True Love Waits

Chapter 1205 Incident On Campus

Having gone out to buy milk tea, Hyatt noticed with some consternation that the rain seemed to be growing heavier by the minute. He decided, then, to go back and ask Erica to make an appointment with Julianna for some other day.

He made it back to campus without incident, except that the rain soaked him, since he had no umbrella. The building was quiet and for the most part seemed deserted-but when Hyatt was just around a corner from where he'd left Erica, he heard her speaking to someone. Her voice was angry, but there was a trace of panic in it as well. "Tell Julianna," she was saying, "that if anything happens to me today, she's dead meat!"

"Shut up!" someone retorted. "Lenora, if she doesn't want to go upstairs, just have the others come down. No one's around, so the ground floor's as good as anywhere else."

There was a girl's voice-Lenora, presumably-speaking into a phone. "You guys can come down now. This bitch won't go upstairs!"

Rain beat against the windows. Dripping and shivering, Hyatt carefully stuck his head around the corner. Not far down the hall, he saw a small group of young men and women. Two of the latter had grabbed Erica by her arms. Squinting, Hyatt realized with a start that he recognized the assailants—he had seen them while out on his errand!

As he stared, five more people, about the same age, emerged from a stairwell nearby.

Erica now had a dozen people surrounding her.

Dread overwhelmed Hyatt's mind; now his shivering had nothing to do with being wet. His limbs felt weak, and his knees wobbled.

'What are they going to do to Erica? What should I do? What should I do?' Panic fogged his brain, and he struggled to get ahold of himself.

Suddenly the group was moving-Erica's captors were shoving and dragging her toward the door to a bathroom, which was between them and Hyatt. As they came closer, he heard them more clearly.

"I heard that you could be quite violent to your schoolmates," taunted one of the men-a boy, really. "Come on, show us what you can do!"

"She doesn't look tough to me," said someone else. "Look at that delicate skin-she must be a really rich, dainty lady. Doesn't look like a bully at all."

Erica stubbornly kept her head high. "Did Julianna tell you to come here?" she demanded.

They didn't deny it. In fact, one of them confirmed it a young man with short, rather stupid-looking spiky hair. "Yeah, but we don't really have anything else to do anyway. We may as well just have some fun with you!"

his cheeks. Every inch of his

think of was

move. With trembling hands, he took out his phone and dialed Gifford's number. He didn't have anyone else

Erica; he'd said Hyatt could call him if

button and held the phone up to his

ringing. Afraid of being heard, Hyatt frantically stepped away from the

he heard Gifford's voice on the line and came to a

so nervous that he could

worried. He said, "Hyatt, what's going on? What happened? Calm down. Take your time and tell

to form a coherent sentence. "They cornered Erica.

was talking about. "All right, where

City, No. Eighteen..." Hyatt choked, then swallowed in an effort to moisten his throat. "No. Eighteen Primary School, the teaching building-Ah!" As he said this, he nervously turned around, and screamed hoarsely. He was face to

his back. Staring in horror, he recognized the figure as one of the boys he had just seen in the

are you? Why are you here?"

in fright, unable to say

neck and dragged him into the hallway,

roughly to the floor in front of his friends and Erica. "This guy was snooping around behind the corner,"

at him, Erica cried, "Hyatt!" before

the assailants. "Hey, keep an eye on him!

snatched Erica's phone

over and stared Hyatt down

itself off because it had gotten wet in his pocket, so

Hyatt wasn't able to call anyone then, they thought they'd

taken care of, the two men kept Hyatt

to the sink. One of them turned on the tap and said, "Lenora, get

girl holding onto her, Erica jerked back and forth and was able to loosen her grip. At the last minute, she clasped Lenora's head and pressed her