"I'm fine." Kie told her once they were in her room. She and Pope were sat on the edge of her bed while JJ was leaned up against her wall, fiddling with her frog figurine. "Topper barely even touched me, too busy choking Pope out." The aforementioned boy clutched his throat and swallowed thickly.
"I'll go grab some water for you guys. Feel free to dig through the first aid kit for whatever you need. Don't forget to disinfect."
She retreated from her bedroom to head towards the kitchen, grabbing a couple of glasses from the cabinet and started filling them up one by one. The screen door squeaked open and snapped close, alerting Collins that Charlie had come in. 
She glanced over her shoulder and turned her gaze upwards to smile tightly at her brother, whose hard expression appeared to be set in stone, as it hadn't changed a single bit since he laid eyes on her. 
"What happened out there tonight?" He demanded to know. "You asked me to trust you and I did, but you're coming home with your face covered in blood, looking like Carrie at the prom. You see where I'd be a little worried about you?"
Collins chuckled, although she knew that was probably inappropriate given the circumstances, but she just couldn't help herself. Charlie's comparison to her and Carrie White was impossible not to giggle at even just a little bit, at this point, all Collins could do was laugh over the whole situation. 
"Charlie, it wasn't our fault, they jumped us. I had to do something. This," she motioned to her face with a shrug, "it's just collateral damage. I'm fine, seriously."
Moving closer to her to whisper lowly so that no one in the other room could hear, Charlie said, "This isn't normal for you Collins. Coming home late, getting into fights, you were never like this until you started hanging around them. I don't like it."
"Don't try to blame this on them, my friends weren't the ones that did this to me, Rafe did. They've always had my back, I had to do the same for them."
"Rafe Cameron was the one who hit you?"
Collins rolled her eyes and softly groaned. "Let me know when you decide whether you want to discuss who I choose to be friends with or who the fist that smashed my face belonged to, because I'm getting whiplash from this conversation." 
Brushing past him with the cups of water in her hands, Collins carefully carried them back to her room where her friends were waiting. Everyone seemed to have changed positions, because suddenly, Kie was nestled in her little reading nook and flipping through the months of her nature calendar, Pope was studying her first place science fair trophy with a subdued look on his face, and JJ was lying on her bed with his ball cap over his face like he was trying to take a nap. 
Collins handed Kie and Pope each a glass of water, before walking up to JJ, who was last. Pinching the bridge of his cap between two fingers, Collins slightly lifted it up to peek at him underneath. JJ's eyes had been closed, but he opened them as he sensed movement. 
"Did you even wash your face?" She asked him with a sigh, although the answer was clear from the splotches of blood still evident around his jaw. 
"You're one to talk." JJ shot back, pointing at the dried blood on her own. She reacted by rolling her eyes and pointedly taking an antiseptic wipe and cleaning away the blood. Once she was pretty sure she'd gotten most of it off, she tossed the wipe in the trash and sat down beside him. 
"He refused medical treatment, claimed DNR. Said he only wanted 'Dr. Collins'." Pope shook his head from his place in the room. He himself had a simple bandaid on his forehead from reopening the wound that had already been inflicted.