided to let him be but then she wanted to ask him how he was doing. The guy had faced death less than 24 hours ago. The least she could do was to try to comfort him.

"Hey." She said, tapping his shoulder.

Jason abruptly turned around. He gave out a sigh when he saw Elise. He thought that Abigail had once again followed him and he couldn't face her right now. He was still shook from the scene he created in the classroom.

"Oh hey Elise, how are you doing?" He asked with a slight smile.
"Shouldn't I be asking that?" She raised her eyebrow.
"Yeah whatever."
There was an awkward silence between them. Elise was looking for some words to say while Jason was just looking at her shoes thinking that they were the most amazing thing he had seen in a while.

Finally, Elise decided to break the silence.
"Jason have you talked to anyone about what happened?" She was a bit hesitant.
He was still looking at her shoes when he replied in a soft voice, "No I haven't. And I don't think I will."

"Look Jason, you need to tell this to someone. This is something really serious. I think you should talk to the police about it."

Jason was about to reply when his eyes caught something. He couldn't risk him knowing so he did what he was best at. Faked it.

He hardened his eyes and hissed loud enough for him to hear.
"Stop interfering in my business, little girl. I'm not some child who needs babysitting. Just go away and leave me alone."

Elise didn't know how to react. His mood swing had caught her off guard and whatever he had said was not making any sense to her.

"Jason wh-" She raised her hand to touch him but he stepped back as if she was on fire and would burn him.
"Just go away you fucking bitch ." He shouted.
She winced a bit and decided to leave him alone. She would start her interrogation some time later when the ghost that had just possessed him leaves.

******

Michael and Alex were having their lunch when Jason came and slammed his lunch on the table. Alex merely rolled his eyes while Michael glared at him.

"What's with the glare, Mikey boy?" Jason asked with a crooked smile.
He didn't get a reply, only a glare. This caused his smile to falter a bit but he quickly composed himself and took a seat opposite to Michael.

"Now don't tell me that you're on your man period, mate." Jason was still trying to lighten up the mood.
"Shut up for once, Jason." Michael shouted.
His abrupt outburst caused Jason's smile to vanish and Alex's eyes shot up in surprise.

"What's wrong with you man?" Alex asked.
"Ask him what's wrong."  Michael said while pointing an accusatory finger at Jason.
"Me?" Jason feigned innocence. "What did I do?"

Michael was on the verge of exploding. He had seen Jason shouting at Elise in the corridor and this, for reasons unknown to him, had angered him a lot.

"I'll tell you what did you do." Saying this, he grabbed Jason's collar from across the table and shook him hard.

Jason stuck out his tongue trying to look like an idiot. It was becoming painful for him as Michael was pressing on the same place where the rope had been.
Finally, Alex decided to intervene and saved Jason's ass. 
"Hey, hey, hey. Stop Mike, you're gonna kill me."
"That's exactly what I intend to do." Michael said gruffly before pressing hard one last time and letting him go.

Jason slumped on the chair and started to pant heavily. Alex and Michael knew about his unfit form (or his overdramatic panting) so they didn't notice anything unusual.

Finally calming down, Jason glared at Michael.
"What the hell Michael? Are you out of your senses?"

"Shut up Jason, I'm in no mood to talk to you. Just leave me alone." Michael crossed his arms and looked at his lunch intently. 

"You could've said that before strangling me." Jason was shouting by now.

"Come on J, don't get mad. We all know how Mike can be sometimes." Alex said, trying to stop the storm that was coming way too quickly.

"Stop defending him, Alex. He is being an ass right now."
"I'm being an ass?" Michael asked incredulously, "What about you? Weren't you calling her a bitch for no reason at all?"

Jason widened his eyes a bit.
"So this is what this was all about? Dude, you fought with me over a girl." Jason shook his head and gave a humourless laugh. "I thought it was always bros before hoes."

"Don't you dare call her that." Michael hissed.

"She deserves it." Without letting them say another word, Jason got out of his chair angrily and walked out, ignoring all of Alex calls and Michael's curses.

*******

He saw him sitting alone in the parking lot. Probably waiting for me, he thought with a smirk.
He started to whistle and walked leisurely towards him. Michael looked up and narrowed his eyes when he saw the smug look gracing his features.

"Here for a ride, Mikey boy?" Jason asked, drawling the boy.
"Let's go. I'm gonna be late for my shift." Michael said, going to open the car door.
"Not so fast, mate." Jason was still smiling. An angry Michael was fun to tease.
"What now?" Came an impatient reply.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Michael looked at him with confused eyes. "What?"

Jason's smile got a bit wider. "I think you're forgetting the S word, sunshine."
Now it was Michael who smiled. He walked towards where Jason was standing, raising his arms as if to hug him.
Jason raised his eyebrow at this. He knew that Michael would never give in this easily.

His suspicions became true when Michael punched his shoulder.
"Come on shit-face, we're getting late. And you should be the one who's supposed to say the S word."
Jason rubbed his arm as if in pain and walked towards this car and was about to get in when he remembered something.
"We'll talk about the apologies sometime later but right now, I want something. Not giving you this ride for free." Jason winked at him.
"What do you want?" Michael asked, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor.
"I need your laptop for a day or two." Jason said, supporting a puppy dog face.
"What's wrong with yours?" He raised his eyebrow.
"It broke." He said absently.
"Fine. Whatever."

They both got in the car and Jason started to drive.
"Ok boy, I was really upset and shouted. Shouldn't have done that." Jason spoke when they were outside the workshop.
"Yeah, good. You really shouldn't have done that. And I shouldn't have done that either, you know the strangling and all."

And just like that everything was fine between them.

*******

"What were you trying to do?" She shouted at him furiously.

She looked at the man with dark brown hair with a little specks of grey here and there. He was regarding her over stapled fingers and intense blue eyes.

"What was I trying to do?" He asked in a cool, well-composed voice.

"I told you to not hurt him. He's not a part of any of it." She huffed.
"For God's sake woman, tell me who you're talking about." He said, trying to control his anger.
He was not an angry person but he had changed after that horrible night. The night when his happiness died. The night when he lost everything.

"I'm talking about the Steiner boy." She said and after a second added, "Sir."

He gently smiled and nodded at the addition of Sir.
"I had nothing to do with it." He said with a blank face.
"You didn't?" She asked, shocked, but one look at his face and she knew he was not lying.
"Well then who did it?" She asked, more to herself.

"That, little girl, is something we need to find out." He said coldly, while taking out his phone and telling her to leave him alone.

********

A/N

Hey peeps,

I really like how our shit-face and sunshine can't stay angry at each other for long.

Abby is pretty smart, no?

And what do you think about this mysterious man?

Don't forget to vote, comment and share.