Author's Notes: Y'know what's another kind of rather unpleasant behavior that is in no way beyond the greasers? Urinating in public. I occasionally see couple of 'em taking a piss at the same time near the bike garage of New Coventry. Ew.
Chapter 19: Outburst
Chem-O-Lot plant was a wretched, hated construction. Prior to being nearly abandoned, it had been the favorite punching bag of Bullworth's conspiracy theorists, whose clever deductions ranged from the chem plant putting something in the water to make people morally corrupt and easy to manipulate to the chem plant being a secret base belonging to extraterrestrial organisms. Sadly, there seemed to be a hint of truth in some of their theories, as one day a series of lawsuits had started to fall on the owners of the ill fated plant and, in rather shady circumstances, it had to be put to slumber. The men in tin foil hats still did a lot of guessing, but all anyone knew about what exactly happened was that a lot of money had exchanged hands to keep it hush-hush. So, it was a mystery.
Although shop teacher Neil's really wild version of the story had been pretty entertaining, most of this intrigue was pretty meaningless to Larry Romano. There was one mystifying thing about the plant that he would've wanted to know though: who had decided that the plant sorely needed a steep, poorly weather-protected slope running down from the roof? A good portion of it was sheltered from the rain and snow, but it wasn't enough – the slope was still frozen into a slippery death trap every winter. A death trap that was possibly threatening the lives of two careless youths sliding and tumbling down towards the base of the building.
The beginning of their way down was the worst because the first few lamps lighting the slope were busted, but it didn't get much better for the boys even after they were able to actually see where they were going. Not that their destination wasn't obvious: the only option they had was to go down. Johnny's accidental fall into the hole he had dug for Larry slung him into the front and loosened Larry's grip on him and the last bits of non-slippery surface before the icy slope. It was a quick and rough ride – they both hit each other and the chain link fence on the edge of the slope several times before they could see the end of it.
Johnny was the first to reach the finish line. He slammed straight into the chain link fence, although not as painfully as he could have. That wasn't all, though: just when he was about to start forcing himself to move out of the way, Larry's weight crashed into him with a loud "oof".
"Ssssssshit...", Larry hissed as the world spun around him. He immediately started groping for stable ground for support, but the first thing his hands met was far from stable.
"Gh... Get offa me!" Johnny grunted at the dead weight that was partially, but still quite heavily, on top of him.
Larry scrambled, almost falling on top of the downtrodden boy just after he had located his feet and managed to place his weight on them, and then staggered away from him. When he turned to look at Johnny, he was struggling to lift his torso from the ice and snow.
"Are you alright Johnny?" he asked with a frown and attempted to give him a hand. His efforts were met with a hostile glare.
"Back the hell off. We ain't done with the fight yet!" the greaser king growled as he forced himself to his feet. As he stumbled forwards, he lost his balance.
"Owowow, goddamn!" he yelped.
Instinctively, Larry stepped in to catch him by his shoulders before he fell into the ground. When stabilized, the greaser king pushed him off and backed away from his opponent, moving down from the beginning of the slope. Larry got the message and left his old friend be, but a sharp inhale through Johnny's teeth signaled Larry that something was wrong.
"Hey, are you okay?" the shorter boy asked, worried.
He noticed that some blood was trickling down Johnny's lip, but there was no telling if whatever was causing that was the only thing hurting him. As the leaner boy opened his mouth to form an answer, he suddenly hunched over a bit and took another hissing breath while his other hand shot behind him to apply pressure against his lower back.
"Aw, fuck! My back, I think I sprained my back...", he snarled through his clenched teeth and took a couple of painful steps to lean stiffly against the chain link fence. You could almost hear the house of cards that was Larry's mind falter and scatter as he tilted his head and looked at Johnny with a stupefied expression.
"Your, ha-ha... Your back?" he voiced incredulously. Johnny confirmed his words by trying to straighten himself, only to move his back right into the wrong angle, getting another helping of pain that forced an pathetic whimper out of him.
Right that moment, Larry started laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"What the hell are you laughin' at?" Johnny snapped, giving the moronically guffawing youngster the mother of all death glares. Larry didn't notice that though; he was too busy doubling over and shedding tears in the midst of his convulsive laughter.
"H-Hey!" Johnny tried to interrupt, but in vain.
"S-Sorry man, I just- pffffwhaha, hahahaha!" Larry answered and staggered to the same chain link fence for support.
For a moment, Johnny looked at him with all the innocent confusion of a dog with a flipped ear wondering what its owner finds so funny. But then, that confusion turned into embarrassment, and further into annoyance and anger as the mad laughter went on non-stop.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHIN' AT?" he bellowed as he lunged at Larry to tear him a new one. The two boys fell into the ground with Johnny on top, cringing at the pain that shot upwards from his lower back while he hit Larry with a barrage of hasty, hamhanded punches.
"H-hey, haha, wait! Wait! I give, I give!" the youth below voiced while trying to block the hits and to hold back his chortling.
Johnny had no intention to stop, but he really had no choice when he apparently found an even more painful angle and his body automatically jerked to avoid the hell out of being in the pose that he had just discovered.
"Ssssshit!" he hissed as he moved his hand to support his back and his other one leaned against the ground next to the still cackling Larry. Johnny gave up on hitting him and wedged himself off the guy while huffing frustratedly.
This instigated another wave of laughter in the flushed and very exhilarated Larry and Johnny would've cared a lot more about it if only he hadn't been startled by the sound of something hitting the same chain link fence he had been hurled against.
"Whoa, shit", sounded Lucky's voice as the tall auburn-haired greaser tried to struggle away from the big plastic bag he had slid down in. When he managed to pull his legs out and step away from the slope in case someone else was coming, he looked to the ground where the two boys were and wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or worried when he saw the other one lying on his back panting, laughing, and coughing, and the other one knelt in the snow with a face so sour it could make milk into curd.
Well, at least they weren't at each other's throats anymore.
Author's Notes: Practically nothing in the game itself suggests anything resembling what I've written about the history of the chem plant, just so you know. Remember some earlier chapter about some guys being infertile thanks to the plant? That too, although there is one woman in Bullworth that complains that she can't get preggers for whatever reason. It's just wild guessing inspired by an offhanded comment by some student at school about how there must be something in the water that makes the people of Bullworth insane (or something to that effect). I think it was Lance Jackson, actually, which makes sense because that kid is pretty darn sane compared to most people in that crazy town.