Queen of the track

XIV

Chapter 14.

Raven

"Fucking psycho." Jonah says, or rather, tries to say. It mainly comes out as an incoherent mumble as his mouth struggles to form the right letters. I grimace as Alex pulls the blood stained towel away from his mouth.

"He needs a hospital." She shakes her head. "I think he broke a tooth."

Jonah groans, either in pain or at the thought of a broken tooth, maybe even both.

"You should've let me pummel him." Connor says lowly to me.

"So you could've ended up looking like Jonah, too?" I tell him. "No way."

"I can handle that asshole!" He shakes his head at me and turns away.

I think back to this morning in the gym, watching as Gray worked on the heavy weight bag and how now, he had managed to knock a tooth out of a guy with just one well-aimed punch. Connor would not have been able to take him, Gray has more strength than meets the eye.

"I'll get AJ." I start to rub my temples, my head starting to hurt as I sober up due to the stress of the night and the loud music. "He's the only one sober enough to drive. You cut the party, everyone needs to go."

Connor nods and heads to the DJ whilst I head for the stairs that lead up to the second floor, knowing AJ would be wherever he can have some privacy.

As I suspected, I find him out on the balcony of Jonah's room, over looking the pool below. A few people are lingering around in the garden, but once the music is cut, they curiously head inside.

"You okay?" I ask cautiously.

"What's going on?" AJ frowns when I stand next to him.

"Gray hit Jonah." I explain, knowing he won't want to talk about Ryan yet, if ever. "The inside of his mouth is bleeding, it could be a tooth."

He cursed and quickly stands up straight, clenching his hands at his sides.

I follow AJ off the balcony and back through the house, going against the flow of teenagers that are leaving.

"Jonah shoved him first." I say above the noise of chatter. "Gray was—"

"You're defending him?" AJ whirls on me with dark eyes and I frown a little.

Was I defending Gray?

"No." I shake my head. "I'm just making sure you get the whole story so that Connor doesn't talk you into going on a manhunt."

AJ turns away and carries on walking until we regroup with the others in the now empty kitchen where we left them. The bright lights have been flipped on, making the mess of discarded cups and bottles around the room visible along with a few specs of blood on the floor by Jonah, where he leans with his back against the bottom of the island. My ears ring in the silence now that the music has stopped, and everyone seems to be talking a little louder than necessary, some words are slurred a bit too.

"Jesus Christ." AJ stops in his tracks, shocked at what he sees. "Taylor did this to you?"

Jonah tries to speak but ends up groaning and clenching his eyes shut in pain.