Fractured Restraint

The principal's office smelled stale, like old coffee and failed hopes. Jonah sat in the hard chair, knuckles raw and throbbing. Blood stained his shirt. Not his blood. Mason's. A sophomore with a mouth that had finally pushed him too far.

He replayed it over and over. Five words. Five words that shattered him.

"Your mother is a gold-digging whore who left you for money."

His fist moved before tho