Chapter 54 Fighting For You

Chapter 54 Fighting For You
ASHLEIGH
WEEKS LATER.

Nora and I are walking across the quad toward the cafeteria when she starts gushing again about cheer tryouts.
"I swear, if I make the squad, I'm getting one of those cute little bows. You know the sparkly ones? I'll look so good…"
I stop listening the second I spot Maya.
She's standing outside the student union with her usual pack of friends, laughing at something on someone's phone, all glossy hair and perfect poses.

The sight of her infuriates me.
She gets to keep living like this, laughing, carefree, untouched, while I've spent two weeks sleeping in a separate room in Zayn's apartment because of that meddlesome bitch's lies.
Nora notices I've stopped walking and turns back to look at me.
"Ash? You okay?" she asks softly.
Instead of answering, I start in Maya's direction.

Maya sees me coming, and her smile widens instead of dropping.
"Ashleigh," she calls out sweetly. "How's your brother? Still recovering?"
I stop in front of her. "Oh, please, Maya. Spare me the fake sympathy. You know why I'm here," I say.

Maya cocks her head, making an innocent face. "Do I?"
"Hey, what's going on?" One of her friends—blonde and bored-looking—glances between us.
Maya waves her off. "Nothing. Ashleigh and I just have history."
I step closer. "I wanna know why you lied." I snap.
She shrugs. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Bullshit." My voice comes out steady, which surprises me. Inside, my heart is slamming against my ribcage. "You sent me those pictures while I was in Australia, suggesting you slept with Zayn. Why lie like that?"

Maya rolls her eyes. "Uh, whatever. That was like how many years ago?" She turns to laugh with her friends. "It was a joke. You need to learn to take one."
"A joke?" I laugh, and it sounds nothing like me. "You're such a manipulative bitch, Maya."
She crosses her arms, tilting her head. "Why do you care if I slept with your brother? What's it to you, huh?"
I pause for a moment; everyone's looking at me, including Nora.
"Cause he shouldn't be with someone like you!" I yell, and then, suddenly, my palm swings, slamming against her cheek so hard that the sound echoes.

Everyone gasps—those around and those passing by.
Maya's head snaps to the side, her hand flying to her face as she gasps in disbelief. For one beautiful second, she stares at me, her mouth hanging open in shock.
Then she laughs.
"You fucking bitch. You'll pay for that."
I raise my hand again, but Maya is ready this time, ducking under my arm and coming up with a fist that knocks me square in the jaw.
My teeth sink into flesh, and I taste blood.

"Ash!" Nora's screaming somewhere behind me. Someone else is yelling, and phones are suddenly out.
This is college, everyone's a content creator now.
But I don't care.
I've had enough of this stupid babe.
I lurch forward, tackling her to the ground.
My knee pins her thigh. My hands find her hair—that stupid, perfect red hair, tinted or not—and I yank.
She shrieks in pain, reaching out to scratch my face. Her nails rake my cheek, my neck. I feel my skin split, but I don't stop.
"Get off me, you psycho!" She slaps my cheek hard. "You're crazy," she spits. "You know that?"

Before I know it, we're rolling on the concrete till she's now straddling me.
"Fighting me over your fucking brother. What's wrong with you?"
She slaps me again before grabbing my head and hitting it against the concrete.
I moan in pain, my vision blurring for a moment.
"Leave Zayn alone," I warn. "You don't deserve him."
"And who does, you?"
I glare at her, catching my breath before letting out a primal scream and sending a headbutt to her nose.
Caught off guard, Maya falls back, and I use the opportunity to straddle her again.

I lift a hand to deliver another punch when hands grab me from behind.
"Ashleigh. Stop."
It's Zayn.
I know his voice even through the roar of rage in my ears. I know his grip.
He pulls me off Maya, his arms wrapping around my waist, dragging me backwards while she scrambles away on her elbows.
"Get off," I thrash against him. "Let me go, she…"
"I said stop."

His voice is low and calm.
It's a kind of calmness that's scarier than yelling.
I stop fighting immediately.
He sets me on my feet but doesn't let go, taking in the state of me, but his hands are still on my arms, holding me back.
Maya's friends are helping her up. Her lip is bleeding. Her hair is a mess.
So are mine.
Must be why she's staring at me with satisfaction and hatred.
"You're seriously fucked up," she spits, wiping her mouth. "You're both insane."

I attempt to lunge again, but Zayn's grip around my arm tightens.
"Enough." He hisses through his teeth.
The crowd is still watching, phones are still recording. And Maya, the cunning bitch she is, is already playing to them, letting them see her wipe blood from her split lip.
I'm still bleeding too. My jaw fucking throbs, and my cheek stings where she scratched me.
The back of my head, which she slammed into the concrete, also aches like a bitch, but at least it's not bleeding.

"We're leaving," Zayn says, pulling me away from the crowd.
Some random guy tries to shove a camera in my face, and all it takes is a deadly glare from Zayn for him to have a rethink.
The rest of the crowd parts for us as we leave.
We walk past Nora, who's standing frozen with her hands over her mouth.
"My God, A-Ash… are you okay?"
"I'll call you later," I mutter, avoiding her eyes.

When we're in his car, he turns to me. "What the hell was that?"
"What did it look like?" I snap, then wince from the pain.
Zayn's jaw ticks as his eyes move over my face—the scratches on my cheek, the blood at the corner of my mouth.
He doesn't like how hurt I am. I can see it in the way his hands grip the steering wheel, in the muscle jumping in his temple.
"You're lucky a lecturer or campus security didn't get to you before I did," he says quietly. "You'd be in real trouble. You're already retaking an entire semester, Ashleigh. You want more drawbacks? Suspension? Expulsion?"

"I couldn't just do nothing!" I yell, and immediately regret it when pain slices through my jaw. "Look at what she did to us."
Zayn is quiet for a moment. When he speaks, his voice is calmer than I expected.
"She did nothing to us."
I stare at him.
"You did."
The words are a slap in the face, worse than Maya's fist.
He's right. Maya sent the pictures. But I was the one who believed them without question. I was the one who blocked him and spent months hurting him back instead of talking to him.

I look away quickly, staring out the window at nothing.
Zayn lets out a long, slow breath.
"Look," he says, and there's something different in his voice now. Something almost amused. "I'm flattered you went to fight for me. Or over me. Whatever that was."
I turn back to him, confused.
"But you got your ass beat." The corner of his mouth twitches. "And now the whole university has probably seen it."