The sudden sharp pain of Jesse hitting Stiles’ nose cuts through Summer’s shields the way a shout cuts through earplugs. Her gasp of pain is swallowed by Stiles’ shout and she whips around in time to see the two boys attacking each other. Fury turns her stomach, and she can’t put any effort into /stopping/ them; she’s too busy patching her shields.
By the time Summer can pay attention to what’s going on, Stiles has Jesse on the floor, and a couple of the bowling alley staff are trying to separate them. She clamps her hands together in a futile effort to stop the tears, but it’s too late. She’s not even sure why she’s crying, only that she’s overwhelmed. Too much emotion, half of it her own; too many people, too close.
Stiles is pissed, but he’s not actually that interested in a physical fight, because he knows he’s not the best at them and eventually his luck will run out where they’re concerned. He lets the bowling alley employees pull him away from Jesse but they can’t stop his mouth, which runs down a long, colorful list of questionable things Jesse’s parentage might have indulged in. Poor Summer’s tears don’t go ignored, they go unnoticed, mostly because Stiles is half pre-occupied with already trying to formulate a plan on what he’s going to tell his Dad about the bloody nose and possible police reports.
Mostly because he’s in the process of being mostly politely asked to leave by the alley staff, his real shoes shoved at him hastily. He’s told he can take the alley shoes off at the curb outside.
So there Stiles sits, surly, trying to unknot the laces on the bowling shoes so that he can jam his feet back into his trusty Converse. It’s dark and quiet outside, which mostly leaves the teenager alone with a whole weight lot of well that was stupid of you, Stilinski rattling around inside his skull.
He’s not sitting alone for too long before Summer comes out, arms huddled tight to her body and flanked by Zenobia and Beth. They’re carrying her things, and she’s barefoot. Another one of those wordless conversations ensues, mostly /over/ Summer’s head, though she doesn’t notice. She’s too caught up in herself, almost frantically trying to find anything to focus on besides what’s going on in her own head and failing. Zenobia leaves Summer’s boots and carries everything else off to a red van, while Beth gently guides Summer to sit on the surb near Stiles.
“I didn’t think it was still this bad,” Summer sobs. “I thought I was okay — I mean, I was, until he … he said those things — what did I do wrong? I don’t even know what I did.” Beth doesn’t really try to stop her talking, just sits with an arm around her and occasionally makes shushing noises, obviously intended to be soothing. Her expression says this scene is something they’ve gone through before.
When Zenobia comes back, she stops in front of Stiles, regarding him with a slightly jaundiced gaze. “What happened?” she asks. It’s not entirely accusatory, but it’s clear the other two girls are basically forming up to protect their friend.