First Meeting

No sooner had he put his bass guitar back in it’s case, the start of a ruckus caught Chuck’s attention. He looked out towards the noise to see that pretty brunette with the glasses from earlier backing away from a group of boys that seemed to be taking an unhealthy interest in her. His distinctive blue eyes narrowed dangerously at the scene and his lips turned down in a frown. Bad reputation or not, there was no way he was going to let some group of idiots bully a shy-looking girl like her. Besides, he felt a little stab of jealousy, though he kept his mouth closed. If anyone was going to get a chance with that girl, it was going to be Chuck, not some creep.

Terry had just gotten up from his seat behind the drums when he happened to look over at his younger brother. Chuck was already pulling his lightweight jacket off and tossing it to the ground and Terry realized immediately that there was about to be a fight. “Chuck!" He called, but Chuck had already raced off towards the source of the commotion, “Wait for me!” Terry ran off after him, ready to back him up right away. Did his younger brother actually need help in this situation? Absolutely not. But Terry wasn’t following Chuck solely to help him defend the girl. He just felt like knocking someone around because it was fun.

Chuck broke through the crowd quickly, coming up between the girl and her assailant, his fist connecting with the boy’s jaw without warning and knocking him right off of his feet. The boy’s grip instantly released her scarf as he flew backwards, directly into one of his friends. Both of them fell to the ground, but that didn’t stop Chuck. He didn’t even pause, vaulting directly onto the two downed boys, knocking the wind out of them. Terry wasn’t far behind, his own fist connecting solidly with another boy’s gut, doubling him over instantly. He staggered backwards before losing his footing and crumpling to the ground, clutching at his stomach and gasping for air. Terry turned to face the other boys, towering over them menacingly and cracking his knuckles. Chuck was behind him, keeping himself between the girl and her attackers. This was going to be fun...

"Nice to meet you Chepe, I'm Lorilynn." She scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, I guess I was enjoying myself, huh? It's just, you guys were really great, especially you." Lorilynn held her hands behind her and smiled. "You seemed like you were enjoying yourself as well." Lorilynn was going to say something else when she noticed a crowd of people coming together. She stood on her tippy toes and saw what looked like a fight.

"Oh man! This place just keeps getting better and better! Come on, Chepe! I wanna see the fight!" She cried, tugging on his sleeve. Lorilynn loved to watch fights. As a little girl, she'd always watch boxing with her grandfather before he passed away. She found it interesting how men would beat one another up for fun. And she wasn't one to protest about it. She really wanted to see a good fight.

"Thanks," he said. "I really have fun doing that." Chepe watched Chuck heading over to what seemed to be a fight, narrowing his eyes at the guys that were getting their buts kicked. He ran over to them, following Lorilynn who was hanging on to him, thinking he might be some help to them. "These guys harassing a girl?" he thought. He knew he could have moved quicker if she hadn't had hold of him.

The last thing Emma expected to happen...happened! Chuck Wilder had come from out of nowhere flooring the boy who had her trapped. Tumbling backwards, unable to regain her footing Emma fell hard on the pavement. There was slight stinging sensation coming from the fresh scratches on her palms which was caused by her trying to cushion the fall. She watched in shock as the fight ensued, unable to move away as the crowd encompassed them ready for another exciting show.

Chepe looked over at Emma, seeing that she'd fallen. "Are you ok?" he asked, offering her his hand to help her up. "That looked painful." he said.

Unruly dark curls spilled into his face as he kept the girl behind him, side-stepping as one of the boys tried to go around him to grab at her. But there was just no getting around him. Though he was short-statured, he possessed broad shoulders and a powerful body. It had come from years of scrapping and getting jumped for his brothers’ actions. The dark thorn tattoos covering his shoulders shifted as his muscles flexed unconsciously, his arms coming up to double his fists and have them ready for an attack.

The boy closest to him seemed to be trying to keep Chuck busy while he thought of a way to get the better of him. Unfortunately for him, Chuck wasn't exactly feeling too patient right now. He rushed forward and clocked the boy, immediately following with a punch straight to the diaphragm. Wasting no time, he side-stepped around the crumpling boy and kicked him right in the kidney, sending him sprawling to the ground. It was unlikely he'd get up after that blow. In fact, the boy would be lucky if he wasn't peeing blood that afternoon. Terry was currently wailing on a couple of the other boys, managing to purposely step on the two downed boys as he did so. All in all, it was chaos. And looked exactly as the rumors had described: the Wilder boys were violent and dangerous, and it was better not to mess with them.

Lorilynn was actually enjoying the fight. For someone of his stature, that guy with the curly hair she saw playing earlier could really kick ass. The fight looked like it was bound to show up on the internet with all the kids recording it with their cell phones. Yes, the world outside her home was wonderful. She couldn't imagine why her father would want her to miss out on this. Then again, having your teenage daughter near fights isn't really an influence you'd want her to be around.

Speaking of Father, she needed to call him. On the way to the boat, she promised she would call when she got to the island. Guess she was having so much fun, she forgot. Backing out of the crowd, she dug in her pocket for her phone. She paused before thinking about if she'd get a chance to speak to Chepe again or not. She took a slip of paper and swiped some kids pen from his shirt pocket before writing her name in cursive and her cell phone number underneath.

"Now, where should I put this... Oh! His guitar case is open. I guess I'll slip it in there." She smiled. After putting her number in his case, she decided to leave to phone her family. Her father must be worried and her mother... well, she must be hysterical!

Emma didn’t even get the chance to accept Chuck’s friend help, for a late entry into the fight pushed his way through the crowd. Immediately getting his hands dirty he snuck up on the group punching Chepe square in jaw sending him flying into Chuck. Taking advantage of the Chuck’s current distraction, the boy who had taken the first punch got to his feet. Snatching a handful of Chuck’s curly long hair, he yanked him back with one hand his other coming around connecting the right side of his jaw.

Chepe landed hard against chuck. Regaining his balance he attacked the guy that had hit him, punching him full force in the face. The guy stumbled backward, and Chepe was on him hitting him over and over. Angel was still over in the shade resting. He was really mad. He spared a glance at Emma to make sure she was ok. Angel opened her eyes, got up and trotted over to the guys, not knowing what was going on.

Chuck hadn't been expecting to have Chepe's body collide with his own. Being knocked off his feet was never something he'd been fond of, nor was being grabbed by the hair of his head. He only allowed his mother to discipline him in such a way. The boy he'd first punched returned the favor, catching his lower lip and jaw. A sharp stinging pain shot through his lip as the skin broke. Suddenly, it began to itch and he quickly darted his tongue over it to keep the blood from dripping down his chin.

Instead, he started to suck the blood out of his lip, building it up in his mouth. He was vaguely aware of Terry getting the better of the two he had been fighting. It was no surprise, as Terry was a professional cage fighter and was trained to beat people into submission for money. Another punch came flying at his face, but Chuck knocked it away, then grabbed the boy's head with both hands and yanked it towards his own. He head-butted the boy, grateful he had a hard head. The boy reeled back, momentarily stunned, but Chuck got right in his face and spit the mouthful of blood he'd sucked out directly into his eyes. Panicking, the boy let go of Chuck and clutched at his own eyes. Chuck took the opportunity to slam his fist into the boy's face in a hard, merciless strike, knocking him to the ground.

It seemed that the boys had had enough. They scrambled to their feet and stumbled away as quickly as they could. Neither of the Wilder boys gave chase. Instead, Chuck walked over to where Emma was and picked her up off of the ground, setting her on her feet. "Are you all right?" He asked her, concerned.

Chepe looked at Chuck and Emma. "You guys all right?" he asked. When he saw that they were. except for Chuck being a little beat up, Chepe rubbed his jaw to make it quit stinging so much. He knelt beside Angel. "Hey girl," he said, rubbing her head. He got up, and saw that his guitar case was still open. "Oops," he said, "I shouldn't have left that open." He said and walked over to close it, but when he looked down at the guitar, he noticed a piece of paper there. "What the heck is this, and what is it doing in my guitar case??" He said to no one in particular. He picked it up to look at it, momentarily he forgot about Chuck and emma as he tried to solve the paper's appearance with his guitar. "What the hell?" he said, looking it over. Surely it was not a phone number! But that was, indeed what it appeared to be. The name was written in cursive above the number. Chepe was a bit surprised. He hadn't expected to get a girl's phone number the day he arrived on the island. He shook his long black hair back out of his eyes, rubbing his jaw again. He was having a little difficulty matching the name to the face, after all, he'd just met her when those guys had started harassing Emma. He thought for a minute. "Oh....ok, yeah...her name was Lorilynn." he said, under his breath. He was sure that no one would notice that he had the piece of paper in his hand. It wasn't very big, after all.

Emma’s brother had repetitively cautioned her to not get involved with any of the Wilder’s, due to the rumors floating around about them. Rumors of them being violent and unruly, as well as the company they kept. However, Emma wasn’t the type of person to rely souly on gossip she wholeheartedly believed in your innocent and until proven guilty. Perhaps that personality flaw caused her to be a tad naïve; nonetheless it had yet to fail her. Witnessing the Wilder’s give their newest victims a much deserved beat down, didn’t solidify the horrible rumors in Emma’s mind as it did most of the onlookers. Sure Emma was against any physical confrontations and thought most problems could be solved with the right choice of words, but the look in Chuck’s eyes as he helped her to her feet was their saving grace. He genuinely looked concerned about her well-being, those soft blue eyes did not belong to someone who fought just for the fun of it. His intentions never seemed to waver throughout the whole confrontation. It was never about knocking a few skulls together, he made sure too keep her behind him protectively the entire time…being the barrier between her and any harm that wanted to lay it’s hands on her.

The stinging in Emma’s palms had been long gone although the scratches would take a few days to heal. She was trembling slightly from the shock of the fight but managed to respond to Chuck’s concern. “I-I think so…thank you.” She said lifting her chin slightly bringing her gaze from her hands to his eyes, her own deep brown ones blinking with concern. “Are you okay? Your lip is bleeding!” Instinctively she reached out to gently touch the side of his face in order to assess the damage of his split lip, but realizing what she was doing she let her hands fall back to her side. Why had he jumped in to help her…?He barely even knew her, aside from a few exchanged glances and obnoxious whistle they had never even met properly...and yet for reasons unknown to her being near this boy made her heart race.

"And how's Mother doing? I heard her calling me, is she okay?" Lorilynn asked over the phone, shifting uncomfortably. She was worried that Remy might have hurt herself from her huge episode this morning. She sighed when her father told her she was laying in bed with a massive headache, and was sobbing as if Lorilynn had died. "Figures." Lorilynn mumbled. "Just tell her I'll be home soon, okay?... Yes Father, I know. I love you too. Huh? No, I never got the chance to speak to him. I'll do it when I feel he won't lash out at me again. Okay then, bye." Lorilynn made a face as she closed her phone and shoved it in her pocket.

After her father asked about how Leon was, Lorilynn felt her blood boil. Leon was her boyfriend of about eight years, roughly, and for the past two years, she and Leon haven't been seeing eye to eye. It started after she told him she wanted to leave Boston and go to school somewhere. Leon told her it was a stupid idea, and things have been going down hill ever since.

When news did get out that she was packing to leave the island, he became furious. He demanded her not to leave, but she had her mind set up. They argued for hours before he stated that if she wanted to go, then he wasn't going to stop her or see her off. Lorilynn thought he was just being childish, but she didn't think he'd actually ignore her and not say goodbye! She didn't even want to think of talking to him, he'd probably just ignore her call anyway.

To calm herself down, she headed to the courtyard again. All the interesting things happened there. Much to her dismay, things were a lot calmer now. She didn't mind peace and quiet, but she did wish she was doing something interesting like watching that fight from earlier, or talking to that guy with the nice singing voice. Wasn't Chepe his name? Or something like that. She sat down quietly on a nearby bench and decided to take in the beauty around her. She wasn't going to let Leon ruin her mood.

Chepe put her phone number in his pocket, glad that Chuck and Emma were too busy to notice the small movement. He walked around for a few minutes. He saw Lorilynn, sitting on a bench. He stared at her for a little while, then he waved, and walked over to the bench where she was sitting. "Hi' he said.

Lorilynn's thought were cut off when she heard someone speak out to her. "Wha?" She looked up confused. "Oh, it's you again. Hey." She smiled at Chepe. "Oh! Did you find my present I left you? It should be in your guitar case." Lorilynn was glad Chepe found her. She thought he was really cool and she wanted to get to know him. Hopefully he found her number, and didn't throw it out. That'd be a huge blow to the ego.

Smiling, chepe said, "Yeah, I found it." he patted his pocket. "It's right here." he scratched his arm. "Thanks." he said. Grinning, he said "I should probably give you mine too, shouldn't I?" He pulled the little notebook out of his pocket that he used for song notes, wrote his cell number on a page and tore it out. Handing it to her, he said "You can call me anytime."

Lorilynn took the paper graciously from his hand and put it in her pocket while saying thank you. She then looked at the small notebook he took out. She smirked. "Hey, what's that book for? Keeping all your girlfriend's numbers in there or something?" She teased. On TV, all the musicians had bunches of girls fawning over them. They loved the attention, and they always had a girl at their side. Although it wouldn't be hard to picture girls all over Chepe, Lorilynn just couldn't see him with a different girl every other week. Well, she couldn't possibly believe everything she saw on TV.

Chepe grinned, slipping the small book back into his pocket. "No...I write my song ideas, and rough sketches of songs in here." he said, laughing. "Nothing bad at all, or even embarrassing." He smiled at her.

"You write your own songs too?" Lorilynn smiled. "What kind of songs do you mainly write anyway? Any thing you'd never write in a million years?" She stopped herself. She always had a bad habit of asking too many questions. "S-sorry if I'm bothering you. I just wanted to know if I could flip through your book." She smiled nervously.

Chepe smiled. "I write mostly love songs." looking at her, he asked, "You really want to read some of them?" He pulled the small red notebook out of his pocket and handed it to her. "I would never write or sing a rap song." he grinned. "I can't stand rap." Chepe sat next to her on the bench, setting his guitar next to him.

Lorilynn flipped through his song book. There were a lot of beautiful words in there. She read all of them, and thought about each and every word, and it's place in the song. A soft smile played on her lips. "I like your songs. They're beautiful." She closed the book before handing it to Chepe. Lorilynn thought about all the songs in his book. They were all good, but she couldn't quite understand some. Maybe love was different to each and every person. Who knew?

Chepe smiled, putting the book back in his pocket. "I write what I feel." he said. "I think it's more that I hope I can find love someday........but right now, it hasn't happened." He shrugged. "I guess it's weird I write the way I do when I have never actually been in love." He shook his head, hair getting in his eyes

Lorilynn raised her eyebrows suspiciously. "Never been in love? So how do you write something you've never felt before?" That was a bit strange, but maybe he could have picked it up from other people, or from those cheesy soaps. Lorilynn looked at him. "I don't doubt you won't find love. After all, this world isn't all that loveless."

Chepe gave her a small smile. "Honestly....I don't know if I will. I don't have parents, and a sister I have to take care of. Not many girls want to be with a guy who has the kind of responsibilities I have." He sighed. "I am my sister's legal guardian. I've taken care of her since...." he blinked. "I guess it's more I wish it WOULD happen."

Chepe's sudden change in topics made her fell a bit suspicious, but she decided against questioning him. Interrogating people her first day here wasn't a very smart idea. People would start avoiding her, and didn't want that. "Well," she started. "I bet mature girls would want a guy that takes on responsibilities. Don't sweat it too much." She smiled at him.