#iven

She raised a finger, standing up and raising her head, her chest gratefully settling down. She pointed at her own eye, then the cut on his own. “What happened?”

“Just a cut,” he said, dipping his face back into the water.

“How? I thought Iven only hit you in your cheek.”

“Well, his ring caught me in the eye and just- wait a minute.” He stepped back from the water fountain and wiped his face on his sleeve. “You saw all that?”

Biting her lip, she nodded and pulled out her phone. “Yes, I saw it. I recorded it for proof.”

Matthew’s eyes widened at the phone, then at her. “Who did you tell?” Silence and he stepped closer. “Did you show any of the teachers?”

“Nein, I could not find any. But I,” his intense expression made her pause and she realized he wouldn’t like the rest of the answer, “but I remembered you said you have a sister.”

“No!” Matthew grabbed his head, raking his fingers through the curls and scratching his scalp. “No, please tell me you didn’t send that to Opal. Please tell me you didn’t.”

“She needs to know,” Carter said. “Her own brother is being attack, er, beaten on.”

“You had no right,” Matthew said, pacing in a circle, occasionally coming back to Carter and waving his hands wildly. “This is none of your business! You had no right to get involved and drag my sister into this.”

“Why? This has gone on for a long time, yes?” Carter asked as Matthew started another circle. “Now this can end.”

“This won’t end,” he said, looking at her incredulously. “This isn’t a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. Something like this, once it comes out,” he pounded his fist on one of the lockers, the metal reverberating down the hallway, “this will screw everything up.”

“You cannot keep this a secret.”

“It wasn’t a secret to anyone except Opal,” he said. "Nobody gave a shit, so why would you? I spent years holding this in, for my sisters sake. And now you go and tell her without a second thought? Then all of it was for nothing!"

Carter wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t considered the consequences as he laid them out, simply believing this could move the situation toward a resolution. But the pain and fear of his expression twisted like a knife in her gut and she bowed her head. “I am sorry,” she said. “I did not think this would happen.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Matthew said. “Now because you had to bring this into the light, things will get a lot worse. Thanks a lot.”

Carter clenched her fists. “I am sorry, but there is no need for that. I was only trying to help. Better to do something than let this go on.” She swept her arm at the bruises and blood flecks peppering him.

“I can handle things fine by myself.”

She scoffed. “Yes, I can see that.”

[Artist: CandiCindy] - Shaking his head, Matthew turned and walked off. “Just leave me alone.”

“No, just wait a moment,” she said, but he had already run off, leaving her in the middle of the hallway, angry, upset, and frustrated at how this turned out. She swiftly kicked one of the lockers beside her, her toes now throbbing, and spun around, marching out the way she came. If he wanted to be alone and handle this, then she would let him. No use inserting herself where she wasn’t wanted anyway. She pinched the bridge of her nose under her sunglasses, pretending to ease a headache as she wiped her eyes.

* * *

In the middle of the school courtyard, Iven examined his ring. The emerald in the center of it wiggled loosely after he had clocked Matthew and the gold around the band seemed a little chipped. He slipped it off his finger, examining the inner part for any other damage and absent-mindedly reading the little inscription inside:

We’re so proud. Love, Mom and Dad

He smiled and took in the others in the courtyard. Students whose rides were very late tended to migrate here, as it offered more shady areas from the sun than right next to the parking lot. Iven himself didn’t mind the warm light and leaned back against the steps he sat on, soaking in the rays.

Soft grass crunched nearby under someone’s stomping feet and he heard some muttering from a couple of students. Iven noticed a shadow over him and came back to earth in time to receive a hard slap to his cheek. Falling off the steps, he sat up on his elbows, staring at a livid Opal, her brunette locks flaring and framing her face like dozens of angry snakes.

“Opal, what the h-”

Slap! Again he went down and this time, he scooted backwards from her.

“How dare you,” she said, uttering each word in a dangerous note and the crowd surrounding them took a few steps back. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

Scrambling to his feet and looking around, Iven realized everyone had formed a circle around them. “Opal, what is it? What’s going on?”

“Don’t play dumb!” she said. “My brother! Who the hell do you think you are doing that to him?” She took another swing at him and he dodged, moving close to the crowd’s edge while the surrounding students ooo’ed and cheered Opal.

 There weren’t any holes for him to escape and all eyes were trained specifically on him. This was bad.

“Opal,” he said, keeping his voice calm and level, still backing away and following the circle as she came after him, “can we discuss this somewhere else?”

“Why? Afraid everyone will know how much of a pussy you are? Or do you need your whole emotional support group before you’ll nut up to anyone?”

“Opal, look, I’m sorry,” he said, again jumping out of the way of her hands. “I shouldn’t have done that-”

“You got that right.”

“-and I didn’t mean for it to get out of hand. It was an accident.”

“An accident?!” she shrieked and rushed him, this time catching his ankle with a swift kick. Hopping on one foot, he put some distance between them and the crowd gratefully expanded a little, giving them more room.

“You and your friends ambushing my brother is not an ‘accident’. That’s the furthest thing from an ‘accident’. How long has this been going on?”

Yet Iven no longer paid Opal any attention. His eyes jumped to his hand, where he noticed his ring missing, then scoured the ground near his feet.

“Hello? I’m talking to you,” she continued.

He dropped to his knees, peering through the blades of grass. Around him, some people muttered and speculated if he was groveling for forgiveness, but he barely heard them. All he was wondering was why on Earth his parents had to choose an emerald for the ring, making it so hard to find, and berating himself for even taking it off.

“Are you serious? Are you that interested in the ground?” Opal said, her temper flaring brighter.

“Just hang on a minute, please,” he said, crawling along, digging through dirt and cracks in the sidewalk. “I dropped something. Hang on.”

“Yeah, any respect you had,” Opal said. Still, he focused on his search, coming across bits of food and pen caps, but no ring. Nearby, Opal continued to curse and taunt him, yet he didn’t waiver in the slightest.

At least not until Opal asked, “Is this it? This gaudy ring?”

He looked up and there it was, firmly pinched between her fingers. “Yes!” he said, relieved and standing up. He held out his hand for it. “Thank you.”

“Hm,” she tilted her head, giving him a grimace, “so some shitty jewelry is more important than my brother, who you and your friends beat up. Well then.”

With sudden and surprisingly quickness, she threw the ring onto the steps he had been sitting on. “No!” he yelped as her heel crashed down on the emerald, crunching it underfoot and digging her shoe this way and that.

Pushing her foot away, he picked up the ring and examined it. The emerald was not only loose, but had been chipped away, with bits missing around the edge and center. The band itself bent and had scratches along it. His ring, his parents’ special gift to him, completely ruined. There was no fixing this.

“Hurts to have something important to you damaged, doesn’t it?” Opal asked. He blinked at her, having completely forgotten she was still there. She raised a threatening finger right between his eyes. “You come anywhere near Matthew again and I’ll crush your balls next time.” With that, she marched off to scattered applause.

With the show over, the crowd quickly dispersed and went about their conversations before the commotion, although a few pointed and laughed quietly at Iven’s devastation. He hurried away from the prying eyes to one of the doorways and examined the ring closer.

The scratches were worse than he feared, winding around the inner and outer parts of the band. The meaningful inscription inside was partially effaced, now meaningless. He worked the ring back onto his finger, but it wouldn’t move past his first knuckle. Iven desperately tugged at the band, trying to work it back to its original shape. However, it was no use.