Agreements With Mr Rich Boy | ✓

43 | The Latter, I mean

I SCRAMBLED ONTO the bar as again and again and again, Noah brought his fist down onto Jacques. Each crack made me flinch, and I had to look away to stomach the sight of all that blood.

Jacques friends seemed paralysed for a moment before they stepped forward, ready to come to his defence. However, as they took in Noah's ruthless state and the primal glint in his eyes, they raised their hands in surrender. With a quick look at their beaten friend, they hightailed it out of there.

Jamie was the first to react. He jumped over the bar with ease and was helped by Archer to haul Noah up and away from his punching bag. He struggled in their hold, shouting obscenities at the bruised and broken boy.

I watched in disgust as he was helped to his feet.

"What on earth happened?" Autumn asked as she squeezed her way through the crowd watching the scene.

"He said some unsavoury things about you." I couldn't bring myself to tell her the entire truth. That he'd, bile burned my throat just thinking about it, joked about taking advantage of you.

Her lip curled in disgust. She turned on her heel before I could stop her.

Jacques turned when she tapped him on the shoulder.

I almost gasped at the state of him.

'Bruised and broken' wasn't the half of it; his eye was almost completely swollen shut and his lip was fat and bleeding. Autumn didn't seem deterred as she grabbed the nearest drink and threw its contents at him. She paused, for only a moment, before bringing her knee up, hard.

She returned to my side. "Waste of a perfectly good drink, to be honest with you."

***

The next day, all of us decided that maybe going out after all that had happened probably wasn't the best idea.

Noah— with his fists still bruised and a small purplish spot forming on the left side of his jaw, where Jacques had got one punch in— really was in no fit state to be seen. And I think we'd all had enough excitement the previous night to last us the rest of the holiday.

So when Autumn said, "Don't worry, it'll only be a few people," I couldn't help but look at her a little sceptically.

"Autumn," I said, picking up a plate from the sink and drying it with a tea towel. "Is a party really the best idea right now?"

"Probably not," she admitted, taking the now dry plate from my hands and slotting it back in the cupboard. She turned to me. "But I just really need to take my mind off what happened. Just something before we go back. Please?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's your house."

She took whatever she could get and so, squealed and tackled me in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jolie!"

"Yeah, yeah," I murmured. "Just a few though, right?"

"Of course."

***

Just a few, I thought with a scoff as I looked around at the seemingly hundreds of people milling about in the living room.