Page 15 of Losing the Rhythm

What. The. Hell?

Paxon had a guy shoved up against a set of lockers, leaning into him hard. Paxon’s face was red with fury, gray eyes narrowed. His blond hair was already in disarray, his beanie nowhere to be seen. It took me a moment to realize that the guy Paxon looked ready to throttle was the same one who made the comment to me when I was talking with Micah.

It all clicked into place.

Paxon was about to get into a lot of trouble because of me. Again.

He’d already gone through suspension for a week because the guys decided to steal the public speaker system to sing their apology to me. And now Paxon was about to get in trouble for a fight.

The principal wouldn’t be as light in her punishment as she was with their suspension. Not for this.

“Paxon!” I snapped out, only thinking about keeping him out of trouble. Yanking out of Toby’s hold, I moved closer, making sure I had his attention. “What are you doing?”

Paxon’s jaw clenched briefly before he forced himself to relax more. The furious look on his face bled into something sadder. Still angry, but he looked so frustrated. “Cadence. Aren’t you on your way to class?”

“Uh.” I glanced at the idiot he had pinned to the wall. “You too. You better release him before a teacher comes. Someone will be here any moment. And you know better.”

The boy grabbed Paxon’s wrist and chuckled. “Yeah. Listen to your master, lapdog. You better let me go or she might break out the whips.”

Snickers broke out around us. Embarrassed warmth spread through my body at the crude words. Fury flashed across Paxon’s expression, and he turned.

“Shit.” Toby slipped by me and grabbed his friend. “Paxon. Not here. Not now. You need to go.”

“He can’t talk like that.”

“Well he did,” Toby snapped. Then he leaned forward and said something to Paxon. I tried to edge closer to hear what they were saying, but it was too low. At least it was enough to finally get Paxon to relent and let go of his teammate.

“What the hell is going on?” Bryan asked, shoving through the crowd. His gaze fell on the scene and widened. “Paxon. Shit, man.” He strolled forward and grabbed him, yanking him away. Then in a loud voice so everyone heard. “A teacher is on his way.”

That got everyone moving, not wanting to get in trouble for the fight. It was enough to scatter everyone, including the chuckling idiot who thought he was getting away with it.

There was a sharpness in Toby’s eyes as he watched him walk away.

“Toby?” I asked softly.

“Class. Let’s go,” Toby said simply, but I had a feeling he had something cooking up in his head. I swallowed, a little scared to ask. That wasn’t an expression I was used to seeing on Toby’s face.

And Paxon’s rage. Where did that come from? I had seen a different side to both these boys and it worried me. I didn’t want them doing something to get in trouble, but whatever Toby was thinking was definitely not something anyone would recommend.

“Toby,” I said again.

Toby sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Paxon will be fine. We will all be fine.” His grip on me tightened slightly. “Let’s just get in class before we’re late.” He broke out into a grin. “An angry Mrs. Odera scares me more than my aunt being angry.”

Toby tried to lighten the mood, but it did nothing to stop the twisting and churning of my stomach. There was a new layer of tension brimming all around me, and whatever that incident was only added to it. Eventually it was going to explode.

I could feel it in the pit of my stomach.

~*~

As soon as class was over, Justin was there waiting for me. I frowned as he pushed away from the wall, nodding at Toby in acknowledgement.

“How are you already here?” I asked. “Your class isn’t near here.”

“They let us slip out a little earlier.”

I narrowed my eyes at Justin suspiciously. He pretended to not understand my suspicions.

“Come on. I need to go to the nurses for this headache. I’ll walk you there.”

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