Status: New co-write! You should comment :) <3
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Chapter 07: James
There wasn't much interesting about the first day of school. I sat through most of it in complete boredom, blasting my music into one ear, which was well hidden by my hair, and I kept my self-promise to text Melody once every class period, however it was a bit strange to me that she didn't reply to any of them. Maybe her school has a stricter policy on phones than Bonanza Valley, I don't really know. To be honest, I'm not even sure which school she goes to, but I figured it wasn't that important, so I decided to forget about it.
I had discovered that my last class, which had not been marked as Honors on my schedule sheet, in fact was an Honors class, and the H next to "Algebra II" was very faded due to a slight printer malfunction.
There was another odd thing about that class too. Though I kept mostly in my head, I felt like I was being stared at by someone. Or two someones, I couldn't really tell. I started blankly at the teacher for most of the short class while my ear away from the whiteboard was filled with all manner of AC/DC, Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. I had gotten up in the middle of class to throw away some trash as well as spit in the trash can, and once I stood up I noticed a small blonde, curly-haired girl with hazel eyes looking at me and covering something with her arm. I glanced away quickly, hoping she hadn't noticed me looking at her. She was incredibly cute, especially with her glasses, though she looked like the kind of girl that would never believe it if you told her so.
Nothing else much interesting happened until I got home. Melody hadn't texted me back yet from any of her classes today - she must have been busy trying not to get caught or something. I got home and walked into the living room which wreaked of popcorn and febreeze in an attempt to cover up the smell. I shook my head and went into my room when I got a text from Melody.
New message from: Melody Chalice
Subject: Re: How's your first day going?
Body: It went alright. Sorry I didn't text you, I was caught up with a bunch of other stuff today.
Me: Ah. It's alright lol, as long as you didn't die in a pool of fire or drown in pudding or something O.o
The smell was starting to give me a headache, so I opened the windows and went outside where numbers of middle-schoolers were walking by. I wasn't fond of living in the apartment complex, but with no money for a house I figured it was the better than nothing. I looked out on to Nordstrom Avenue - the street which the complex resided on - and in a passing glance I saw a familiar face in a passing silver car. It was the girl from my Algebra class, to my surprise. She had the window rolled down and her head was turned slightly to the left as she was talking to the woman driving her, whom I figured to be her mom. I smiled a little to myself as she drove off down the street, her curly hair blowing in all directions. I turned around and looked at the passing middle-schoolers as they walked toward their apartments, some caught up in conversations with their friends, others hugging their binders and keeping strictly to themselves. I saw much of myself in those ones, who were walking as quickly home as they could to escape the confines of the school and the social exclusion they were destined for until college. Then, I checked my phone to see if I had gotten new texts. None yet, so I stuffed the phone back in my pocket and went back in the house. The smell of popcorn hadn't yet dissipated, so I grabbed a cigarette and a book of matches off the computer desk and went back outside.
Dominic came rolling down the street on his bike moments later. I rolled my eyes, knowing some bullshit would be coming soon. I was bigger and stronger than he was, definitely -- but he was faster, especially on his bike, and he took great advantage of that. He had been calling me "cotton-candy boy" ever since a small incident in sixth grade. I had bought some cotton candy one day after school, and as I walked home with it he rode past and snatched it from my hands. I chased him for a full block - I didn't give a shit about the cotton candy, but I refused to allow someone to take anything from me and get away with it, no matter what it was. I had chased him for a full block before he finally stopped (out of pity, most likely) and dropped it on the floor. I was even more out of shape then than I am now, and it caught up to me. I was heavily winded, but for some reason my first instinct was to punch the living hell out of him. He dodged two of my punches and gave me a cheap-shot kick in the groin. As I doubled over in pain, he gave me another kick in the stomach and shoved me to the ground. I started to cry, for obvious reasons, and he ran off smirking in triumph, making sure to step on the cotton candy as he left. I felt terrible, though I've never had the presence of mind to try and finish what he started five years ago. I think it was just because I was afraid if I got kicked there again I wouldn't be able to have kids.
"You're so cool, cotton-candy boy!" he said as he slowed down. "You must feel pretty bad-ass with that cigarette in your hands, huh?"
Again I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and you must feel pretty cool dressed like a tool," I said as I looked over his baggy plaid shorts, knee-high socks, skin-tight TapOut shirt and flat-billed Yankee's hat.
"You better watch what you say," he said in his mocking, douche-bag tone. "Don't make me take your cotton candy again."
"When are you going to grow the fuck up and forget about that?" I said, inhaling the smoke. It was a good thing I had it, if it weren't relaxing me right now I would've already gone over there and tried to beat his ass. "It was five years ago. Don't you have anything better to do than mock me? No body's going to give you any 'street cred' for being a dick towards me."
"That just makes it more fun for me man, I have no reputation on the line with you. You're all mine to fuck with. If you were actually capable of having friends I might back off a little."
"Why's that Dom? Because if I had friends, you'd be having your ass handed to you right now? I don't need friends. I don't need them to fight my battles for me, unlike you." I retorted, thinking I was winning.
"And yet we were alone that day with the cotton candy, now weren't we?" he said, smirking. My moment of internal glory had been smashed like a baseball through a window.
"We were ELEVEN!" I said, raising my voice. In my peripheral vision I saw a few heads turn towards us.
"And I could kick your ass just as easy as I did then," he said, matching the volume of my voice. I noticed some of the kids starting to walk towards us, obviously hoping there was a fight about to go down. I inhaled more of the tobacco, the cigarette almost completely gone now.
"Really? And what purpose would that serve? I haven't done anything to you. You've been a dick to me for the past five years and all I've done is sit back and take it. Well no more Dominic. I'm done with your bullshit. Get the fuck out of here before these kids see what they want to see."
He got off his bike and threw it on the ground as he stepped towards me. "Why not give them a show?" he said angrily, I could see him clenching his fist. "You need to watch your mouth around them, they might pick up bad habits." In a flash, he took a swing towards me. I stepped back, his fist missing me by inches. I ducked down and charged him, the cigarette getting hot in my hand. My head collided with his chest, knocking him to the floor and I went down with him. The kids had gathered around us and were now chanting "Fight, fight!" with various "oohs" and "ahhs" throughout. I used my forehead and head-butted his nose as he tried to punch at my sides. As the cigarette grew hotter, I got an idea.
I head-butted him again and raised my cigarette hand to his face quickly. I found an open spot on his cheek and touched the burning cherry to his pretty-boy face. He screamed in pain, and punched me so hard in the ribs I nearly fell off of him. I pushed the cherry harder onto his face, making sure it hurt. He threw me off and a wave of "OH SHIT!" went through the kids. He moved his face and the burning ash scattered across his face, making him moan in pain even more. He moved my hand and grabbed my wrist, then used my own head-butting tactic against me and got me straight in the nose.
Now that the both of us had bloody noses I couldn't tell whose blood was whose on the ground. I rolled off of him and we both stood, the kids now backing away from us to give us more room. He charged at me, and I moved out of the way again as he almost slammed into a short red-head girl in the crowd. He came back at me, but before he could throw a punch at me I had already connected with his jaw bone, and hard. I wasn't just mad at him any more, I was drawing on the rage that I had built up inside of me since before Eva was born. I glanced at my fist and saw blood starting to come out of the middle knuckle. I then went around him and maneuvered his arms and mine, giving him a full nelson lock like I had seen so many times on TV. I felt him struggling to break it, and I felt good that he hadn't yet. I swept my feet across his and tripped him, sending him to the floor with my lock still intact. He was now face down and I was above him. Now I was truly pissed, and I used his own struggling against him as I slammed his face into the concrete multiple times. Four, five, six times... I lost track, I just watched the blood flow from his mouth and nose onto the cement. I finally stopped when I heard him throwing up his lunch.
I let him go and stood up, the kids around us now backing away in fear. My hands were sore and my knuckles were bloodied so much that I couldn't tell if they were coming from the cuts on them, or if it was Dominic's blood smeared on them. I knelt down next to him as I saw him struggling to get up. I was angry still, but something in my head told me to do the right thing. I extended my hand and helped him up, seeing a pool of mouth-blood on the ground and a tooth resting in the blood in one of the pavement cracks. He stood up, wobbling slightly.
"We're done," I said, looking him straight in the burned face. "No more of this. No more cotton-candy boy, no more shit-talking, and no more fighting. I'm done with you, and you better be done with me." He spat more blood on the floor and nodded at me as he touched the fresh burn wound on his left cheek. It was still covered in cigarette ash, and looked somewhat like a severe sunburn. Without another word, he got on his bike and rode away, the middle-schoolers laughing at him and cheering me on. I looked around, seeing blood splatter in more places than I had realized. Picking up the tooth, I noticed it was one of his canine teeth. Was, anyways. My heartbeat started to slow down, and I looked up at the sky, the kids now mostly dispersed and going about their own business again. I couldn't help feeling bad about what I had just done. I noticed a cloud in the sky that, from this angle, looked almost like an obscure dragon. For some reason, that cloud made me realize why I was feeling bad.
This fight had made me become my father.
I had discovered that my last class, which had not been marked as Honors on my schedule sheet, in fact was an Honors class, and the H next to "Algebra II" was very faded due to a slight printer malfunction.
There was another odd thing about that class too. Though I kept mostly in my head, I felt like I was being stared at by someone. Or two someones, I couldn't really tell. I started blankly at the teacher for most of the short class while my ear away from the whiteboard was filled with all manner of AC/DC, Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. I had gotten up in the middle of class to throw away some trash as well as spit in the trash can, and once I stood up I noticed a small blonde, curly-haired girl with hazel eyes looking at me and covering something with her arm. I glanced away quickly, hoping she hadn't noticed me looking at her. She was incredibly cute, especially with her glasses, though she looked like the kind of girl that would never believe it if you told her so.
Nothing else much interesting happened until I got home. Melody hadn't texted me back yet from any of her classes today - she must have been busy trying not to get caught or something. I got home and walked into the living room which wreaked of popcorn and febreeze in an attempt to cover up the smell. I shook my head and went into my room when I got a text from Melody.
New message from: Melody Chalice
Subject: Re: How's your first day going?
Body: It went alright. Sorry I didn't text you, I was caught up with a bunch of other stuff today.
Me: Ah. It's alright lol, as long as you didn't die in a pool of fire or drown in pudding or something O.o
The smell was starting to give me a headache, so I opened the windows and went outside where numbers of middle-schoolers were walking by. I wasn't fond of living in the apartment complex, but with no money for a house I figured it was the better than nothing. I looked out on to Nordstrom Avenue - the street which the complex resided on - and in a passing glance I saw a familiar face in a passing silver car. It was the girl from my Algebra class, to my surprise. She had the window rolled down and her head was turned slightly to the left as she was talking to the woman driving her, whom I figured to be her mom. I smiled a little to myself as she drove off down the street, her curly hair blowing in all directions. I turned around and looked at the passing middle-schoolers as they walked toward their apartments, some caught up in conversations with their friends, others hugging their binders and keeping strictly to themselves. I saw much of myself in those ones, who were walking as quickly home as they could to escape the confines of the school and the social exclusion they were destined for until college. Then, I checked my phone to see if I had gotten new texts. None yet, so I stuffed the phone back in my pocket and went back in the house. The smell of popcorn hadn't yet dissipated, so I grabbed a cigarette and a book of matches off the computer desk and went back outside.
Dominic came rolling down the street on his bike moments later. I rolled my eyes, knowing some bullshit would be coming soon. I was bigger and stronger than he was, definitely -- but he was faster, especially on his bike, and he took great advantage of that. He had been calling me "cotton-candy boy" ever since a small incident in sixth grade. I had bought some cotton candy one day after school, and as I walked home with it he rode past and snatched it from my hands. I chased him for a full block - I didn't give a shit about the cotton candy, but I refused to allow someone to take anything from me and get away with it, no matter what it was. I had chased him for a full block before he finally stopped (out of pity, most likely) and dropped it on the floor. I was even more out of shape then than I am now, and it caught up to me. I was heavily winded, but for some reason my first instinct was to punch the living hell out of him. He dodged two of my punches and gave me a cheap-shot kick in the groin. As I doubled over in pain, he gave me another kick in the stomach and shoved me to the ground. I started to cry, for obvious reasons, and he ran off smirking in triumph, making sure to step on the cotton candy as he left. I felt terrible, though I've never had the presence of mind to try and finish what he started five years ago. I think it was just because I was afraid if I got kicked there again I wouldn't be able to have kids.
"You're so cool, cotton-candy boy!" he said as he slowed down. "You must feel pretty bad-ass with that cigarette in your hands, huh?"
Again I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and you must feel pretty cool dressed like a tool," I said as I looked over his baggy plaid shorts, knee-high socks, skin-tight TapOut shirt and flat-billed Yankee's hat.
"You better watch what you say," he said in his mocking, douche-bag tone. "Don't make me take your cotton candy again."
"When are you going to grow the fuck up and forget about that?" I said, inhaling the smoke. It was a good thing I had it, if it weren't relaxing me right now I would've already gone over there and tried to beat his ass. "It was five years ago. Don't you have anything better to do than mock me? No body's going to give you any 'street cred' for being a dick towards me."
"That just makes it more fun for me man, I have no reputation on the line with you. You're all mine to fuck with. If you were actually capable of having friends I might back off a little."
"Why's that Dom? Because if I had friends, you'd be having your ass handed to you right now? I don't need friends. I don't need them to fight my battles for me, unlike you." I retorted, thinking I was winning.
"And yet we were alone that day with the cotton candy, now weren't we?" he said, smirking. My moment of internal glory had been smashed like a baseball through a window.
"We were ELEVEN!" I said, raising my voice. In my peripheral vision I saw a few heads turn towards us.
"And I could kick your ass just as easy as I did then," he said, matching the volume of my voice. I noticed some of the kids starting to walk towards us, obviously hoping there was a fight about to go down. I inhaled more of the tobacco, the cigarette almost completely gone now.
"Really? And what purpose would that serve? I haven't done anything to you. You've been a dick to me for the past five years and all I've done is sit back and take it. Well no more Dominic. I'm done with your bullshit. Get the fuck out of here before these kids see what they want to see."
He got off his bike and threw it on the ground as he stepped towards me. "Why not give them a show?" he said angrily, I could see him clenching his fist. "You need to watch your mouth around them, they might pick up bad habits." In a flash, he took a swing towards me. I stepped back, his fist missing me by inches. I ducked down and charged him, the cigarette getting hot in my hand. My head collided with his chest, knocking him to the floor and I went down with him. The kids had gathered around us and were now chanting "Fight, fight!" with various "oohs" and "ahhs" throughout. I used my forehead and head-butted his nose as he tried to punch at my sides. As the cigarette grew hotter, I got an idea.
I head-butted him again and raised my cigarette hand to his face quickly. I found an open spot on his cheek and touched the burning cherry to his pretty-boy face. He screamed in pain, and punched me so hard in the ribs I nearly fell off of him. I pushed the cherry harder onto his face, making sure it hurt. He threw me off and a wave of "OH SHIT!" went through the kids. He moved his face and the burning ash scattered across his face, making him moan in pain even more. He moved my hand and grabbed my wrist, then used my own head-butting tactic against me and got me straight in the nose.
Now that the both of us had bloody noses I couldn't tell whose blood was whose on the ground. I rolled off of him and we both stood, the kids now backing away from us to give us more room. He charged at me, and I moved out of the way again as he almost slammed into a short red-head girl in the crowd. He came back at me, but before he could throw a punch at me I had already connected with his jaw bone, and hard. I wasn't just mad at him any more, I was drawing on the rage that I had built up inside of me since before Eva was born. I glanced at my fist and saw blood starting to come out of the middle knuckle. I then went around him and maneuvered his arms and mine, giving him a full nelson lock like I had seen so many times on TV. I felt him struggling to break it, and I felt good that he hadn't yet. I swept my feet across his and tripped him, sending him to the floor with my lock still intact. He was now face down and I was above him. Now I was truly pissed, and I used his own struggling against him as I slammed his face into the concrete multiple times. Four, five, six times... I lost track, I just watched the blood flow from his mouth and nose onto the cement. I finally stopped when I heard him throwing up his lunch.
I let him go and stood up, the kids around us now backing away in fear. My hands were sore and my knuckles were bloodied so much that I couldn't tell if they were coming from the cuts on them, or if it was Dominic's blood smeared on them. I knelt down next to him as I saw him struggling to get up. I was angry still, but something in my head told me to do the right thing. I extended my hand and helped him up, seeing a pool of mouth-blood on the ground and a tooth resting in the blood in one of the pavement cracks. He stood up, wobbling slightly.
"We're done," I said, looking him straight in the burned face. "No more of this. No more cotton-candy boy, no more shit-talking, and no more fighting. I'm done with you, and you better be done with me." He spat more blood on the floor and nodded at me as he touched the fresh burn wound on his left cheek. It was still covered in cigarette ash, and looked somewhat like a severe sunburn. Without another word, he got on his bike and rode away, the middle-schoolers laughing at him and cheering me on. I looked around, seeing blood splatter in more places than I had realized. Picking up the tooth, I noticed it was one of his canine teeth. Was, anyways. My heartbeat started to slow down, and I looked up at the sky, the kids now mostly dispersed and going about their own business again. I couldn't help feeling bad about what I had just done. I noticed a cloud in the sky that, from this angle, looked almost like an obscure dragon. For some reason, that cloud made me realize why I was feeling bad.
This fight had made me become my father.
♠ ♠ ♠
So, NothinNNomore is giving me lots of praise for this chapter. How do you feel about it? Leave a comment and tell me! :DComment, rate, subscribe, refer this story to your friends and family and even your dog!
Or your cat. Or goldfish even. No, wait, not your goldfish, their memory restarts every 3 seconds. How about a turtle?
~DMAN4219