Hartley was greeted into the boy’s dorm by the sound of loud and obnoxious male teenage laughter. The faint smell of expensive colonge and cigarettes reached her nostrils causing her to scrunch up her nose as she began to walk down the hall towards the TV room. She was looking for Hunter, as usual, and hadn’t been able to find him anywhere on campus so she assumed he was back here chilling out with whomever he came across that day. As the petite honey-blonde reached the entrance she heard shuffling, a stiff laugh followed by a strong thud. She raised her eyebrows up in alarm and peeked into the room where she caught sight of a young boy on the floor, completely surrounded by preppies. She knew exactly what was happening. Hazing— the preppies cherished it. Hunter explained that it helped them weed the weak ones out but Hartley hated it; it just wasn’t in her nature to be so violent. However, she kept her opinions mostly to herself, she knew it wouldn’t change anything. It was tradition, that’s just how it was and everyone understood that. But that didn’t keep her from feeling a sharp burning sensation in her chest as she watched the poor stranger being attacked, she felt so helpless. Her hands began to shake lightly as she grew anxious for the hazing to end, she couldn’t look for much longer. They were hurting him bad, he’d had enough. Stepping out from the shadows the girl hollered out. ‘’Okay, okay, enough!’’ Hartley barked as she lunged towards the group of men. ‘’He’s had enough guys, he gets it.’’ She hissed, looking over at a random classmate and then, of course, Hunter. ‘’Where did you come from?’’ Hunter questioned. ‘’Doesn’t matter, I watched the whole thing. Leave him be now.’’ Hartley quipped back. Hunter smirked cheekily in reply and shrugged. ‘’Damn, Hartley, ruin our fun why don’t ya?’’ He snickered. Other laughs followed. It made her blood boil. ‘’But for you, fine. I got chem anyways, I’ll see you after that. Bye, Flipper.’’ Hunter cackled, patting his victim on the head before him and the rest of the group headed back to class as if nothing happened.
Hartley waited until she heard the door close behind them to approach the young man, which she did cautiously and slowly. ‘’Hey,’’ She whispered. ‘’They got you good, didn’t they?’’ The blonde said with a dry laugh that she later regretted. ‘’Let’s get you up, shall we?’’ She waved over a boy who was standing in the doorway, Ashby something, and got him to help her get him up. Once he was laid on the couch she ran into the small kitchen in the dorm and took a bag of peas and a bottle of water out of the fridge, quickly dousing a kitchen towel in cold water before jogging back to TV room. She felt a little weird about helping out a total stranger like this but she felt like it was partly her fault, it was the least she could do. She could have stopped it but she didn’t.. couldn’t. Taking the lid off the bottle of water she held it out towards the boy on the couch, Ashby looking over her shoulder. ‘’You should probably drink some of this.’’ The girl offered gently, her eyes then scanning up and down the boy’s now bruised and semi-bloody body for large wounds. ‘’Where does it hurt the most?’’