The three of them stopped and that brightly-colored twat whipped around. Allison clung to Rae as he stormed me, taking long strides with those chicken legs of his. I shot up, rolling my shoulders back as he approached me. There wasn’t a damn kid in this school that towered over me. Not when I stood at over six fucking feet tall. Michael craned his neck back to keep my eyes in view. His nostrils flared with anger as a grin spread like wildfire across my face.
“Oh look,” I said, “I poked the bear.”
Michael’s eye twitched. “You leave them out of this. You wanna pick on me? That’s fine. But, only a pussy little prick like you picks on girls.”
I circled around him. “Oh, yeah? Trying to be the big, tough guy so we don’t figure out you suck dicks with your butthole?”
He grimaced. “Could you be any more crass? I mean, really. Come on.”
I shrugged. “All I’m saying is own up to who you are and what you like. If dudes are your thing, why hide it? Only embarrasses you more.”
I blew against his ear, causing my friends to laugh when he jumped. Michael’s eyes bubbled with rage and I heard Rae calling out for me. Telling me to stop. Her friend held her back, though. Kept her from storming over. And as Michael stood toe-to-toe with me, I smiled.
“Let me guess. Her pussy’s not tight enough for you.”
Michael growled. “That’s it.”
The beast snapped, and I saw his fist coming around from the corner of my vision. I heard Rae and Allison shriek, calling out for him as I wrapped my hand around his wrist. I brought my knee into his stomach, buckling him as he gasped for air. And as the girls came charging for me, my friends closed the circle. They pumped their fists in the air. They pushed Rae and Allison away as I watched Michael gasp on his hands and knees.
“I mean, really. If you’re going to be a man’s man, at least man up a little bit. You of all people should know gay dudes don’t like pussies.”
He lunged off the concrete and wrapped his arms around me. He barreled through the crowd behind me, knocking me clear over my bike. I heard him cursing. I heard him shouting. I heard the pitter patter of footsteps as my bike went tumbling to the ground. The second I heard metal and paint scraping against the concrete, my vision dripped red. I lost all sense of time and space, of what I was doing.
Because no one fucked with my bike.
“You’re dead meat,” I grunted.
I brought my elbow down into Michael’s back and he pulled away from me. He kicked my shins, then reached down and grabbed my ankles. He flipped me clear over my fucking bike before stepping over it as a crowd of kids gathered. They chanted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” And as I scrambled to my feet, I saw him coming for me again.
Only this time, I was ready.
I hit him with a right hook that sent him stumbling back. I heard the girls crying out, but it was no use. Their voices faded into the background. Michael’s face slowly morphed into my father’s. I hit him with a blow to his gut, taking him back down again. And as my knee came up to connect with his chin, I felt anger swelling my veins, blood rushing through my ears. I heard nothing but the sound of my own racing heart as steam came barreling out of my ears.
I had some anger to dispel. And Michael’s face always irritated the fuck out of me.
Time to make a statement.
I reached down and grabbed Michael’s shirt. I pulled him off the ground, holding him in midair before I dropped him to his feet. I threw a few punches he dodged while he tried to get his bearings. Then he came for me again. He ran straight into my stomach, taking me to the fucking ground again. But as I wrapped my legs around him, I rolled him over. I forced him to look up at the sky before my face came into view. I smiled broadly down at him as I saw my father, pinned underneath my legs.
“You’re gonna regret that move, asshole,” I glowered.
His arms came up in defense of his face as blow after blow landed on his arms. I heard sirens wailing off in the distance and I knew I had to wrap it up. But not before I broke this fucker’s nose. I felt him bucking underneath me. I felt him trying to get away. And just as I went to pry his arms away from his face like the coward he was, I felt someone tugging at my leather jacket.
“Get. The fuck. Off him!”
Rae’s voice took me back. I felt her hands wrapping into my leather jacket, pulling me away from her friend. And for a second, it stunned me. Her knuckles dragged across the nape of my neck, shooting electricity down my spine. I heard teachers calling out in the distance, rushing toward us as she pried me off her friend.
Then she tossed me to the side. Like I was a fucking rag doll.
I wiped at my mouth as Michael scrambled off the ground. His eyes bulged with anger as he tried coming at me again. Rae placed her hands against his chest, and for some reason I didn’t like that. I didn’t like her tou
ching him like that. Fuck, I didn’t like her touching me like that.
I spat. “Get the hell out of my way.”
Rae whipped around. “Not a chance in hell, you womanizing, abusive dickwad.”
Everyone cheered as the three of them scampered off. But her words cut deep. I watched them rush off as someone tugged at my arm, trying to get me inside the school. Girls kept looking on, smiling and cheering my victory. I shook myself away from whoever the hell had a grip on my elbow before I scurried into school. The last fucking thing I needed to be caught doing after seeing my father yesterday was fighting. Because I knew damn good and well that selfish asshole would toss me out on my ass the second he got the chance. The second he found any reason to deem me a threat to his new wife, or to him, or to him, or to that bullshit prison I called home.