Sᴇᴘᴛᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 9. 2024.
"I told you before that if you leaked that shit, I would kill you." Growls a bulky, white guy, grasping the collar of a short, blonde kid in a white tee, denim shorts and white converse. His back is to Alexa as he's being draped.
"I–it wasn't me, I swear!" He begins in a British lisp, but the bulky guy, with cropped black hair spits in his face.
"You're the only one who had that shit! Don't lie to my face, you're making it worse for yourself."
From where she sits, Alexa frowns, watching the interaction between the two. The bug guy is furious and won't hear out whatever the little guy has to say. The little guy is too frightened to talk straight, which makes the big guy angrier. Why can't they just calm down and have a conversation?
"Bloody hell!" The kid curses before a punch, packing rage, hits him in the face. His head flies backward on impact.
Alexa soon finds herself locked on the bundle of blonde hair of the seemingly victimized boy, and without another thought, she's on her feet, walking towards the fight. She isn't thinking of how Phillip is taller and definitely wouldn't be a victim of a simple disagreement, she's in a daze, dragging her feet and bumping into a hard shoulder. Snapping back to reality, she impulsively catches a falling tray of food and flicks up an apple that rolls off, with the tip of her boot.
Vincent is speechless, openly staring at the girl who shoves his tray and fruit into his hands and rushes away without even looking at him.
The two in the cafeteria continues to throw hands—well, it's all one-sided—despite the disinterest of the room. The principal's daughter and her clique snicker at their table behind Vincent, gossiping about the image of Brody kissing a man, that is currently the hot topic of the internet.
That's all they are good for. Vincent blinks once, twice to clear his mind, staring hard at his tray, before he actually focuses on the fight before him.
"Aren't you going to report it to your dad?" Sweet Caroline, that only sits with them because she's a cheerleader, faces a very harsh slap of cupcake to her face by Nikita, Amanda's best friend.
Amanda glances at her and sneers, "Shut the fuck up."
Vincent has already had enough and puts his tray aside, walking briskly around the fight. His voice is like a clap of thunder, booming over the noisy cafeteria when he shouts, "Brody, enough!"
The muscled guy pauses the bashing of his first into Erik's bloody face to give the golden eyed boy a once over.
Vincent adds calmly, "Stop. What's happened has happened already. What you're doing right now won't resolve it, but put you in deeper shit. Beating up that kid will result in many casualties, like the further destruction of your image..." He refers to how big he is compared to the boy, "...and his family can sue you..."
"If they have enough dough to take me out." Brody bites out ignorantly.
"Your father is only the CEO of a simple branch of a wine industry." Vincent reminds the meathead. "And, his family has oil businesses everywhere, so chill the fuck out."
Finally, he falters, releasing the boy's collar after remembering who Erik Crawford is. He made a mistake.
In a school like this, you should always know your enemies, and he barely knew shit about Erik, the geeky, weebo, nerdy kid that's a master at hacking and technology. If he let the kid go now, he might come back for revenge in many ways, but if he doesn't, Erik's family will come for him, if the bruises aren't already enough to cause a commotion...
He looks at Vincent again. He has put himself at the tip of a double edged sword.
Vincent tells him with a nod, "Bear the consequences like man. Your actions caused them."