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And then,
Chapter thirty-four
Caroline
Itrycallinghim,but he doesn’t answer. I text him. Twice. Call again. He’s totally ignoring me, and I feel terrible. Because he’s not wrong: I’m a total hypocrite. I should have told him about my Braden Hall plans a while ago.
The bell rings and I have to put my phone away. I keep checking it under my desk every few minutes, though, hoping a message will appear.
It doesn’t.
Class feels like it drags on forever.
As soon as the bell rings, I’m out of my seat. I have history next with Sebastian, so at least I’ll be able to talk to him.
I’m rounding the corner before the doors leading out of the science building, when someone yells out, “Fight in Hammond Hall!”
I roll my eyes, because of course there’s a fight in the building I’m heading into, the one time I want to get there before everyone else. But then, I feel bad for thinking that way, because it’s probably the new guy, Dylan, who got goaded into a fight with any of the hundred-and-one guys who’ve been talking trash about him from the second he stepped on campus.
The hallways are a maze of chaos. People push past me, rushing to get to Hammond Hall, presumably to watch the fight before it’s broken up. Fights at SH Prep are rare, so it’s kind of a big deal when one breaks out. Which I don’t get. At all. If anything, I want to stay away anytime I know there’s one happening. Watching two people punching each other makes me want to throw up. Or cry. Or both.
And then I hear someone mention Sebastian’s name.
Then someone else.
I grab the arm of the guy I just overheard. “Do you know who it is? The guys fighting?”
He doesn’t even glance at me as he calls out, “Seb Murdoch and Justin Tanner, man. Shit is about to get ugly!” He tugs free from my grip as he races toward the doors. Only now I’m right behind him, following all the other students swarming toward Hammond Hall.
The hallway is blocked as soon as I get through the doors.
I try pushing through the middle to get to wherever the fight is. But everyone else is pushing, too. So I change tactics and make my way over to one side of the hallway, then flatten myself against the wall and edge forward that way. It’s slow, but at least I’m moving forward, closer to where the commotion is getting progressively louder.
Then I hear Coach Robert’s voice yelling over the noise, “BREAK IT UP, BOYS!” Then, a second later, “I SAID BREAK IT UP!”
I keep inching closer. I can hear the scuffling now, the distinctive squeak of sneakers against linoleum, the grunts and hollow thuds of fist against bone.
They are not breaking it up.
Mr. Golding and Mr. Cunningham join Coach Roberts now, and push people out of the way, telling them to stay back, and I hear them trying to physically break up the fight. Only before they do, I see someone’s arm pull back, elbow raised above the crowd, and then come down.
A loudthump!
A gasp from the crowd, and the sound of a body hitting the floor.
And then total silence.
Coach Roberts and Mr. Cunningham rush into the center of the fight. Mr. Golding and a couple of female teachers usher people farther back, and I use the opportunity to push forward.
I spot Xavier up ahead, pushing past a couple of people.
“Youfuck!” he yells. He punches someone. Then again.
My mind is racing as I shove past more bodies. Xave wouldn’t be hitting Sebastian.
Which means… It was Sebastian’s body that hit the ground.
“Move!” I yell, not caring now what it takes to get through the fray of bodies.
