Chapter 17

"I can't believe they thought it would be fun to go on the Zipper after eating," Vera laughed as she attempted to catch her breath and ease the slight ache forming in her side. "Of all the things they could have done, that is by far the worst."

"I'd be throwing up right now if I was in there," Greta nodded next to her, a slight grimace marring her face. "If they eat again after this they really will throw up, and I just might too. I don't know how they can stand it."

"Let's not forget who we're talking about here," Ana Marie reminded them with a shake of her head. "Never underestimate either of those boys' ridiculousness. They'd only go head-to-head in an eating contest if the winner was paid in food afterwards; that's just how those two are together. As for me, you could never pay me enough to go on that thing – full stomach or not."

"How about a night under the sheets, then?" a male voice suddenly sounded from behind.

To the left Ana Marie started to let out a shriek before it was quickly muffled. The sound caused Vera to nearly jump out of her skin in shock and she heard Greta take a sharp inhale as if to contain her surprise. Both girls spun around on their heels in Ana Marie's direction, and as Vera looked at her new friend, her eyes widened as she saw a tall young man with curly dark hair several steps away at Ana Marie's back, one hand clamped over her mouth while the other shoved its way up the front of her shirt. Ana Marie's eyes were crinkled in discomfort, her hand trying to tug at the young man's arms simultaneously, her feet taking turns to try and kick back at his shins to get him away from her. Behind the struggling couple, a blonde girl with her hair tied back in a single thick braid watched with a smirk as two red-headed boys cheered the dark-haired man on.

Vera could hardly believe what they were doing – especially in public. Around them, however, any bystanders paid little mind, hardly offering so much as a glance in their direction for more than a blink of the eye. They might as well just assume the lot of them were merely a bunch of college kids fooling around, Vera's mind grimly noted.

"Get off of her!" Greta's voice snapped Vera out of her brief moment of shock and in the next moment Ana Marie let herself drop in the dark-haired boy's arms, letting gravity and her weight work against him. The boy staggered forward slightly at the unexpected shift in weight, allowing Ana Marie to slip downwards in the split second his grip loosened before taking advantage of this to push through and out of his arms with a gasp.

Greta immediately came forward to meet her, grabbing hold of Ana Marie's wrist and pulling them both back from the young man and the group at his heels. Vera quickly stepped up to meet her friends as they took a step back, placing her arm supportively around Ana Marie's shoulder as she saw tears beginning to pool in her light eyes. Clenching her jaw hard, she looked at the posse opposite them, taking in each member's rather average appearance despite their brief yet undoubtably inappropriate behavior.

Everyone looked to be about the same age – somewhere within a few years of college – and the two red-haired boys looked like they might be brothers; one had straight, short-cropped hair and the other more unkept wavy hair, but both of them showed off the same set of deep blue eyes. It was harder to tell the girl's age with the dark and heavy makeup she wore around her eyes, but Vera guessed she was probably still in college like her dark-haired friend who actually had what looked like a college logo on the loosened collar of his shirt. He had some slight facial hair growing to give him a sort of ruggedly handsome look, but the smug expression on his face erased any sort of physical appeal he might have otherwise had. Vera assumed he was the leader of the group, having been the one to act first while his cohorts looked on. She didn't recognize any of them – not that she expected to – but figured they must attend the nearby university as their actions seemed intentional, personal. They seemed to know Greta and Ana Marie, and both girls likewise knew them.

"Back off, Carson, you sick fuck," Greta spat at the dark-haired boy in front, the loathing in her voice nearly palpable in the air around them. Yes, they definitely knew one another. Vera had never seen Greta so hostile; her brows deeply furrowed and a scowl marring her face, her form tense and her free left hand curled into a tight fist at her side. She looked like a time-bomb ready to go off.

Nervously, Vera looked from Greta's face to the boy now identified as 'Carson.' "Now, now, didn't your parents ever teach you not to use such vulgar language?" he chided her with a wicked smirk. "Keep talking like that and I'm gonna have to fill that dirty mouth of yours with the shit coming out of it."

If looks could kill Greta would have had Carson six feet under in half a second. At her side Ana Marie gave a sniffle but she seemed to have recovered enough to be able to look at her molester, giving him a hard look that rivaled Greta's.

Next to the two, Vera had hardly realized she had begun to ground her teeth at the tense situation that only seemed to be building. These people were nearly – or newly – adults; all of this was something she would have expected to come from children. It was absurd. What could she do or say to try and keep things from escalating? She could certainly throw curses and angry looks like her friends, something that would no doubt bring animosity upon herself, but would such things pose any meaning coming from her, a stranger? It was obvious Carson's group was horrible – that much was obvious – but they didn't know her, nor she them. The most she could do directly was verbally insult them for what she had just witnessed, seeing as physical assault was straight out.

Things never got to that point, though. As Vera took her time to mentally sort through her options, Carson took the initiative to bring her into the mix. "And who's the new girl you got with you?" he stepped forward to leer at Vera, his eyes taking her in in such a way that made her want to wrap herself up in a thick blanket obscuring her from view. She swallowed hard and felt the arm wrapped around Ana Marie's shoulder begin to tighten ever so slightly. "She some sort of social pariah like you or is she a piece of ass James picked up?"

"Nah, bro," the red-head with wavy hair chuckled from behind Carson and took a step forward, peering around him at Vera with a crazed smile. "She's that girl my neighbor was talking about with our mom the other day. Said she attacked her daughter or some shit like that."

In an instant Vera grew still and pale.

"Seriously, Ian?" The smirk grew on Carson's face as he turned to look back and forth from Vera to Ian. "You hear it too, Jack?" Carson inquired then of the other red-head.

"Loud and clear," Jack stated, crossing his arms over his chest as if this made him seem more intimidating.

"Man, that's fucked up. What'd you do?" Carson pressed Vera eagerly all of a sudden, his eyes wide as they held hers with newfound interest. When he took a couple steps towards her, Vera couldn't help but blink and flinch back ever so slightly despite her still-present grip on Ana Marie. Unfortunately, her reaction didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey now, don't be like that, sweetheart," Carson responded softly in an attempt to speak in a more easy-going manner, but the distasteful inflection in his voice remained, making Vera inwardly cringe. "I just wanna ask you a couple questions is all. Maybe we can find some common ground, eh? Who knows, you might find us better company than this lot here," he suggested with a jerk of his head towards Greta and Ana Marie.

She heard every one of his distasteful words, but All Vera could do in that moment was stand there like a deer caught in headlights, her mind racing around one detail in particular: Mrs. Connors had talked to someone. Oh God… Ian and Jack said she had 'attacked' Jane. What had Mrs. Connor's told their mother? And who else might she have told? What did the red-heads' hear, and would they tell others what they heard as they were doing now? Would other people believe everything they said, as Carson seemed to? It seemed like all the privacy regarding the incident up to that point in time had suddenly fallen away and the very idea of it loosed from the control of those involved, only to be taken up and spread by outsiders as they liked. The very thought of it sent Vera's mind reeling at the number of misunderstandings and problems that this could create. What would people think? Could her fears from earlier actually come true?

"You stay away from her – from all of us," Greta warned Carson, her words pulling Vera back once again to the present moment as she sent the boy opposite her a glare. The blonde behind him rolled her eyes and made a sound of disbelief. "Yeah, or what? You gonna throw a tantrum?"

"Or she'll get her mom to complain to your mom, Maya. Then she might make you her friend," Ian said mockingly, earning a laugh from the rest of the group and a look of disgust from the blonde.

"No thank you. Dealt with that shit before, and never again with the likes of her."

Vera didn't know what the two were talking about, but she could just sense from the other side of Ana Marie that it was something that struck a personal note with Greta. They needed to get away from this situation before things got even worse. "Let's go guys; don't listen to them," she mumbled under her breath, the last part spoken for herself as much as it was for Greta.

"Ah, so she does speak!" came Jack's voice from across the way as he came up aside his brother. "Don't leave yet, you haven't told us what happened. It's one thing to hear it from some random person, but even better to hear it from the mouth of the person who did it."

Vera heard him, but refused to acknowledge that she did so, instead bravely keeping her attention on Ana Marie and Greta. "Come on, guys. James and Nick should be off the ride about now," she offered as an excuse for them to move along.

Vera was turning and had taken no more than two steps when she felt a pull at her arm, causing her grip on Ana Marie to fall away momentarily. Looking down she saw a large hand firmly grasping her just below the elbow and looked up to meet the deep blue eyes of Jack who now stood much too close for comfort. He stood at least a head taller than her, and his face, now leaning down into hers, held a bad-tempered expression. Vera sucked in a breath as her body tensed up, though she did her best to muster a defiant look.

"Hey, it's not polite to ignore someone when they're talking to you." He twisted Vera's free arm up at an angle that from her position caused a dull pang of discomfort in her shoulder socket.

"Yeah, and it's not polite to touch a girl without asking her permission first," came a voice from behind Vera. Turning her head, she watched James and Nick come towards the group, both looking a little disheveled but otherwise steady. "Let her go," James commanded, his fists clenched at his sides.

"No one asked for your input, Smithton," Jack directed towards James, his eyes remaining on Vera's face until they dipped down ever so slightly and narrowed. Without warning he reached his free hand out and fisted the front of Vera's shirt with a harsh tug, making her gasp.

"What do you think you're doing?!" She took a step back and tried to move away, the motion causing a burning prickle on the back of her neck where her shirt pressed tight against her skin.

"You've got something just there around your neck," Jack's voice came out a whisper, loud enough only for the both of them to hear. Vera's eyes shot up to meet his; the bruising on her neck. She didn't think it would be visible in this light and had forgotten about it. Something lit up in Jack's eyes then, like a child having found a hidden stash of candy. "Hey, you guys, Car -!" Crack!

Everything went silent as Vera's left hand came out and landed flat across Jack's right cheek, jerking his head to the side and easing his firm grip on her. Her eyes wide and mouth ajar as if taken by surprise at her own actions, Vera could only watch as the young man slowly righted himself, his cheek beginning to turn a deep shade of pink as though he were blushing.

With the hand he had gripped her shirt with, Jack lifted his hand to his cheek as though assessing for damage, a look of slight incredulity on his face as his eyes met Vera's. The light in them had changed. Realizing this, Vera gave a sharp tug to wrench her arm from Jack, but his hand only tightened once more at her efforts, this time vise-like to the point that she was sure it would bruise. "Little bitch," he growled and forced her back towards him, stopping short as another hand grabbed hold of Vera's other arm and halted her movement.

"Let. Her. Go." Greta's voice came, tightly controlled with anger, from the other end of it.

Jack's only response was a glare at her, and that's when James' fist collided with his face. The blow shot him off of Vera and sent him sprawling back into the dirt. Before she had a chance to speak James was walking past her, heading straight for Jack, but not before Ian suddenly tackled him sideways to the ground. In the blink of an eye Nick was there to back up his friend, while Carson joined in likewise from the other side. Almost immediately Ana Marie stepped closer to the group of boys that was now rough-housing to call out to her boyfriend, pleading him to stop while trying to dissuade Greta who had let go of Vera and was starting her own catfight with Maya.

Vera felt at a loss as she watched the situation unfold. None of this was right. It was all wrong. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was out with her friends to have fun, not to start a fight with some thugs. Deep-down inside, a part of her wanted to cry, but this was something she knew she couldn't do. Not right now. She needed to stop the fighting, but she didn't want to get tangled up in the physical aspect of it to do so. Clearly neither Ana Marie's verbal protests nor the others' more hands-on approach were doing anything helpful, and Vera feared someone was going to get seriously hurt if things continued any longer.

Looking around their immediate surroundings for any source of help, any figure of authority who might be able to defuse the situation, Vera felt her heart sink when she saw no one. Only happy, unconcerned faces were in sight; no uniforms, no badges. Why? The rest of the fair-goers just seemed to ignore the scuffle, walking by and around them like it was an every-day occurrence, a mere argument among children. 'How could you?' she nearly asked out loud to none of them and yet all of them at once.

A particularly loud grunt reached Vera's ears and her attention returned to the skirmish before her, just in time to see Jack propel himself out of the group and onto the ground in front of her. He seemed temporarily disoriented as though he had been knocked too hard over the head, but after a pause he looked up from his position amongst the dirt at Vera. Neither said a word nor moved for a breath, but then his expression seemed to clear with his mind, and he was scrambling to get up and made a grab at her.

Without hesitating, Vera did the first thing her mind shouted at her to do and bolted.