Yes I know this story strayed from the original construction au idea xD
But it'll be back to construction soon!
My only excuse is that I had as much idea of where this story would go as you guys x)
We're all reading this story for the first time, I'm just one chapter ahead kshdgfhj
And no, don't worry, I will not be focusing on the law stuff and the trial and whatnot, frankly because I've only once given testimony at the police station and that's where my experience ends xD So, back to what I know about.
Cuddles, hurt/comfort and construction soon x)
The moment Willow had pulled Amity back she felt like she had been drowning and resurfaced. Her frozen state of shock didn't let up, but at least she could breathe again.
Willows arms around her felt comforting and cleansing, as if that guy's touch was fading the longer her friend was holding her. She was blinking fast and breathing erratically, her heartbeat sounding in her ears before she somewhat pulled herself together again. Managing to calm her shaking hands, Amity registered Willow's flannel jacket now, because her forehead was pressed against it, and she was clenching her fingers into it as her friend was rubbing over her back.
Trying to calm her breathing, she blinked some more, closing her mouth and opening again, never letting go of Willow and her comfort.
Even if her friend was focused on something else, as she barely registered. Trying to push her away, pulling in one direction, shouting?
Amity barely managed to look up, seeing that Willow was looking at something behind Amity's back, and obviously torn between continuing to hold her and pushing her away to do something else. But she couldn't let go now, she was Amity's only anchor. She wouldn't let her go.
Suddenly, sounds resurfaced again and her ears started functioning.
"... It go, Luz! Luz! Stop!", she could make out Willow's shouts now and wondered what they were directed at. Following Willow's gaze, she barely kept herself balanced, leaning more heavily on her friend, not letting her go.
Just then, she saw the guy who had tried getting a kiss out of her swinging at Luz. Amity's heart skipped a beat in fear, then it sank. Her breath hitched as she watched his fist flying past Luz's face just by a hand width before they both started stumbling. Luz was faster in catching herself again, balling her fists once more, and Amity wanted to shout at her not to engage, not to anger him even more, as was Willow, but no sound came over her lips.
"Luz! Let it go!", Willow called again, but Luz couldn't hear her. She was swinging at the guy and her fist connected with his face at full force.
From then, everything went incredibly fast.
Amity wasn't even collected enough to watch the fight unfold. They seemed to move quicker than her brain was processing the hits. They both landed some punches on each other before his group intervened just a second later, two of the guys grabbing Luz and slamming her against a pillar and leaving her dizzy, while the other two looked after their bleeding friend who was trying to recover from a blow to the stomach.
Willow let go of her and was just taking a step towards the seemingly deescalated situation, pulling Amity along with her because she was still holding onto her jacket, then another guy that Amity hadn't seen before took one look at his friend and assaulted Luz. Within a second, she was curling up and he pulled back for a kick. Amity let go of Willow's jacket and her friend bolted.
"Hey, STOP!", Willow was screaming now, but before they could do anything before his friends could hold him back, he kicked Luz in the face and she fell on her back, all limbs sprawled as she came to a stop on the ground.
Willow was quicker than his group. Her friend had already grabbed the guy's collar and thrown him over her hips. His friends jumped to action, and for a short, frightening moment, Amity thought they might go at Willow now, but they rushed past her and kept their squirming, enraged friend on the floor.
Amity felt like she had to collapse.
She had had way too much alcohol for that and while she might feel sober, she definitely wasn't. This was already a new situation for her, but then being assaulted by this guy and witnessing a fight involving her girlfriend was too much for her.
She felt herself shutting down and put her face in her hands. Luckily, Gus had come out of the toilet by now and, after assessing the situation, wrapped her up in a hug, while Willow looked after Luz who was still knocked out on the floor. Luckily, the group of men contained their friends so nobody was throwing punches anymore.
When Luz woke up again, she felt incredibly groggy.
Everything was painful and aching. She felt like she had been run over by a car. Groaning, she tried moving her fingers and toes, and while three-fourths of all extremities worked, some fingers protested in pangs of pain.
She then tried opening her eyes and blinked against the blinding brightness of a street light. Her limbs seemed to work so far, so she tried sitting up, but her head was hurting like hell. With a whimper, she relaxed again, wanting nothing more than the pain to stop.
"Luz, oh my god...", a voice suddenly said and she registered Willow kneeling down next to her, putting her hands on her cheeks to inspect her. She couldn't have been out for a long time, it looked like she had just fallen unconscious.
"... How-... How long was I out?", she slurred and Willow groaned.
"A few seconds. Couldn't you have just let it go?!", she complained but she wasn't invested in actually receiving an answer. She was already busy looking at Luz's injuries.
Her eyebrow had split open, and a laceration had appeared on her cheekbone from the kick that had knocked her out. Her jaw felt like it was bursting in pain so she kept her mouth shut and let Willow help her up to a sitting position.
One of the guys came over to kneel next to Willow and Luz and while she couldn't recognize who he was, he didn't seem aggressive.
"The cops are on their way.", he said, seemingly fairly sober in comparison to his friends, "Sorry for Jake's behavior. He's-... Usually not like that. Are you okay?"
Willow almost looked like she was about to snap but she appreciated the guy's politeness, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Who called the police?", the guy turned and pointed to another friend who was still on the phone, so Willow nodded, "Please tell him to call an ambulance as well? She was knocked out, she needs one."
The guy nodded and got back up to tell his friend, then Luz looked around. She could see the two guys who had attacked her being contained by their group, while two others were coordinating the police. Breathing through, she looked back to Willow, before turning to see Gus holding a shaking Amity. She seemed like she was having a breakdown. Waving him to come closer, he obeyed and pulled Amity along with him, while Willow kneeled so she could support Luz's back. She wasn't too sure that her friend would keep her consciousness, so she would rather hold her.
Gus nudged Amity to get down on her knees as well and as soon as she realized she was close to Luz, she immediately let go of Gus and fell around Luz's neck. At least she wasn't actually crying. Luz quickly pulled her closer and groaned, but wouldn't let that stop her.
Amity was shaking and trembling in her shock as if she was cold, and Luz had some difficulty holding her steadily, but she did her best to do so, knowing Amity needed someone to hold her right now.
"Why-... Why did you-... Never do that-...", she stuttered and Luz nodded.
"Yeah-... That sucked big time. I'm sorry..."
That only seemed to upset her more, so Luz pulled her in closer and let her break down in her arms, grateful for Willow's knee supporting her back because if that wasn't there, she wouldn't have been able to hold Amity's weight.
Slowly, the situation seemed to calm down. The two aggressive guys were sitting on the ground now and didn't seem to attempt anything, while Gus had joined the two others calling the police to talk about what had happened.
Willow stayed with Luz and Amity to make sure her friend wouldn't lose consciousness again. Amity had slowly stopped trembling but still seemed shaken up about this, pressing her face on Luz's chest and focusing on breathing for now. Luz held her tightly and had a quiet conversation with Willow about their following plans, if they would bring Amity home or not, depending on what the emergency doctors would say.
Willow then turned to Gus who returned to inform them that the ambulance was taking another moment, but the police were already on their way, so they would come soon. Luz took that chance to softly squeeze Amity's shoulder and lean down, doing her best not to get any blood on her green locks. Luckily, Willow had some tissues in her purse and had cleaned her up as far as she could.
"Hey Amity?", she asked and slightly grimaced at the pain of moving her jaw, but she had to check up on her, "... Talk to me... How're you holding up?"
A small whimper came from the little bubble she had created for herself in Luz's chest, and she couldn't help but chuckle as Amity cuddled closer, shaking her head. Wrapping her arm around her a little tighter, she reached up to brush some strands out of her face to get a peek at her.
"I know, it's okay to be afraid... I'm here, and we'll make sure he doesn't touch you.", she tried soothing her, before looking up at the first blue lights showing up down the road, "The police is here."
They waited in that position until the police car came to a stop by the entrance of the park, and Amity wouldn't even move when they all gave their statements to the officers. At least she could talk, from her position of being curled up against Luz.
The ambulance arrived just a moment later and they inspected Luz and the other guy. Willow took Amity from her lap and hugged her instead, relieved when the girl started to show some signs of coming back from her shocked state.
Gus was with Luz in the ambulance, so Willow made sure Amity was feeling safe. Finally, she drew a shuddering breath and straightened up a little, shaking some of the shock off.
"Hey, you feeling better?", she asked and Amity managed to give her a nod, pursing her lips.
"... I'm sorry...", she pressed out and Willow immediately hugged her again, shaking her head.
"Don't you dare apologize. You weren't at fault for any of this."
But Amity still felt like she had to address her behavior. She was unhappy with how she had acted, being all useless and shaky and not intervening and keeping Luz from attacking him.
"I-... I was so useless...", she mumbled, her chin wobbling, but Willow adamantly shook her head as she parted them, holding her shoulders.
"Hey, shut it. You weren't required to be useful. You just went through that and what Luz did was on her responsibility.", she pulled her in to hug her tightly again and that somehow managed to soothe Amity's mind at least a little bit, even if she was still shaking a little.
Soon, Gus returned to them, without Luz who was still being cared for in the ambulance, putting a comforting hand on Amity's back.
"Okay, here's how is. Luz is a dumbass, but she didn't get majorly hurt. Bruised her hand, some bruises on her stomach, elbows, jaw, and two lacerations that don't need stitches. She's being patched up right now and they're checking her vitals to make sure she's gonna be fine.", he explained quickly and Amity gave a small sigh of relief, before listening up at him saying her name, "Listen, Amity, I also talked to the police and they said that if you wanna press charges, you should leave your info. Do you want to?"
Furrowing her eyebrows, Amity thought about that. If she pressed charges against that guy, her parents would know. If her parents knew she had been out at night with her new friends which were not hand sorted by her mother, they wouldn't let her see them again.
At least, that was the worst possible outcome, but it was possible and that scared her.
"... No.", she quietly decided and Willow's hand on her back rubbed up and down.
"Are you sure, Amity?", she asked and Amity shrugged, before pulling a grimace.
"If-... If I press charges, this will go public. I'm-... Kind of famous.", she furrowed her eyebrows as she heard a snort coming from Gus.
"Weird time to flex that.", he commented, and immediately, she heard a smack on the back of his head from Willow. Sighing, she shook her head.
"My last name is well known.", she rephrased, before continuing, "Point is, this would go big on the news, and my parents would know. And-... If they knew who I was with tonight, they would probably make me stop seeing you guys. I-... I couldn't-...", she sniffled and shook her head, but Gus wouldn't back down.
"Amity... The thing is if you-... If you don't press charges...", he grimaced and squirmed, obviously feeling uncomfortable with this situation while doing his best to phrase this right, "Okay, so, listen. Luz defended you, right? If you don't press charges against that guy, she won't have proof she was defending you. Since she was technically attacking him first, he would have all the right to sue her for assault."
Willow's hand stopped on Amity's back.
"But-... His friends are witnesses that he assaulted Amity. Isn't their testimony proof enough?", she asked and Gus groaned.
"Yes, that is proof, but this is assault we're speaking about. His friends were on the other side of the street and we were on the toilet. Basically, it's a he said/she said situation. In that case, it can't be proven that Amity was really assaulted, and thus Luz would have no ground for self-defense.", he explained, making Willow nod.
"So, Luz needs Amity to press charges against him?", she asked and Gus shrugged.
"It would definitely help her case, and make the chances of winning self-defense higher than being tried for assault since she got physical first."
Amity bit her lip, looking down at her shoes while her friends still argued. Of course, there was still some ground for Luz's case to be ruled as self-defense and to sue that guy for assault, but she knew that if she sued him first, there would be more ground for her lawyer to work in Luz's favor.
Groaning, she leaned against Willow.
"Yeah, of course I'll press charges against him...", she mumbled and Willow pulled her in close.
"Hey, you don't have to.", she insisted, even if Gus was huffing, "If Amity doesn't want to, nobody will force her to. I can absolutely understand if she's scared of her parents cutting us off."
"Yeah, but Luz might go to jail.", he argued and Amity freed herself from both their embraces, lifting her hands. Suddenly, now that there was stuff to think about and to be done, she was functioning again.
"I will press charges.", she determinedly said, shooting both of them a glare, "I'd rather be cut off from you guys than have Luz go to prison if I can help it. And besides, I'm an adult. My parents may still have power over me, but I can argue for myself."
Leaving them both, she stalked to the ambulance, her mind running a thousand miles an hour. Her shock wasn't wearing off, she could still feel her heart being clenched by fear, but she couldn't let this happen to Luz. Shaking her head, somehow freeing her body of the frozen shock she had felt before, she knocked against the ambulance door.
When it was opened, an emergency doctor stuck his head out and she breathed through, looking up to him.
"Can I talk to Luz Noceda?", she asked and he nodded, opening the door for her. She climbed inside and once she saw Luz sitting on the stretcher, she immediately rushed to her, pulling her into a tight hug.
"I was so worried about you...", she finally mumbled when Luz hugged her back, the first words she had said to her ever since that had happened, and closed her eyes. The other girl let out a sigh, and she could hear the pained smile on her lips as she spoke.
"... It's okay... I'm okay.", she replied, making Amity sniffle.
"You're an idiot.", she pulled back and cupped Luz's face, making sure not to touch any of her injuries, then she huffed, "I'll press charges against this guy. Otherwise, you won't have enough ground to come out of this with self-defense."
Luz gave her a little smile, before nodding.
"It's the right thing to do... You gotta bring these guys to justice. And-...", she grimaced, "I would very much like to not go to jail. My Mama would be furious."
Amity nodded and pressed a small kiss to her forehead, then she stepped in closer and let Luz hug her thighs, leaning her probably aching head against her stomach while she turned to the emergency doctor who was still in the ambulance with them.
"Is she cleared to go home?", she asked and he turned back to her, nodding.
"Yeah, we did everything she needed. Since she has no broken bones and doesn't seem very groggy, we would just advise her to rest.", he explained and Amity nodded, softly weaving through Luz's hair as she gave a pathetic whimper.
"Okay... We'll make sure she arrives there.", she firmly replied, patting Luz's shoulder to get her agreement, then she looked back up to the emergency doctor again, "In case any later complications arise from the injuries, can she be taken care of at a hospital? Will she be insured?"
He nodded at that and waved it off.
"We got all her contacts and the incident was reported, both by the police and us. If any complications arise in the following days, just bring her to the hospital and she'll be taken care of. Her insurance is notified, so everything's taken care of."
Amity leaned down to give Luz another little kiss on her hair, then she softly nudged her.
"I'll go outside to talk to the police, but I'll send Willow to pick you up.", she mumbled, then she parted from her and gave a little wave while Luz pouted after her, before exiting the ambulance and waving Willow over.
"Luz is taken care of and good to go. You go get her, I'll talk to the police.", she instructed them and was ready to go but Willow held her back.
"Before we leave, I want you checked for your shock. Okay?", Willow said in her most authoritarian mom-voice and Amity managed a nod, before going over to where the police car was standing, meeting one of the officers as her partner was just putting away the second guy, presumably to take them to the police station.
"You're the assault victim, right?", she greeted her and Amity nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. Curse herself for not bringing a jacket, even if it was summer the nights could get chilly.
"Yeah. I'd like to press charges against the man who sexually assaulted me.", she firmly declared and the police officer nodded, turning to the car, pointing to the backseat.
"Can you identify who of those two men assaulted you?", she asked and Amity pointed to the right one. She would never forget the gray shirt he was wearing, his short blonde hair, or his brown eyes. She had spent too much time being afraid of that face.
Although he was wearing a big bandage on his nose after having been checked by the emergency doctors, she still recognized him.
"This one. With the blonde hair and the gray shirt.", she clarified and the police officer nodded.
"Do you know his name?", she asked and she shook her head, to which he pulled out a notepad and wrote something down.
"Alright. His name is Jacob Benson. We took all your testimonies today and we'll bring those two to the station to sober up. Please come to the station on Monday and testify again, and we'll see what we can do about that.", looking up, the police officer eyed her, "As I understood, your friend is filing for self-defense against Jacob Banson his friend, Martin Davis?"
Amity nodded at that, hugging herself tighter.
"Yeah, she defended me. With-...", she fidgeted, "With me pressing charges, her chances are better not to be tried for assault, right?"
The officer leaned against the car and nodded, noting the last few things down.
"Yeah. I mean, if your friend acted out of self-defense that's a given fact anyway, but with your charge, there's a bigger chance that the other guys won't have a chance with their assault charge.", she explained and Amity grimaced.
"They are pressing charges against Luz?", she asked and the officer shrugged.
"They're heavily intoxicated for now, so they didn't say anything about that yet. But I'm sure they will once they've sobered up.", she looked up to Amity, "To be entirely clear, you are testifying for your friend to have acted in self-defense, for your safety?"
Quickly agreeing, Amity nodded sharply, glaring at the two guys sitting in the car who were apparently arguing with each other, but she couldn't hear what they said.
"Yes. I was sexually assaulted by this... Jacob and my friend Luz Noceda acted in self-defense and pushed him off me when I was unable to. And then he tried to hit her.", she shivered at the memory, "And, uh-... His friend, Martin, only joined and started beating Luz when the fight was already broken up."
The police officer noted that down again, before checking with the other notes she had already taken, then she nodded.
"Alright. Your charge is noted and all info is collected. We'll see you on Monday?", she asked and Amity nodded again, shivering. The officer stepped to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, are you okay?", she asked and Amity gave a shaky smile.
"I'm still running on adrenaline after getting sexually assaulted. Otherwise, I'm fine.", she tried, but the officer gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Get yourself checked while the ambulance is still here, okay? You'll be fine eventually, but I recommend getting therapy.", she softly said and Amity nodded, willing her tears back. The officer gave another small smile, before her expression hardened, "They'll be brought to justice if you press charges. It's the right thing to do."
Amity hesitated with her thanks as she eyed the officer. Something about her hard gaze and her insistence told her she had seen this more than often, and that another victim had backed out of suing their assaulters. She nodded and the officer seemed relieved.
"Thank you. I will definitely not let them get away with this.", she promised, before bidding her goodbye and getting back to the ambulance. After reluctantly getting checked for her shock, they finally let Luz go and the four friends got all info they needed, before finally leaving. The ambulance drivers had offered to call a cab for them but Luz had waved it off, wanting to walk a little before resting. They had let her go with a warning to take it easy for a few days, then they had packed up their things and left.
Luckily for them, the apartment wasn't as far anymore and while Willow carried Luz for the better part of it, it was relieving to walk through the fresh air and calm down a little.
Let me know if you liked it!