Jace's mouth fell open. Bro, she she just before he could finish, Dylan grabbed Marina's wrist. Big mistake. She didn't twist away. She didn't step back.
She just looked him straight in the eyes, calm, absolutely calm, and said, "Let go." "No." Dylan hissed. "You're not walking away from this." He squeezed harder.
And that was it. The moment the line was crossed, Marina's voice dropped to a level only he could hear. I'm serious. "Let go." Dylan didn't.
If anything, he tightened his grip, trying to make a point in front of the crowd. "Say sorry," he demanded. "Right now." "For what?" she asked. "For disrespecting me."
Marina exhaled through her nose. "All right." Students leaned closer, expecting her to fold, to break, to apologize, just to diffuse the tension. But instead, she shifted her stance, subtle, just enough to ground her feet the way she'd done a thousand times in her uncle's training garage. Trevor, watching from behind her, whispered, "Oh, oh no."
Jace puffed his chest. "Dude, just drag her out. She needs to chill." Brandon cracked his knuckles, ready to pile on. Marina kept her eyes locked on Dylan.
"You want me to say something?" "Yeah," he spat. "Say you shouldn't have?" He didn't get to finish because the second he jerked her wrist again, Marina snapped her arm free using a quick pivot. Clean, controlled, precise.
Dylan stumbled forward slightly, thrown off balance. "What the—?" he sputtered. Students gasped again, but louder this time. Jace laughed nervously. "Bro, did she just—?"
Marina finally spoke loud enough for the crowd to hear. "I'm not scared of you." Dylan's face flushed red. Part anger, part humiliation. "You think you can embarrass me here in front of everyone?"
"You did that yourself," she said. She turned to walk away. Dylan grabbed her shoulder. Trevor yelled. "Don't touch her."
Jace stepped in. "Hey, let him handle it." Teachers were tangled in the chaos of the alarm and the panicking students. No one had reached them yet. Dylan's voice rose, shaky with rage.
"You really don't know who you're messing with." Marina turned slowly. "I could say the same." For a moment, there was silence between them, a tense, razor thin pause where anything could happen. Dylan took a step forward.
Brandon followed. Jace cracked his neck. And Marina finally realized something that made her stomach harden. They weren't backing off. They weren't joking.
They were about to take this too far. Her uncle's voice echoed in her memory, steady and familiar. If someone puts you in a corner, you don't wait for them to decide how the fight ends. Marina lifted her chin. "Move!"
Dylan smirked. "Make me." But before Marina could react, someone else shoved their way through the circle. A move that flipped the situation in a direction no one expected, pushing the tension to a whole new level. The crowd split slightly as someone pushed through the circle.
Not a teacher, not another student trying to record the drama, but someone who looked like he'd just sprinted across the entire ballroom. Dylan, Brandon, Jace, what are you doing? It was Coach Avery, one of the school's assistant PE teachers. He wasn't even supposed to be on prom duty tonight, but he'd come in to help teachers evacuate students after the alarm went off. His face was flushed with frustration, his tied crooked, his sleeves rolled up.