𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑─𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐝𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐫

06.

I stood at my locker at the end of the day with Sophia by my side. The two of us were in mid-discussion on our plans for attending the lacrosse game tonight, "So I was thinking...". I trailed off, my eyes catching on Liam who was currently marching out of the school doors, Mason running after him.

"Syd?" Sophia asked giving me a strange look, turning her head slightly to see what had caused me to stop talking.

I kept my eyes locked on where Liam had just been, "I'll be right back" I muttered, already following after the two boys.

I could hear Sophia close my locker shut as she began running after me, "Sydney!"

Pushing through the exterior doors, I ended up outside by the parking lot. A small crowd had gathered as the opposing lacrosse team began to file off of their bus.

"Liam!" Mason called, trying to will his best friend to stop whatever was about to happen, "No, no, no." he warned. But Liam didn't listen.

He came to a stop, his eyes landing on one of the players who had just exited the bus, "Brett!" he called.

I looked to Mason, my eyes wide in curiosity, "What's going on?" I whispered, afraid something really bad was going to occur.

Mason looked over to me, worry evident on his face, "It's Liam's old school," he explained, then nodding toward the boy by the name of Brett, "And he, is one of his old teammates."

I looked back to the scene unfolding as the boy looked over at Liam, the two of them breaking into a stare down for a few moments. Each of their facial expressions were hard, Liam's jaw clenched as he glared at Brett.

It was Liam who spoke first, "I just wanted to say" he breathed through gritted teeth, "have a good game." The latter part of his sentence came out more calmly, and I was relieved to see that as he stuck out his hand to shake Brett's, there were no claws.

Brett stared at Liam's hand for a moment before he and the other guys behind broke out into a fit of laughter. I bit down on my cheek, resisting the urge to speak up. Suddenly, I hated this guy.

"That's cute Liam," Brett teased, "Is that what they told you to say in anger management, apologize and everything's fine" He laughed, but it lacked any humour, "You demolished coach's car" Brett, dropping his voice as he stepped forward.

"I paid for it" Liam snapped, clearly becoming flustered with the amount of attention this little altercation was gathering from people passing by.

"Yeah you're going to pay for it," Brett warned, "We're going to break you in half out there, and it's going to be all your fault."

"Hey!" I snapped, earning surprised looks from both Mason and Sophia as I took a step forward, "Leave him alone." I warned, my voice dropping.

Brett smirked as he took a step toward me, "Got yourself a girlfriend, Liam?" he mocked. "Does she know...about your little problem?" he taunted.

I was ready to walk up and sock that guy in the face as Liam clenched his hand into a fist, hard enough for blood to start dripping from his hand.

Luckily, Scott and Stiles came rushing out of the school, Scott grabbing Liam and pulling him back as Stiles stepped forward, "Hey, what's going on prep students? Welcome to our little public high school, how you doing?" he greeted, sticking out his hand to introduce himself, "Stiles."

When Brett didn't take it, he pulled it back awkwardly before speaking again, "That's a firm handshake you got there. Uh we're very excited for the scrimmage tonight but let's keep it clean, no rough stuff out there"