Angling myself over the pool table, I adjusted the cue and took the shot. The ball rolled striking its intended target into the correlating hole. Smiling, I caught eyes with Slider, sharing a smirk. Picking up my beer from the table behind me I turned to the cowboys we had been playing against all night.

"Your turn boys." I drawled out. The smug smile, still hanging on my lips.

The older of the two, probably late twenties by the look of him, approached. He had a roll of chewing tobacco hanging from his lip, I mentally cringed I couldn't stand chew. Quickly approached me, his eyes narrowed.

"You been hustling us boy?" I took a step away to distance myself from the enraged man. I didn't need to turn around to know that Slider was coming around the other side of the table to back me up. He always had my back.

Taking a firmed hold of the pool cue incase I needed to use it for a weapon, I slanted my posture: shoulders back, chin up and balanced my weight so I could move quickly if I needed too. I knew I had a good build for a kid my age, and in this moment I was trying to use that to my advantage to intimidate the older man. At sixteen I could take on a lot of people twice my age, I had before. If I still gave a damn about school I would probably fit in great on the football team. I had been in track for a little while my freshman year before everything fell apart.

I tried to keep my voice calm and laid back, imitating Paul Newman or James Dean or any number of the tuff hoods I had grown up around. This was a pretty rough bar and I didn't want trouble if I could avoid it. Besides we had a pretty good set up with the bartender: he let us in to do our thing and in return we gave him a cut of the profits.

"Naw man, just warming up I guess."

Before I could react the blond cowboy grabbed the collar of my shirt, wrenching me closer to his face the odor of beer ,spit and sweat assaulting my nose. "I don't believe you kid."

I slammed my fist into the side of his face. Successfully getting him to let me go and jammed the end of the pool stick into his gut. This caused him to hunch over, but I still did not get the result I wanted. Head down like an angry bull he rammed strait into my mid section, sending us both sprawling backwards so I was sprawled onto the pool table behind me. I tried kicking upward to leverage myself upwards and get the man off. A white hot pain suddenly exploded in my abdomen, eyes widening with agony I watched numbly as Slider jumped onto the back of the cowboy, grabbing him into a choke hold trying to pull him off. I made a strange sort of gurgling sound. I thought to warn him about the second cowboy coming up behind but the world got sort of hazy. All I could do was stare at the blood drenching my t-shirt and the knife bobbling out of my stomach. 'This is how Bob must have felt.' Was the last conscious thought I had.