Unspecified Rage

Pulling loose threads

There was knocking at her door. "Jules? You awake?" she hadn't expected to hear Megan at her door.

"Huh?" Julia mumbled and pushed herself up out of the so comfortable blankets.

Megan stuck her head in and smiled. "Hey. You feeling better?" she asked with concern.

"Huh?" Julia repeated intelligently.

"You fainted. Apparently low blood sugar can do that to you. You missed school today. I've brought you the homework." Megan offered oh so helpfully.

"Uh..."Julia had no clue what to say. She remembered the near fight at school, and screaming at Enrique, and then the dog...no it had definitly been a wolf... The memory flared sharp and bring and Julia was wide awake in a flash. She stood up and wobbled, sitting quickly back down.

"Woah, easy there tiger." Megan teased and sat next to Julia. "Here, your mom asked me to make you eat this." she offered Julia a freaking burger.

"Yumm grease." Julia laughed and hugged her friend in thanks. She was getting better with this physical contact stuff and it no longer felt hair raisingly weird to hug her friends. But since she was ravenously hungry and relatively pain free, Julia wolfed the McDeath sandwich down and was quickly looking for seconds.

"Alright greedy guts. You're not usually a big eater, so this one's one me, let's go grab some grub." Megan said cheerfully and pushed Julia into getting dressed. It wasn't the usual headache slowing Julia down so much as her entire brain and body throbbed in time with her heart beat, eerie, distracting and just this side of painful. She listened to Megan ramble on about classes and what she missed during lunch. Which was an astounding whole bunch of nothing.

The two girls sat at a local mom and pop restaurant and managed to polish off apetizers, entrees and split dessert, laughing and generally just relaxing. Tomorrow was Friday and Julia could use the entire day to catch up without spoiling her weekend. Megan left to go to the bathroom and Julia felt her good humour slip away as it felt like eyes were on her.

She turned and carefully scanned the rather empty restaurant, not seeing anyone looking at her in particular. Looking out the window she spotted a teenager walking his dog, a couple walking hand in hand and a general sea of people walking by that couldn't bother looking in a window. And yet that sense of being watched intently still irritated her. Her heartbeat picked up, sending more painful shockwaves through her but she refused to bolt out the doors like a paniced rabbit. Instead she closed her eyes and breathed in carefully and waited for Megan to return.

Julia felt the air move near her booth and her eyes snapped open, instantly wary because she somehow knew it wasn't Megan returning. It was just a couple of college age guys walking past the booth. No worries. But Julia frown, watching them out of the corner of her eye. They were trying to be subtle about it, but they were watching Julia with too many hidden glances to be entirely innocent. There was something wrong here.

Julia texted Megan: stay in the bathroom, creepy frat out here. Then she texted the guys: got a group of neandertals at Pete's burger, wanna rumble?

Hoping that her gut was wrong, Julia slid out of her booth to stand up and meet Megan. But as soon as she stood up, one of the frat guys was blocking her way. "Hey, what's the rush sweet stuff?" he asked, laughing and moving so she had to sit back down or have him pressed up against her. Instead of simply sitting, Julia stood on the booth and vaulted over the side, dodging around the frat.

"Hey!" he reached out to grab her arm so she couldn't get away that easily. The rest of the guys burst into immediate action as well.

"All of you stop that this instant!" the owner, Pete demanded, coming out of the kitchen to help Julia.

"Deal with the old man." Ju heard Mat's unfriendly voice order. Julia jerked her arm out of the frat boys grip and turned to face Mat with a glower in her eyes.

She heard a few of the other guys go off towards Pete and then 'Hey, you get out of here now! I'm going to call the cops. Let go of me!" And then they pulled him into the kitchen and out of sight.

"What's your problem Mat? Don't like the fact that your baby brother got beat up by a girl?" Julia asked with venom in her voice. Very smart, provoke the guys who want to pummel you.

"I don't like a smartass." he growled at Julia, getting close in her face.

"I don't like a dumbass, you don't see me crying about it." Julia taunted right back, refusing to give ground. Well if you were going to be getting a good beating, you might as well earn some of it. She mocked to herself.

"I will see you crying before the day is over, meat." he grabbed Julia by the arms and shook her. She let the momentum of the shaking rock her back and then slammed her head forward to smash it against Mat's nose. But unfortunatly he didn't release her, instead he dug his fingers into her arms. Julia had two older brothers who routinely used her as a boxing bag as a child, she knew a thing or two about a grapple fest.

So she brought her hands up and rammed her hands down into Mat's elbow joints, forcing him to drop his grip from her. She then kicked him in the shin and bashed him across the jaw with her elbow.

"You little slut!" "Stupid move!" "Gonna pay for that!" she heard echo out of the other frat boys. Julia dodged past the guys and barreled towards the bathroom. She knew Megan was still standing near the back enterance, waiting for the guys to arrive. And distantly she could feel the guys on their way here. They might not be able to sit at a table and hold a conversation, but when they were needed, Graham and Enrique made excellent calvary.