I giggled. “You didn’t stick around long enough for us to get to that point
.”
“You have a decent argument there.”
“It’s not an argument, it’s just the truth. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Refreshing, coming from you.”
I playfully glared at him. “That one feel good?”
Michael nodded. “Actually, it did.”
“Good. Because it’s the only one you’ll get.”
The three of us laughed again before a commotion started in the back of the cafeteria. Kids rushed to the windows and poured out onto the patio, their hands clapping and cupping over their mouths. I furrowed my brow deeply as I craned my neck, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.
Then, I heard it. I heard what they were chanting.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Allison’s face fell. “Uh oh.”
Michael shook his head. “Shit.”
And as a sinking feeling filled my gut, I felt myself standing from my seat.
Clint.
I abandoned my lunch and pressed myself between Michael and the wall. I slipped away, listening to them yell at me as I headed for one of the windows. I pushed people out of the way, trying to catch a glimpse of what they were looking at. And when I saw a towering black mass dancing around on the football field, I felt my lunch creep up the back of my throat.
Shit.
I pushed away from the window and charged for the cafeteria exit. I had to navigate the masses, since they had already started rushing out the door. Teachers were trapped. The principal was stuck at the back of the hallway. It took all the effort I had to shove people to the concrete in order to get ahead of them.
And all the while, Allison and Michael yelled for me to come back.
30
Clinton
I took a blow to the jaw and stumbled back. Actually stumbled. On my feet. That hadn’t happened in a fight in quite some time. Usually, it was only my father that made me stumble backwards. These boys fought harder than I’d originally given them credit for. And I was happy for it. The pain gave me something to focus on. Their beady, disgusting little eyes gave me targets for the fury in my fists. I felt blood pumping through my veins and fire coursing through my bones. I felt alive. More alive than I ever had before.
Except with Rae.
“You’re fucked, you little piece of shit.”
I grinned. “Gotta take me down first.”
I hooked my arm around his neck and bent him at the waist. Throwing my head back, I cracked the other guy in the nose behind me as he growled and cursed to himself. I laughed as I choked off the boy’s air supply before an elbow came down into my back. And as I dropped to my hands and knees, it gave me the perfect angle to wrap my arm around some other boy’s legs.
I didn’t even know who was who. At this point, it was kill or be killed. Just like in my house.
And I sure as hell wasn’t on the menu tonight.
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
I heard chanting kids racing for the field. A crowd gathered as I shoved myself up off the ground. My jaw was swelling, my lip was busted, and one of my eyes was already swelling shut. More decorative scars and colors to go along with the ligature marks that took me for fucking ever to cover up this morning.