I let my arms fall to the gravel, the urge to sleep suddenly growing stronger. Turning my head, I found Allie on her knees at the edge of the crowd, her cheeks muddied with tears. I held my eyes on her for as long as I could, and then let them close. My weight fell away, like I was floating in space with no sense of direction, drifting in a distant void far away from Kyle and the crowd.
Somewhere nearby, a familiar voice said, “You need to back off now.” I forced my eyes open, and a hand gripped Kyle’s wrist. Kyle looked over his shoulder and the ends of his lips curled into a smirk. Raj stood over him, his fingers tight around Kyle’s wrist. Seeing him gave me a rush of emotion that made my eyes tear up.
Gordie appeared from behind Raj and lifted his crutch. “I’m gonna ram this through your mouth and out the back of your head if you don’t let him go.”
Kyle let out a sigh. “Get in line, girls. You can have your turn after.” He wrenched his wrist out of Raj’s grip.
Gordie adjusted his fingers around his crutch and lifted the armrest end over his shoulder. His usual anxious expression had turned to hard, unblinking eyes. A tall, athletic figure approached from behind him and moved in next to him. I wiped the blood and tears from my eyes. Cannondale Wolverines guard Andre Stevenson propped his hands on his hips. “This ain’t cool, Swindon. You need to leave.”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed and a chilling smile crept over his face.
With a grunt, Bundy rolled onto his knees and stood, his blurry silhouette hovering over me. Fink staggered to his feet, his gaze flicking between Bundy and Kyle, and his jacket and jeans saturated with bright blood like he’d just slaughtered a deer with his bare hands. He stepped back and gave a strained smile, wiping his nose and nodding. “Sounds like Andre wants some too.”
Rising to his feet, Kyle stepped back between Fink and Bundy, clutching his knife.
Allie pulled herself free from the crowd and ran into the circle. Kneeling next to me, she lifted my head and wiped the blood from my face and neck. She took off her jacket and tied it tight around my hand, covering the wound on both sides. Her eyes searched mine, and for a moment I wished everything else in the world would disappear.
“Don’t be impatient, assholes,” Kyle said. “There’s plenty to go ‘round.” He raised his knife and nodded at Bundy.
One after the other, the two Cooper brothers stepped forward and folded their arms. Two more seniors in Wolverines uniforms moved in beside them, and Kevin Chang, a skinny kid who hangs with the drama crowd, stepped forward. Bundy’s face strained like he was trying to do math, and Fink wiped his nose on his sleeve, his lips tightening into a hard line.
Kyle pointed his knife in my direction. “This is between him and me.” His eyes moved deliberately across the crowd and his knife hand twitched. Fink and Bundy stood unmoving, waiting expectantly. Another half a dozen people moved into the circle.
Kyle glanced at Bundy. “Show these bitches we ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.” Murmurs swept through the crowd, and Bundy glanced at Fink and swallowed hard, like he was unable to command his legs to move.
I rolled onto my elbow. “Making your date do all the hard work, Kyle? Come on. Bring it, you piece of shit.”
An intense rage flared in Kyle’s eyes, a dark anger that arose from the deepest recesses of his broken mind. With a grunt, he lunged at me. Before he could close the gap between us, the Cooper twins gripped his arms, and Andre twisted the knife out of his hand and tackled him to the ground. The three of them piled onto Kyle and hung on like rodeo cowboys clinging to a pissed-off bull.
Bundy’s brain switched into gear and he lumbered toward them. Before he could get there, Raj rushed at him and leapt onto his back, wrapping his legs around Bundy’s waist. The crowd roared and chanted.
Hobbling on one crutch, Gordie hooked the armrest of his other crutch around Bundy’s ankle and wrenched his foot off the ground. Grappling with the maniac on his back, Bundy tipped sideways and plunged face first onto the gravel. Raj rolled off and climbed to his feet. The crowd closed in and swarmed over Bundy. He squealed and bucked like a wild pig, shaking his head and digging his fingers into the dirt.
A gap formed in the crowd and students on both sides turned to look back, making room for whoever was coming this way.
Pushing the wheels of his wheelchair, Danny rolled through the opening in the crowd and into the circle. He positioned himself next to Bundy’s face and hitched a wheel up onto his head, squashing his crooked nose into the dirt and smiling. A mountain of brawling, shouting bodies piled on top of Bundy, and he let out a muffled groan as he disappeared underneath.
Less than ten feet away, Fink clutched his stomach and staggered wildly, changing direction as he tried to escape the unruly mob. The gap around him closed and the crowd dragged him to the ground, burying him under a pile of kicking legs and thrashing arms. He cried and sobbed like an eight-year-old at summer camp underneath the writhing tangle of bodies.
Next to him, the Wolverines and the Cooper brothers pinned Kyle to the ground and wrenched his arms behind his back, his face a mess of blood, snot, and tears. A muffled shriek escaped his throat, and he grimaced as they twisted his arms and pummeled his face into the dirt.
Allie’s lips moved, but I couldn’t make out the words over the shouting. All around us, dozens of bodies piled on top of each other, high-fiving and landing punches wherever they could on Kyle, Fink, and Bundy. Allie lifted my head into her lap and traced her fingers over my forehead and through my hair. My skin tingled with her touch, and a blanket of relief spread over me. The glow of a nearby streetlight reflected in her watery eyes as she wiped the blood from my chin and the tears from her cheeks.
I opened my mouth to speak, but she put a finger to my lips. “It’s over.” She gave a soft smile, lowered her hand, and pressed her warm lips to mine.
27. Recafeteriainated
The flickering glare of the cafeteria lights felt like salt on half a dozen open head wounds. I pulled out a chair and eased into it, feeling the aches and pains of a body full of bruises, cuts, scrapes, and a stab hole. The thick bandage around my hand was doing a decent job of keeping the stitched-up entrance and exit wounds covered, but not even Vike and Oxy could stop the avalanche of agony whenever I moved my fingers.
The greasy stink of cafeteria meat on Gordie’s plate made my stomach swim. He touched the tip of his fork to his tongue and grimaced. Next to him, Raj sipped his can of cherry cola. “I heard the lunch ladies use roadkill in that meat.”
“I’m trying to eat this.” Gordie placed his fork beside his plate.
Allie licked the apple juice off her straw. “Raj, stop being silly. It only smells bad because it’s the minced up remains of Kyle.”
Gordie pushed his plate away and folded his arms. “Let’s get out of here. They’ll be coming soon.”
“Not if they know what’s good for them,” Raj said.
I touched my tongue to my lip and tasted the faint metallic tang of blood. “I doubt what happened yesterday changed anything. We probably just pissed them off more, if that’s even possible.”
“They wouldn’t dare touch you.” Allie nudged my arm. “Kyle knows the USSC will kick his ass if he even looks at you.”
I rubbed my arm, wincing from the pain. “You’re probably right.”
A wry grin crept onto Raj’s face. “I heard some freshies talking this morning. Chris has dozens of adoring fangirls. One of them said he’s like Jesus ‘cause he sacrificed himself for others – and he even got stabbed in the hand like Jesus.”
Juice spilled from Allie’s nose as she snortled. “Chris, you’re a…” She burst into laughter and, after eventually settling, wiped her nose and let out a sigh.
I smiled and shook my head. “The odds weren’t in my favor, but it’s not like I was trying to get myself killed.” I touched my fingers to the sticky wound on my neck.
Leaning across the table, Raj stared at my face and neck. “You look like you’ve gone several rounds with a me
at grinder. How many stitches are in there?”
I blinked slowly and rubbed my eyes. “Eighteen in my face and neck. Twelve in my hand, I think. And I’d take a meat grinder over those three any day.”
“Maybe they skipped class,” Gordie said. “I heard they were in bad shape after everyone cleared out yesterday.”
“Looks like they’re not skipping lunch.” Raj nodded over his shoulder.
The rumble of voices in the cafeteria softened as hundreds of heads turned to watch two uneasy looking figures standing at the door. Fink ran his snake tongue over his fattened, scabby lips and rubbed his bandaged nose. Bundy’s puffy eyes were almost swollen shut. They scanned the room, their eyes shifting from table to table, and started toward us.
My stomach clenched and a rush of sickening panic washed over me. I couldn’t take another beating, not in this condition – I’d literally fall apart.
Fink hobbled awkwardly, bent at the waist and clutching his stomach. Bundy limped behind him, pressing his oversized hands on tables to balance. As they approached, Fink fixed me with a stare. I held his stare with unblinking eyes, figuring I was better off faking tough even if I wasn’t fit to take on a five year old.
Reaching our table, he gave a nervous smile and a wave, and continued past. Bundy followed, glancing sideways at us through bloated, half-closed eyes. Together, they shuffled past three more