This seems to convince Mason. “There you go,” he says. “You got it?”
Jamie is quiet for a long second before pocketing his own phone.
Then in an instant Jamie grabs Mason’s phone and throws it onto the floor before slamming the heel of his oxford right onto the screen. It makes a crack like a twig breaking. One of the girls screams, and Mason swears loudly.
“What the hell!” he yells, lunging at Jamie, but Jamie dodges him. Then he stamps again on the phone, crushing it even more. Jamie raises his head, and even though I can’t see his expression clearly, I feel his fury.
“You hurt her,” he says quietly, and I know it’s because he’s trying to control his anger. “You humiliated her. And now you’re trying to find her for more.”
Mason lunges at Jamie again and is able to nick him along the jaw, but Jamie uses his moment of triumph to bring his knee up. He slams it hard into Mason’s gut, and Mason drops to the floor, coughing and spluttering.
The girls back off, tripping on themselves, but Jamie isn’t even looking at them. He’s heading toward Adrian, who raises his hands and says, “Dude, I didn’t do anything—”
“Give me your phone,” Jamie cuts him off.
“I’ll delete it!” Adrian takes his phone out and swipes it open. It nearly slips from his hands. “Look, I’ll delete it. I need this phone, man. It’s got a lot of pictures from my… you know. I’ll just delete!”
Jamie snatches it from him and smashes it on the floor as well. The phone is in a million pieces, and I watch with my hand tightly pressed against my mouth. Adrian lets out a yell, but before he can do anything else, Jamie grabs Adrian’s hand, bending his fingers at an awkward angle.
Adrian tries pulling away, but Jamie holds him in place. “I know what you did to her. I know you touched her. You did it because you thought she wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
I hear a finger cracking before Jamie lets him go. Mason is still wheezing but manages to sit up, spitting swear words at Jamie. Jamie ignores him, walking down the steps.
“Jihad!” he calls out loudly. “Are you here?”
The fear still has my lips frozen. I open my mouth and try, but only a scratchy whisper comes out. My throat closes up.
“Jihad!” he calls again. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
I force my legs to move, my arms to push back the heavy curtain, and when he sees me, his expression floods with relief.
“Can you walk?”
I nod, my mouth still wired shut. I won’t give them the satisfaction of knowing how afraid I was. I walk up the stairs with my head high and my eyes on Jamie’s for support. He nods encouragingly at me, and from the corner of my eye, I see the girls cowering against the wall, their mouths dropped open. I don’t even look at where Mason and Adrian are lying on the floor. I won’t subject my eyes to them.
Jamie doesn’t say a word to them, just opens the door so I can walk out before following me.
My cheeks are aflame, and I feel embarrassed at what just happened. Like this is all my fault. We walk in silence, my mind reeling, and only when we’re near the front part of the school by reception and there are students around us do I ask, “How did you know?”
He stops walking and I pause. The anger on his face is gone, like it never existed. “One of the girls from our class—Maria—saw me looking for you and told me where she saw you running.” He looks at me intently. “Did they do anything?”
I shake my head and glance backward. “You know they’re going to raise hell over this. They’ll go to the principal.”
“I don’t care,” he replies.
“Don’t care?” I repeat, and the full realization of what happened descends on me. “Jamie… you…I…I don’t know what trouble we’ll get into. Mason’s dad is a judge. I don’t know about Adrian or the rest of the girls, but this is serious.”
He studies me carefully, his jaw straining. “Would you rather they found you?”
A shudder runs over me. “No.No. That’s not what I—”
He raises a hand, and I instantly flinch, a reaction I never thought I’d have. He pauses.
“I would never touch you,” he says with pain his voice. “I would never betray your trust like that.”
“I know,” I whisper.
His gaze drops to below my eyes, where I can feel the foundation has cracked, streaming in streaks down my cheek; I know slivers of the bruised skin must be appearing. “I don’t care about the consequences. I don’t care what happens. I saw…Damn it, Jihad, Isaw.”
