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The two young men, smug and arrogant, walked out.
For a moment, all I could hear was the heavy sound of my own breathing and the deafening pounding of my heart. Humiliated, I looked down to Kat who was on the verge of tears. I silently shook my head, urging her to keep her emotions in check.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” someone from across the room shouted.
Two young women headed out, giving us a wide birth when they passed us by.
“I can’t believe you had the gall to try to slap Axel King,” one of the girls said. “Shit. You must really be from out deep in the sticks.”
“Axel King is the prince of this campus,” the other girl said, looking back at me with disgust. “What nerve.”
Another male student came by. “You’re lucky that Axel and his brother chose spaghetti. It could have been much worse. There was some very hot minestrone on the menu.”
I looked around me, looked at the students seated at the various tables around me. Their eyes said it all. They all looked up to Axel King and respected him. As for that lookalike... his brother, I had to assume that he as Axel’s twin. The resemblance was just too striking.
Clearly, both were in charge here. And, clearly, I’d overstepped the boundaries.
Damn.
Not only did I now have Axel to deal with, but the entire student body now hated me.
“This is just so awful,” Kat muttered. She jumped to her feet and turned to run off, leaving her uneaten plate on the table.
“Kat,” I called out after her. “Wait!”
Chapter 4
I hurried after Kat, but slipped on the spaghetti, losing my footing. By the time I scrambled back to my feet and gained control enough to be able to run, she was already out the door. I ran past the students who continued to jeer and criticize my actions, then pushed through the doors.
She was gone. I looked around and couldn’t find her. Then, in the distance, I spotted her, turning the corner at the other side of the building.
I ran after her, running as hard as I could. Turning the corner, I saw her enter a small, gated enclosure. An oasis of fruits and vegetables were surrounded by a protective wrought iron fence. I slowed down as I approached and calmly entered the campus vegetable garden.
Hearing Kat’s sobs, I looked around and saw her seated on a cement bench amidst large zucchini plants.
“Kat?” I said tentatively as I came up to her.
She simply sobbed louder.
“There’s no excuse for what those guys did to us,” I said, peeling a long strand of spaghetti off her shoulder.
Nodding, she continued to sob.
“We could go to the administrative office to file a formal complaint,” I offered. “I know that they’re big shots around here, but that doesn’t excuse their behavior.”
Kat shook her head and looked up at me. “That would only give them more ammunition to come after you... us. No. Let’s leave it at that. They had their fun. Hopefully, they’ll leave us alone from now on.”
“Kat,” I said. “We can’t just let them bully us like that. We can’t just let them win. We have to stand up to them. We have to stand up for ourselves.”
“I know that you’re probably right,” she said, finally getting control of her sobs. “But I don’t see any way that we can win this. Please. Let’s just drop it.”
I looked at her, wanting to argue. I knew that it was never a good idea to let a bully intimidate those around him. Bullies rarely backed down of their own accord. No. They always came back for more. If they smelled a weakness, they went on the attack.
But I just reached for Kat’s hand and helped her up. “Come on. Let’s go get cleaned up.”
She forced a smile and we walked out of the vegetable garden.
“I guess the one good thing in all this is that we now know that we’ll be working with fresh produce,” I said, hoping to make her smile.
