He reached out his hand, pinched her face, making her mouth an O shape, and scolded coldly, “Be honest with me. I don't like flattery!"

Erica protested and pried his fingers off her face.

"Jeez, you don't have to be such a bully! You can't take a compliment?" She rubbed her jaw where he grabbed her.

Speaking of bullying, Matthew had to get back to the point.

“Whatever

Don't worry about the news on the Internet. I'll take care of it."

“It doesn't matter. I won't cop to something I didn't do.“ She was quite strong-willed and determined. She wouldn't back down easily.

Taking a deep look at the slender girl in his arms, Matthew tightened his grip and said, "Okay."

Erica closed her eyes and took in the man's scent.

"How do you know I wasn't the bully, though? They caught it on video. Looks Like Phoebe was telling the truth. Why go to bat for me? Why not just throw me to the wolves?"

"You think I'm blind?"

"What?"

“I saw it with my own eyes, that..." '...she hit you.’ Matthew couldn't finish his sentence. He was overcome with pain when he thought of it.

And she thought it was sweet. He did care about her—a lot. But she kind of wanted to deal with this herself. Get revenge her way.

“You saw some of it, but not all. What if she was just fighting back?

What if I attacked her first, and she was just defending herself?" she asked.

Matthew felt that she was testing his intelligence.

“More than ten people just stood by and watched that girl hit you. They knocked Hyatt down and wouldn't let him up. If you were the bully, how could that happen? I know what I saw!"

Erica grinned. Matthew was indeed smart.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. But don't worry. It didn't hurt that much. I did force her head under a faucet, and slapped her. A lot." She wore a smug smile at that point.

“Standing in the rain getting soaked bugged me, and she seized the chance to smack me around a bit."

She didn't like getting wet. And her own experience of having her head shoved in the sink, plus the heavy rain, really put her out of sorts

She wasn't at 100 percent then. Under normal circumstances, she would have never let Lenora get the upper hand. But more than 1@ on one?

There was no way she was going to win with odds like that.

Matthew looked at the grinning girl and sighed silently. What did she want? A medal for being frank?