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sex on the couch. So shocked neither of us could process it. As obvious as it was, it just didn't make sense.
    Doug dropping his briefcase. The roar that came out of him as he charged them and pulled Austin, naked from the waist down, off Mom. The sickening thud of his fists hammering Austin again and again while Mom screamed at him to stop. The blood from Austin's nose and lip spattering the cream sofa and the carpet, the wall behind them. Mom reaching for her clothes and phone.  
    Not thinking, just grabbing Doug's arm, trying to pull him away from Austin before he killed him. Flailing and failing miserably, a mere gnat toying with a raging bull. Wedging myself between them. The searing blow to my head that was meant for Austin. Staggering back into the end table. A lamp crashing to the floor. My ears ringing so loudly I couldn't hear anything but the sound of consciousness fleeing. Someone catching me before I went down.  
    Doug's bloody fist. His prized class ring gleaming through a coating of blood. Something sticky running down my cheek. Touching my face. My fingers coming away bloody. Stunned, confused, barely hanging on. My lip swelling. The taste of blood and violence.
    Logan turned to stare at me, concern and confusion etched on his face, like he couldn't understand what I was so afraid of. Like he thought I should be happy he was defending my honor, playing my white knight.
    Schwartz got his feet beneath him again. With Logan distracted and restrained, however feebly, by me, he slammed Logan with a fist to his left eye. Logan's head whipped back.
    I screamed again, a banshee wail, and wedged myself between them as Schwartz wound up again, bracing myself for the blow that was coming.
    Two dads who were standing nearby grabbed Schwartz and restrained him before he could deliver his next punch. Several servers appeared at Logan's side, ready to hold him back. Logan dropped his punching arm and waved them off as he wrapped his free arm around me. "I'm done."
    They backed off, hovering anxiously nearby like they didn't quite believe him.
    Amber crossed the room, stopping at Logan's side. She put her hand on his shoulder and surveyed the damage. A tiny smile played at the corners of her mouth as she grabbed several pieces of ice from a bucket on the table, wrapped them in a napkin, and held them gently against his eye. "That eye could get nasty." A look of admiration shone in hers.
    President Lawrence, his face an angry red, finally broke through from the back of the crowd to see what the commotion was. Frowning slightly, and obviously trying to maintain his presidential composure, he turned his gaze to Amber in question just as Harlan appeared at the front of the crowd, too.
    "It's nothing." She gave a delicate shrug of her shoulders and laughed. "Too much pregame exuberance. A little horseplay that got out of hand. A boy took a tumble." The way she used the word "boy" was a final insult to Schwartz. She spotted Harlan at the edge of the crowd. "I'm sure Harlan will make this good."
    Even though she was saving Logan's butt, her purring voice sent a shiver down my spine.  
    "Absolutely," Harlan said. He was staring at Logan and me, still held tightly by the arm Logan had wrapped around my waist. His expression was hard to read, but I knew it meant trouble for me. He didn't like the way Logan held me so possessively. He would put a stop to it if he could.
    I felt like I barely knew Logan. I freaked. I had to get out of that room so I could breathe. The way Harlan stared at me. The faces of the crowd. The cool, sexy confidence of Amber. The violence.
    I slid out of Logan's grip, turned, and ran out of the room without stopping to get my coat. I ran through the main body of the field house, threading my way through the crowd. Past the boisterous beer garden filled with laughing people. Past the balloons in school colors. Past the streamers. And the band playing the fight song. Past the booth selling game-day sweatshirts.