Love Me or Hate Me

Magnet walked into the tent with the members of tents D, C and F. I watched as the boys piled into the room and encircled my cot, and judging by the look on their faces, it didn’t take a genius to know that something bad was about to go down. The boys parted down the middle and Magnet came up to my cot and got in my face.

“Magnet, hey,” I said hesitantly. “What’s up?”

“Look at what you did to my face man!” he yelled.

I jump a little at his outburst before quickly regaining my composure.

“Magnet, calm down. It’s not that serious, and besides, what makes you think I did it?”

“I’m not an idiot Cannon!”

“You coulda fooled me,” mumbled under my breath.

Magnet glared at me before mumbling something in Spanish.

“Cannon I know you did this, you’re the only one who coulda done it.”

“How do you know? You have no proof.” I said with a smirk on my face.

I was messing with him now and judging by the look on his face, which was still covered in ink from my pen, he knew it. Silence filled the overly crowded tent as Magnet and I fell into a death glare contest. Both our eyes were narrowed, each wordlessly daring the other to blink first. We stood there for what felt like forever before I saw Magnet’s right eye quivering. My smirk only deepened when I saw him blink.

What happened next happened so fast I barely had time to react. Once Magnet saw the very prominent smirk on my face, he let out what can only be described as an animalistic growl before he grabbed me by my neck and had me pinned to the wall. It took a minute for my brain to register what had happened, but once it did, it would be the understatement of the year to say I was pissed. I saw Curly coming up behind Magnet looking at me for any sign that said I wanted him to jump in, but I shook my head slightly telling him not to get involved. He complied and drifted back to his previous spot.

“Admit you did this Cannon!” Magnet yelled, his hand still on my larynx. He wasn't gripping tightly so that meant he wasn’t doing any real damage.

“Magnet, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. Why don’t you let go of my throat and go wash your face?”

He began putting his weight closer to me and tightening his grip on my throat, blocking my airways. “Because I shouldn’t have to,” he said in a dangerous tone I wasn’t aware he was capable of making before saying something I didn’t understand in Spanish.

By this time Curly was ignoring what I had said earlier about him not interfering and made his way up to Magnet. Out of nowhere he jumped on Magnet’s back, startling him, and punching him on his chest, sides and back. He didn’t stop until one of the boys from “C” tent had pulled him off. Despite all that, Magnet’s hold on my throat never loosened. I was loosing air and it felt like I could pass out at any minute when Magnet let out a scream and looked down to see Curly biting his ankle. His grip loosened.

“Why you little,” he began before raising his balled fist and bringing it down to punch Curly. When I saw his arm about to come down, I used the last of my strength to elbow him in the face. He let go of my throat and staggered a bit before falling back on the cot across from mine.

I dropped to the floor and brought my hand to my throat. I knew I would be sporting some nice purple and black bruises there by this time tomorrow. I turned my gaze in the direction of my best friend.

“Curly, are you okay,” I asked. My voice came out raspy and crackling.

He nodded.

“Thank you.”

He nodded again.

I got up from the floor and walked over to Magnet, who was still lying on the cot. When I saw the position he was in, knocked out and sprawled out, I couldn’t help but smirk. I didn’t know I had hit him that hard. By this time all the boys in the tent had seen that he was out cold on the cot and were all laughing at his expense. I stood over him glaring darkly at his unconscious body. I was still relatively pissed he had choked me out. I raised my balled fist and as I bought it down to collide with his face, it was stopped midair by a big strong hand clasping onto my wrist. I glared at the hand then let my eyes travel up the body it was attached to.

“Stay out of this X-Ray and let go of my arm.”

“No. Cannon, you and Magnet just got off of punishment you beating him while he sleep is going to do nothing but you sent right back.”

“So,” I said with contempt just wishing he would let go of my wrist.

“I can’t let you beat him up while he’s asleep Cannon, I’m sorry,” he said before dropping my arm, but not moving from his place.

I looked him in his eyes through his thick and dirt covered glasses before sighing and going back over to my cot. I grabbed my journal and my sketch book before pushing my way through the boys and walking out of the tent. I heard footsteps running to catch up to me. Falling in step beside me Curly asked me if I was okay. I turned to glare at him.

“I’m sorry Curly,” I said when I saw him shrink back. “I’m just upset.”

I stopped when we came to the water spigot and sat on the ground by it. Curly followed my lead and sat beside me.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked after a minute of silence.

It was a few minutes before I answered. I looked at him before I began writing in my journal.

“Not really,” I replied. “But I will tell you this, I am going to get him back.”