The S.U.N. and The Peter Pan Project

Chapter 17

In pain, I instinctively shrank away from him, raising my arm in a pathetic attempt at protecting myself from him.

Seeing I wasn’t answering him, he started shaking me angrily.

“ANSWER ME, YOU FUCKING LITTLE…”

“What’s going on?!”

Matt’s low raspy voice boomed in the spacious kitchen.

It was enough for Tom to snap back to reality.

I immediately slid down to the floor in relief, and pulled my legs to my chest before resting my head on top of my knees. My cheek was stinging.

“I…Hmm… FUCK!”

Tom took a few steps back. He kept glancing down at me nervously, looking scared.

What the hell?!

After a while, he turned around and kicked a chair which went flying against the wall.

Dean hurried to his side and put his arm around his friend’s shoulders to calm him down.

“What’s going on?” Matt repeated.

“I lost it, is what happened…” Tom answered angrily. “After I heard she was dating Tim I just lost it...”

He seemed ashamed, disgusted almost, of his earlier behavior.

“What do you mean, you lost it?” The threat laced in Matt’s voice was hard to miss.

Tom’s eyes were glistening and his voice was a hoarse whisper when he answered,

“I-I grabbed her by the neck… I shook her… I slapped her… I lost her…”

I couldn’t help but feel sad for him.

He seemed to have a serious trust issue with girls. The way he could lose control and turn into that violent and abusive boy was pretty scary.

He’d just lost it with me the way he had when he’d heard what Sarah had done at Sam’s party…

Tim’s account of that evening came back to me and the image of Tom and Sam with Sarah made me shudder.

I frowned when I noticed how eerily quiet the kitchen had become. I chanced a glance around to see what was happening.

Matt was as still as a statue. The only indication he was even breathing was the fast twitching of his jaw muscle, along with the lethal glare he was currently aiming at Tom.

Nate suddenly broke the silence.

“Maya…”

I looked his way and when our eyes met, I understood what he was asking me to do.

He wanted me to set things right, to tell them what had really happened, to somehow justify the fact that I’d been communicating - Oh! Please forgive me! - with an unauthorized person… Note the sarcasm, here…

Yeah right! They can all go to hell for all I care!

Because what Nate didn’t know was that my mind was up, and that I was done with their crap!

So I looked at him straight in the eyes, and I shook my head twice. He narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“Maya…” He was begging me now.

Tom, who knew what I’d been up to when I’d grabbed the telephone, sighed guiltily before muttering,

“It’s over guys… I’ve… I’ve fucked up. She was about to dial her brother when I got there…”