Yes, I Am

Chapter Twenty.

"They did what?" I said icily, staring with a mixture of bewilderment and anger first at Austin and then Ryan.

"Why wasn't he supposed to know?" Austin asked Ryan. Two more guys had come over to where we were at this point."

"He specifically asked all of us to not tell him anything," said the dark-haired one calmly.

"Hey, I'm right here," I said angrily. They could at least treat me like I was a living, breathing person in their vicinity.

"He didn't tell me any such thing," complained Austin.

"Of course he didn't. Or the first thing you would have done is told him," said the other, tall one, pointing at me.

"Could you stop talking about me like I'm not right fucking here and just tell me what the holy hell is going on?" I growled.

They passed each other an indecipherable look. An understanding passed between all of them and they launched into the exact details of what had been going on since the last two weeks, all the things I was completely unaware of, and all I could do was stare at them speechlessly like an idiot. "He didn't want to stretch the matter further and he looked quite shaken up so we didn't do anything but now Tony had the guts to break into his room and spray paint "FAGGOT" on the wall in bold letters," finished the tall guy who was apparently called Levi.

"He's taken it one too far," Ryan gritted out, his fists clenched at his sides, and the others nodded along.

"He's gonna pay now, no matter what Caleb says," said Ethan, the dark haired one.

"Wh- Why didn't Caleb want me to know?" I stuttered out weakly. It hurt that so much would happen and he wouldn't even give me a heads up.

"We don't know. He didn't tell us and we didn't ask." Ethan shrugged. As much as his secrecy about such a grave incident pained me, I was glad to see he had such good friends around him to take care of him.

"I'm gonna kill that motherfucker," I said slowly, calmly. I meant it. If he was in front of me, I would have driven a car over him without a second thought.

I guess the guys saw the seriousness in my face because they immediately became placating. "Woah, Mattie, sit down," said Austin, gently touching my shoulder and nudging me towards the empty stairs.

I shook him off. "What the fuck are you people waiting for? Fucking red carpets? Let's go kick his fucking ass right now," I shouted. I was going to talk to Caleb later, when my rage had calmed down enough that I could see straight.

"You're not going anywhere like this," said Ryan. "I don't want to deal with murder charges. Caleb would kill us if you ended up in jail."

"You can't stop me! I'm going to-"

Austin pushed my shoulders till I was sitting down and held me there sternly. "Yes, we can. Shut the fuck up and sit here."

"I'm not gonna fucking sit here while the guy who assaulted my boyfriend roams the streets like a free man," I shouted at him again. It wasn't until much later that I realized the implication of my words. But more on that later.

"I told you!" Levi pumped his hand in the air in victory and Ethan passed a ten dollar note to him with a groan. None of that registered in my addled brain. I was still seeing red.

"He's not gonna be roaming around these streets for long. I'm gonna make sure of it. Trust me on this," Austin said earnestly. "Look, he's my friend as well. I care about him just as much as, if not more than, you do. I wanna kill that fuckwad too. But we're gonna have a truce with law here and just beat him to a pulp. Okay?"