True Love Waits novel Chapter 1205

Having gone out to buy milk tea, Hyatt noticed with some consternation that the rain seemed to be growing heavier by the minute. He decided, then, to go back and ask Erica to make an appointment with Julianna for some other day.

He made it back to campus without incident, except that the rain soaked him, since he had no umbrella. The building was quiet and for the most part seemed deserted—but when Hyatt was just around a corner from where he'd left Erica, he heard her speaking to someone. Her voice was angry, but there was a trace of panic in it as well. "Tell Julianna," she was saying, "that if anything happens to me today, she's dead meat!"

"Shut up!" someone retorted. "Lenora, if she doesn't want to go upstairs, just have the others come down. No one's around, so the ground floor's as good as anywhere else."

There was a girl's voice—Lenora, presumably—speaking into a phone. "You guys can come down now. This bitch won't go upstairs!"

Rain beat against the windows. Dripping and shivering, Hyatt carefully stuck his head around the corner. Not far down the hall, he saw a small group of young men and women. Two of the latter had grabbed Erica by her arms. Squinting, Hyatt realized with a start that he recognized the assailants—he had seen them while out on his errand!

As he stared, five more people, about the same age, emerged from a stairwell nearby.

Erica now had a dozen people surrounding her.

Dread overwhelmed Hyatt's mind; now his shivering had nothing to do with being wet. His limbs felt weak, and his knees wobbled.

'What are they going to do to Erica? What should I do? What should I do?' Panic fogged his brain, and he struggled to get ahold of himself.

Suddenly the group was moving—Erica's captors were shoving and dragging her toward the door to a bathroom, which was between them and Hyatt. As they came closer, he heard them more clearly.

"I heard that you could be quite violent to your schoolmates," taunted one of the men—a boy, really. "Come on, show us what you can do!"

"She doesn't look tough to me," said someone else. "Look at that delicate skin—she must be a really rich, dainty lady. Doesn't look like a bully at all."

Erica stubbornly kept her head high. "Did Julianna tell you to come here?" she demanded.

They didn't deny it. In fact, one of them confirmed it—a young man with short, rather stupid-looking spiky hair. "Yeah, but we don't really have anything else to do anyway. We may as well just have some fun with you!"

Water flowed from Hyatt's thick hair and down his cheeks. Every inch of his skin felt cold and clammy.

He wanted to call out to Erica. For a moment, all he could think of was the brave expression she'd worn when she defended him. He couldn't just do nothing!

Finally he got himself to move. With trembling hands, he took out his phone and dialed Gifford's number. He didn't have anyone else from the Li family in his contacts.

Gifford had given Hyatt his number after returning the money for Erica; he'd said Hyatt could call him if he ever needed help.

Hyatt pressed the call button and held the phone up to his ear, his face bloodless.

It started ringing. Afraid of being heard, Hyatt frantically stepped away from the corner.

A stone's throw away, he heard Gifford's voice on the line and came to a stop. "Hello, Hyatt?"

"Giff... Gifford..." He was so nervous that he could barely talk.

Gifford was immediately worried. He said, "Hyatt, what's going on? What happened? Calm down. Take your time and tell me!"

"T-they..." Hyatt stammered, trying to form a coherent sentence. "They cornered Erica. They're right outside the bathroom. Hurry up and get here! Help!"

Gifford frowned, wondering who he was talking about. "All right, where are you? Tell me the address."

"Y City, No. Eighteen..." Hyatt choked, then swallowed in an effort to moisten his throat. "No. Eighteen Primary School, the teaching building—Ah!" As he said this, he nervously turned around, and screamed hoarsely. He was face to face with a very unfriendly-looking figure.

His voice failing him, Hyatt reflexively put the phone behind his back. Staring in horror, he recognized the figure as one of the boys he had just seen in the hallway.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" snarled the assailant.