"What's your problem, huh? Making me look like the dumbass out there? Slapping me like I'm the bitch? You tryin' to start somethin'?" Jack angrily forced out, taking tight hold of Ralph's shoulders to assert dominance. There was a moment of fuming silence from the blonde.
"Huh baby? Got nothin' to say?" Jack persisted, just to piss him off more. Ralph was still flustered and worked up and hurt all at once.
"You know what, fuck you! You wanna fight, let's fight. Maybe then you'll stop walking all over me." He retorted, then paused and got real close to Jack's face.
"You think I take your shit every single damn day cause I'm weak? You really think that? You think you're the toughest bitch on campus, but really you're just an insecure piece of crap. I've had just about a-fucking-nough. Take me for real and see what happens." Ralph spat angrily. He was purely livid, all his hurt from just a few seconds prior had shifted into pure rage and he'd lost control of what he was saying. He was so pissed at the redhead. He wanted Jack to feel just an ounce of what he felt every single day.
The redhead was shocked, having rarely heard the blonde swear, let alone get mad. He normally blushed, joked, and seemed all together awkward. Jack really wanted to let it slide, beings that the blonde was so damn sexy. (Especially when he was all worked up like this) But the dude had an image to uphold. He couldn't just let Ralph talk to him like that.
"Fine pansy, today, after school at the basketball court. You wanna prove me wrong? Bring the best you got. Just know that when I beat your ass, I'm not carrying you to the nurse."
Ralph scoffed, pushed the redhead off him and stated. "Yeah whatever bigshot, see you there." Then turned on his heel and strutted back to the cafeteria.
It took an entire 48 minutes for Ralph to realize he was utterly fucked. He didn't know how to fight, hell he'd never even punched anyone. The best move he had was the damn slap from earlier. And even that was pathetic. He didn't know why he played the tough guy to Jack. It was all bullshit-in the moment, pure unadulterated bullshit. If he could go back, he would apologize hella. He would probably do anything the redhead asked for in retribution. But instead he ran his damn mouth and now he would have to face the consequences. And Ralph was a weird combination of frightened and turned on. Just the idea of the redhead beating him up was kind of hot. All sweaty and angry. But he didn't want to dwell on that idea. Instead he spent the next three classes trying to figure out how to get out of the fight. He realized he would have to grovel and aplogize and beg. He hoped to hell Jack hadn't spread the word about the fight, and that there would be no crowd waiting for their supposed brawl.
It was fitting to the mood of his day when he begrudgingly walked to the basketball court to discover at least 75 kids waiting to watch the fight, Jack standing smack in the middle of it all. When he saw his blonde rival approaching, he smirked evilly.
"Hey baby, wasn't sure you'd show up." He stated proudly. Ralph was immediately pissed off at the use of the nickname.
"Come here and we can get started." The redhead called in a seductive tone of voice. Of course it was for the pure purpose of mocking Ralph, but that didn't stop the blonde from getting ideas. He'd been trying to play mean back, but he should've realized how dumb that was. You can't fight fire with fire. Ralph was never going to beat the redhead at his own game, just like Jack could never figure out how to solve a fucking calculus problem. They were just different like that.
So the blonde decided to take a different approach.
"Oh yeah, I wouldn't miss it for the world." He replied, using the sexiest tone of voice he could conjure up. He knew the redhead liked to treat Ralph like his bitch, but how far would he really be willing to go in front of a crowd his peers? The blonde walked slowly over to Jack and grabbed onto the collar of his shirt. Jack's eyes widened in surprise.
"How did you wanna start, sexy?" Ralph asked, then licked his lips slowly. Jack swallowed audibly. He never expected the blonde to act like this. But instead of letting it go further, he harshly pushed the boy off of him.
"Fuck me later baby, we gotta fight now, just like you wanted." He retorted. Ralph sighed, realizing he was gonna get beat up. There didn't seem to be another way out, the crowd surrounding them completely.
"Look I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me earlier. Can't we just call a truce?" The blonde mumbled, last ditch attempt at getting out of this situation. Jack got real close to Ralphs ear.
"I'm sorry, but I gotta do this now. It's who I am here. You're just gonna have to take it and give me back the best that you got. But I'll try to go easy on you, okay?" He whispered, then stepped back abruptly. To the rest of the crowd, the shock on Ralph's face could be mistaken as fear. But really he was just surprised to get even an inch of honesty or compassion from the redhead. Snapping out of his stupor, he spoke.
"Don't do this." He muttered, looking Jack straight in the eyes. The redhead frowned, but quickly morphed his face into one of anger for the crowd. He punched the blonde straight in the eye. Ralph was knocked to the ground by the impact. Jack grabbed his sweater and hauled him back to his feet, after all it wasn't a fair to hit someone while they were down. The redhead proceeded to knee Ralph in the ribs at least three times.
"At least try to fight back pussy." He yelled. Ralph just kept on taking the beating, punch after punch, kick after kick. Until finally, he was down on the cement crying, blood streaming from his lip and underneath his eye, spurting from his nose. His rib cage ached horribly.
"Jack please stop." He whimpered, finally recognizing the situation wholly, realizing that the one he loved was beating the shit out of him. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fight back, even if he wanted to, even if he was strong enough, his heart wouldn't let him. Jack looked down at the blonde and frowned angrily. He crouched down and leaned in real close to the blonde
"You haven't even tried to hit me back once, at least make this harder for me!" He whispered frustrated. The redhead didn't know what to do. He really didn't want to keep hitting the blonde, but he'd have no choice if things kept on like this. He had to be the tough one, always had to look strong. If he didn't have his reputation, he was nothing. At last, Jack realized an out.
"Run. Get up and run as fast as you can." He commanded. Ralph looked up at him, wide eyed and scared. He nodded once, more subtle than ever. Jack stood up and took an almost inconceivable step back, giving the blonde some space. Ralph stood up, turned around and pushed straight through the crowd, sprinting out of the area. He didn't think he would've been able to do it, but he was. The people were too unprepared to stop him, having been previously engrossed in the fight. Jack pretended to be shocked and took off speedily after Ralph. The two made it all the way to a forest near the school. At first people had attempted to follow them, but they'd given up when the pair of boys had been too fast to keep up with.
Jack and Ralph were both keeled over trying to catch their breath, and Ralph was damn exhausted. He collapsed into the dirt, wondering why Jack was still standing there. Wishing the redhead would leave so he could properly sob.
"Please go away." He forced out in between puffs of air. Jack looked at the boy, face blank. There seemed to be some unspoken emotion dwelling in his eyes, but he wouldn't vocalize it. There was a long silence and then suddenly, Jack just turned around and walked away. No apology, nothing. As soon as the redhead disappeared, Ralph burst into proper tears. He felt his face with his fingers, it was tender and sore and bloody. He most likely looked a mess. After about fifteen minutes of 'licking his wounds', he dragged himself to a standing position and began the long trek home.
It was dark by the time he made it to his house. Normally, it would've been a 30 minute bus ride, it was an hour walk. It got dark early in the winter. He didn't want to call his parents either, they were both at work and didn't need to know what had happened. They were hardly around anyway, and probably wouldn't notice the bruises littering his face. Ralph was always awake and at school before his parents even got up for work, and he was always asleep by the time they got home. He was basically a stranger in his own home, only texting them when he needed something. So when he wandered into the house at 5:30pm and there was nobody around to chastise him, he wasn't shocked. He'd have to patch up his wounds all by himself. And really that was what was best for everyone.
He trekked inside and lugged himself into his room, collapsing on the bed, exhausted. He let himself lie down for nearly 15 minutes. But his face was throbbing so badly he knew he'd have to deal with it so that he could minimize swelling for school the next day. He dragged himself into the kitchen and carefully washed his face in the kitchen sink. Once he'd gotten all the dried blood off, he rummaged through the freezer until he found a bag of frozen peas. He went into the living room and slumped down onto the old couch, holding the ice gingerly against his face. But his side was achy too, so he had to get up and find more ice. By then he was annoyed and grumpy and just wanted to sleep. He crawled back into his bed and laid down so that the ice packs rested on both his face and chest without him having to hold them in place. As soon as he was in a comfortable position, he passed the fuck out.
