Ineffable | Newt

12.

CW: Attempted Assault

Katie made the lunches for the runners as usual. She woke up on time, took a shower before anyone got up, and then headed down to the kitchen. She prepared their sandwiches with some apples in case they were extra hungry because the track crew had picked too many the day before. Also, Katie wanted to make eggs for breakfast. She enjoyed cracking the eggs and thought making a huge batch of scrambled eggs would be fun.

The sun still wasn't up, so one could imagine her fright when she felt another presence in the kitchen. Katie turned around with a wrapped sandwich when she saw the boy; she jumped and tossed the sandwich in the air, but caught it. Katie placed a hand over her rapidly beating heart to show that he had scared her. The runner stood with his hands on his hips and laughed.

"Sorry." He said this while watching Katie move the sandwiches and apples to the outside counter.

She pointed outside, where the sun had just barely risen, and started gathering eggs together. No one wants to wake up early, especially not a runner, because they spend their whole day moving.

Jorge just shrugged and moved a step closer to her.

"I wanted to see you." He said. Katie's back was toward him as she grabbed a stool. "We haven't talked much since you got here."

She motioned towards all the food in front of her before placing the stool down in front of the cabinet. She takes a glance at Jorge, who is leaned against the opposite wall of the kitchen.

"Yea, but you never spoke to anyone; now you do." He said that, and Katie opened the cupboard to look for a large bowl. He clearly wasn't understanding what she was signing, so Katie guessed that she would have to verbally communicate if she wanted him to get what she meant.

Katie nodded, located the bowl, and got off the stool. She moved it by Jorge, who was next to the stoves, and placed it beside him. He smirked slightly, which made Katie a little uncomfortable, so she moved quickly towards the icebox.

"I also heard that you sleep with Newt and Minho a lot." He spoke to Katie's back as she squatted down in front of the open icebox.

Once again, she nodded and gathered a bunch of eggs. "It makes me feel safer."

Jorge laughed at this, which confused Katie as she walked back towards him with her eyebrows furrowed. She placed the eggs in the bowl and counted them; three were insufficient.She walked back towards the icebox and heard Jorge shuffle behind her.

"Oh, please, we know what you really do with them." He said. "But you're very quiet."

Katie was really confused now. She stopped in front of the closed icebox and turned back towards him; he was now closer to her.

Katie shot a confused look at the boy, and Jorge smirked.

"I just want to have my share now." He said so and stepped closer to her.

"W-what?" Katie's heart started beating faster. His share of what exactly? because whatever he thought Katie did with Minho and Newt, she was not prepared to do with him.

"Come on, Katie; I've waited four months." Jorge stepped closer, and Katie tried to step back, but her back hit the icebox. "I think I deserve it."

"What the—are you talking about?" Katie tried to keep her voice steady, but her hands began to shake, and he walked closer. "St-stop."

Jorge only laughed at her attempt to keep him away. He noticed her hands and took them in his own. Katie tried to pull them back, but he was stronger than her.

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle." Katie's eyes widened as he spoke; she didn't want this to go any further—she wanted him to stop whatever he was doing right now.

"Let go of me." Katie stated, her anxiety increasing as she spoke."Leave me alone, Jorge."

"I like when you say my name." He pulled her toward him roughly.

Katie winced as he kept her wrists in a tight lock. He held both her arms with one hand as the other moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. Katie jerked her head away, which angered Jorge, and he pushed her hard back into the icebox. Katie's head hit harder than the rest of her, and she let out a distressed sound.

"Slim it." He said it through gritted teeth. "I tried to be nice, but not anymore."

"Leave me alone." Katie said it again and tried to pull her arms free of him.

Jorge didn't respond verbally; instead, he held her wrists tighter, his knuckles turning white, and Katie felt a crunch as the two bones hit each other.

"Leave me alone." Katie's breathing started speeding up, and her heartbeat started growing louder.

"Are you gonna be a Slint about it?" Jorge looked down at her, and Katie couldn't look at him; instead, she tried desperately to release his grip on her.

Jorge wasn't happy about this.

"Fine, you like it rough." He said this as he moved her arms above her head, closing the gap between them.He lowered himself to her level and forced her terrified eyes to meet his."I'll be rough then."

Katie was now terrified. She was getting lightheaded from hyperventilating, but she didn't know how to stop herself because she didn't want to faint. Who knows what Jorge would do to her when she was unconscious?

"L-leave me alone." Katie tried to say other things, but her voice could only push out those words.

Jorge didn't listen to her as he moved his foot in between her legs to spread them. Katie tried moving them back, but he was a lot stronger than her. She thrashed her arms around to release his grip on her, but he started digging his nails into her skin, and she let out a scream at the pain.

"Slim it!" Jorge said through gritted teeth, lifting her arms off the icebox for a brief moment before slamming her back into it.A gasp escaped her lips as her head once again hit the box.

"Leave me alone!" Katie shouted and lifted her leg to kick at Jorge. It did almost nothing to him, and he laughed at her, but she wanted him to stop. "Leave me alone!"

"You little bi-" Jorge was cut off by the whack of a frying pan hitting his head. He flew to the floor, taking Katie down with him, but once his grip on her released, she scrambled backwards across the dirt till her back touched the cabinets on the ground.

She still breathed rapidly as her eyes quickly saw her savior. Ben stood with the pan in his hands and a look of utter shock on his face. But he quickly gained consciousness when he saw Katie's frightened face. Katie hadn't even considered why Ben had gotten up so early.

"MINHO!" Ben shouted as loud as he could, his eyes staying on Jorge, who was starting to regain his senses. Ben placed his foot on Jorge's side to prevent him from getting up.

A pair of footsteps quickly ran into the kitchens as Minho took in the scene. His eyes went to Ben, then Jorge, then Katie. He turned around and placed his hands around his mouth to magnify his shouts. He called for the other runners to come now, and then he moved past Ben and Jorge to Katie.

Her head was lighter than ever; she was extremely dizzy, and her heartbeat muffled any noises around her. Minho bent down in front of her and looked into her wild eyes.

"Katie." He said something, but she couldn't hear him."Katie, what happened?"

Her eyes met his, but they looked right through him. She tried her best to focus on him and speak, but nothing could come out. Her body completely shut down. Minho looked her over for any signs of damage. His eyes locked on her wrists, purple and blue with small crescents dug into them. His blood started to boil, and he turned back to look at Jorge. The side of his head was red from where Ben had hit him, and he had an angry look on his face. Minho wanted to bash his head in for what he did to Katie. Unfortunately, he couldn't because the other runners burst into the kitchens, their eyes wide with confusion at what was going on.

Minhos' jaw locked as his finger pointed to Jorge, but he kept his eyes on his runners.

"Slammer. Now." He seethed, and the boys immediately obeyed, grabbing a protesting Jorge who was thrashing about and dragging him away.

Minho was now alone with Katie. He noticed her dizziness, and he panicked a bit; he didn't want her passing out.

"Katie, focus on me." Minho commanded, and the girl tried her best, but there wasn't much of a difference. "Deep breaths."

Minho demonstrated soft, long breaths to her, and in a few seconds, she understood what to do and started breathing so slowly it was almost undetectable. But Minho felt Katie wouldn't faint anymore, and he decided to try and talk to her again.

"What happened?" Minho asked again, but softly.

"Leave me alone." Katie seemed to spit, which made Minho confused. He wanted to help her, but her rigid posture and unfocused eyes made it hard to understand whether she was actually listening. "Leave me alone."

"She's doing it again." An accented voice brought Minhos' attention away from the girl for a split second.

Newt limped as quickly as he could towards Minho and Katie and sat on the ground with them. His face was filled with concern, identical to

"She's saying the same thing over and over again." Newt explained, and Minho understood.

"Love, are you trying to say something else?" Newt looked back and forth between Katie's undetecting eyes. No answer. "Is it okay if I touch you?"

Katie's head moved down to her wrists, which she had just noticed were discolored. In response, she jutted them out, as if to throw them as far away as possible.

"Don't look at them," Minhos said softly, averting her gaze."Look at us."

Katie stared at the two boys in front of her and breathed the way Minho told her to. She was scared; she thought Jorge was nice, but she couldn't trust him.

"Can you say your name?" Newt asked.

Katie moved her head from side to side. At least she was answering now.

"That's fine; everything's fine." Minho assures.

"You're safe now, Love." Newt held out his hand for Katie. Katie could trust Newt and Minho better than Jorge; these two would never hurt her. She took Newt's hand, and he softly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. She kept her gaze away from her wrists.

With him doing that and Minho slowly coaching her out of her shut-down state, her heart rate slowly went back to normal. Katie was with people she could fully trust; they wouldn't hurt her, and she was safe with them. Carefully, she let go of Newt's hand and moved awkwardly (due to her bruised wrists) in between them, leaning against Newt so he would hold her. She felt completely safe now.

But she learned talking was bad. She was right.