sweets || bryce hall

Chapter 20: Why

Noah POV

Rory is shaking horribly on the couch with Quinton sitting next to her, trying to calm her down, but her eyes are locked on Bryce.

Bryce, is locked completely on me by now. He looks like he could kill me, and I think if Rory wasn't in the room, he would.

"Bryce please, j-ju-just list-sten. Please." She says, making him breathe for a second, calming down. She takes a deep breath before saying, "A guy at the party tried to do some things to me, and before he could, Noah found me. I guess he recognized me as your girlfriend. He stopped him, but not before the guy hit me." She looks down, and I think we can all see the tears dripping down her face.

"Someone..." Bryce tries to speak, his voice breaking before he can even get through a second word. He shakes his head, pushing fingers through his floppy hair as he paces around.

"Bryce?" Blake tries to speak to his friend, but Bryce blows up right then.

"I LET HER GO, I DIDN'T STOP HER! I KNEW SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN. WHY DID I LET YOU GO?! WHY WAS I THAT STUPID?! OF COURSE YOU CAN'T PROTECT YOURSELF, WHY DID I THINK YOU'D BE OKAY BY YOURSELF?!" Rory starts sobbing into Quinton, who just rubs her back, trying to keep her calm, not let her have a panic attack.

"Bryce, you couldn't have known. That gurl didn't even give you a chance to protest. They just wanted to have fun. Plus, Noah was there, she's okay, she's right there," Blake tries, but Bryce is spiraling.

"WHAT WOULD'BE HAPPENED IF HE WASN'T THERE BLAKE?! WE WERE ALL JUST CHILLIN' OUT AT THE HYPE HOUSE!" He now turns his attention to the completely unstable Rory, "WHY WERE YOU EVEN ALONE, WEREN'T YOU WITH THAT GIRL THAT YOU WORK WITH?!" She starts shaking even more, clearly not able to speak.

"C'mon man, we need to go in another room," Griffin whispers to Quinton, who tries to help Rory up, but she can't stand, so Griffin just walks over and picks her up bridal style. They walk out, Quinton following, and he gives Blake a look.

Bryce is just pacing, freaking out, with his hands on his face.

"Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't you tell me?!" He yells.

I finally speak up now.

"Bryce, man, I'm sorry. I know I should've told you, she just she wasn't ready, and I don't know all of you that well but..." I trail off as he holds his hand out.

"Bryce, he tried-" Blake starts.

"I KNOW! But it shouldn't have been him there for her. Seriously man, thank you. You saved my girlfriend from more trauma than she's already been through, and I know that. But why was she in that position in the first place?" He looks towards me, and I can see the pain in his eyes. I sigh shaking my head before speaking,

"It's the guy that was throwing the party. I guess the girl that she came with, I don't know her name-"

"Laurie, Laurie Hughes, Bryce how did we not realize that. We heard that last name twice within like an hour or two and no one even questioned it. It was Lucas Hughes wasn't it? Griffin said you were going to his party and I put none of it together. Bryce, remember? He's that idiot whose party we went to a while ago and three girls thought they were dating him?" Bryce's face changes.

"Rory has even told me Laurie's name, and I never even thought of that. Goddammit!" He punches the wall in anger.

"Apparently that guy does it a lot. His friends walked in and one of them said he had done something to his sister. I don't think Lucas got out easy."

"He's 28, he's TEN YEARS OLDER THAN RORY!" Bryce yells. Blake shakes his head before saying,

"Go on Noah, we need to know what happened." I nod.