Group Meeting #2

Despite the lack of success the other night, everyone managed to agree to a second meeting to debrief and work out what to do from here.

Mark, Tiffany, Daniel and Winter were all there on time before Jackson slumped in quietly five minutes later. Once Jess and Ali rushed in late, they were only waiting for Miranda.

“Uhh yeah I don’t think Miranda will be coming tonight,” her roommate Ali said, “She wasn’t there when I left and after all that happened on Saturday… yeah… I don’t know.”

Everyone in the room were aware of what happened with Jackson and Miranda on Saturday night so naturally all eyes turned on to Mark’s cousin who sat slumped in his chair with his arms crossed.

“She told me she would be here but I guess we can start and just fill her in later if she doesn’t show.”

Everyone agreed or at the very least, didn’t disagree. Tiffany began the meeting by letting every person in the room explain what they had either found out on the weekend or how the two girls involved were coping.

When it came to Mark, he sighed before speaking, “Look, I didn’t achieve much in the end because somebody here had other priorities…”

Jackson was already shaking his head but staying quiet, knowing there wasn’t a single person in the room who agreed with him.

“What I do think I know is that Leo Lennox and Justin Martin may know all his secrets, they seemed to be around him most of the night and they’ve always seemed close, coming to think of it.”

“Anyone know much about those two?” Winter spoke up, looking around the room.

Nobody said much, they were two people that were quite reserved despite having some really negative personal qualities.

As they spoke, the door opened again and Miranda finally appeared. However, she wasn’t alone, the blonde was followed in by a random freshman boy with long blonde hair himself.

She sat down at the table and the guy pulled up a seat next to her. Everyone was dead silent, not knowing who he was and why he was here.

“Evening everyone,” she said calmly as if everything was normal.

All eyes were on the blonde and her ‘friend’ beside her.

Tiffany leaned forward across the table and whispered to the blonde, “Umm Miranda, who is that?”

“This is Ben Howard, a freshman, he’s come here as my guest,” she said, making eye contact with Jackson as she spoke.

“Uhh this isn’t a fucking party,” Daniel spoke up, “You can’t just invite random dudes in here.”

Ben remained unfazed, looking blindly at the table in front of him, not giving a single you know what about what was happening here. He looked a bit of a stoner type, the smell of his dark hoodie may have confirmed that.

“He’s right,” Tiffany added to Daniel’s point, “We shouldn’t be just trusting anyone to walk in here and not tell anyone… you know what would happen if Dixon found out.”

“Yeah about that…” Jess said from the other side of the round table.

All eyes then turned to the brunette who had a cheeky yet guilty look on her face.

They waited for her response, nobody aware of what had happened late on Saturday Night inside the men’s bathroom.

“Well… I won’t get into all the details but I uhh.. I guess I took things into my own hands…” Jess said, trying to use her words carefully.

Once again, she had everyone staring at her, waiting for her to explain properly. She couldn’t be around the bush on this, Jess had to tell them what happened.

“I may have beat him up a little while I was drunk, threatened him, mocked his tiny penis, hurt his fragile ego,” she explained, “All good stuff but uhh yeah he knows we know.”

Nobody said a word until Daniel broke the ice again.

“Oh my god…” Daniel said, his body frozen, “We’re dead… we’re all dead.”

“Oh come on, nothing’s going to happen to us.”

“He has a fucking gun Jess!” Daniel hit the table in front of him.

“Jess is right, he’s awful… but if he knows that we’re watching him, at least he wouldn’t risk doing anything to get himself in more trouble,” Ali suggested, backing up her friend.

This wasn’t something the entire group agreed on, Tiffany, Winter and Mark all appeared to agree with Daniel that the situation of Dixon having this information was dangerous for everyone around this table.

“What are we meant to do now that he knows?” Winter put to the group.

Jackson shrugged, still slumping in his chair, “Dunno… why don’t we just let this dude pick what we do next.”

He was nodding his head in the direction of Ben who looked up for the first time.

“What the fuck even is this?” the guy spoke, “What are you like the fucking avengers or something?”

“That’s what I said…” Jackson muttered under his breath.

Miranda was shaking his head at the brown haired boy, still very heated over what had happened at the Eagle Nest a few nights ago. She winced as she spoke, “Forgot to ask you Jackson, how’s your new skank girlfriend been?”

He shook his head, trying to ignore her snarky tone.

“She looked like a good girl to take home to your mom,” Miranda pestered him with her sarcastic insults.

“Oh give it a test! Me and you were never actually together!” Jackson snapped back at the busty blonde, “I didn’t ask you out, I didn’t commit to anything.”

While Miranda huffed at his comment, conversation about the concern of Dixon kicked off again with Daniel having another crack at Jess, “You know you’ve put us all in danger, what were you thinking?”

“Excuse me,” Jess said in a very annoyed tone, “Don’t get snarky with me just because I’m the only one here brave enough to fight this moron.”

There were now two intense arguments happening at the same time around the table. Miranda and Jackson argued over their so called relationship and the fall out from Saturday Night while the rest of the group argued about what Jess did to Dixon, giving him knowledge.

Mark sunk in his chair, shaking his head at Winter who chuckled quietly at the awkward situation.

It was going to be a long night…