Chapter 23: What She Wants

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Bryce POV

"I'm going to find him." I stand nearly toe to toe with Blake, glaring.

"No. You aren't. Beating that guy up, going to jail again isn't going to help her Bryce. It accomplishes nothing!" He yells back.

"This can't be your solution to everything anymore Bro," Tayler says from the counter where he and Josh are leaning back.

"They aren't wrong." Jaden shrugs, reaching his hand into the box of cereal he's holding.

"I. Don't. Give. A. FUCK. That motherfucker deserves whatever I do to him! And you all know full well that Thomas, and you Josh and even you Tayler, all of you except you Blake were all for it." The fire I can feel in my words and my body is strong.

"You need to control yourself buddy. For her. She might have had a hard life, but being assaulted? Getting hate for the first time? You need to help her, and doing this isn't-" I interrupt Josh,

"Don't tell me what to do for HER! I want to do this for HER! It's my fault this happens, and then she had to talk about her past and that's so hard for her, and then it was on my phone that I left there that she saw all of those comments. I can't do anything about the fans so I'm going to make sure Lucas pays." I glare towards Josh, who looks down.

"I'm angry too Bryce. Okay? But that girl, when she wakes up, wants to see you. Not hear that you're off beating up a guy that she just wants out of her life." Tayler speaks up.

"Why don't we call the Hype House boys and Quinn, Noah, and Griff? See if she could go over and have them distract her, and just talk about it?" Jaden asks, still eating cereal.

"I don't want to talk. I want to hurt the guy who hurt my girlfriend!" Suddenly Jaden slams his cereal box on the counter, walking up to me next to Blake.

"That's it. Bryce, you need to figure out how to calm down. I don't care about your masculinity right now, and neither should you. Her and I are going to leave and get Starbucks or some shit and then you're going to figure yourself out." Jaden walks towards the stairs, not waiting for a response.

-

Thomas POV

Kouvr, Mia, Charli, Nessa, and Dixie are officially traumatized. Kouvr lives here so when we got back she heard us and came down with Alex, but Charli was going to stay the night anyway and Nessa was here just hanging out with Olivia. She was upstairs too when we got here. Everyone came down and freaked out when we got back. Now the five of them, the girls, are all in my room with Alex, Nikita, Tony, Griffin, Quinton, Noah, Nick, and Heidi. No one else knows, only because we feel bad exposing Rory's trauma to as many people as who know already.

Everyone is just sitting around. We all slept and then ended up her this morning. Things like this happen to girls every few days in the news, with much worse outcomes, but especially Charli is clearly upset. Which is why we called her mom. She's almost as upset as Dixie and Mia, and she didn't even see Rory.

Or Bryce. God, I know I encouraged it last night but I hope he doesn't do something stupid. Tony, Nikita, and Nick specifically look like they're ready for blood.

"That bitch messed with the wrong girl," Nikita interrupts the silence. She has her arms crossed, lying on the floor next to Tony who is sitting up against the wall.

Nick sits next to him, and Noah is sitting on the couch above them to Nick's left. Heidi, Charli, Griffin, and Dixie are all sitting on the couch, Griffin and Dixie cuddling slightly to Noah's left with Charli and her mom sitting together next to them. Mia and I are sitting, up against the headboard, on our bed with Kouvr and Alex next to us. Quinton, Nessa, and Olivia are all sitting at the foot of the bed.

"Yeah no, this fool has no idea what's coming for him." Tony agreed darkly, cracking his knuckles.

"That guy-" I start only for Noah to interrupt me,

"Lucas." He sets his jaw, "His name is Lucas."

"Okay, Lucas, isn't worth it. We're all close to Rory, and I think we all know that that isn't what she wants." I see Heidi nod at me. She is a mom, as well as an adult, she probably doesn't want her daughters' friends consorting about how they're going to beat someone up.

"She was assaulted Thomas." Dixie says, staring into space, "I saw her. She doesn't know what she wants. She's just scared. And he did that to her." She almost starts yelling towards the end.

"Hey, calm down." Griffin says, his face not expressing his emotions as her rubs her arm, his other around her shoulder.

I feel my phone ring, picking it up. Mia sees it and takes it.

"It's Bryce." She says, looking at everyone. I look at Heidi before saying,

"Tony? Quinton? Noah? Let's go answer in a different room." I get up and go out the door way and into Alex's empty room, the others following.

-

Rory POV

"Ro? Wake up..." I hear, as someone shakes me. I hold up, pushing the person away and moving to the other side of the bed. "Woah woah woah, Rory it's okay," I squint, seeing Jaden. I let out the deep breath that I was holding.

"Jaden!," I smile, getting off the bed and hugging him.

"Hey Ro, get dressed, we're going to spend the day together, cool?" It almost doesn't even sound like he's asking.

There's a look in his eye, the one I always see but never understand. I just feel like I'm being protected, which should be comforting but it seems more sinister. Like a presence that's just stuck over my life. I always saw it in Aaron, and now it's in all of these boys'.

Even so, I just nod. Because I'd rather be around them, and that look, than people like my family, or him, or worse... be alone.

"Alright, just go get dressed, and we'll head downstairs." He sits down on Bryce and I'd bed as I turn and walk silently towards the closet.

As I grab one of Bryce's sweatshirts, I realize I have no idea where he is.

We were supposed to talk... I guess not.

As I grab the red of an outfit and change into it, I hear angry yelling from downstairs

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As I grab the red of an outfit and change into it, I hear angry yelling from downstairs.

Before I can even listen to see what's going on Jaden runs in. "Okay! Ready to leave?" I don't even get to answer before he says, "Chill! Okay, cool! We're leaving!" He grabs my hand and pulls me downstairs, picking me up, and running out the door.

I only catch a glimpse of Bryce and Blake glaring at each other.

Is that my fault?

-

Hi! Look at me! Two updates in two days! I'm probably going to jinx it, but I'm seriously going to try to keep my rhythm back up.

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Please vote to let me know if you did!

Also comment what you thought, and also, where do you think her and Jaden should go? And should anyone go with? What did you think of the reactions? The phone call will be next chapter, first.

Thank you all so much for reading, love you guys!

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