Brian's POV

My blood was boiling and I felt as though my throat was constricted as I purposefully walked towards my dorm room. I just couldn't comprehend nor could I decipher what it was exactly that had transpired. Even though I knew she couldn't have been lying I still didn't want it to be true. I still didn't want to believe the fact that, my best friend of many years, could have done the things she said he did. A part of me denied it instantly while the other knew he had violent tendencies. Taking a deep breath, I pushed my way into my room. Tony was sitting by his desk talking to someone on Facebook.

After Carr had told me what happened the night of the party I just couldn't spend the night in the same room as him. We ended up spending the night in her room and now I had one hour before classes started for the morning.

"We need to talk!" Were the first words that left my mouth when he looked up. I waited patiently while he logged off of his profile and turned to face me in his chair.

"Yeah bud, what's up?"

It both annoyed and angered me the way he just acted as though he hadn't a care in the world. I wanted nothing more in this moment and time, than to just punch him so hard he'd never hurt another human being again.

"Did you hurt Carol the night of Dave's party?" I looked at him in hopes that his off guard expression would tell me all the things his mouth didn't have a chance to change.

What I saw shocked me.

His face just changed from happy to see me to straight up vengeful.

"So she told you huh?"

"What the fuck do you mean by 'she told me'?! Of course she told me!"

"Hmm." He rubbed his chin before leaning back in his chair. "I never thought she would."

"How can you be this calm after you assaulted someone?... After you assaulted a girl?" I shouted at him, completely belligerent at his behavior.

He shouted right back. "I assaulted a girl? Me? Dude that bitch isn't a girl, she's a freak of nature, an abomination, a mistake in the creation, but don't you for one minute mistake her for another human being."

I folded my fists besides me as I beheld my once best friend transform into someone even I couldn't recognize. How could he be so blinded by ignorance that he couldn't see the world changing before him? How could he let himself become so one sided that he appointed himself the prosecutor of the damned?

"Dude, I can't believe you just said that." I said softly, unable to say anything else.

"It's the truth and in a place such as this, she'd better choose a side and it better be the right one because you know as much as I how lenient these people could be."

"So that gives you the right to threaten her? To hit her? To make her feel as though she should hide herself from the world just so she could please humanity?"

"She deserved that bro. She wasn't just trying to corrupt herself but she was doing that to my girlfriend also. She was trying to pull Veronica into her devious behavior and I... I just can't stand by and watch her slip away from me. Bri... I'm not as strong as you."

He rubbed his neck as he sat at the edge of his desk. My heart went out to him. I knew what it was like having feelings for someone and then having them hurt you like that. What I didn't get was him lashing out at them just because his heart was broken.

"Tony, that still doesn't give you the right to abuse girls."

"I barely touched her!"

"Dude you strangled her and slammed her head against the wall. How's that barely touching her?"

"It wasn't like that... I just panicked-"

"You just panicked and the first thing you do is lash out... Violently at a girl, who by the way, was innocent in all this."

"She wasn't innocent-"

"That still doesn't give you the right Tony."

We both stared at each other brooding until finally Tony shook his head and brushed past me angrily.

He was angry at me?!

I sank down onto my bed as I heard the door slam.

How had we gotten to this?

-------------

"Okay class, tomorrow we are going to discuss the fundamentals of this experiment. So please don't be late." Miss Barkley stated as the class period ended.

I gathered my belongings just as Brent and Mike came up to me.

"Hey dude, you done with classes for today?" Brent asked as we headed towards the cafeteria.

"Yea, I'm just gonna head back to my room afterwards and figure out the ending of the experiment."

"Really dude?" Mike interjected.

We had arrived at the cafeteria and now we were lining up to get our lunches.

"Yeah, I don't really feel like being the bad ass today."

"Well whatever. Just make sure you're back to being you tonight. We have a 'slumber party' with the girls and your services are required." Mike continued as we all grabbed trays.

I nodded and looked around the lunch room. Some of our friends were already seated and we headed over after collecting our lunches.

"Hey guys, sup?" I said as I took a seat.

I was surprised to see that Tony wasn't here but then again he had skipped all our morning classes. My glance circled the lunch room once again and unsurprisingly, Ron nor Carol was here.

"Hey have you guys seen Ron? Or even Tony?"

"Well I saw Roni in her class this morning but I haven't seen Anthony." Susan said.

Where the hell was Tony?!

I spent the remainder of the time worrying about my best bro and what he was up too. When I was sure that I spent enough time with my friends I made up a stupid excuse and left. I walked the length of the buildings but my search came up empty. All the dorms, the fields, the halls and even the classrooms were empty and just as I was about to give up my search I heard loud screaming coming from the study hall.

I started running as I recognized the voices. To my horror, Tony was literally choking Carol and I stood frozen as I saw the vengeful side of my friend.

It was like the room was spinning and everything was in slow motion and I could hear loud sounds but my ears were bursting from the intense silence. It was as though the scene before me was surreal yet at the same time it was as real as real could be.

I snapped out of my trance when I saw Ron scream for Tony to stop and he shoved her off him as he once more grabbed Carol by the throat.

"What the hell man?" I shouted as I ran over to them and pried his hands off her.

Carr fell back in shock as she gasped for air and clutched her neck. Ron was crying loudly in the corner, too afraid to move and Tony was staring at me as though I just insulted his dead mother. Before I could shout or threaten him he fired away at me.

"How dare you?!" He says before body slamming me onto the nearest desk.

I felt as though all the life was knocked out of me as I felt the hard wood beneath me before I was once again pulled off. When the shock of what was happening left me I quickly started blocking the punches that was being thrown at me. I got the upper hand and before I knew it we were both hitting and slamming each other around the room.

Even though Anthony was stronger than me and had twice the size that didn't faze me. There was no way I would let him get away with hurting women and I was so pumped with rage that I probably could have lifted a car.

My head smacked against the side of a desk and I tasted blood in my mouth before I was once again hitting wildly at my now, former friend. I heard him groan out in pain and saw that the classroom was beginning to fill with cheering students. Some were screaming for us to stop while the other delinquents were screaming for bloody murder.

I vaguely felt my body being picked up and slammed against someone before I heard the voice of the principal and then everything went dark and quiet.