Who are you? Someone old enough to recognize bad manners. Several guests heard that. One man coughed to hide a laugh. Tyler's face hardened.
Linda reached down to help Ethan. Tyler put a hand against her arm and pushed her aside. Not violently, but carelessly, as if she were furniture in his way. Linda lost her balance. Her hip struck the edge of a chair.
A glass fell from the table and shattered. The quartet faltered. Then stopped. The room changed. Maya was already moving.
Linda caught herself against the table, shaken but upright. Ethan stepped toward her. Tyler grabbed the front of Ethan's catering jacket. Stay out of it. Let me go.
Tyler shoved him. Ethan crashed backward into a chair. The chair skidded across the polished floor and tipped sideways. Ethan went down hard beside it. Two hundred conversations seemed to disappear at once.
Silverware stopped. Glasses stopped clinking. Nobody laughed now. Nobody moved either. That was the part Maya would remember, not Tyler's face, the silence.
A room filled with trustees, professors, athletes, administrators, donors, and adults who had spent their lives believing they would know courage when they saw it. And for several long seconds, they simply watched. Maya crossed the floor. Her shoes made almost no sound. David took one step forward near the entrance.
Then stopped when he saw Maya's expression, not rage, decision. Jason's hand moved toward his pocket. Maya reached Ethan first. You hurt? My wrist.
Don't move it yet. Tyler stared down at her. Stay out of this, Maya rose. Linda stood behind her, one hand gripping the table. Maya looked at Tyler.
You pushed her. She got in my way. You shoved Ethan. He spilled a drink on me. Maya glanced around the room.
The silence seemed heavier now. Some guests looked ashamed. Others looked afraid of being the first to challenge the son of Richard Grant. Tyler noticed that silence too. Only he interpreted it differently.
To him, silence had always sounded like permission. He smiled. What are you going to do about it? Maya's hands remained loose at her sides. Nothing if you stop.
Tyler laughed, still doing that calm little act. It isn't an act. He stepped closer. Maya did not move. David saw her feet settle on slightly behind the other, balanced.
Walter Brooks' training, the same stance David remembered from years ago. Tyler saw only a 19-year-old catering worker standing in front of him. Go pick up your tray, he said. No, one word. Tyler blinked.