Chasing After Infinity question

Ok I've read about 40% of the book and I'm enjoying the story but when I got to the part where Avena got beat up I had to stop for a second. I know this is a book but it's realistic fiction and in a realistic world people would have not let a man beat up a woman. Did no one else have an issue with this part? It made me uncomfortable reading about how people held her down and everyone just chanted fight. And I'm a little confused because in one part of the book it says she's eating toast then a cookie then a waffle for breakfast in all the same time period. Did she get up and grab these different food items or was the author just inconsistent while writing that chapter?