Young Writers Society

For a moment, Benji had thought that Jerica was going to hit him after all. She had gotten up like she was preparing to swing at him. Bo had intercepted, but if he hadn't...

The words that had left Benji's mouth finally registered. His eyes widened and he took a step back, shocked that he had said something like that. He had been thinking it, but to be so confrontational-

He could hear Jerica and Bo. He could hear labored breathing and hearts still racing. Carter was still on the floor, and Benji wasn't all that surprised that he didn't feel bad for him. He didn't even want to check him to see if he was alright. Was that bad of him? Why was he thinking this way-

He took in a deep, sharp breath.

"Benji?" Daniel asked, voice hesitant.

Benji looked over at him.

"Maybe we should step out for a few minutes," Daniel suggested. He glanced down at Carter. "It's...strong in here."

Benji took another deep breath.

"...Yeah," he said. He let Daniel lead the way to the door of the apartment.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," Daniel said as Benji stepped out into the hallway. "We just need a breather."

“Our battle will be legendary,” Bo said, bearing all of her weight as he helped her stay sitting up so Elias could come over and check on her. “But maybe we can discuss an alternative activity once you’re a little less adrenalined up from a fight. And a little less concussed. Like uh, we could go to that pottery painting place. Ever heard of Color Me Mine?”



James followed Evaline, but inside, there was resistance. A helpless sort of anger and fear hit him the moment they pulled out of the bedroom and into the hall, and he wished he could talk. But breathing hurt so much.

He could feel pressure building even more in his head, and tears building up behind his eyes. He wanted to cry.

This was overwhelming.

But before he could even let himself do so, it was like another switch was flipped. No, it felt more like a lever was pulled.

He was shutting down.

Perfect. Bo was distracting Jerica by holding a conversation, or at least trying to. Elias vaguely heard Evaline call for an RA or campus security or someone to best de-escalate the situation, so he was sure Jerica will get the help she needed, but for now Elias was glad to help in the most pain-free way possible.

He examined her head again. Jerica's left temple was bleeding and turning to a knot, which may have been from the bookend Carter was holding before. But he tried to set aside his bias and think clearly because that was what Jerica needed the most.

She clearly needed stitches, but right now the most important thing to do was stop the bleeding. He took out some gauze and gently set it over the gash, adding pressure on it with his fingers.

---

Evaline dragged James out into the hallway, waiting for Daniel and Benji to follow so she could close the door to Carter's room. She half-expected Daniel and Benji to continue being at James's side, or maybe even continue to irritate Jerica, but instead they did the opposite: they left. Evaline shot them an irritated glance of her own, far too tired to care or get in their business.

Instead she continued to drag James along, this time to his room so she could close the door and get privacy and as much quiet as they could... even though Jerica's screams were loud enough to be heard through the walls.

But when she finally had the time to look at him -- really look at him -- she wondered if this was the right move.

She couldn't quite describe it. It was like James was experiencing all the emotions at once, or none of them. Evaline had never seen him like this.

The anger and hostility suddenly disappeared as she rushed to roll his office chair towards him, motioning for him to sit down. Sit down, relax, let it go, because she wanted to be there for him. To take away this burden and taxing feeling he was experiencing.

Evaline remembered the cough, and with the bruises on his neck, suddenly she realized that James must have been choked. It took everything in her willpower to not be angry at that since that was the last thing he needed.

"I'm going to get you water. I'll be right back," she said, not wanting to waste another second.

With the chaos in the living room likely not noticing her movement, she was gone for a maximum of thirty second as she grabbed a glass and filled it with tap water, rushing back in the room and closing the door behind her.

"Here. Can you drink this?" she said gently to James, offering him the cup.

James found himself sitting in a chair. He didn't really register sitting down, but now he was in his room. Evaline left him for a moment, but he couldn't say how long. She returned with a cup of water.

He realized his breaths were shallow, and strained, and he faintly became aware of the wheezing he was creating just by breathing.

He took the cup of water and tried to drink it, but swallowing hurt like hell. His face contorted in pain as he set the glass in his lap, trying not to spill it or make a mess.

How had the chair gotten back in here? He thought they'd moved it. Maybe they forgot. Maybe he forgot.

He looked at Evaline helplessly, trying to figure out how to communicate, and then he realized he could pull out his phone. He flipped to his notes app, opening a new page and started typing, even though his fingers felt clumsy.

It hurts to breathe and drink wtr. Can't talk
Someone needs to chck on Carter
R u okay?

Evaline patiently waited for James to type on his phone, although she wished she could help in some way, especially since even typing on the phone looked like a struggle.

But as soon as she read what he typed, the patience began to wear thin. Typical James asking her if she was okay when he was the one who was hurt. Typical James for saying that someone should look after his literal assaulter.

"James," Evaline said, voice laced with worry as she kneeled down and set a hand on his knee.

He had a question for her, but she felt hers was more important even though she already knew the answer.

"Did Carter do this to you?"

James couldn't meet her eyes. He stared down into his lap, feeling a weighty emptiness that he didn't even know how to describe.

He typed.

yes

"No. You're definitely getting beat up." At this point, it was anyone's guess whether she was joking or not. Even she didn't know. But she had both of her arms wrapped around one of Bo's as he held her up, snuggling into him. So she probably didn't mean it after all. "You better get ready."

Rek watched anxiously, hovering nearby. He wanted to help, but he didn't know how. It seemed Bo was doing a good job of supporting and placating Jerica -- which, honestly, props to him, that wasn't an easy thing to do. Elias would be able to provide more help than he would. So what did that leave for him to do?

He probably should go grab his phone and call his dad before Derik had a stroke. Derik had a long, long history of overreacting whenever anything happened to either of them -- but doubly so when it was Jerica. Rek actually thought about things before he did them, so the consequences were usually less severe than the ones Jerica faced, and he was always honest about it, even when he did mess up.

Jerica on the other hand.

All three of them knew that she was going to be in a fistfight from the very first moment they heard the scuffle break out. Which meant that Derik would be imagining the worst. And, well, Rek couldn't say he was all that far off this time. Jerica looked like hell. She'd certainly given it worse than she'd taken gotten it -- but that didn't slow the blood dribbling from her temple or the bruise already forming around her eyes.

And Rek was going to be caught squarely in the middle of them.

Gods help them all.

But before Rek could fully finish having this thought, Jerica hissed in pain. Elias's gauze had felt he was driving a dagger straight through her entire head. It hurt so badly. And she didn't know what to do about it. It felt like she lost all her language skills, so she relied on the method of communication she remembered how to use: violence. She took a swing at Elias with her left fist without a moment's thought.

“Woah!” Bo said, quickly blocking the punch by pushing her arm out of the way at the last second so she missed. Well, turns out she would’ve missed anyway, but still. “Save that for our legendary battle later.”

"Don't touch me," she spat. She sounded angrier this time, but her voice was still so weak and she collapsed back against Bo, breathing labored. "I don't... I don't like it. I don't... I don't consent. You can't touch me 'cause I don't consent."

Bo pulled his hands away, but she was still leaning into him nonetheless.

“Sorry, Jer,” Bo said quietly. “I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Or for you to get more hurt.”

"I'm not-- you're--" Jerica's brain, while slow and broken, finally had a full thought that it pieced together. She still made no attempt to stop leaning on Bo. "I'm not talking about you. I don't want him--" she gestured at Elias, but it wasn't threatening this time "--to hurt me again. I don't know what he just did but I don't like it; it felt like getting stabbed the face."

Outside of the apartment, Benji took in a third deep breath.

He let it back out.

He breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, and breathed back one more time. He could hear the air filling his lungs. Daniel's heart was racing less than a foot away from him, and Jerica and Bo were talking inside the apartment. Bo was being softer than Benji had been towards Jerica just minutes earlier.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked.

"You should be asking Jerica or James that," Benji said. "They're the ones that are actually hurt."

Daniel glanced at the closed apartment door. "...I'm pretty sure Jer would fight be if I asked." He turned back to Benji. "And I think Evaline has James covered right now. So I'll ask you again: are you okay?"

Benji opened his mouth to give an answer, only to close it a moment later. Besides being worried about his friends, he should have been okay. It wasn't like he was the one who had fought Carter.

(Though, he was shocked to realize, he might have actually done it if he had been there.)

"I...I should be," he said. He rolled his shoulders and massaged his forehead. The headache had been there earlier, but it was returning in full force now. "It was so loud in there."

Daniel wrinkled his nose. "It wasn't as loud to me, but I think I'm going to be smelling alcohol and blood for weeks." As he spoke, he reached a hand behind him to absentmindedly scratch his back. He lowered his voice, as if the others were the ones with the abnormal hearing instead of Benji. "I know Jer can be impulsive sometimes and doesn't like admitting weakness, but her lashing out at everyone was a step too-"

"Why do you keep scratching your back?" Benji interrupted.

Daniel faltered. "What do you mean?"

"You were scratching your back earlier, too," Benji said. It felt important, but he couldn't figure out why it was important.

"Oh," Daniel said. He glanced behind him. "I didn't realize I was doing that. It's been feeling weird-"

"-right around the shoulder blades," Benji finished.

Daniel blinked. "How did you know?"

"Mine have been."

Daniel took in a sharp breath of air. "...I hope it's not something contagious. The last thing James needs right now is an annoying phantom pain."

Benji stayed silent. He felt like it was something else, but he wasn't sure what it could be.

"All hail the king." the voice echoed in what seemed to be a nearly pitch black space.

Lordy felt around for a moment before he realized he was sitting on a chair- no. A throne. It all seemed vaguely familiar, yet so far back in his memory it was almost as if he was dreaming.

"All rise for the King!" the voice continued to echo, this time closer and louder.

"King Lordy Lordshire!"

Louder.

"King Lordy!"

Even Louder.

"LORDY!"

Lordy's head shot up from his desk and he looked around him. He was in his office, and in front of him stood Morri, looking a bit pained.

Lordy rubbed his eyes. He'd lost count of the amount of times he'd awoken from a similar dream at this point, "What is it, what happened now? Can't you see I'm resting?"

"There's been some sort of accident at the dorms," Morri sounded exhausted, "The ambulance and the police are here."

Lordy shook his head, "And why are you telling me this?"

Morri glared at him for a moment, "Because you're the dean."

Lordy gave a deep sigh and stretched back in his chair, twisting his neck around for a bit.

"It was also involving many of your students."

Lordy looked up and met Morri's eyes, "You don't say?"

***

Within moments Morri and Lordy had reached the dorms, shoving through whoever they had to in order to find what they were looking for. It didn't take long however for them to trace the steps up to Carter and James' room. They barely registered who was there or what was going on before escorting themselves into the room where they were greeted by blood, bruises, and swears alike.

Lordy struck his cane on to the floor to get everyone's attention, "Someone care to explain to me what's going on?"

As it turned out, things could always get worse. A lead weight dropped in Rek’s gut as he turned towards Lordshire and Morri, a horrified expression on his face before he could mask it. What were they doing here?

No, no, no. This was bad. This didn’t even involve Rek, and he was embarrassed that a professor and a dean had shown up in the middle of this mess. They were only going to make things worse. Lordshire always made things worse. His chaos always fueled Jerica’s chaos, and he didn’t even what to see what that might mean. And Morri had quickly become Jerica’s favorite professor and she would be absolutely humiliated for him to see her in this state.

Luckily, Jerica had lost enough blood that she wasn’t fully cognizant of what was going on just then and stayed slumped against Bo.

Rek took a step to the side to block Jerica from their sight. “Um… nothing?”

Lordy's lip twitched as he took in what was going on. Students were passed out in almost every corner and a part of him was actually amused. It was as if he'd been used to sights like this one, but couldn't just yet put his finger on where he'd seen things like this before.

It was just then that Mozart-wannabe decided to step to the side to try to cover up a part of the disaster that had unfolded, as if his frame would be anything close to enough to block the view of the giant Bo behind him.

Lordy looked to the side where Morri stood, noticing what seemed to be a small smirk quickly fade from his lips once he caught sight of Lordy's eyes, before he turned back to face Rek.

"I'm going to ask one more time," Lordy's grip tightened onto his cane and he twisted his face into a scowl, "What happened here?"