For a period of time that Jon could not fathom to measure, his entire world was pain. His face was in pain, and his back was swiftly joining that club as he could feel Biff repeatedly kicking him as he lay curled on the floor. And somehow worst of all, his ears brought him pain, as they could hear what all of Jon's classmates were saying. Nobody came to his defense. Nobody was telling Biff to stop. Everyone was in full support of Jon's continued pain and humiliation on the floor.
And loudest of all was the sneering, jubilant voice of Karyn Black: "That's what you get for being such a creep. I told him to do it Jon. I want you to know that. I told Biff to beat the crap out of you because maybe that way you'll finally learn to leave me the fuck alone."
The pain was bad. Hearing Karyn say those words, even though he knew it wasn't really Karyn saying those words, it was ten times worse. And it kept on going on and on and on, until...
"What the fucking fuck, Biff?"
Sarah McMillan. Of all people, Sarah McMillan was going to be Jon's savior.
"Get off of Jon, you shithead."
Jon couldn't see what was happening, but he could hear it. Hear the confusion in Biff's voice, hear the shift in tone among the crowd. And most importantly, he could feel the kicking stop.
"Karyn asked me to beat him up," Biff said defensively.
"Biff," the exasperation was clear in Sarah's voice, "lie better. Karyn is dating Jon. Jon is Karyn's boyfriend. Whatever you thought you heard, you heard wrong, you idiot."
"Yeah," Karyn's voice joined the conversation, albeit with less confidence. "I'm dating Jon, why would I ask you to hurt him?"
Jon breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah must be closer to Karyn now.
"Whatever, we can figure out why my EX-BOYFRIEND is an idiot later," Jon could feel Sarah's hand on his arm, helping him up. "Jon needs to get to the nurse's office. Karyn, do you want to take him?"
As Jon got to his feet, he exchanged a look with Karyn that communicated everything necessary. They both knew that if Karyn tried to take Jon to the nurse's office, it would end in disaster.
"Can you come with us?" Karyn turned to Sarah. If she could keep Sarah between them, she could stay in control.
"Yeah," Sarah huffed. "You know what? I'm not feeling particularly hungry at the moment." Then she shot Biff one parting glare, and led Jon by the arm out of the cafeteria. Karyn followed quickly behind, and silence trailed them the rest of the way out the door.
