Lonely Hearts ▷ Peter Parker | ✓

14 - THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY

She ran towards them, trying to stop them, but someone beat her to the punch. Literally.

"Fuck off!" Flash screamed, punching on square in the jaw.

Everyone but the two large boys were surprised. Peter stared up at Flash, his jaw dropped, too shocked to scramble away.

The large boys glanced at each other and shrugged. Flash was then thrown into a locker, one of the boys hovering over him, holding him down and punching.

Flash's scream shocked Diana into action.

Taking off her bag, she pulled her arms back, then swung as hard as she could into one of the boy's faces. He fell back, away from Peter, clutching at his face. She rushed over to the other boy, hitting the back of his head, trying to get him to let go of Flash.

"Diana!"

She turned at the sound of Peter's voice just in time to get thrown back, the side of her head throbbing. She heard Flash shout and the sound of a heavy body being thrown against a locker.

She rose to her feet, still shaken, looking around for more help. She couldn't see Gwen and Harry and assumed they were getting a teacher. She could, however, see the him.

She stared at Danny who was calmly watching with his phone held up, videotaping the whole thing. When he saw her staring, he winked.

Peter shouted and she turned to look at him. He was on the ground, his arm twisted behind his back. She rushed over and threw her entire body at the larger boy, hoping it would be enough to get him off Peter.

She knocked the boy enough for Peter to do the rest and get away. She tried to get away before he grabbed her, looking over at Flash who was getting his face smashed into a locker.

"Please," she heard him beg, "Please, no more, please, I promise I won't–please..."

She hadn't heard him talk like that since Harrison was taken away.

She didn't know what happened. One minute she was standing and thinking, the next the boy was off Flash and flung against the locker and she was breathing heavily and people were shouting. Then she was kicking and her legs were hurting.

"Diana!" a voice called. It wasn't Flash or Peter. It was an adult. "Diana, stop!"

She didn't know when she started crying. But she had an idea of when Flash did and that was all that mattered. The adult and Flash tried to get her to stop, but she just kept kicking. She didn't know what she was doing.

It wasn't until a familiar pair of hands grabbed her arms and practically threw her off that she came to. She stared up at a familiar pair of doe eyes that were searching her face, a familiar voice saying words she couldn't understand.

She just stared up at the eyes and let the hands hold her arms, breathing heavily. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny hand the two boys a stack of cash.

He was smiling.

º º º º º

She wasn't so sure when they ended up in the principal's office, but it was enough to jolt her back into her usual state of anxious fear.

"What was that about?" he demanded, glaring at all of them.

All three teens began talking over each other, trying to explain that it wasn't their faults, how they were trying to defend themselves.

"One at a time," the man said, clearly struggling.

"Principal Morita, it wasn't us," Peter argued. Everyone looked at him, surprised that he spoke first. "They jumped in because two guys out of nowhere started to attack me!"