The rest of the day had dragged by, so when the final bell rang, I couldn't be more relieved to go home and sleep all weekend. I was walking to your brother's car when I practically bumped into Jonathan, dropping my books for the second time that day. Jonathan and I had both bent down to pick them up. "Sorry, Jonathan I wasn't looking where I was going." I was quick to gather my things out of his hands. "Neither was I, so you don't have to apologize." The two of us walked to his car in silence. We often did this because he would wait with me until Ezra came out of the building. Today was one of those days where my brother took a little longer to get to the car than usual. I looked up for a moment before we reached Jonathan's car, only to see that Steve and his cohorts were standing by the trunk of it. 'This can't be good.' I sighed before finally reaching the group of assholes. "Hey man," Steve started. Deciding to keep my mouth shut this time, I just observed, knowing that Jonathan could handle himself if things were to escalate to more than just a conversation. "What's going on?" Looking at Jonathan, he looked just as confused as I felt, but I knew that confusion wouldn't last very long, especially with the people involved. "Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work." "We've heard great things." I gave Carol a dirty look before giving Tommy that same look when he spoke. Steve continued, "And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as... connoisseurs of art." Shaking his head a bit Jonathan gave a reply, sounding a little bit like when I was a child and trying to get out of trouble by playing dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about." He tried to get into his car to go home when Tommy, being the bitch he is, snatched his bag right off of his shoulder.

I tried to help get his bag back while Jonathan begged for them to just hand it over, but Tommy threw it to Steve before I could get my hands on it. "Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide." I looked at Steve trying to intervene and deescalate the situation but to no avail. "Just because he doesn't want you to go through his personal belongings, doesn't mean that he's hiding anything. You're just a douche who has nothing better to do with your life than to harass him." I tried one more time to get Jonathan's bag back, but Steve moved it out of my reach. Reaching into the grey bag, Steve pulled out a few processed photographs and started to look at them. "Oh, man." Tommy grabbed one of the photos and looked at it. "Oh, yeah this isn't creepy at all." I cocked my head to the side, wondering what could be so bad about the pictures. "I was looking for my brother." The failed attempt at justifying whatever those pictures showcased made me wonder if they were actually bad, or if they were taken out of context. "No. No, this is called stalking." Before Steve could say another word, Nancy walked up and made the whole ordeal even worse. "What's going on?" Carol and Tommy took it upon themselves to bring her up to speed on what was happening. "The creep was spying on us last night. Probably gonna save this one for later." Carol pulled a lone photo out of the bunch and handed it over to Nancy, giving me the opportunity to finally see what was so interesting. I got closer to Nancy to see it better, only to show that it was a picture of Nancy taking her shirt off in what I assumed to be Steve's bedroom. Choosing to not add to Jonathan's embarrassment, I would stay silent until everyone left the two of us alone. Steve clicking his tongue brought me back to the situation. "See, you can tell that he knows it's wrong, but that's the thing about perverts. It's hardwired into 'em. You know, they just can't help themselves." There was a brief pause. I knew this wasn't going to end well at all, and there was nothing I could do to even try to stop whatever these guys had in mind. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach when you heard what Steve said next. "So... we'll just have to take away his toy."

Steve had grabbed ahold of Jonathan's camera while Jonathan himself was pleading for him to stop. Tommy got in front of the poor boy and pushed Jonathan back a bit when Steve stopped him. "Here you go, man." Steve holds out the camera, but when Jonathan goes to grab it, Steve lets his fingers go limp and it fell to the ground, lens shattering from the impact, more than likely damaging the interior of it as well. They all start to leave, ripping up the last of the photographs and letting the pieces fly into the wind and settle on the ground around us. Jonathan quickly bent down to see the irreparable damage that had been done to the camera. Nancy had stayed behind for a moment, looking upset when something caught her eye because she too bent down and picked up a piece of one of the photographs. She looked at Jonathan and they locked eyes for a moment, both of them looking like they want to say something, but Steve interrupted them, and Nancy quickly gathered a few more torn pieces and left to follow the group. I gingerly walked over and kneeled down. "Are you okay?" I knew the answer already, he was obviously not okay, but I asked him more out of courtesy than to receive a reply. I watched as a light breeze blew the torn-up remnants away. After he had picked up the pieces, we both silently stood up and leaned against the trunk of his car. "You can leave if you want. You don't have to wait for Ezra with me. I know you're upset about what happened." I glanced over at him. He shook his head a little bit. "It's okay. I'll wait with you." A comfortable silence fell between us as I tried to process what happened, and while I was curious about the contents of the images, I didn't want to force him to speak about it.

A few moments passed when Ezra finally walked out of the high school and over to where we were. "Woah, what happened here?" Looking at my brother, I shrugged a little bit. "Steve and his groupies, that's what." I stood up straight and looked at Jonathan. "You gonna be okay?" He looked up at the two of us and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, I'll be fine." I placed a gentle hand behind his shoulder while Ezra replied, "Well if you want to like after work or something, you can always come over and spend time with us if you want, if you're feeling up for it, I mean." He popped the tiniest smile and nodded. "I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm just gonna go home." Ezra gave a quiet okay and moved his head toward the car, urging me to follow him so the two of us could go home. Giving Jonathan one last look as he got in his own car, I followed suit and hoped that he would be okay. Once in the car, Ezra looked at me as he turned the key in the ignition. "So, what actually happened? There has to be more to the story other than Steve being Steve." Sighing, I began to recount what happened as he pulled out of the parking spot and began the drive home. The two of us pulled into our driveway just as I finished telling Ezra what happened in the school's parking lot. Turning off the car, he signed and turned to face me. "I'm not gonna lie, it is weird he had those pictures, but we didn't really get his side of the story." "Well, yeah it's weird but I feel like there's a good reason that he was there. I don't even think that he knew Nancy was going to be there, nor did he know that it was actually Steve's house. I was going to ask, but after everything that happened, I figured I would just wait to ask him about it... He's probably so embarrassed right now." I grabbed my stuff and got out of the car, shutting it behind me as I walked up to the front door, brother in tow. Once I entered, I walked into the kitchen to grab something to drink and a snack, Ezra already turning the television on and settling on the couch. I laid down on the loveseat stared at the ceiling, mindlessly eating my chips, lost in thought, and listening to The Golden Girls play on the tv.