Letting You Go (Stone Lake 1)

“Well look what we have here,” Larry Richards says from behind my back. I look around and the asshole is standing with the rest of his jock friends. There are four of them in total and there’s not a one of these idiots that I like. I think they’re all a waste of air.

“Shit,” Luna mutters under her breath, immediately buttoning up her shirt. I had the first three buttons undone. I turn to face them, blocking her from view, but I know that they’ve already seen the crisp white material of her bra.

“I’d watch what you say from here out,” I warn him.

I don’t want to get in another fight with him, but I’m not about to walk away from another one either. They just suspended me for two days last time. Another fight will mean a longer suspension and also mean my father will have to come in. Since he’s always drunk that won’t go well either.

“I’m not going to say anything.” He moves his shoulders up. “Don’t think I need to. My boys here see the same thing I do.”

“What exactly is it you think they see?”

“Whatever, man,” Larry says with a slick smile that has me curling my hand into a fist. I want to knock it off of his face so much that it hurts.

“If I hear any of you fuckwads are saying one thing about Luna in this school I’ll end you,” I warn them.

“Gavin, let it go,” Luna says quietly, putting her hand on my chest. “They aren’t worth it.”

“Yeah, Lodge, listen to your whore and run away.”

“What did you say?” I growl, my body tense.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re not going to tell anyone. Hell, the whole school is already talking about it anyway.”

“They are not,” Luna argues.

“But they are,” he says. “They can’t understand why you want to keep whoring yourself out to such a loser after all of the shit he said about you. What was it, Gavin? Oh yeah, I remember now. She was dying for it. Begged you to let her suck—”

I don’t let the bastard finish. I launch myself at him, slamming him against the concrete floor and connect my fist with his fucking mouth.

I’ll kill him this time.

Chapter Thirty

Luna

I scream as Gavin slams on the ground, Larry under him. He grabs Larry’s collar and holds him in place like that, as his fist connects with the jerk’s face. Larry is pushing on him, trying to kick him—hoping to get free. Gavin doesn’t give him an opening. At least until two of Larry’s friends, drag Gavin off him.

I thought that was good until I see they’re holding him for Larry to hit. Gavin jerks away and then, all of Larry’s friends are holding him down. Larry’s face is bloody and it’s clear his nose is busted. I look around for something to help. There’s not much, but there’s an umbrella that someone must have left there during morning assembly. I grab it and before I even think about it, I take the umbrella and use it as a baseball bat, pretending his head is a baseball. I connect and it sends Larry backwards, but not enough to make him fall. He turns to look at me like he can’t believe I just did that. I draw back to do it again, but Larry catches it this time and he pulls it out of my hands.

“Leave him alone. It’s not a fair fight with you having the goon squad hold him down!” I yell. I’m so angry that I want to cry—which is what I usually do when I get mad, and I hate that about myself.

Hate it.

“He deserves everything he’s got coming to him and more,” Larry says, advancing on me. Then he grabs my hair and pushes me, so I fall backwards. “Now be a good girl and stay out of it. I’ll give your boyfriend back when I’m done. I doubt he’ll be able to move much, but his dick will probably still work, since that seems to be all you want anyway,” Larry spews as my legs connect with the bleacher and I fall. I can feel metal cut into my leg, and I cry from the pain of that more than the fall.

I hear Gavin scream, and I look up in time to see him tearing away from the guys that have him pinned. He has Larry by the arm, and he twists it. Larry screams out in pain, and I can tell from the awkward angle that it’s broken. Gavin kicks him, sending him careening back into the other guys. Larry is holding his arm, screaming at Gavin about how he ruined his season, that the tournament is coming up. He’s not wrong, I guess. Larry plays basketball and football. The basketball championship is coming up and the team relies heavily on his talent. I guess they’ll have to find someone else.