zesty_pinto | (no subject)

I'm going to be out all weekend because I'm camping with the scouts! Wheee, I can see myself freezing in my sleeping bag again. Oh well, at least it will be in the company of others.

I actually made four stories yesterday. One more was inspired from a dream of mine a long long time ago when I was much younger. Maybe it was a fantasy of mine or something at the time. Err, here's the third.

"Conflict"

"Yeah?" Brian sat in his seat, waiting for class with a calm look in his eye as he admired the organized chaos of the soccer field. His teacher did not take his feigned disinterest lightly, but maintained her calm.

"You know what you did..." she said with an evenly strict tone.

"Yeah, so?" He turned, face in defiance.

"So..." She took a single step forward "So you understand the consequences?"

"Why should I?" He returned to looking lazily at the field "She deserved it."

"No girl deserves to be hit, Brian Schumaker!" She said it with a stomp.

"No guy deserves to get a slap in the face..." he muttered in his own anger.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Heh, nothing at all."

Detention was a simple thing that made his life tedious by two hours. He walked home past the baseball players and flinched.

"Damn face still hurts..." he muttered between his breath.

Being fifteen would have meant respect in most cases. His dad actually gave more of a shit about his opinion, his mom gave him a lighter curfew, and while the work was harder, he was allowed to be up later to make up for it. People even gave him some respect: being a linebacker meant that sort of thing, even if he was intravarsity.

He stole a glare at the woman's baseball team and then continued on his way.

I'm going to get that bitch one day... He shuffled into his coat tighter and sneezed, flinching again at the sting of a bruised blow. Melanie...

She was a girl of certain virtues. Of course, none of those virtues could be admired by most people. Born from a family with an abusive dad that was eventually relocated from her thanks to a witness protection program, she was like her father's own rage. Smart kid, people knew, but tough. Used to carry a pipe in her backpack until she actually used it.

She picked on Brian as soon as she entered junior high.

"Hey you, fat kid!" She would always greet him with.

"Shut up and go away," was his usual reply as he was lugging around books between classes. Bullies were bad enough when they were a year older than you. There were even worse when you were taught you could never hit them back.

All year he had to deal with her and her special way of calling him special names.

"Hey, fat kid!"

"Tubby!"

"Hey big boy!"

It wasn't what he wanted to hear. It was not like he was fat either.

"Hey, Al. Am I looking pudgy?" he asked his friend once.

"What, you actually listening to that Melanie? Forget what she's saying, you're buff."

If anyone spent as much time lifting they too would be called that. He was usually called that, but enjoyed being left alone. People liked to call him the gentle giant. No, it was only Melanie that got into his spine. She had that special way of getting him constantly. He joined clubs and would find her passing by through the meetings yelling that out through a window. He joined football and found that she joined women's baseball, which shared a similar practice time. He once nearly got a ball in the face while jogging when she was at bat and could not help but think that she intended it.

In eighth grade, he finally confronted her about it.

"Hey,"

"Heya fatass. What?"

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop calling me that, damn it."

"Calling you what? Fatty?"

"No, shut up, I'm serious."

"Oh, you're serious huh? Does this mean you'll actually stop whining?"

"No, fuck you, I'm being serious."

"Ooooo, he's being serious!" A crowd was starting to watch. He did not want a crowd.

"Yes, now just leave me the fuck alone for once."

"He said it again! just leave me the fuck alone for once." They were laughing.

"Forget it, go fuck around with your life you bitch." He started to walk out of the crowd.

She jumped up screaming "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" He continued walking. "Get the fuck back here and say it in my face!"

She rushed up and gave him a blow on the face. He felt a lost tooth. He replied with one of his large fists and she fell to the floor with a bloody nose.

After getting a principal and three teachers on his case, he got to listen to them reason with him that "violence was not the answer." Like I started it in the first place.

He walked home early because he was suspended from football. He saw her at the front of his door.

"You... the fuck do you want?" His hand pushed into a fist "Want to finish this?"

She glared back at him, a white bandage on her nose that he smiled at like a trophy that she deserved. "Yeah," her dark eyes squinting into angry slits.

"Well go ahead then. If you want to start something with me, then start it now. I have to explain this to my parents and I'm suspended from football. If I didn't think it was a fucked up situation, I would have already knocked you right now." Brian then stood up straight. "I dare you to hit me to get me back."

She walked up, the glare still at him. She approached, close enough to hit him even if he dodged. He didn't care, he just wanted an excuse to get her back, and this would have given him a chance to actually explain his situation.

She stared into his hate-filled eyes, clenched a fist, pulled it

-and embraced him.

"I love you..." was what she muttered between the tears that began to rise in her face.