A collective groan could be head throughout the Alpha Tau Omega house. Zachary Riggins and Nathan Prescott fighting again. Was it physical yet? Was this over something worthwhile or something petty, yet again? Neither question could be answered among the brothers there, with a slight exception from Hayden Jones and Logan Robertson. Both by-standers were exhausted with the other two hurling insults to the other- it was far into the night, and this argument had been going on for far too long. Though, the two silently agreed months back that they'd only intervene if the situation became physical.
"How could you fucking do this, man?! There is a god damn code about this type of bullshit!" Nathan repeated, voice graveled and face flushed to a scarlet red.
"Yeah. There is. But guess what, Prescott; Victoria isn't your actual fucking sister." Zach countered, with an eye roll, a dumbfounded tone prevalent in his voice.
Nathan's fingers tore through his hair, could Zach just get that he was in the wrong this time? "Me and Vic have been friends since pampers, asshole. She might as well be!" he said, voice raising- they'd been circling this for the past hour now. "The fact that you didn't tell me about it shows that you knew you were doing a shitty thing." he added with a huff.
Hayden and Logan shared a tired glance at another; Hayden behind Nathan, taking a seat, and Logan behind Zach, leaning tiredly against the wall. They knew all of this information- how fiercely protective Nathan and Victoria were of each other, how long they'd known each other. However, Zach didn't.
Standing with a cringeful pop at the knees, Hayden grabbed Nathan's shoulder, only to be pushed off and be on the end of a disbelieving glare.
Despite Nathan's animosity toward Hayden, he shrugged. "Listen, Nate. Zach's still fairly new here." He explained softly- about six months in, not too new, but hell, Hayden was tired. "Maybe you should... Cut him some slack?" he offered with a grimacing smile- if anyone in this house could chill Nathan out, it would be Hayden. However, his lame attempt was only followed with regret as he saw the fire burn into the shorter boy's eyes.
"Six months is long enough." Nathan barked through gritted teeth, still aiming his words at Zach, lurching forward, only to have Hayden hold him back at the waist.
Zach smirked, crossing his arms. Nathan had so much anger for such a petite body- it was almost comical, how every fight was initiated by him. "Listen, here, Prescott. Victoria wanted my dick. And, fuck, she got it." he said with a cruel laugh, shaking his pelvis in Nathan's direction, his laugh growing to a mocking one.
Nathan saw red. Jabbing his elbow into Hayden's ribs, freeing himself from the hold and pouncing onto the bigger man. Ignoring the minor pain in his knuckles, Nathan threw as many punches into Zach's face. Only to have himself be quickly flipped and feel a rain of punches landing to his own face, cursing and moving his head to the side, avoiding as much appearance damage as possible.
Hayden and Logan were met with a mixture of relief and horror as the fight began- there was blood already. However, they acted quick, Logan pulling Zach off Nathan at the waist with a grunt, and Hayden lacing his arms through Nathan's and bracing his hold onto Nathan's neck. The two angry boys still cursing and screaming at the other, faces red and noses bloodied. Hayden easily dragged the screaming Nathan out of the room and down the hallway, waking up any poor boy in their dorm.
Throwing Zach onto the bed behind them, Logan gave him an incredulous look, blocking him from moving from his spot. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He asked, shaking his head with wide eyes. "We fucking owe him. You and I both know the dean wouldn't have given us a second look without that incentive from Nathan's dad." he reminded him, relieved at the calm anger below him. "Hell, they gave more to give you a second look. And why? Because I asked him to!"
"I got my fucking scholarship myself. Because I'm a god damn good quarterback, Logan." he said reluctantly, ignoring most of the statement and sucking his cheek. Logan couldn't be sure about that. They never heard Nathan admit it himself, nor their football coach. He and Nathan hadn't spoken more than a few words to each other until they got to Oregon University. Zach knew of Nathan, but he didn't know him, really.
Logan only scoffed, tired of Zach's forced ignorance. He left the conversation at that, ridding himself of his clothes as he counted his breaths with closed eyes.
Feeling air brush behind him, Logan's eyes shot open, seeing Zach stomp out of their room. "Where the fuck are you going now?" he asked exasperatedly. He was clocked out for the night- Hayden would have to see this one through if it escalated once more.
"Away from you assholes." he spat, slamming the door. As he made his way to through the house and his car, he listed places he could go through his head; he couldn't visit Victoria at this hour, all his "friends" were being dicks, clubs are boring when you go alone. Opening his car door and sitting down, he leaned his head back, shrugging. Home, it was. At least his mom would be happy to see him.
Nathan's voice was raw as he was lifted over Hayden's shoulder. This only causing Nathan to yell more. This was fucking humiliating, every name he was called through elementary and middle school being shot through his , his words and thoughts were only to be stopped as he was met with the cold tile of the communal shower, the hard surface surely going to leave bruises.
Nathan snarled at the floor- communal, gross.
The cold water brought his thoughts away from the dirty, dirty tile. He was sitting on the floor of a communal shower room. A boy's communal shower room. His father paid extra for him to get a room with his own bathroom to avoid this very thing. And his clothes were being soaked. With cold fucking water; it was fucking January. He was already a cold person. This was just asking to get an pneumonia. He snarled up at his offender, only to be met with an angry glare.
"You fucking here, dickass?!" Hayden shouted at Nathan, keeping out of the spray. "You really need to stop trying to pi-"
"This was all that ape's fault!" Nathan interrupted, feeling anger boil into his chest again. "Now, he really needs to-"
His tangent was interrupted with a yelp of his own, Hayden having turned the shower knob completely to the left- making the water as cold as it could possibly be.
"No. You need to cool the fuck down!" he shouted over Nathan's poor attempt to defend his actions. "'Love and Respect'. 'Love and Respect'!" Hayden recited to Nathan, voice raised. He paused, letting those words soak into Nathan's head. He was keeping quiet- that was good, meant he was at least listening. "That's our fucking slogan, man." he reminded, voice calming as he shut off the water and crouched to Nathan's eye level- sometimes you had to treat this boy like a kid. "Love and respect for everyone, dude. You wanted to improve yourself and that means you gotta keep that shit in your head." he said slowly.
Nathan was avoiding eye contact, but is breathing was even and he was seemingly less angry. Nathan nodded at Hayden's lecture. He was right.
"Just." Hayden started, pausing to think of a solution to this blow out. "You just gotta.."
"I just need to keep my distance from Zach for a bit." Nathan said with a shrug. He'd fought with Zach multiple times before. They had never said a single word of apology to the other. They just kept their distance for a bit until it all blew over.
Hayden nodded back, agreeing with the simple solution; that was as much as they could do.
"Come on, man." he said, patting Nathan's knee. "Let's go get you dried off. You look like a drowned rat." he said, Nathan giving him a small smile.