*****

After the near panic attack I experienced, I decided it was best to go home. Benjamin forced me to visit the nurse though, just to ensure I was alright.

I was fine physically.

I decided to walk home to clear my mind and think about the day's events. What brought on Cockroach, who I'd learnt was called Dustin, to slap my bum?

Was it a mistake dressing how I did?

Did I give any hints that I wanted to be touched like that?

What did I do wrong?

It was driving me insane, but I couldn't help but blame myself. It'd only happened on the day I wore tighter clothes, which was a sign, right?

I sighed as I let myself into the house, feeling drained. I wish I had someone to talk to. There was my mum, but she had enough problems to deal with without me adding my own.

And Amber didn't know the full story, so she was out of the picture... I sighed and went up to my room, quickly putting on my PJ's and deciding to take a nap.

It was a bad habit of mine, trying to sleep away my problems. Because whenever I woke up they were still there, I couldn't get rid of them without directly addressing them.

But I still napped anyway.

When I woke up a couple of hours I felt considerably better. I heard my mum clanging around in the kitchen, probably attempting one of her vegan recipes or something.

I freshened up and went downstairs to greet her. "Ah, sleeping beauty finally arises." She said sarcastically. I sighed.

"Mum, you've been rinsing out that joke for years. It's getting boring." I deadpanned, grinning when she glared at me.

"You've got a cheek!" She exclaimed and I giggled.

"Two, actually." I replied with a smirk. She pointed the knife she was holding at me with a vicious look.

I held my hands up in surrender and she turned around, not seeing me make a face at her back.

"I saw that." Mum said in a sing-song voice. I gasped. What the hell?

"What are you making?" I asked, skipping over to where she was chopping... something edible I hoped.

"Sweet potato and leek casserole, then for pudding we can have chickpea and blueberry brownies." She said with triumph. I sighed again.

"Mum, you've been going through this vegan phase for ages," I stared and she shot me a sharp look. "Not that I don't love it!" I hurriedly finished with an innocent smile. I didn't.

"It's been helping me lose weight, darling. You now I started stress-eating a lot after what happened with Dave." She informed me, and I immediately felt unpleasant shivers go down my spine at his name.

I envied how easily she could speak about him.

"Um, speaking of perverted men..." I started nervously, perching myself on the countertop opposite her. She immediately put her knife down and spun round to face me.

"What happened, love?" Mum asked, taking a step towards me. I twisted my hands in front of me, but stopped when I hurt myself.

"Yesterday at school a guy slapped my bum then John beat him up. Please don't tell Amber her and Joe will freak." I blurted out all at once, with pleading eyes.

She gasped loudly, putting a hand on her chest then delicately moving it to her forehead. "Oh, the horror!" She exclaimed.

Even though she was being dead serious I couldn't help but laugh.

"Mum, have you been watching too much Shakespeare lately?" I teased. She frowned at me in confusion and I gestured at her dramatic pose.

"Oh, I was just trying to react like you would." Mum retorted, with a small smirk on her face. I scoffed.

"Ha! That was a poor performance- oh we've digressed again." I stopped and mum sobered up.

"Chloe, please don't blame yourself for what happened. It was that boys messed up, dirty stinking mind that lead to him putting his hands on a female. Plus, it's not your fault you have a big bum." She reassured me.

"Yeah, it's yours." I sighed. We both looked at each other before we burst out laughing.

"Well, your father loved it." She winked, going back to her chopping and I fake-gagged and she laughed. I ignored the twinge of sadness I felt when she mentioned my dad.

The atmosphere went a bit tense when she mentioned him so I decided it was time to leave before things got emotional.

"Thanks mum." I told her and she gave me a soft smile, her warm brown eyes staring at me with love.

"That's what I'm here for. Now go study before dinners ready." She instructed and I groaned.

An elephant could dance on my head but as long as my hands and eyes were functioning she would still tell me to study!

"I heard that." She sang from the kitchen. I ran upstairs in horror.

*****

The moment I opened my eyes the next morning I decided school would not see me.

I still had the irrational fear of seeing Dustin even though he likely wasn't there, or the same thing repeating itself with another guy.

But most importantly, I had an English assessment I hadn't revised for.

"Chloe? You're going to be late it you don't get up!" My mum called from her room. I mumbled something incoherent in response.

Soon enough, she came into my room fully dressed and ready for work. "What's happening?" She demanded with her hands on her hips.

"I don't feel mentally well enough to go to school today. I'll just spend the day studying." I told her and convincingly as I could.

She sighed, staring at me for a few more second before she nodded. "Alright, there are leftovers I the fridge you can eat for lunch since you skipped dinner last night." She told me, before kissing me goodbye.

I'd somehow faked feeling so un-hungry that my mum let me off with eating couple of spoons of her interesting meal. Never again.

I waited until she was gone before I started doing my victory dance. That was much easier than I expected-

"Aha!" My mum shouted from the doorway and I swear my heart nearly jumped out of my mouth.

"Get ready, you're going to school." She stated firmly and I shook my head in dismay.

"I thought you left!" I exclaimed and she smirked. She was doing that way too often now.

"I came back to see you pull something like this. I'm joking, go back to sleep." And with that she actually left.

I let out a deep breath of relief and decided to start the day. I completed y hygiene routine before checking my phone, and answering my friends who were asking where I was. It was nice to know people cared.

I ended up spending the first half of the day studying for my English assessment and doing other pieces of work. I used the other half to clean the house, and then watch a few episodes of my favourite show.

When I was finished it was past 3 in the afternoon, so I took a nap as a reward for myself.

I woke up to soft strokes on the back of my neck. I kept my eyes closed, trying to figure out what the hell it was.

My mum wouldn't be home yet, and those are definitely fingers so it isn't the wind...

Would a burglar stroke my neck? Maybe.

I concluded it was a weird burglar, meaning I had to attack them now.

I opened my eyes slightly enough to see a tan throat. My fist shot out from under the covers and hit it, hard.

The intruder fell to the ground with a big thud. I scrambled off the bed and ran outside my room, only to bump into Maya.

Wait, Maya?

I looked behind her and saw Brock, Teresa and Elijah watching me with wide eyes.

Elijah broke the silence by shouting. "¡Ay dios mío!" And rushing then over to the intruder.

"Get away! He broke in... along with you guys I suppose." I said, suspiciously. Elijah ignored me and the others went to check on the intruder.

Whatever, their funeral.

I jogged down the stairs, prepared to run before a hand encased my wrist. Brock was looking at me with an amused expression.

"It's not an intruder, you donut, it's just Corey. He was waking you up." He informed me, gently dragging me up the stairs.

"By stroking my neck?" I exclaimed. "Wait, how did you lot even get in here?"

"Your mum called Elijah and asked if we could visit you afterschool to see how you're doing, and told us where the spare key was. She suspected you'd be sleeping around this time and warned us you could be a violent sleeper." Maya informed me.

I felt really stupid.

"You must feel so dumb right now." Teresa cackled. I shot her a dirty look that lacked malice, and rushed over to Cory who was sitting on my bed. He flinched when he saw me and Elijah protectively stood in front of him.

"I'm so sorry Cory!" I apologised, fighting a smile at his scared expression. "But in my defence, you were stroking my neck like a weirdo."

"Because your mum said you were a violent sleeper! But you're violent awake and asleep!" He retorted, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing, and the others joined in.

"Whatever." He grumbled, standing up and dusting himself off. When him and Elijah faced me properly I gasped in shock.

"What happened to your faces?" I basically screamed.

Cory had a purplish bruise on his jaw and Elijah has several small cuts on his face. I spun around to look at Brock and saw that even his dark skin couldn't hide the forming black eye.

"You should see the other guys." Elijah chuckled and I shot him a sharp look.

"Everyone go wait in the living room while freshen up." I demanded, painfully aware of my bed hair and nap breath.

One they'd left, I quickly brushed my teeth and ran a brush through my hair, typing it into a ponytail. I grabbed my phone and went to the kitchen to get snacks for everyone.

"So, what happened?" I asked when I sat on the sofa next to Teresa.

"After John had his turn beating up that piece of trash, we had to have our turn." Elijah stated.

"He wasn't even bruised that badly." Corey scoffed. I laughed.

"We caught the worm after school, but he had a few back up dancers." Brock carried on. "So we beat all of them up and forced him to apologise."

My heart warmed and my face nearly split with the smile on my face.

"We have the video." Elijah told me with a cheeky grin and I gasped.

"Video? Did you guys..."

"Just watch." Teresa hushed me, passing Elijah's phone.

I pressed play and stared at the chaotic scene before me. There were four guys on their knees in a grassy area, various bruises littering their face and blood everywhere.

Elijah walked forward towards Dustin who was in the middle. My heart thumped painfully at the sight of him but I forced myself to relax.

"Apologise, asshole." He demanded. Dustin looked ahead stubbornly.

Elijah turned towards the boys who all laughed loudly. "Oh, we have a brave one here, don't we?" He said, before drawing back his hand and slapping Dustin.

"You want to prey on girls, huh? You and your pendejo friends? After touching Chloe you decided that wasn't enough yeah? You and your friends bothering little freshman?" Elijah shouted in his face. I could see one of the other friends trembling.

Cory stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder to pacify him. "Let's start with the others." He suggested.

Cory stood in front of the one on the far left. "Apologise please." He asked pleasantly. The cameraman snickered.

"I'm sorry." The guy mumbled out of fear. Cory titled his head.

"To who?"

"All of the girls I've touched without permission." He finished. Cory nodded and moved on.

Teresa skipped the video a bit for me until it got to the good bit, according to her. "Benjamin lost it." She laughed, and my eyebrows shot up.

"Benji was there?" I couldn't imagine him doing anything like that.

"Who do you think was videoing?" She replied. I resumed watching the video.

Benjamin was crouched in front of Dustin, who looked worse than he did at the start of the video.

"Apologise directly to the camera, because Chloe will be watching this." He ordered in a hard tone.

Dustin looked like he was about to argue, but the remaining friend next to him nudged him.

"I'm really sorry Chloe." He said vapidly, staring right at the camera. Benjamin moved forward threatingly. "For inappropriately touching you without your permission." He finished.

Benjamin smiled and straightened up. "Good. Now kiss my shoes."

Dustin looked up at him like he was crazy. I let out a laugh at his bewildered expression.

"Did I stutter? Kiss. My. Shoes." Benjamin repeated in a low voice. The camera was shaking because whoever was videoing was laughing.

"Dude-"

"-"

The video cut off and I looked at Teresa, who laughed at shocked my expression. The others finished their conversations and looked at me.

"Did he kiss his shoes?" I asked, still in shock. Cory laughed loudly.

"He licked them clean."

We all laughed for a good minute or so, then after we calmed down Brock looked at me apprehensively.

"What do you think?" He asked, almost shyly. I smiled again and went over to hug him.

"Thank you so much guys! I know it wasn't only for me, but thank you!" I squealed, hugging each of them individually.

"Anything for you, apple of my eye." Cory winked as I hugged him. I rolled my eyes but grinned anyway.

"Someone had to teach those weirdoes a lesson." Elijah shrugged. "We heard they've been terrorizing girls all around school."

"It was for the greater good." Cory said dramatically.

"Lesser of two evils." Maya added, smiling proudly to herself, causing Elijah to look at her with an amused expression.

"Plus, John is the one who told us to do it anyway." Brock yawned. I froze midway sitting down and he looked at me weirdly, but carried on.

"While the teachers were breaking up the fight he told us to find Dustin and finish the job."

"Sounds like he wanted you to kill him." I snickered. No one else laughed.

"He didn't though, right?" I asked for confirmation. Teresa and Maya exchanged uneasy looks.

"Knowing the guy I would say he meant it. He's seriously loco." Elijah decided to answer me. "Especially about you." He added slyly.

I looked at him sharply. "What's that meant to mean?" I demanded, my heart fluttering. Elijah shared a secret grin with the others.

"You girls are quite oblivious aren't you?" Is all he said. I sighed.

Maya looked offended. "I'm not! If a guy liked me I'd know for sure." Elijah suddenly looked sheepish, and this time Teresa and I shared a secret grin.

"Anyway, would you guys like to stay for dinner?" I asked, getting up with a mischievous smile.

"We have plenty of sweet potato and leek casserole with- wait where are you guys going?" I feigned confusion when everyone stood up.

"Er, my Dad said to be home by ten- I mean by four. I'll call you later!" Brock said and dashed out of the door.

"I forgot to... feed my- my room- I mean broom!" Cory stuttered, waved goodbye and left.

I looked in amusement at the others to see what their excuses were.

"I just don't want to eat the vegan food." Elijah said bluntly. I laughed, waving him away and he went to catch up with the others.

I turned to Teresa and Maya. "Guess it's just us girls. And don't worry; I won't force you to eat the food." I reassured them ad Teresa frowned.

"What! I was looking forward to it. The chickpea and blueberry brownies looked great." She pouted.

"By all means, help yourself then!" I told her and she happily went to the kitchen. I turned to Maya who was already looking at me wearily.

"So, you and Elijah..."

***