Until The End

"I can't believe that asshole shoved you, sis!" Matt exclaimed, as we walked back towards the hall ten minutes later. I'd finally managed to clean most of the blood off my face and hands, but the shirt was a lost cause; I just had to hope that the low lighting in the hall wouldn't show it up too obviously.

"Yeah, well..." Amy responded vaguely, shrugging.

As we walked on, however, I spotted that she was limping slightly.

Should I say something?

I wasn't sure how Matt would react; the last thing I wanted was for Matt to go in search of Brett and end up in trouble. Besides, Amy would probably have agreed with me (or so I told myself) so I kept my mouth shut as we walked back through the hall to where Jimmy and Leana were clearly questioning Val, their expressions serious.

"What the hell happened, man?" Jimmy asked, turning round as we approached.

"That dickwad Brett tried to get at Zacky," Matt replied, but his expression was totally at odds with the sentiment of his words.

The other three noticed this; frowning, Leana demanded, "What's so funny, Matt? Zacky could have been hurt!"

Matt laughed out loud. "That's just it. Tell 'em, Zack."

Every eye turned to me and I swallowed before replying. "I hit him in the face," I said quietly.

They looked at me with wide eyes for several seconds before Jimmy spoke.

"...What, like full-on punched him?" He grinned as I nodded.

A grin spread slowly across my own face as the realisation finally hit me.

I hit Brett...and he backed down.

"Sweet!" Jimmy held his hand up for a high-five.

I obliged but, feeling a little embarrassed, felt the need to add, "It was a total fluke, though. He slipped."

"Shut up!" Matt shushed me with another laugh. "Let them think what they want."

"Them?" I frowned.

"Look." He pointed over to the doors we'd just come in by; I could see people talking in groups and, if I strained my ears, I thought I could hear them saying my name, along with Brett's.

"Mr Baker, a word?"

I turned to see Mrs Vance standing behind me, her expression stern. "Uh, sure."

"Come with me."

Sharing a quick glance with the others, I followed her through the crowds of milling students out to the toilets, where she stopped in the doorway.

Whoa... I left that much blood on the floor?

"Mr Baker, some students tell me that you and Mr Summers engaged in an...altercation, about ten minutes ago?" She turned the statement into a question.

I nodded. "That's right."

"They said there was some yelling, then violence ensued and Mr Summers fled the scene with a bleeding face."

I had to fight to keep a grin from my face at the mental image. "Yes, Miss."

"You want to fill in the blanks?" She folded her arms and frowned at me, as if daring me to lie.

"Sure." I wasn't sure how much of the truth I should tell; I had technically thrown the first (and only) punch, but with that much of my blood on the floor, there was no harm in a little embellishment, was there?

Taking a deep breath, I started to tell her 'my version' of what had happened:

"I came out here about ten minutes ago, and Brett must have followed me, 'cause like a second later he was right there in front of me."

"Did he hit you first?"

I nodded - a lie, but again, the evidence spoke for itself. "Not particularly hard, but it bled a lot."

"I can see that." She grimaced and motioned for me to go on.

"I just wanted him to leave me alone, but then he started talking about a friend of mine. He thinks she started this rumour about him, that he's-"

"Yes, I know about that," she interrupted, looking uncomfortable.

I had to stifle another grin. "Okay. Well anyway, he started saying all this nasty stuff about her, calling her names like 'whore' and stuff, and I didn't do anything, but then he started threatening to kill her."

"He did what?" Now Mrs Vance looked shocked. I could almost hear the ears of the students outside, straining to catch what we were saying.

"D'you want his exact words? They weren't nice."

"Um, no, I don't think that will be necessary..." She pushed her hair back behind her ears. "So he verbally threatened to harm this friend of yours? As in 'I'm going to kill her'?" she asked, making inverted commas with her fingers.

I nodded. "Almost his exact words."

"And I'm guessing you got pretty upset when he said that?"

"I guess so." I shrugged slightly. "I didn't even hit him that hard..."

"Well, you don't look too bruised," she said, peering at my face. "Okay, well, I guess that's all we can do right now. Do yourself a favour?"

"What?"

"Don't brag about this." She looked at me seriously. "It'll only make him come back at you worse."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I decided to take her advice, not saying a word to anybody as I made my way back to the others, who were waiting just inside the main doors, looking anxious.

"What did she say?" Matt asked.

I shrugged. "General 'what happened' sort of questions. I just told her what went down."

"Did you say that he hit you?" Jimmy frowned.

"I think she assumed it, from the blood all over the floor. I didn't know nosebleeds could get that bad." I ran a hand through my hair.

"So you're not in the shit for this, then?" Matt looked relieved when I shook my head.

"She got a little suspicious when she couldn't see any bruises, but what can she do about it?"

"Nothing." Amy answered for all of us, nudging my arm. I jumped slightly at the unexpected contact, then looked quickly around to see if anyone had noticed; it didn't look like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten minutes later, we were all extremely bored; I was especially tired of people looking at me and muttering behind their hands. At this point, it didn't matter that they might not be insulting me, I just didn't like the attention. I wasn't used to it.

"Hey, I got an idea," Jimmy said, perking up. "How about we go get us some drinks and hang out at the park?"

"Beats this waste of time," I muttered.

The girls agreed, so after a minute or two, the six of us had left the school and started to walk towards the liquor store on the next street.

We pooled our money and sent Jimmy inside, then waited outside for him to return.

"How's your head?" Amy asked me as we waited; I'd explained the whole headache-followed-by-nosebleed thing as we'd walked.

"It's fine." I smiled. "Must have been the stress or something."

"Yeah." She grimaced in sympathy, opening her mouth to say more, but at that moment Jimmy returned, grinning triumphantly, laden with alcohol.

"A little help, guys?"

We divided up the load and started to walk towards the hidden 'spot' Matt had shown me a while ago.

Before we got to it, however, Amy spoke up. "Actually, guys, I think I'm just gonna go home."

"Oh. Okay." Matt frowned. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just tired." She smiled and waved goodbye. "I'll see you guys at school."

The others all said goodbye and turned to carry on walking, but some impulse made me stop. "I'll walk you back, if you want?"

I glanced at Matt, who opened his mouth, then closed it again and shrugged.

Figuring that meant he was cool with it, I held out the bottles I was carrying; Matt and Jimmy divided them up between them.

"Thanks, guys. I'll catch you up." I turned and walked with Amy out of the trees and across the grass alongside the lake.

After a few seconds, I noticed with a pang that she was still limping.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you, when he pushed you?" I asked.

She hesitated, then nodded. "It's not that bad. I just whacked my knee when I fell down."

My fists clenched and I felt a sudden echo of the anger I'd felt earlier.

"Hey, can we stop for a second?" She slowed to a stop, turning to look out over the lake. The last geese were flying up from the water as we stood watching them.

Suddenly she shivered; I realised she was only wearing a thin shawl over her shoulders, and fervently wished I had brought a jacket so I could give it to her.

After a second or two of watching her shiver, however, some impulse made me reach out and put an arm around her shoulders. As I had earlier, she jumped at the sudden contact, but didn't move away. In fact, a moment later, she stepped a little closer, leaning into my shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was hours later, after I'd got home from the park (and somehow dodged both parents so they wouldn't smell the alcohol or cigarettes) that it hit me; I finally realised what had just happened.

My first thought: Matt can never find out about this... He'll kill me.