“What happened?”

“He was being rough with Kaitlyn and I intervened. It’s fine, I’m fine.”

His eyes narrow. “You swear to me he didn’t do anything else to you?”

“I swear. It’s fine, Aiden.”

Suddenly, he puts the car in gear and roughly pulls back onto the road. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. No one hurts my girl and walks away without paying for it.”

He’s not doing the speed limit this time. Not even trying.

“Aiden! Stop!”

He says nothing as his knuckles turn white from gripping the steering wheel, only relaxing his grip when he needs to shift gears.

“Aiden we’re almost in a school zone and you’re in fifth gear! Slow down!” I’m not scared of Aiden, but I am scared for Aiden. What is he planning on doing?

He doesn’t say anything and the determined look on his face doesn’t falter, but he does slow down to the speed limit. Unfortunately, he still makes a scene with his loud car as he screeches into the parking lot haphazardly and turns the engine off. He gets out, his back rigid and his muscles taut as he scans the parking lot.

“Aiden, seriously, listen to me. You need to calm down.”

I’ve caught up to him now by the driver’s side of the car, but it’s too late. He’s already zeroed on the target. Ryan’s just pulled into the parking lot some distance away to drop off Kaitlyn. Noah, Mason, and Annalisa come up to us.

Noah looks between me and Aiden. “Hey, what’s with the I’ll slit your throat for breathing in my direction look on his face?”

Aiden ignores him, ignores all of us, and steps around me, calmly walking toward Ryan. But I know better. This will be anything but calm. I run in front of him and put my hands on his chest, trying to stop him.

“Aiden, stop. We’re in a school parking lot. You’ll get expelled.”

His calculating eyes meet mine, the thinly veiled fury in them meeting me with full force. He glances at my hands on his chest, at my bruised wrist since my sleeve rolled down again.

Shit. Stupid mistake.

A muscle in his jaw ticks. He puts his hands on my hips and gently moves me out of the way, then continues walking toward Ryan.

I run around him again, shoving my sleeve down this time and stopping in front of him.

“Stop! Please. We all know you can beat him up without breaking a sweat. He knows what you can do. But I don’t want you to do that for me. I’m begging you. Just leave it.”

Something I say must reach him, but the anger is still there. “I can’t just let him get away with doing that to you.”

“We won’t. But this won’t solve anything. You’ll get expelled, and then what? He still wins.” I lower my voice. “We don’t know how much time I’ll have left with you. I don’t want to waste it on Ryan. Or us not being able to be together in school.”