Jack of Clubs (BxB)

22: Let His Guard Down

"He looks awful, I can't believe someone would do that to him." I happened to catch a glimpse of a conversation between two random girls as I made my way down the hallway. That was the millionth time I seemed to hear someone talking about a person who must have been beat up pretty bad. Every time I heard it, I felt more and more stressed than the last.

Sam had asked me and his friends to meet up in the old classroom on the second floor. So I was particularly running just to get there, because I couldn't handle not knowing exactly what was going on for a moment longer. Who was the boy who got beat up? I had the overwhelming sense that it had to have been Sam or his friends, and I just held onto the small hope that it wasn't Sam himself.

I felt a bit like a zombie from how exhausted I was after the horrifically long night. After I finally ended the call with Sam, I spent about half a second in my bedroom grabbing the first clothes I saw. Then Millie drove me to school just like she always did, where I did just about no talking. Since my second hour was a study hall, I really didn't care about skipping it after Sam texted me to let me know that they were all meeting up. I told Millie that I wasn't going to be there before I immediately went off to find them.

As soon as I reached the classroom, I pushed the door open and took in my surroundings. It was dimly lit since the lights were off and it was gloomy outside. Sam was sitting on a desk, Dennis sat on the one beside him. But, shockingly, it was Brian that caught my attention the most.

He was leaning against the whiteboard, eyes watching the door as though waiting for someone particular to come in. His face was a mess. Bruises on his cheeks and jaw, eye swollen shut. Scabs dispersed throughout it all. Everything was a reddish-purple color that not even his tan skin could begin to hide. I had to actively pry my shocked gaze away from him, because I was so stunned by the grotesqueness of it. Not to mention the fact that it came out of nowhere.

"What the fuck happened?" I asked incredulously, looking over to Sam and Dennis for an answer since I knew that Brian sure as hell wasn't going to give me one.

"They didn't just target you last night." Sam sighed, one foot on the desk as he rested his chin on his knee. He looked pretty tired too, even though I knew that he got almost a full night of sleep. I suspected that his tiredness came more from a place of repeated stress and worry rather than how much sleep he got.

"I can see that." I pushed my messy hair back from my forehead, finding the nearest desk so that I could lean against it and try to collect my dizzying thoughts and questions.

"He was heading to Cade's place to apologize, but they jumped him on the way." Sam explained, hands playing with the hem of his sweatpants as he attempted to control his bristling rage. I could feel how tense he was from across the room.

As though on cue, the door was suddenly thrown open as a flash of blonde hair came running inside. I didn't even have a chance to process what was happening before the person cried out, "Brian!" And threw his arms around his neck.

Brian stilled Caden, patting the top of his head with pursed lips. Those two were always confusing me. They were clearly closer than Dennis and Sam, and yet they seemed to hug a bit more intimately. Recalling the conversation I had with Sam about what his friends would think about us, he mentioned that Brian was bisexual. But he didn't say a word about Caden, so maybe they were just affectionate friends. If they were dating, then Sam definitely would have said something about that.

Caden pulled back with a frown and wiped at his eyes. I couldn't tell if he was actually crying or not. "I'm so sorry, Bri. I was being such an asshole and now this happened and it's all my fault—"

"It's fine, Cade." Brian cut him off. "It's not your fault."

"But you were coming to apologize to me even though I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. And now you're all hurt—"