Nikolai

"Jennie was in her bedroom, I assume." I frowned. Confused. "Who's Nikolai?"
He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I've got to go now," he said glancing at the forest again. "I'll be in contact soon."
"Wait, what's going on here?" But he was already running to the black SUV with dimmed windows. I sat down with Zoe and her friends and glanced at the forest edge again and sure enough two men and a woman stepped out and looked around the lawn.
"What was that about?" Harry asked with concern. "A strange guy that was."
"I don't know, actually." I answered honestly. "I'm so... I... Excuse me."
I got up and hefted my backpack on one shoulder. "See you guys later."
I couldn't walk fast enough and didn't even turn around when someone called out to me; I'd forgotten my jacket.
After checking my schedule, I made my way to History, and quickly grabbed a seat at the back by the corner. The rest of the class filled in slowly.
A slightest overweight woman who sometimes wore glasses walked in. The student body knew her as Wrinkle Nose, but her colleagues called Mrs. Nelson. She took out her big textbook and plugged in the projector.
I released the breath I'd been holding. And took out my notebook.
The room grew quiet and I snapped to attention when the teacher repeated my name. “Ms. Lynn?”
“Um...Me? I mean, yes Professor Nelson,” I said quickly.
I squirmed as she studied me over the rim of her glasses.
"How far along are you with the assignment?"
"I'm done, ma'am."
"Good," the graying woman said. "I want more students like Ms. Lynn."
The rest of the class groaned it's protest.
"Amy Roberts?"
"What assignment?" Amy asked.
When Mrs. Nelson released us I had five more classes to attend before going home and I groaned my distaste. I barely listened as Melissa told me about the date she had this coming weekend with Chad.
"I think he's going to propose," Melissa was saying excitedly, unaware of the thoughts looming in my head. "I think he's ready to take our relationship further."
"Oh wow," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. "How long have you guys been dating?"
"We are childhood sweethearts," she answered without a thought. "It's been six years now."
I cleared my throat and looked at the floor, hesitating.
"You want to say something," she guessed.
"Ask," I corrected. "But I don't want to offend you."
"Sweety, if I can handle Zoe and her insults on a daily basis then I can handle you."
I darted my gaze to the wall. "Okay."
"So?"
"Did you ask Chad out?" I asked, refusing to meet her eyes. I figured Melissa had terrified the poor boy into dating her. "I mean Chad is shy and reserved, and I can't imagine him coming up to you and asking you out on a date," I added quickly.
"Oh." Melissa laughed. "No, actually, we were enemies, and he thought it might be cool to place a bet with his friends that he could make me fall in love with him but as it turns out... he fell for me."
"Oh. That's sweet," I mumbled and I hated how dead my voice sounded.
"I know."
"So when's the date?"
"This saturday."
"What's different about this date?"
She stopped walking to look down at my face. "Huh?"
"I mean what makes you think he's going to propose?"
"Well, for one, it's an expensive restaurant." She resumed her pace. "Second, he's been rather annoyingly secretive lately and I heard from Zoe that he asked her to take my ring measurements."
"Why would Zoe tell you that?" I let disapproval color my tone. "It's suppose to be a surprise."
Melissa laughed. "I don't mind." she tugged her arm with mine and leaned in to whisper, "Did you know that Zoe is creeping around with Josh?"
"What?" I was surprised. "Harry is a great guy. Why would she?"
"Says Harry is no good between the sheets."
"Oh God."
We walked into the cafeteria to join the rest of the group. I sat down and Melissa excused herself, she asked Kyle to accompany her to the bathroom.
"Hey Chad," I said a little hesitant. "Can I use your phone?"
"Sure." He unlocked it and handed it to me.
I opened the message folder and typed;
Melissa knows you're going to propose Saturday. Think of something else.
I handed him back his phone by placing it on his lap under the table. He startled and frowned up at me. I rolled my eyes to his lap. Harry eyed us suspiciously.
Chad read the message and frowned but nodded in my direction and then mouthed a thank you.
"Are you going to get something to eat, Nuru?" Kyle asked as he dropped to his chair, Melissa was held up a few feet away talking to a girl I didn't recognize.
I was famished. "Sure."
"Let's rush." he got to his feet. "Don't want to miss macaroni and cheese."
"You look amazing," I said as we walked hand in hand to the growing line.
"Thank you."
The gay — sleeping with the whole school — quite attractive Kyle was standing with his back turned to the line, looking at me as he made small talk. He accidentally bumped into the muscular guy standing behind him.
He turned around. "I'm sorry, Josh," Kyle said quickly. His voice a little panicked.
"You stupid faggot."
Kyle stared at the floor.
"Know what I do to cocksuckers like yourself?" Josh ranted.
The cafeteria turned its eyes and attention to them. A sea of faces, some masked in anticipation, others in shock but most terrifying of all was the murderous, furious mask Josh wore.
My head spun sickeningly.
Five of Josh's friends headed to our direction, the tattoos barely hidden under their expensive clothing hinted at the kind of work they did after school hours, as if that wasn't enough to terrify us, there were horrible fresh scares on their muscular arms. The kind you'd only get from being an illegal street fighter.
I knew what would happen now. The horrifying scene of a fight. And there was going to be blood. My stomach rolled in discomfort.
"Hey, there Josh." His friends got up closer. "He hitting on you?"
"Stupid fuck shit was groping my ass," Josh said angrily.
Kyle trembled. "No, I wasn't." His voice was no louder than a whisper and it sounded as horrified as he looked.
It was fundamental really, not only did the situation demand I rely on my survival instinct but I also had to do a bit of math — my least favorite subject — I could run or... fight, the only way I knew how, get a good grip on his balls and then squeeze the life out of them, twist to the left for ten seconds and then twist to the right for a good twenty seconds but what about the other men? Surely they wouldn't just stand by and watch.
If I squeezed Josh's balls first, I'd have had only ten seconds before the other boys came to his rescue. The odds were horrifyingly against me. One look at Kyle and I knew he wouldn't be of much help. They were seniors.
Josh was cursing loudly at Kyle, every curse word I knew and new names I'd never heard of before. The cafeteria was laughing along with Josh and his friends, watching with eager eyes to see what would happen next.
I gripped Kyle's trembling hand, his sweat dewing into me, and walked backward swiftly, trying not to draw attention to my feet.
My plan to back away unnoticed, at least for twenty seconds, and run out of the cafeteria would have worked had kyle not been an unresponsive statue.
"You want to be fucked, huh, fag boy?" one of them said curtly, the way he arranged his features when he looked at Kyle told me he was a heterosexual. He took another step and closed the distance between us. He had short blond hair and the cruellest black eyes I had ever seen — he made Anton seem like a dog instead of a wolf. He wore Nike sneakers, dark jeans and a t-shirt that said, want to dance babe?
Three of them stood a pace away from Kyle. They were urging the blond on. Crossing their arms over their chests, in a successful attempt to scare us.
"N...no," Kyle whispered in a broken voice. His eyes never left the floor.
"He's such a pussy," Josh said. "You see that, Wyatt?"
Wyatt was the blond with black eyes. "What does this stupid fuck know about pussy?" He high-fived Josh and turned to Kyle, "Ever had pussy?"
Kyle looked up, his body convulsed with terror and instinctively I stood in front of him.
"Proud to have some chick fight your battles? That what you think about when you take it big up the ass?" the laughter roared across the cafeteria.
"You can see the kid is scared," another one spoke. He was soft-spoken with gentle gray eyes. He looked like the friendly type. "Let the kid be, I'm sure it was a mistake."
"You have a thing for him, Mason?" Wyatt asked.
Mason clenched his jaw and spared Kyle an apologetic look before walking out of the door.
"Mason, man, wait." another one called after him, he had a foreign accent. I guessed he was from West Africa.
I ran, my grip still on Kyle's wrist. He looked confused for a second and then followed in shocked silence.
I stopped to grab my backpack and ran behind Kyle as he rounded a corner heading towards the emergency exit.
The four men were following behind us in heavy foot steps. Outside, I shivered and suddenly realized that I didn't even know where my jacket was.