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I was shoved forward against the table hard, the edge biting into my hip. I swallowed the pain and tried to move away from the table. Toby came to my side, acting as a buffer.
“This is fucked,” Toby muttered, pushing back at some of the soccer team. It felt too much like we all turned into a mob. People were yelling, but I couldn’t make any of the words. I couldn’t even find where the others were. The entire team converged on Justin and Benji until I couldn’t see either of them.
All around me became haziness, the air thicker than usual, harder to swallow. I gasped, trying to find my feet, but the world was tipping over instead. With prickling skin, I tried to brace myself with the picnic table, but it wasn’t within reach. The crowd had moved me away from it.
I swallowed and coughed, feeling like I was choking.
“Get her out of here!” Bryan snapped, joining us.
“Justin! Stop!” Paxon’s voice.
“Cut this shit out right now!” Coach Stolly’s voice cut through all the noise, but no one paid him any mind.
Bryan and Toby helped me get to the outskirts of the mob, but then someone fell back, landing right on me. I fell forward, yelling as a heavy weight squished me.
“Cadence!”
“Shit.”
The weight squished me, something sharp digging into my shoulder.
“Fucking get off her,” Toby said.
As the weight was being removed something hit the side of my face. Maybe an elbow. I grunted as the guys swore and someone said something and a moment later the weight was off me.
“Shit. Are you okay?” Toby asked.
“Yeah,” I said, holding the side of my face. This was nothing. I moved my jaw, feeling the pull on my cheek from where I had gotten hit.
The fight seemed to finally break up with all the adult men pulling everyone apart, getting a handle on the fight. Finally, it cleared enough to see Justin covered in sweat, breathing heavily with George holding on to him.
Coach Stolly held on to Benji.
“Enough,” Coach Stolly snapped out. “What is going on?”
Both Benji and Justin were too busy glaring daggers at each other to respond to him.
“Justin?” I asked, noting the dark bruising forming along his jaw. This was a version of Justin I knew nothing about. He was a ball of rage and all of that was currently aimed at Benji. Seth had hinted at what Justin was capable of. And I knew Justin knew how to fight, especially after he took me to a self-defense class.
I never thought I’d see him like this though. I suppressed the fear of being around so much violence.
Seth and Paxon went to Justin, taking him from George after saying something to him. George let him go and went over to Coach Stolly, who had handed Benji off to other adults. The two of them were herded far apart from one another and the whole time, they still continued to give each other death glares.
“Come on,” Bryan said.
We joined the others. Justin was still breathing heavily, his black hair sticking to some dirt on his face.
“What the hell was that?” Bryan snapped. “Cadence got hurt because of what you pulled.”
“What?” Justin asked in a harsh rasp, finally looking at me. His attention flickered all along my face until zeroing in on my cheek. “What the hell happened?”
“With all that fighting, an asshole fell on top of her and then elbowed her when we tried to get him off,” Toby snapped. “What were you thinking, doing that?”
Justin didn’t respond, still only focused on my wound.
I covered it, the hurt skin feeling warm to the touch. “I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.”
Justin yanked out of Seth’s grasp. “I’m fine.” He stalked away.
