Andrew
The Day He Was Sent
"Andrew, today needs to be the day," his dad said.
Andy rolled his eyes and continued to look out the window. His dad had been ranting and raving for a some time while driving him to school. Andy wished more than ever on this day that his dad had not needed the truck. At this moment he was really wanting to be alone and driving to school. Eventually his dad hit him on the shoulder.
"Are you even listening to me?" his dad asked with irritation.
"Yes," he answered drawn out and annoyed.
"Seriously Andrew. You need to open up and let loose. Find the right target and let into him. Don't let the rest of the team think you're a pansy. Do you hear me?" his dad interrogated.
"Alright!" Andy snapped
When they pulled up, Andy saw the school burnout walking by in a flannel shirt, gray coat and aviators. He looked in a different direction to avoid making eye contact. He then rolled his eyes when he saw his dad staring at him. He knew he was about to be pissed at his dad real bad. He wasn't disappointed. His dad pointed at the burnout.
"You see that guy right there with the aviators?" he asked.
"Yea. That's Bender. What about him?" Andy replied.
"Guarantee he lets loose. Be more like him. Let loose harder than that guy does. Be better than the burn out. Guaranteed that's why no one messes with him. Because he'll nail them and make them regret it."
Andy just slammed the door to the truck and walked away. He quickly passed by Bender and ignored the comment Bender made as he went off to class. The rest of the day he sat through his classes. It got to a point that he talked his teachers into excusing him from his last two classes. He spent that time in the weight room with his fathers words still consuming his thoughts.
He went to his locker at the end of the day. When he left his locker, he bumped the red haired nerd from his algebra class. Andy glared at him and then knocked his books out of his hand. Suddenly a shorter, slightly husky and hairy kid stepped over and looked Andy in the eye. Andy just glared back.
"What's with you Andy? It was an accident?" he asked.
"But out Larry! Just leave me alone alright?" Andy yelled at him and continued on as other students began to point and laugh and talk amongst themselves.
On top of everything else, now he was angry that Larry Lester had stepped up to him and embarrassed him in front of everyone. As he walked to wrestling practice, he could only think of now of how to preserve his reputation. With too much running through his head, he threw his duffel bag on the floor before he sat down. Now to make matters worse, his knee was beginning to hurt. The pain caused by an injury he received freshman year while wrestling against their rivals, Nelson High School.
Andy changed into his singlet and then got his athletic tape from his locker. He was still reflecting on the things his dad had told him that morning. The me he reflected on it, the more aggressively and roughly he taped his knee. Before long, he was finished and breathing hard in anger. He noticed the other guys in the locker room turning away and others sniggering. Which meant that Larry was changing. Andy looked over at Larry and the embarrassment returned. Suddenly he lunged.
All of the emotions he had felt all day came out. In a rage of red and black. His awareness was gone. All he knew at that moment was that he was beginning to feel better because he was unleashing all of his emotions and his fathers voice was silencing. Suddenly everything was clearing up and all of the other jocks were cheering.
He looked down to see Larry Lester screaming and crying. Andy discovered he was still holding the roll of tape and had taped Larry's buns together. When the realization of what he did hit him, he instantly felt shame and regret. When the coaches pulled him off, he put up no resistance.
"Clark! What the Hell's the matter with you?"
"I'm sorry Larry!"
When the locker room cleared out, Andy stayed behind to try and help. The coaches instead made him watch while they had no choice but to take their time taking off the tape while Larry had no choice but to lay there and cry and scream. He began to cry himself when they got to the final layers and Larry's hair began ripping off with the tape. Then some of Larry's skin came off on the tape too. Andy's heart was further wrenched when Larry began to tearfully plead with the coaches to not call and tell his parents what happened.
"We won't tell them Larry," the coach answered and turned to Andy, "Clark I hope you're happy. Now either Larry gets to tell his parents, or you do. You better deliver next weekend to stay on the team after this."
Andy had, no answer
