Paul’s eyes darted between them all. Even I could feel the weight of their judgement. “What?” he snapped. “The fucker just walked up and hit me! I didn’t do anything!”

Justin was the one who took a step forward. “He wouldn’t just hit you for no reason. What did you do?”

I started relaxing as Paul started floundering. “Are you serious? He fucking punched me. You saw that right?”

Justin crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah. We all saw that. Now what the fuck did you do to him?”

Paul spat again; the bloody slime landed dangerously close to my boot. I jerked forward and was instantly restrained. Leaning toward Paul, I told him, “You talk to me again, you talk to my girlfriend again, and it will be the last fucking thing you do. Got it?”

He rolled his eyes, but his face was completely white. “Whatever, I don’t need this shit.” He started walking away, and it was really hard to let him go. I glared at him the entire time he left my sight. Nobody followed him, not even his own bandmates. Once he was gone, the arms holding me tight relaxed.

The tension started dissipating, and band members started going about their own business again. Eventually, I was alone with just my band members. And Justin. Evan was eying me with concern, Matt was studying me, like he was making sure I wasn’t hurt in any way. Justin was smiling, like he was glad someone had finally hit Paul. And Griffin…was laughing.

“Damn, man…you should have taken me up on the bedroom, dude. You wouldn’t be all tense and shit if you’d had a few good orgasms last night. Like me.” He smirked as he raised his chin.

I stared at him for a solid five seconds…and then I started laughing. “Fuck you,” I told him.

Grinning, he crouched down with his hands curled into fists. He started mock fighting with me, lightly punching my shoulder as he bobbed and weaved. “Come on, Kell, let’s go. I think I can take you now.”

Matt smacked his shoulder. “Dude, he would kill you.”

Griffin looked offended. “Why do you always doubt my fighting skills? I am the shit.”

Matt shook his head. “Because you can’t actually learn to fight from a video game.”

He pursed his lips. “Dude…I learned from kung fu movies, not video games. I’m not a complete dumbass.”

Matt slung his arm over his shoulders and started pulling him away. “That is so debatable, cuz.”

Justin and Evan eyed me after they left. Then Justin raised an eyebrow. “You gonna go after Paul again, or are you done?”

I sighed, letting the anger release from me as I did. “I’m done…sorry about that.”