Hiding In The Shadows

(Day 4 - Friday night, Beach trip. Takes place at the same time as 'Calm Meet Powder Keg')

Courtney had gotten a text from Matt saying that he was going to be a few more minutes, apparently, when he got back to the guys' dorms some of the nerds were playing chess and he had been recruited to help move a few tables as they needed a little more muscle than they currently had. He had also said, Doug was on his way back and that was about the same time Melissa got her text, from Doug, saying the same thing. The two had been sitting on the blanket just talking about stuff but with the text Courtney knew, without being asked, to move. Things might just be worse for Melissa if Doug found her talking with Courtney.

Once Courtney, wandered off she got pull aside by some of the girls on the basketball team and they talked, did a little group dancing, and then she made an excuse of needing something to drink to go check on Melissa but by the time she got back. Both Melissa and Doug were gone. "Damnit." She said under her breath. Realizing she, perhaps, should have texted Conner and asked him to take over for a while. While she, obviously, was all for keeping an eye on Mel and Doug, it was a lot for her to do by herself.

She figured panicking wouldn't help anything and she calmly asked around, making up an excuse as to why, to see if anyone knew where they had gone. She figured out where and ran after them. Courtney, make a split-second decision, to text Conner if she needed help with anything but for now, just needed to find them.

Courtney was athletic and as a runner, very fast, but they were ahead of her. She also knew this beach and few shortcuts and actually got ahead of Melissa, Finding a place to hide, she could easily hear what was going on but no one would know she was there.

"My place?" Dante asked, "And where might that be?" Dante raised an eyebrow at him, "You seem to be under some impression you know me." he said. "I can assure you, you've not even seen the tip of the iceberg yet." he told Doug. "Now you seem to be under some kind of impression you can tell me what to do. You have been misinformed." Dante tossed the finished apple core onto his blanket. "I don't care that you are a football player, I don't care what 'weight' your last name carries, and I certainly don't care how much money you have to your name to blow on whatever you want." Dante stared at him, "So if you've said what you want to say, cool beans, you can go now and I can ignore everything you just said to me and act like this silly little exchange never happened. Because again we are at the beach, I want to go get a drink and dance with some of the left outs and call it a night. Capeesh?"

Courtney was able to hear all of that but was that....? She slowly stood up not to make any noise and peaked out, only enough to see, being careful no one would see her. And spotted Doug and then Dante. Dante? She had seen Dante sitting with the "rich" kids and even from a distance could tell it had bugged Doug but why was Doug confronting him now?

Doug was now too angry for words. He removed his shirt. "I guess someone needs to teach you your place." He put up his fists and got ready to come at Dante.

Dante tossed his glasses to the blanket and kicked off his flipflops but seemingly didn't get ready for a fight. "You don't want to do this." Dante said, "I know you think you do but I don't think this is gonna go how you think it's gonna go."

"You're nothing but a hick; a nobody that thinks he's better than he is."

She was about to step out to stop the fight but then Melissa showed up and seemed to accomplish the same thing. Courtney watched as Doug intimated and threatened Melissa with things being worse the next time. She waited for them to leave before deciding what to do about Dante. Keeping an eye on Mel and Doug seemed more important, for the moment, whatever she had to ask Dante could wait.