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I did make it to school in time for lunch but didn’t get there until after I visited the nurse. The pain was still there. All the drama from last night and this morning made it easy to ignore, but the drive over reminded me that I was still hurting.
As I picked my way around the mobs in the courtyard, I tried to breathe through that pain, begging the painkiller to kick in. Paxon, Toby, Bryan, and Justin were all already camping at my tree, munching on food.
“Cadence!” Paxon called out. He was on his feet in moments. I paused at the suddenness of his movements and the intense look he was giving me. He stalked toward me and stopped only inches away, his eyes roaming over my body.
I blinked up at him, trying to figure out what it was he was waiting for.
The other boys stood behind him, all looking me over, and I realized they knew.
Seth must have filled them in on everything.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I’m fine.”
“The hell you’re fine!” Paxon snapped, and I stiffened. His shoulders slumped, and his expression morphed into one of relief. He went to pull me into a hug, but I threw up my hand.
“Gentle,” I warned.
Paxon’s expression closed down, but he listened as he carefully pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me without squeezing. His body shook against me, revealing his fear and worry for me. He wanted to squeeze me hard, I could tell. I was tempted to let him if it’d help him settle down.
Slowly, I lifted my arms around his back. My insides warmed from his gentle care. Mama bear. Paxon was being a mama bear right now. I’d never expected him to react like that when it came to me. Calvin, yes, but not me.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, knowing he needed that reassurance.
“A stranger was in your house. You had to jump from your garage roof and rely on bushes to break your fall.” He squeezed me briefly but quickly stopped before he hurt me. “You’re not fine. You’re just pretending to be. Like you always do.”
I shuddered at the truth of his words. Needing breathing room, I pulled back. I looked up at Mama Bear Paxon and smiled. “Only scratches, Paxon. Nothing else. He never touched me.”
“Because you’re too fucking smart for some asshole to get his dirty hands on you,” Toby said. He pulled me into a gentle hug too, before backing off. He looked me over and nodded to himself.
Bryan and Justin stayed back, but I knew they were just as concerned. Justin was focused on me. I could tell he was watching me carefully, searching for any signs of pain. Bryan’s face was etched into a scary looking frown. Something about him was off, like I was seeing a deeper layer to him that I hadn’t seen before.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Bryan asked. “If I were you, I wouldn’t want to go back to that house alone.”
“Fuck, Bryan,” Toby snapped. “Shut the fuck up! I thought I was supposed to be the dense one here, not you.”
“So you do acknowledge that you’re dense,” Bryan said.
I moved so I was between the two of them, not in the mood for any kind of arguing today. “I’m fine. I stayed at Seth’s last night, and he said I can stay there until I feel safe enough to go back home.”
“Then we’ll use that opportunity to upgrade your security system,” Bryan said. “What kind do you have now?”
“Uh.” I glanced away as I slowly settled on the ground. The pain reliever was finally kicking in, so it made it easier to sit.
“Cadence,” Bryan said in a scary voice. “You better have an answer. What kind do you have now?”
“Pepper spray?” I asked.
His eyes widened as his nostrils flared. “You only have pepper spray? No floodlights? No alarms? Motion sensors? Shutters? Nothing at all? No wonder a creep was able to walk right into your house.”
I sensed there was about to be an explosion from him.
“Security system wasn’t something I’ve been able to get around to yet,” I said as if that was enough of an excuse. It sounded lame even to my ears. Frankly, a security alarm had slipped my mind. My thoughts had been flooded with everything else I needed to do. I felt like an idiot.
“Enough,” Justin said. “I’m sure she has had a lot to deal with since moving into her home.”
“Fuck this shit. I’m getting the loudest fucking security system. Shit like this happens, and the whole neighborhood is going to know that a bastard is trying to break in.” Bryan ripped his glasses off and cleaned them furiously, taking his frustrations out on his lens. Then he shoved them back on his face and pulled out his phone.
“I’ll have something set up in the next few days. You can stay at Seth’s until then.”
