55 – Inevitable Consequences

Dave smiled down at her. "We will get through this together," he said.

He gently brushed her hair behind her ear and rubbed the tears from her eyes. "I won't let him hurt you anymore. Just watch tomorrow," he continued.

She nodded meekly, but a small smile had returned. 'Ok. If you say so, I'll believe you," she said with some determination.

For once their night wasn't spent in pleasure as he used to it to cuddle with her and comfort her instead as they just wasted a few hours watching TV to distract her from her worries.

By the next morning she seemed to have gotten over the worst of her worries as she went into the new day with a renewed vigour. They enjoyed morning where they could spend it together without worries. Dave felt they had grown even closer after their date that weekend and the conversation they had the night before. It was as if their relationship had been raised to a new level.

After he finished his breakfast he looked at Jackie with a serious expression. "After you finish what you need to get done this morning leave the house and spend the rest of the day enjoying yourself. Don't come back until after I get home. Text me if anything comes up," he told her.

Due to his nerves the day seemed to be moving slower than usual as he kept worrying about his father's return and Jackie. Although he had reassured her and he knew eventually there was nothing his father could do since he had stolen his ability that still didn't guarantee things would go well after he accidentally sent him back to the hospital just a few days before.

It wasn't until lunch that something managed to get his mind off things.

He was grabbing lunch at the cafeteria with Kate when Brad came walking into the cafeteria looking around. The moment he saw the two of them he stormed up to them turning red in the face.

He stared at Kate. "It's true isn't it?!" he yelled.

There was an awkward silence as he kept looking at Kate. It was clear despite his suspicions part of him was still hoping she would deny it so he could continue to live in his delusions rather than face the reality that his girlfriend was effectively not his girlfriend anymore. That she hadn't been for quite some time already.

Kate's head dropped not wanting to look him in the eyes as she felt a little shame for her actions.

Despite the lack of an outright denial her silence spoke volume and Dave could see what little hope was in Brad's eyes dim replaced by tears in the corner of them instead.

His eyes darted to Dave and back to Kate. "S-say something!" he said, but it was clear his heart wasn't in it anymore.

Kate couldn't even look at him turning to look at Dave instead as a form of escape. Her eyes were red and she seemed like she was about to cry just as much as Brad did.

Dave who had been watching the developments sighed and wrapped his arm around Kate's waist pulling her towards him. She didn't resist at all instead wrapping her arms around him and pressing herself into his side excitedly while resting her head against his chest. "How much longer are you going to delude yourself?" he asked exasperatedly.

Brad's gaze turned hard. "No! Get the fuck away from her!" he said threateningly reaching out towards Kate. Unfortunately with his diminutive physique it wasn't near as threatening as he would hope it to be.

Dave who had actually felt a shred of sympathy for Brad up to that point killed it. He let go of Kate and stepped in front of her blocking Brad. He was already half a foot taller than Brad even before, but now that his physique had improved he utterly dwarfed the twig of a guy that had spent his entire life focusing on school.

"And what if I don't?" he said glaring down at him threateningly.

Now that Dave had gotten closer to him and towering over him forcing him to look up it him, it became clear the mess he was getting himself into. Finally he snapped out of anger and brought some sanity back. Brad gulped his eyes darting between Kate and Dave. He liked Kate. He really liked Kate. However the question was did he like Kate enough to get beaten up? He didn't even question whether it would end up with him beaten up. Once he had regained some sanity he had already realised that would be the only outcome if he pushed it further.

He tried gazing at Kate pleading for her to say something. For her to take his side. However he noticed she still only had eyes for Dave. Her gaze firmly locked onto Dave's back as he shielded her from her boyfriend. As horrible as she felt about what she had done, a small part of her felt pleasure watching Dave stand up and unabashedly claim her as his and be willing to get into a fight for it to remain that way.

This realisation killed what little hope Brad had. He didn't have the strength nor courage to fight for her and she wasn't going to deny Dave despite her being his girlfriend. No not being. Was. He realised he had lost her. It wasn't even right them, he had lost her without even realising it. When had it happened?

Brad clenched his fists. A few stray tears escaped from his eyes, but finally he turned away walking out of the cafeteria. Defeated.

Kate quietly wrapped her arms around Dave from behind holding on to him tightly. He could feel her shaking, but he didn't say or do anything just giving her the moment to compose herself.

The cafeteria was silent. Everyone was watching. This was the best gossip in weeks and they didn't want to miss a moment of it. Many of the girls had feverishly watched on. Why couldn't it have been them with the boys fighting over them in public? It was a shame that it hadn't become an actual fight. That would have been even more exciting. Slowly some whispers broke the silence as people excitedly started to discuss what had happened. Some started texting their friends what they had seen, excited to be the first with the news.