“You alright?” she asked. I nodded, swallowing, but before I could reply something over my shoulder caught her eye. “Fuck,” she muttered, under her breath. “Not this again.”

“What?” I turned around to where she was facing to see Aidan leaning over Connie, his hand grasping at her upper arms. The room may have been loud but Molly and I stood in silence, ears straining to hear them.

“Upstairs,” he said, his words slightly slurred, “to talk.”

“No,” she responded, a little louder. “No.”

“We could go home, then. My parents are out, we’ll go back to mine—”

She huffed. “No, Aidan. Leave me alone, seriously.” Almost involuntarily I began to step outside toward them at the center of the room. They hadn’t yet garnered much attention but I could see one or two others starting to take notice.

“Connie?” I called. His grip on her arm was tight and when he glanced in my direction it seemed to tighten. “Everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine,” he told me, his voice cool.

“I didn’t ask you.”

“It’s none of your concern, Ryan.”

“Connie?” A chill ran down my spine and I took another step forward, the eyes of more and more of our peers on the back of my head. Connie finally looked up at me and I saw the tiredness in her eyes, the exasperation.

He squeezed on her upper arm. “I said, she doesn’t need you to—”

“Let go of her arm.”

“Piss off, dyke.”

Connie’s head snapped back around to the boy holding her in place and she summoned the strength to wrench her arm out of his grasp. “Don’t you dare speak to her like that.”

He laughed abruptly but his laughter was dark, ringing through the room with menace. Somewhere in the distance, a familiar pop song was blaring but it faded to nothing in wake of the terse silence that wrapped around us. “I should have known,” he said, and he laughed again. “I should have known it was her. Hear that, Jim?” He looked over his shoulder at the other boy lingering next to the wall. Jim’s head was bent down but I could see the scarlet tint in his cheeks. “She left you for her, the stupid—”

Whatever resolve I had snapped at that moment. I took a few steps closer toward him and didn’t hesitate before swinging back my arm. There was a loud thud when my fist collided with the side of his nose, far louder than I would have expected. I heard him yelp as his head was thrown back, his feet staggering in shock. I ignored the vibrant throbbing in my knuckles as he raised a hand to clamp his jaw but when he lifted his head a drop of blood splattered from his nose to the floor.

For a short moment, there was silence. All I could focus on was my own shallow breathing and the pain coursing from my own hand before Jack raised his eyes to meet mine.