Watch out for this chapter. It's a bit to take in.

Chapter 2: He's A Dangerous Guy

Mai didn't think that not forgiving Joey would lead to all of that. She wanted to talk to him and yet she didn't. As far as she was concerned, it was his fault she left him and if he wanted to screw up his life, then he should go ahead. Despite this, she followed Tristan and Duke into Yugi's house. After all, she wasn't mad at him.

Tristan and Duke walked silently up the stairs with solemn faces. She didn't know what to expect now. Once they approached the door to Yugi's room, Duke softly grabbed the doorknob.

"If he's awake, he'll be glad to see you. We just have to drop off his homework." Tristan whispered.

"Why, is he sick?" Mai asked.

"In a way of speaking…kind of. Mentally? Most definitely." Duke whispered in reply. Before she could say anything else, Duke opened the door.

The second Mai saw Yugi, her jaw dropped. Yugi was lying asleep in his bed, his head was wrapped in a bandage and his arm was in an orange cast with writing on it. From what she could see, he was recovering from some nasty wounds on his face too. "Duke what happened?" she whispered.

"Joey." He whispered back and walked up to Yugi's bed. As he laid Yugi's schoolbooks by his side, Yugi started to wake up.

"Oh hi Duke!" He said cheerily. "Thanks for dropping off my homework."

"No sweat. Oh, and I've got some good news." Duke pulled out a paper. "You passed your math test. B+."

"Really? That's awesome, it was so hard."

"And another thing. You've got a visitor." Duke pointed in Mai's direction. When Yugi looked towards the doorway, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Mai?" He asked softly. "Mai! Oh wow, it's good to see you. Come here." Yugi stretched out his arms as she came near and hugged her in a way she never thought Yugi would ever hug her. "Oh man. I can't believe it's you. What are you doing here?"

"Just passing through."

"Well that's cool. Thanks for coming to see me. I have so much I want to talk to you about!"

"Just a second there short stuff, I need to talk to Tristan for a bit and then I'll answer any questions you want." Mai tried not to reveal how much Yugi's injuries worried her.

"Okay. Hurry." Yugi said, excited. Mai took Tristan's arm and led him back out into the hallway and closed the door.

"Joey did that to him?" She said. Her tone had changed dramatically. She was not only scared but also angry. Tristan nodded his head sadly. "Tell me exactly what happened."

Tristan sighed as he began to explain. "Once Joey started to drift away from us, we all tried to help. We kept trying to talk to him but he wouldn't listen. Said that if we couldn't accept him for who he was, then we weren't his friends.

"Bakura eventually gave up and stopped hanging out with us. Serenity tried too. Joey was actually kind of nice to her at first, but when she started crying and pleading for him to stop, he snapped at her. Called her a pampered, cry baby and if she didn't like it so much, that she should just stay with her mother and cry to her. And that's exactly what she did. When she went back to her mother's house, we never heard from her again.

"I tried a few times but it didn't work, Duke tried like once, Tea tried a few times and Yugi tried the most. He just kept pressing him until finally Joey wouldn't take it anymore."

"I told you to shut up!" Joey punched Yugi square in the face, causing his nose to bleed, but Yugi pressed on.

"Joey please! You're my best friend! I don't want you to hurt yourself!" Joey punched him multiple times in the stomach until he fell.

"From here, it doesn't look like I'm the one gettin' hurt." Joey cracked a smile. He had to admit he was thoroughly enjoying this. Joey kicked him once in the stomach, twice in the crotch, and once in the face.

Yugi spit out a decent amount of blood as well as a few fragments of teeth. "Joey please, stop! I know things have been hard since Mai left but—" Yugi didn't get a chance to finish. Joey kicked him in the head so hard, his head slammed against a brick wall and bounced off it. Blood trickled down the side of his face and his vision became blurry.

The sky was dark and it had suddenly begun to rain. For a moment there was peace, but Joey had come back and grabbed him by the collar. "Don't you ever mention that name again Yugi. Who the hell do you think you are?"

Yugi struggled to speak. "Your friend." Just then Yugi felt a sharp pain in his side and yelled out.

"Get this straight Yugi. I am not your friend and I don't have any. So stay away from me. As a matter of fact, if I even see you again, you'd better pray I'm in a good mood." Yugi felt the pain once again and passed out.

"So that's what happened to Yugi. Someone eventually found him and called for an ambulance. By the time most of us had gotten to the hospital, he was already in intensive care. He had a concussion, he needed stitches in the back of his head, broken nose, three broken ribs, his stomach was one big bruise, a little internal bleeding, broken arm, and he was stabbed twice."

"Holy shit!" Mai covered her mouth with her hands, horrified by what she had just heard.

"The police questioned him while he was recovering. He said he was jumped by some punks but it was too dark to see them. The police might have bought it but no one else did. Everyone, including kids at school knew who it really was."

"And nobody did anything?"

"Oh no, Tea did." Tristan opened the door to Yugi's room slightly. As though on cue, Mai turned and saw Tea coming up the stairs carrying a tray of soup. Tea looked up and saw Mai and Mai looked back at her. Both looked shocked. Tea quickened her pace and smiled.

"Mai, your back!" Tea said on the brink of tears. "Oh my gosh, how are you?"

Mai struggled to speak. "I've had better days. You?"

"Same." There was a brief silence as they continued to stare at each other. "Well, I'd better get this to Yugi and then we can talk some more."

"That sounds nice." Mai said. Tristan opened the door some more and let Tea in before closing it again. Mai looked at Tristan, shocked. "Don't tell me, Joey." Tristan nodded his head. Tea had been as messed up as Yugi. Her head was also wrapped up in a bandage, she was walking with a heavy limp, and her neck was in a brace.

"The day after Yugi was hospitalized, Tea had another little chat with our boy Joey and

things got a little heated.

"What the hell is wrong with you? He was just trying to help you because he's your friend." Joey sat at a table in the school's courtyard, smoking a joint, and had been trying to tune out whatever it was Tea was all mad about. Now he was getting annoyed and looked at her.

"I'll give you the same warning I gave Yugi and I'll say it slow. Shut….the fuck….up! And stay the hell away from me." Joey took a long drag of his joint and blew the smoke in her face.

"I'm not going anywhere until you agree to apologize."

"Well ya know what? You can suck my dick, 'cause I'm not gonna do a damn thing you say." Joey stood up and loomed over her.

"No thanks, I know how many girls have already done that and I wouldn't come anywhere near that nasty thing. I don't know what kind of diseases it's carrying."

"Ouch! That stung Tea!" Joey said sarcastically. "Anyway, I'm tired of this shit so just fuck off."

"You know what? It's no wonder Mai left your immature behind." Joey ground his teeth. She was really asking for it now. "It was your fault she left and now you're throwing a temper tantrum. All of a sudden the world is against you. That's the typical teenage train of thought, right? You're trying to rebel again. If she saw you now, it would only confirm what she probably thought. And that's that she needed a man and not some immature teenager that can't keep his dick in his pants!"

Joey exploded. He grabbed Tea by the hair and flung her to the ground. "If you wanna see a temper tantrum, I'll show you a temper tantrum." Joey dropped down onto her and grabbed her by the hair again. He pounded her head into the ground, over and over again with no remorse, until she had almost lost consciousness.

Bleary eyed, she saw Joey pull out his blade and felt it's razor sharp edge pressing against her neck. She could feel the blade slowly breaking through her skin and prepared for the finishing cut. Tea closed her eyes and said, "You're just mad because you know I'm right." But Tea couldn't stop herself from crying.

Hesitantly, Joey's switch blade pulled away from her neck. Tea slowly opened her tear filled eyes. For a moment she thought she had gotten through to him but immediately felt his hand grasp her throat and shake her. Tea gagged, unable to breathe. He was choking her to death.

"Let's try this again." Joey said, still shaking her by the neck. He pronounced each word to make sure she really understood this time. "I am not Yugi's friend and I most defiantly am not yours. You have no right to talk to me that way. I'm not an idiot. I have my own reasons for what I do, and I don't care if you guys like them or not. Now, if any of those guys try to have this discussion with me again, I'll kill 'em. Especially Yugi. I didn't try to kill him yesterday, but next time he won't be so lucky. Got it?" Joey squeezed her neck harder and shook her violently.

Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to nod her head. "Yes." She wheezed.

"Good." And with that, he slammed her head into the ground, knocking her out, took a long drag of his joint and walked away.

"Tea recovered pretty quick and now she's looking after Yugi." Tristan said.

"How long ago was this?" Mai asked.

"About three months ago."

"Three months?" Mai was surprised. "And they still can't go to school?"

"Well actually they can. Yugi's arm is fine for school, his stitches have already been removed, and so have Tea's. The doctors say that they're fine now but they keep complaining about their scars and their heads so their parents won't take them back yet. Neither of them wants to admit it but…"

"They're afraid to go back. They're afraid of Joey?" Mai asked. Tristan nodded his head. "But didn't Duke say that he rarely goes to school?"

"He doesn't go to class, but he's always at school. He usually just gets drunk or high, gets into fights, and flirts. But he's still there."

Mai had heard enough. It was one thing if Joey wanted to fuck up his own life, but hurting his friends was another. When she walked into the room, Yugi and Tea's faces lit up but they soon realized that Mai looked very serious.

"Is something wrong Mai?" Yugi asked.

"Yes. Something is definitely wrong, and its name is Joey Wheeler." She answered. The room's friendly atmosphere disappeared. Tea quivered and dropped a glass she was holding at the sound of his name.

"What are you going to do?" Tea asked uneasily.

"What do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to pull Wheeler off of his ass and bring him back."

"You can't do that! He won't like it!" Yugi yelled. He and Tea were very alarmed.

"Please don't do it." Tea said on the brink of tears. "Please, we're okay. It's not as bad as it looks."

"Come on Tea. You know you can't talk her out of it." Duke said. "He got into a fight today. One of the girls started to flirt with him. They should be down in his basement."

"Thanks Duke." Mai replied. Yugi and Tea were about to say something but Mai cut them off. "Don't worry. Joey can't hurt me. I'll talk some sense into that boy and I promise that by this time next week, you'll be going back to school."

Hearing this, Tea and Yugi began to cry. They didn't know whether to be assured by Mai's confidence or worried. Before Mai left, Yugi whimpered out something, but Mai missed it.

"What?" She asked.

Yugi said it louder. "He took my puzzle. When I was knocked out, he took it. He left me one piece but I don't know where he hid the rest of it." Yugi started to cry harder. "I want it back. I want him to give it back!" Yugi said his last words softly, as though he was ashamed to say it. "But I'm scared. I'm scared of my best friend. I couldn't help him so he beat me up and stole my puzzle. I don't want to ask him to give it back so…"

"Don't worry. I'll make Joey give it back." And with that, she headed down the stairs. As she approached the door, she heard Tristan behind her.

"Hey Mai, I know he won't do anything bad to you."

"How would you know? I heard the stories. He's different. He's a dangerous guy." Mai cracked a smile. Tristan smiled back at her.

"Not to you, he isn't."

Now Mai is gonna get involved, what happens now? You have to read the next chapter to find out!