Bring on the ultimate conflict match!

Chapter 9: Confronting Jonah

Later on, Jonah headed back home, feeling a little bit confident about what Ned told him and that he's a better person and is almost like a father figure, unlike Paul. He enters the house and walks upstairs to just get started on his homework. He's done only two subjects for about an hour and a half and after he got through with them, he decided to come see what his brothers are up to. He gets off his bed, walks out of the room and goes to Travis' room to see what he's up to. He knocks on his door and Travis said, "Come in."

Jonah opened the door and Travis turned around and he saw his brother coming in. He smiled and said, "Hey."

"Hi. What are you doing?"

"Just practicing the guitar."

Jonah heard Travis play his guitar and he seemed like a natural at it, because he has heard him play guitar a million times before and has always liked his renditions of songs in it. He chuckled and said, "I'm a bit rusty, but..."

"I think it's awesome." Jonah said.

That lightened up Travis' eyes and asked, "You think so?"

"Absolutely."

"Wow, thanks."

"No problem."

Jonah walks out of Travis' room and went back to his room, but just as he was about to enter, a burst from the front door startled him from upstairs. He looked down and saw that it's Paul and he looked extremely heated. Then, he saw Jonah upstairs and shouted his name at the top of his lungs.

"JONAH!"

Paul was seething a lot and Jonah slowly crept up from behind the wall and asked fearfully, "Y-Yeah, Paul?"

"Get down here right now!"

That sent shivers down to his spine and he walked downstairs and faced him, looking deeply upset and furious at him. He asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

"I saw you with the mayor and he actually...hugged you?"

Jonah didn't know that he actually saw the mayor hugging him tightly while he was in his office. He asked, "How'd you see that?"

"When I walked past his office, I was you talking to him and I heard you say some stupid things about me beating you guys up."

"Well...it's somewhat true."

"IT IS NOT TRUE!" Paul shouted.

That really scared the crap out of him to hear him raise his voice directly at him and he said, "I-I just needed to talk to someone about this."

"I told you boys not to tell anyone that I've ever beaten you all and you let the secret come out?"

"I can't keep things bottled up forever. Plus, I wanted to tell someone about it, anyway."

Paul couldn't believe what he was hearing and he was not only mad at Jonah, but also at the mayor's kid. He turned away and asked, "It was that mayor's kid that talked you into it, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah he did. He was just helping me out."

Then, Paul turned to Jonah and said, "That stupid emo look-alike couldn't fit to be your friend! You are not going to be involved with that freak or his dad again, you got it?"

Hearing this shattered Jonah that he couldn't see Jojo, but that little voice in his head wanted to tell him off, because Jojo's been a real good friend to him and he replied, "No."

Paul froze for a second, then slowly turned to Jonah and asked, "W-What did you say?"

"You heard me. I'm so sick of you beating on me and my brothers all the time and making us feel like crap."

"That's because you are crap! You're weak, useless and no-good!"

"At least I'm special."

Paul slapped Jonah in the face hard and threw him into the wall and shouted, "YOU SHUT UP! You are NOT special at all! Whoever told you something like that must be stupid enough to be your friend. You're pathetic, useless a nobody and nobody will EVER be your friend!"

Jonah got up and said, "You're wrong."

"How would you know? You're 15 years old!"

"So what? I know who my friends are and Jojo is one of them!"

"That punk is not your friend!"

"He is!"

"Stay away from Jojo!"

Jonah grew really ticked and knew that he won't take anymore of his stepfather's abusive attitude, so he lowered his eyebrows and said, "Make me."

Paul snarled at him, and then he climbed up the coffee table, jumped at Jonah and bodyslammed him down to the ground. Objects were thrown directly at him and he beat him up and there were screaming from all over the house.

On the outside, the screaming and throwing things were heard a mile away and Jojo walked past the house and the screaming definitely caught his attention. He climbed over to the window and saw Paul just losing it at Jonah. He gasped in shock and figured that Paul was being more violent and aggressive towards him. Ned comes in and finds Jojo looking at the window and he saw a terrible sight in there.

"Someone's got to stop." Ned said.

Jojo braced himself for the extreme and went in on himself and opened the door and shouted, "STOP!"

The fight was in a constant pause when Paul and Jonah looked at Jojo and Jonah was overjoyed. Jojo turned to Jonah and asked, "You okay?"

"Not really." Jonah answered.

"Get out of my house! You're not welcome here!" Paul shouted.

"Maybe he doesn't want to get out of your house." Ned said, as he stepped in.

"You shut up!"

"Maybe he doesn't want to shut up!" Jonah exclaimed.

Paul punched him in the eye and Ned couldn't bear to see this anymore. He stepped up to Paul and said, "I didn't want to say anything, but after seeing this again, it's obviously you have a problem."

"The problem is you and that little ragamuffin emo brat that you call your son! What kind of father are you?" Paul asked.

"Nobody talks to my son like that!"

"Your son is a troublemaker to my kids."

"Since when?" asked Jojo.

"Since you showed up in their lives."

"I'm being a good friend to them. It's your fault that they're afraid of you."

"So what if they're afraid of me? They should be afraid of me! That's how they'll respect me."

"By turning to violence and taking it out in front of your kids?" asked Ned.

"I'll murder these kids if I have to and you'll do it if anyone comes in my way!"

Then, he punched Ned in the face and lunged at Jojo's neck. Jojo started choking and he got strangled a couple of times and threw him in the wall. Ned gets up and saw Jojo lying on the ground. Paul comes at him with a crowbar to use it on Jojo. Ned gasped in horror and runs towards him and grabs him by the ankle and made him fall down on the floor.

"You leave my son alone!" Ned shouted.

"I haven't harmed your son...yet."

All of a sudden, Jonah flies in and grabs him by the neck and pushing him down on the floor. Then, he went upstairs and fell down from there and bodyslammed him down on the ground. Paul grabbed him and threw him to the couch and landed on the floor. Paul comes at Jojo and said, "You're the mistake of meeting my stepsons!"

"No, the mistake was harming my son and hiring you in City Hall." Ned said.

Paul turns to him and asked, "What does that mean?"

"You're fired."

That made him even more upset than ever and he turns to Ned and beat him up senselessly and Paul comes at Jojo and beats him down as well. Travis, Jonah, Sam, Hawk and Cyrus watch in horror to see them both beaten up. Suddenly, Jonah couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "STOP IT!"

It suddenly stopped and Ned ended up with a few scars and beating marks on his face and Jojo's face ended up with a black eye and a few cuts and bruises. Jonah felt totally mad and said, "You leave my friends alone!"

"They are not your friends! Since when have you ever made friends with them in the first place?" Paul shouted.

"For a long time, I felt so lonely until I met Jojo, his dad and some of Jojo's friends. We all feel the same way as well and that's what we like about them."

Paul could not believe what he was hearing; that his brothers were friends with Jojo as well. He asked, "You're friends with him, too?"

"Best friends." Travis said.

Paul snarled and let Ned and Jojo go and they went away and Ned turns around and said, "This isn't over!"

As soon as they left, they beat the crap out of the boys, one-by-one and intimidated them nonstop. After only 3 hours of ultimate bullying and torture, it was over. Travis, Jonah, Hawk, Cyrus and Sam went back to their rooms, beaten and scarred. Jonah went into his bed with tears in his face and he turned away on the other side of the bed, just crying his eyes out.

Travis crept into the room and saw Jonah breaking down again and this time, he puts his hand on Jonah's shoulder. Jonah turned slowly and saw Travis, looking misty-eyed. He said, "You stood up to Paul."

"I just couldn't take the abuse anymore. It hurt me a lot more than you guys." Jonah said.

"What's gonna happen to us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well..."

He paused for a second and sighed heavily and said, "Never mind. I'll tell you later."

He left Jonah's room with tears in his eyes and Jonah's eyes welled up with tears as well as he laid down on his bed, with his head laid down on the pillow and a few tears were coming down on his face. He knows that Jojo is a really good friend to them and he doesn't know why his stepfather would say some horrible things about him.

Whoa! Talk about your family drama! This is BRUTAL family drama! How can Paul do something like that? What is he thinking? Stick around for more!