Lifeline

Fight

I slammed my locker shut as I finished getting what I needed out of it for the day. To put it bluntly, this day had sucked. It had started perfectly, which is rare for a Monday, but I got my locker this morning mystery boy, who I learned was named Jack, was waiting by my locker.

We had been texting all weekend, and I don't think the smile had left my face, which didn't go unnoticed by my brothers. Even all their teasing couldn't ruin my mood; what could I say? I definitely had a crush, but I wouldn't admit it out loud, at least not to my brothers.

Anyway, there he was, looking perfect, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as I approached him, and after a very awkward conversation, well at least on my end, we went our separate ways for first period.

The first period is where it quickly went wrong, I had walked into the classroom, and not even five seconds later, someone coughed the word slut in my direction. I whirled around. I mean, they couldn't be talking about me, right?

Wrong.

It turns out dancing with the same day for that many songs when you didn't even know him was desperate and slutty. I had been called names no less than 11 times, all before lunch.

Lunch. Oh goddess, that is where the day really went wrong. Usually, my brothers and I don't associate much at school, but today is totally different.

I had just walked in and sat down next to Kaya and Lily when some random guys I had never seen walked over to be, once again spewing some names at me; but of course, Kaya was not just going to sit there and let it happen, so she stood up and started screaming at the boys.

Well, mister leader of the group did not take that well and got all up in her face calling her a bitch, which set me off.

I stood up, got in between them, and pushed the guy back from her, by now we had the whole school's attention, anyway, he raised his hand to hit me, and right before he could land it, he was knocked off balance by Miles throwing a punch to his face.

Miles was the least aggressive of my brothers, so I knew it had to be bad if he was angry. It took security three minutes to pull the fight apart, especially now since Westin had joined, and while my brothers didn't appear to have a scratch on them, the other guy was a mess; they ended up having to call an ambulance for him while the three of us were dragged down to the office.

I sat waiting for both my principal, Ashton, and the other boy's parents. I had never been in trouble at school, and I was panicking because of it. The air around me felt heavy, and my concentration was blurry, I felt both here at not here at the same time, and my chest was heavy, but I was trying to breath normal.

A hand landed on my knee, stopping it from shaking, which I didn't even know I was doing.

"You okay?" Miles asked.

Before I could reply, Ashton walked into the main office and straight for the principal's door.

"Ashton, it wasn't our fault" Westin stood up, still hot-headed from the fight.

He glanced back at us. "You three sit there, don't move, and I'll deal with you in a minute."

We barely heard the principal, great Ashton, before the door was closed; five minutes later, the other boy's dad walked in"

It was quiet for 7 minutes and 42 seconds; yes, I was counting. It was the only thing keeping me grounded at the moment, but that's when we heard Ashton.

"Listen here, you prick, my kids did nothing wrong, its your son who should learn some respect; my advice to you is to step up your parenting, and if your kid bothers mine again, I will sue you for every possible reason I can find."

I shrunk into my seat at the voice; I hate it when he is mad.

"And you, not a whisper of this will appear on either boy's record; I will not let you ruin their future, and if I find out this boy hasn't been properly dealt with, then I will deal with him myself."

With that, he walked out of the door, buttoning his jacket, turning to use, he stated.

"You three have five minutes to get what you need for the rest of the day; then, you are coming back to work with me, Westin. We will pick up your car later."

With that, we scattered out of the office towards our lockers; Ashton was pissed even if he defended us; we all knew it.

So here I am, standing at my locker, getting my things, when a text comes through.

Jack- " I don't associate with sluts, don't bother talking to me again."

That did it; it pushed me over the edge. I shank against the lockers bringing my knees to my chest, shaking and crying. I didn't even hear Miles approach, but I knew it was him when he picked me up bridle-style. I just buried my head in my shirt as he carried me to the car. The next thing I knew, I was falling asleep in the back seat. This day was emotionally exhausting. 

A/n - sorry for the shorter chapter; I am finally getting into a schedule with the school, so hopefully, I will be back to updating more frequently. 

 What do you think? Is Jack really out of the story, or will he be redeemed