“They were. Why?”
“Where are they?” Mano tried to push past them.
“They left before class ended. What’s going on?” Ody asked, concern forming in his voice.
“They slashed my tires.”
“What?” Ody’s eyes widened.
“How do you know it was them?” Steve asked, but Mano only glared. Then Steve remembered. “Oh. Right. I forgot you beat the crap out of them.”
“Steve,” Ody hissed.
“What? No wonder they’re out for revenge,” Steve continued.
“By slashing my tires?” Mano barked. “If they do this to me, they can do it to someone else next.” His eyes flicked toward Ody.
“Why are you looking at Ody?” Chris asked.
“He knows why,” Mano said, then turned and walked off, leaving Ody uneasy.
What if they had messed with his car too?
“Why did he look at you like that?” Steve asked.
“I don’t know,” Ody lied.
Mano returned to the parking lot and crouched beside his bike, inspecting the damage. Two deep cuts ran across each tire.
“Mano,” a familiar voice called behind him. “Do you want a ride?”
He looked up at Ody approaching. “Did you check your tires first?”
“...No.”
“Go. And check your lights and brakes too.”
“They wouldn’t do something that extreme.”
“How naive are you?” Mano said, continuing his inspection.
Ody’s suspicion grew. He jogged back to his car and checked it thoroughly. A few minutes later he returned. “Everything is fine. I checked.”
“Fuck’s sake,” Mano muttered, kicking his damaged front tire before standing.
“You coming?” Ody asked.
Mano hesitated, then followed him to the car. They buckled their seat belts in silence.
Ody started the car and pulled onto the road. “Are you going to call roadside assistance?”
Mano sighed and stared out the window.
“I want to ask you for something,” Ody continued cautiously. Mano finally turned his head to look at him. “I don’t want you to keep this going. If you do something to them, they’ll retaliate again. It’ll never stop.”
“Ody, this is none of your business, alright?” Mano said. “This whole thing started because of you, and now they’ve targeted me.”
“Well, you’re the one who fought them.”
