Perspectives

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

The main priority was avoiding any further trouble, so Jael dragged Payton along until they had made it a few streets away from Naomi's house and into a back ally ensuring they were out of plain sight. Payton stood with her chest heaving up and down whilst she failed to calm herself down. She took off her gym wear zip up jacket, which had been disrespectfully stained by Naomi's phlegm and tossed it aside, not caring where it landed. Her headscarf slid backwards due to the tussle of the fight and stray hairs clung to her face, bonded to her skin by the sweat on her face. She stood in a thin vest top and shivered involuntarily, despite the adrenaline pumping around her body preventing her from feeling the cold.

Before leaving Naomi, Payton warned her to not delete the apology video from her Snapchat story until it automatically deleted after the application's standard 24hr algorithm. She promised her that if she deleted it, she would be back for round two and on that occasion, Payton wouldn't let anyone hold her back. Though Payton left the battle with Naomi unscathed, Jael feel uneasy watching Payton tap into that dark side of herself and felt like Payton took the situation too far. There was no doubt that Naomi violated Payton, but the video of Naomi on the ground, crying and pleading with pure fear in her eyes was an uncomfortable watch.

Her phone rang, and she looked in her hand to see it was Shiloh who was calling her. An anxious feeling settled upon her because they had not spoken properly in a week, but she knew his call was because he had seen what was going on with Payton, so she put her own feelings aside and answered the call.

"Yo, where you? I just see this madness with Payton on snap, are you good?" he enquired with genuine concern in his tone. Shiloh had been in the gym every day since the argument because it was one of his healthier forms of self-care and when he did, he silenced notifications on his phone and focused on nothing more than pushing his physical limits and reaping the metal health benefits of exercise. Snapchat messages were piling up suddenly and he received repeated calls from his group chat. He assumed it was something insignificant, Andre called him directly and urged him to look at Snapchat to see what was going on. From then onwards, he watched the drama unfold and by the time he left the gym and got back in his car, the video of Naomi apologising was posted.

He cringed at the sight of Naomi's short hair ruffled up and standing on its ends, her clothes looked like they had been grabbed and stretched out and her lip was busted with dried blood around her mouth. Her left eye and cheek were evidently swollen and bruising against her light complexion which implied she had been punched or slapped in the process. He braced himself as he watched the video to the end, praying Payton would not assault the girl on camera and incriminate herself further.

Shiloh and Andre sat on the phone speechless for a moment as they watched Payton efficiently and publicly retaliate. They both tried to get in contact with Payton to no avail, so Shiloh eventually decided to call Jael because if he knew her as well as he thought he did, there was a high chance she was right at Payton's side.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm with Payts, I am trying to get us away from here. We came here with a cab, so I've tried to book one home and they keep cancelling on me." She huffed, trying to figure out what their next steps would be.

"I don't think you should take her back to her house, you know. Her grandma will bug out."

"Oh yeah, that's true..." Jael agreed, suddenly happy to hear from Shiloh because despite their personal issues, he could be a great friend when support was needed. Jael remembered the ruckus they caused whilst Payton stormed out of the house to find Naomi and knew there was a chance Laurel would meet Payton with a slap once they reached the door.

"Do you need me to come and get you lot and drop you back to yours instead? I think that makes sense." Shiloh suggested, growing increasingly concerned for both girls, imagining them outside on the street after having a brawl with Naomi and whoever else was involved.