Until Harry Read Online Free Page B

his hands balled into fists as his chest rose and fell swiftly.
    Now that Kale stood up and faced me, I could see his face, and I didn’t like what I saw. He had a little cut over his eyebrow. A t rickle of blood ran down from said eyebrow and stopped halfway down his cheek. Both of his eyes were red, a little swollen, and his lips were stained with the blood that was smeared acro ss h is mouth. I could see blood stained his teeth too, because he had h is m ou th o pen as he was breathing heavily.
    Now that things weren’t as loud, my whimpers could be heard. Kale turned his head in my direction, and his entire demeanour changed.
    “It’s okay, Lane,” he assured me, giving me a wink. “I’m okay, I promise.”
    “Liar!” I cried. “You’re bleeding! Look at all the blood. You’re probably dying !”
    The thought of that turned my stomach.
    “What the hell happened here?” the man who was holding Kale and Jordan snapped.
    I gasped. The man said a bad word too.
    “He punched Lane in the back of the head!” Kale stated, throwing his accusation in Jordan’s face.
    The man looked at me, then looked to Kale, Jordan and the two boys still crying on the ground. He shook his head and walked forward, pulling both Kale and Jordan with him.
    “Everyone to the principal’s office,” he ordered. “Now!”
    The fear that settled inside me was enough to make me want to pass out. Drew set me down on the ground and took my hand as we walked ahead of Kale, Jordan and the man who’d stopped the fight. He called for the other two boys to get up and follow or he’d come back for them.
    “Yes, sir,” both of them rasped.
    Sir.
    The man was a teacher in the school, and he was bringing us to the principal’s office. We were in so much trouble.
    The next while passed by in a blur. I had to sit in the waiting room to the principal’s office with Kale, Jordan and the two other boys as our parents were called. Drew was sent to class because she’d had no direct involvement in what had happened other than witnessing the fight. She told the teacher what happened and was sent on her way.
    I kept my head down, even though the “sir” who stopped the fight told me that I had nothing to worry about and that I wasn’t in a bit of trouble. That made me feel better, but I still felt horrible that Kale was going to get in trouble because of me.
    The waiting room to the principal’s office was quiet one minute and then loud the next as our parents arrived. I could hear my father and Kale’s arguing with multiple grown-up male voices from somewhere outside. I then heard our mothers’ voices trying to calm things down; other female voices did the same thing.
    I ran to my mother when she entered the waiting room, and I sobbed as she lifted me up into the air and held me to her chest. I felt a hand press against my back, then lips brushing against the side of my head.
    “Lane?” my father’s voice murmured.
    I looked to him, my vision blurred from my tears.
    “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
    I shook my head. “Jordan punched my head, and it really hurts.”
    My father’s jaw set as he looked over his shoulder. “Deal with your kid before I do.”
    Arguing started again, and the teacher who had stopped the fight entered the waiting room and had to intervene to calm everyone down. Jordan’s mother was kneeling in front of him an d pointing her finger at him as she told him off. His father stood next to them and glared down at Jordan, with his arms folded across his chest.
    I swallowed when I spotted Kale’s parents. His daddy was next to him, checking his face; his mummy was worried as she fussed over him too, even though Kale tried to tell her he was fine. He didn’t look fine; his red and slightly swollen eyes were now blue as bruises formed on them. There was a dark bruise forming around the cut on his eyebrow and on his busted lip too. It had to hurt him, but he grinned and winked at me whenever