The Iceberg Tipping

The bell was ringing and Emma’s head was spinning. James was too close, inching closer and closer until she was suffocating. Rory, on her other side, pushed his chair out quickly, one glance at him told Emma that he was having a hard time not lashing out and punching something; his muscles were tense and his jaw was clenched even tighter than his fists.
indent The room emptied quickly, no teenagers wishing to stay any longer than they had to inside of the school’s walls. Soon enough all that was left were the the three and the teacher, who was turning an unamused eye on the trio.
indent“Get out of my room so I can go home,” he sighed, shoving his laptop into a leather bag.
indent James walked out first, gripping Emma’s arm tightly as he left, Rory close behind and just as wound up as he’d been the whole day. All he wanted to do was punch James in the face; thoughts of much worse things he could do crossed his mind and he had to physically shake his head to lose them.
indent Emma looked back at him, eyes wide and watery, making Rory even angrier.
indent By the time they were outside of the school, James was jogging towards his car with Emma still towed behind him and Rory was thinking of different ways he could hide James’ body.
indent“Hey!” Rory called out, Emma felt like the ground was rumbling beneath her feet. A few of the outcasts that were still filling out from detention stopped and stared after the three. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, trying his hardest not to stomp on his way towards Emma and James.
indent James laughed a little, “fuck off, loser.”
indent“I punched you once, what’s there to keep me from doing it again?” Rory asked, raising an eyebrow while he loosened and tightened his fists. James tightened his hand around Emma’s arm, making Emma gasp a little out of pain.
indent Memories flooded her mind, images taking form behind her eyelids, and fear bubbling like panic in the pit of her stomach. She closed her eyes as tightly as she could, remembering how it used to be; the pain of everything made her knees weak.
indent She never wanted to go back to that.
indent Her eyes fluttered open, noticing the way that Rory was staring at her a mixture of worry and anger in his eyes. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blonde head of hair bob into focus and then duck behind a car. Hanna, she thought, what are you doing here, Hanna?
indent Distracted, she didn’t notice the way the James was laughing, the small crowd gathering that was chanting ‘fight, fight, fight,’ or the way that Rory was getting closer and closer while the grip on her arm was getting looser and looser. Before she knew what was happening she was getting thrown off to the side, the gravel lodging itself beneath the skin of her palms and elbows as she tried to catch herself. She scrambled backwards, ignoring the pain, watching with horror as the fight broke out.
indent Rory threw the first punch, sloppy out of pure furry. James, much calmer and still laughing, dodged it easily and threw a hard punch to Rory’s gut. Emma nearly screamed as Rory bent over out of pain, but clasped her hand over her mouth before any noise came out. Rory glared up at James, standing up slowly with an arm slung around his middle.
indent“Not so cocky anymore, loser?” James taunted, glancing over at Emma only to make sure she was still there. He had to make this quick, before she realized that she could simply run off while he was busy beating up her loser friend.
indent A growl-like sound escaped Rory’s lips and he threw his whole body into James, pinning him against a car. He was scrawny compared to James, but if he could keep attacking when James wasn’t paying attention he told himself that he still had a chance. James’ head slammed back against the metal of his car and Rory got a good punch to the face in before James flung himself forward and they both landed heavily on the rough cement of the parking lot.
indent James had Rory pinned against the ground, punching him over and over again when one of the outcasts in the ring surrounding them yelled ‘teacher’ and James jumped away. He grabbed Emma and shoved her into the car before getting in himself and slamming the door, hitting the power locks with record speed.
indent Rory was just starting to get up again, face bloody and even more infuriated than before, when the car raced out of the parking lot and the blonde darted her way over to him. He stared after the car, glancing back at his own and realizing it would be too late no matter what he did.
indent The blonde bounced around in front of him anxiously until he finally looked down at her. “What?” he snapped, but she didn’t flinch back like he expected she would.
indent Emma would have.
indent He stared after the fast car again, already disappearing.
indent“Thought you were backing off?” Hanna asked, crossing her arms over her chest and calling his attention back to her.
indent He shrugged, “I never made any promises.”
indent“C’mon,” Hanna sighed, “we’ve got shit to do.”