Gary chased after Rainbow as she ran down the hallway. He caught her wrist and pulled her to stop her from running. She looked like she was about to start crying, Gary realised and went to hug her. She pushed him off and hugged herself.
"Look," Gary started nervously, "I didn't edit that photo... it was Barry! I saw him doing it last night. All the guys were surrounding him and they were editing pictures of girls. I was going to tell you but everything kicked off before I could!" He explained, still holding her wrist so that she didn't run away. She pulled it out of his grip.
"Don't you think I know that?! He made me look like even more of an idiot out there! I knew when the nerds looked at me so confused. But I couldn't just walk back over to Barry could I?" She vented, the hurt in her words was evident. She'd wanted to set an example. He was just unlucky that it had been him chosen.
"You slapped me even though you knew it wasn't me?" He asked his right hand subconsciously lifting to his cheek. Her eyes darted to the floor.
"I'm sorry." She apologised quietly. Her breath hitched and Gary frowned. He shouldn't have confronted her like that. He placed a hand on her shoulder, hearing her first sob. She didn't push it off this time.
"It'll be okay." Gary whispered, all his confrontational nature changing to a protective one. "I'll help you convince the headteacher if you want." He softly comforted. He couldn't even imagine how awful it would be if he found out that someone had sent a nude picture of him to everyone. He wanted to hug her so badly, but she had pushed him away and he shouldn't push her. "Come on, lets go give Barry a beating." He joked. She sniffed and brushed the tears off her cheeks and out of her eyes.
"Okay..." She agreed quietly. They started slowly walking down the corridor and she looked at the picture again. "To be fair though, Barry did give me quite an upgrade..." She joked looking at the picture on Barry's phone and then at her own small chest. Gary smiled sadly at her self-depreciating humour. He hadn't really noticed how small she was before, not just her chest but everything. She looked about two or three years younger than him. But they way she acted made her seem bigger and like more of a threat. Maybe that was the aim... She acted differently when it was just them rather than them in public. She was a lot more open, but maybe that was because she didn't see him as a threat.