Page 24 of Bend Him, Break Him

Colton found his way to the GSA meeting, sitting alone for the time being but leaving room for Isaac to join him.

Or so he’d thought. In a matter of minutes, several members grouped up by his part of the table.

Mina sat on his left, Carlos on his right, and a whole slew of people who seemed to take up Colton’s side of the room, leaving the other half of the outstretched tables mostly abandoned.

“Okay,” Mina asked, gesturing with her hands excitedly. “When are we doing another Rocky Horror live show?”

“Not sure when the Amp is putting on another show,” Carlos said. “They used to do it monthly, but now it’s more of a seasonal whenever thing.”

“Well, shit.” Mina made a sour face. “Let’s have our own Rocky Horror.”

“Only if you convince Isaac to be Frank again.”

“Not in a million years,” Mina said with a high-pitched laugh.

Small talk was Colton’s favorite thing, so he leaned in to join the chat.

There was no pressure because it didn’t really matter.

He didn’t have to worry about blundering up details or misquoting information or caring if the other person was engaged.

It was just to pass the time and hopefully have a few laughs while waiting for the meeting to start.

Isaac barged into the GSA meeting with a bloody-faced William in tow. The pair beelined from the door to the front, where Jazz set up the podium so fast that barely anyone had a chance to absorb the sight.

“We need to talk in private,” Isaac said matter-of-factly as he helped William take a seat in a nearby chair.

Colton didn’t know what to make of the sight.

He blinked a few times, half convinced he was seeing things, but the longer he stared, the more it sank in.

Blood gushed down William’s face from his nose, where he kept pressure applied with one hand.

His other hand remained cradled close to his chest, fingers twisted with a faint black and blue discoloration.

Colton winced at that, recalling the time he’d broken his finger during a game.

Longest recovery of his life, each day waiting and wondering if he'd play as well as he had before.

“Again, we need the room,” Isaac said with a sharp tone.

His scowl sent people scampering for the door, but Colton wanted to wait, to understand what was happening. Instead, he stood and joined the wave of GSA members moving to the door.

Everyone obeyed Isaac’s request and cleared out of the meeting room, ushered away by Carlos and Mina, who urgently directed GSA members to the door before closing it behind them.

Not that it did any good. Each meeting room was equipped with large windows allowing a full view inside so long as the blinds remained open, which they had been.

“Bet he messed around with one of those DL jocks again,” someone whispered.

“My money’s on some townie fuckboy douchebag,” another member added.

It didn’t take long for the gossip about William’s taste in men resulting in a violent outburst. The lack of tact from onlookers coupled with his genuine concern for Will twisted Colton’s stomach in knots.

He knew people were crude and unfeeling when idly discussing the misfortune of others, especially since he’d been on the other end quite a lot since entering college.

Still, the timing of these injuries seemed rather suspicious to Colton.

He quietly watched alongside the others, ignoring the rumor mill as so-called friends and allies brought up Will’s history of hookups to explain away the obvious danger he’d put himself in that led to ruining tonight’s GSA meeting.

Jazz immediately went to work, tending to William’s injuries.

She sat him in a chair and carefully examined his face.

Colton recalled her mentioning something in the medical field for her major.

It wasn’t doctor or nurse. Nothing so simple.

She’d used a fancy term, some weird, specialized position, but it must’ve included a basic understanding of handling bloody noses.

That or maybe Jazz just had first-aid training.

Isaac said something, something no one watching from outside could hear, but Colton shivered at the snarled expression on Isaac’s face, almost hearing the hiss of anger in the goth’s voice.

The words must’ve been as venomous as Colton imagined because Jazz immediately stopped what she was doing.

She took a step back, the look on her face skeptical and sickened.

William dropped his head in what Colton could only imagine was shame.

Shame for the immediate disgust that swept across each member’s face.

Still, Jazz clamped her jaw and fought back a desire to speak while she returned to working on William.

Mina eventually came over and shut the blinds.

Not that that stopped anyone from trying to steal tiny glances through the sliver of space between the shades or press their ears to the glass to listen in on the conversation.

A conversation that’d turned into a screaming match between Jazz and no one else.

She fumed, speaking at the top of her lungs.

“How could you?” she’d shouted at least four times. “What kind of person? Why? And you think that’s okay? What if it’d been you? You think that justifies it? It’s sick. This is not the type of behavior we’re here for! This isn’t community!”

Whatever William’s responses were, they didn’t satisfy Jazz. She continued berating him, repeating her questions a dozen times over while likely still tending to his injuries.

Colton wasn’t a paranoid person. He wasn’t the type of guy to connect random dots and create a pattern. Mysteries often eluded him simply because he didn’t care about the so-called intrigue. If there were answers to be had, they’d present themselves eventually, otherwise Colton easily ignored them.

But nothing about this was vague. Even Colton pieced together the bizarre coincidence, and he didn’t like the results his paranoid thoughts came up with.

He told Isaac about William, about how they’d hooked up, about how it might be awkward to attend GSA given that fact.

And suddenly, William showed up to the next meeting with a bloody nose and blackish-blue gnarled fingers.

Isaac had declared it would be fine to attend meetings, that William wouldn’t be a problem.

Had that been a lie? Had this been the result of Isaac securing awkward free club attendance?

Heat spread across Colton’s face and chest. If Isaac brought it up to William, did that mean he mentioned their arrangement?

Surely not. Isaac wanted to keep that a secret more than Colton, right?

Still, he panicked over the paranoid thoughts bubbling in his head like his brain was a stew boiling over with sizzling ideas he couldn’t squash or predict or handle.

It was a bizarre feeling he’d never truly experienced before, drawing the worst-case scenario with each sharp breath he took.

Unable to remain idle much longer, Colton texted Isaac for clarification. No response. Not shocking since it sounded like lots of yelling was going on behind closed doors—and windows. Colton sent another text.

He waited five more minutes before sending a third.

As much as he didn’t want to appear needy, he craved answers far more.

Besides, it was Isaac. He’d be thrilled to see Colton desperate for answers.

Maybe that was all this was. Some ruse meant to spike anxiety into Colton as part of some sick joke by Isaac.

No. Colton shook away the thought. Even that seemed too unlikely a stretch for his delusional fears.

“I’m heading out,” a GSA member said with a languished sigh.

The crowd of members clustered outside the meeting room began to thin over the next ten minutes.

Soon, only half remained, waiting with bated breath and curious eyes.

They wanted answers as much as Colton, but he suspected none of them relied on the answers.

While they wanted to understand the strange events that unraveled before them to satiate their curiosity, Colton craved the answers to quell the paranoid beast swelling inside him.

It was ferocious and unlike anything he’d endured.

He didn’t like worrying for the sake of worrying.

Colton went to send another text but paused when three dancing dots bounced in his chat box.

Isaac was responding. Well, possibly. A blink later, and the dots had vanished.

Then they started up again, only to stop once more.

They started, then stopped, then started, then stopped, and Colton wondered if he was about to get an essay in response to his inquiries.

Seriously. After all that waiting, that dread, Isaac had only sent some cavalier reply not even acknowledging Colton’s concerns.

Valid concerns. They were valid, right? Colton began to wonder if he was working this all up in his head, if he needed to worry.

What he needed to worry about. Who cared if people knew he hooked up with William.

No, that wasn’t the fear. It was more to do with the fact Isaac might’ve tipped his hand about their arrangement in the process.

The idea sent a jolt of excitement through Colton, superseding the fear rooted inside him.

Okay, that part eased the tension building inside Colton, allowing him to take an actual calm breath.

Colton chuckled to himself. The absurdity of that statement… It sent a rush through him. Isaac couldn’t simply wash away every worry ever—especially since he was often the cause of Colton’s confusion—but the mere idea he would make the valiant effort sparked a curiosity in Colton.

There were so many feelings knotting him and Isaac together in this warped connection that he fixated on that until it superseded the worry that gnawed at him. He left the building with more questions than answers but a bit lighter all the same.