Page 28 of You Had Me At Thirteen

The crowd erupts, some in hysterical laughter, some in sympathetic moans when Derek drops to his knees, trying to stem the blood pouring from his nose.

‘You… you broke my fucking nose.’ Derek’s voice cracks when it rises a few octaves as he inspects the blood covering his hands.

But what has me moving faster is the look on his face when he climbs to his feet again and rushes towards Matilda. She backs away, the look on her face telling me she didn’t see this coming.

It takes only seconds for me to grab Derek by the back of his shirt collar and send him flying across the hall on his arse.

‘What the fuck, Stevenson?’ Derek says as he scrambles to his feet.

His teammates watch on as the scene unfolds, not one of them making a move to come at me. It helps that Koby, and now Emerson and Will, have placed themselves in the way.

As I shove him back down, the familiar urge to let loose overtakes me and I punch him in the face. He lets out a guttural cry before he gets one good one in, connecting with my mouth. I’m sure I let him, though. I just want to feel the pain I inflict for once.

The taste of metal fills my mouth, sending me into a fit of rage as I climb on top of him and punch him again. It’s like my body is running on autopilot and as I keep the punches coming, I can’t help laughing in his face, spit and blood flying into the air.

‘Wren, stop it.’ Matilda pulls at my shirt, screaming at me. ‘Wren. That’s enough.’

I choose to ignore her until Koby replaces her seconds later. By the time he pulls me off Derek, I’ve busted his lip open and made his nose piss with more blood than Matilda had.

I spit blood at him as he scrambles away from me. ‘You’re a piece of shit. If you ever speak to Matilda like that again, I’ll fucking kill you. Don’t even look in her direction.’ My chest heaves as I suck in some much-needed oxygen. Each muscle in my body twitches as I try to calm the adrenaline spike.

Derek wipes the blood from his lip. ‘You’re a fucking psycho. Jesus, she’s all yours, man. I didn’t realise those legs spread for you.’

Slipping from Koby’s grasp, I go for him again. With wide eyes, he backs away, but he’s too slow to avoid one more punch in the face before Mr Hendricks walks around the corner seconds later, ending our excitement for the morning.

‘Mr Stevenson, Mr Jones and Miss Maxwell. Principal’s office. Now.’

Koby drags me back again. ‘What the fuck, dude?’

I wipe my face with the back of my hand. ‘Get off me,’ I say as I shrug out of his grasp.

He puts his hands up in front of him. ‘You’ve lost it, dude.’

‘Whatever,’ I say as I throw my bag over my shoulder.

People shouldn’t say shit if they can’t back it up. It’s not my fault Derek can’t handle himself.

Matilda marches past me on the way to the office, the full ferocity of her squinted eyes and burning glare telling me she’s pissed. I follow behind her, stretching out my jaw with side-to-side movements to make sure there’s no lasting damage.

While Derek is in the principal’s office, Matilda sits next to me, avoiding any eye contact as she holds an icepack to her right hand.

I’m nursing a cut lip as I press my ice pack to my face. The silence is deafening, but it doesn’t take long before she turns on me.

‘What the fuck, Wren?’

With a scoff, I side-eye her. ‘Really? How is this my fault? Besides, the guy’s a dick.’

‘I had it sorted.’

I chuckle as I throw my head back. ‘Yeah, okay. I saw the look on your face when he came at you.’

She squints her pretty eyes at me, her full lips pressed together before she speaks again. ‘God, I can’t even talk to you right now.’ She shakes her head as she sinks further into the chair, turning to the front again.

‘Whatever.’ I press the icepack harder against my lip. Pain makes me feel better.

Just a little.

We don’t speak again. I have nothing left to say to her, anyway.

---