It was just one problematic situation after another. First crashing my bike, then Justin threatening to ruin my reputation, and now this? I had no idea what I had ever done to deserve such terrible things. Was it because I shoved Algernon into Damon's locker several weeks prior? Was it because I used to harass the homeless people back in freshman year? Was it because I went around telling everyone that Johnny Vincent was a hermaphrodite? Yes, I realized that I may have been a tad bit snobbish at times, but snobbery shouldn't have been punished with something like this. This was...

This was just cruel.

It almost felt as though someone were forcing these terrible things to happen to me for the sake of having a story to tell. What was I, some plot device?

Whatever the reason for my punishment, I wasn't prepared to lie down and take it. After all of what had recently happened, I was not in the mood. I snarled, turning on my heels to face that damned Peanut. He was accompanied by Ricky, Hal, and Norton, leather clad scum with tightened fists and deepening scowls spread across their faces. Ordinarily they would have been a rather intimidating bunch, but I couldn't have been bothered to think about that. They didn't scare me, and I was ready to give them a piece of my mind.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I was able to say anything, that Otto interrupted me with a click of his tongue. "Go to bed, you dumb kids! You have school tomorrow, goddamit!" For a small boy, he gave off overwhelming amounts of aggression. He was much more stern and threatening than I could ever be.

I closed my mouth. Perhaps it would have been better to let the Townies do the talking for me.

"Yeah, get lost, losers! We're in the middle of somethin'," Omar chimed in.

Those Townies seemed content with handling the Greaseballs themselves, stepping closer with every jeer. Perhaps this was a good thing.

Norton, being the largest of the Greasers, towered over that Otto. There was an unequivocal difference between them, with Otto about my size and Norton no less than six feet tall, but Otto held his ground with great strength. It seemed as though he were blind to their differences.

For anyone, not just someone of his size, he was belligerent, and I found it rather incredible.

The two of them stepped forward, far beyond invading each other's personal space.

"How many times to we gotta tell you douchebags to stay offa our turf, huh? Your dealers ain't around here," Norton spat.

"Get the hell outta my face!" Otto barked, shoving him as hard as a smaller boy could. With veins jutting from his neck and face turning red, it was no difficult task noticing that he was not happy.

Hal laughed. "Big talk from a skinny twerp like you."

Skinny. Otto didn't appear to like that word. It only angered him further. A fire ignited in his eyes and a growl sounded from between his gritted teeth. "I'll kill you!"

Gurney held him back by the collar of his shirt with ease, leaving him clawing the air in front of him as though that would bring him closer.

Peanut scoffed. "Yeah, okay." With an indifferent shrug, Romano directed his attention to me. "I thought I told you to stay away from our place, Gordy? You should know we don't want you wanderin' around down here."

This wandering nonsense again?

I was hoping to let the Townies take care of this, but I wasn't afraid of standing up for myself. I huffed. "First of all, Romano, I do not wander! Second, the only reason I came here, to your slums, was because I had business to attend to." I held my ground, crossing my arms over my chest. "And that business is none of yours. So if you'd be so kind..." I shooed at them, nose to the air.

"Yeah, you tell 'em, duder. Screw off, Greasy!" Duncan added with a confident smirk, stepping to my side to place an arm around my shoulders.

I couldn't help but groan. "It really isn't necessary for you to get involved, you know," I grumbled.

Ricky eyed the two of us, brows furrowed. "So you guys are like an item or somethin'?" he inquired, waving a finger between us.

I almost choked. "What? No! We're not even-"

We weren't even friends!

"Stop changing the subject and get out of here!" Pinky interrupted me, a sharp bite in her tone. "You're embarrassing yourselves!"

Peanut turned to her, grinning widely. "Oh, yeah? And what're you gonna do if we don't, princess?" He laughed, looking back to the Townies, completely disregarding her as though she were nothing.

Oh, dear. I knew where this was going.

Whenever someone didn't take Pinky's demands seriously, the situation was always predestined to end poorly for them. She flushed red, fists clenching at her sides. I knew she wasn't used to this. People always did as she told them. Otherwise, there were consequences.

That was the way it worked. In Pinky's mind, it was a rule. And rule breakers were punished.

I watched as the Townies and Greasers continued their quarrel, when I heard the sound of rustling plastic from behind me. I was afraid to look back; I knew what to expect. But I did, and as predicted, she was pulling that cricket bat from her bag. "Pinky!" I hissed. "What on Earth do you think you're doing with that?"

Of course I knew what she was planning on doing. Part of me wanted to stop her, but the most of me wanted to witness a Greaser's pain. For this I didn't attempt to calm her down. This would be much too amusing.

She stormed over to him, and Peanut had absolutely no time to react.

Whack.

I cringed. The way she had hit him looked unbearably painful. A direct blow to the side of his head was all it took for him to fall to the ground with a loud thud, moaning and sobbing in pain.

And just like that, everyone went silent, staring down at the injured Peanut in shock.

Duncan laughed. "Nice, dude!" he said, punching the infuriated Pinky in the shoulder.

Norton snarled. "That does it!"

And that was how the fight started. Norton threw himself onto Otto, hitting hard against the ground, and wailed on him with those huge fists as I knew he had probably wanted to from the very beginning.

That Henry stepped forward to intervene, his clenched fists practically the size of my head, to deliver a powerful blow to the side of Norton's jaw, thus knocking him off of that Otto.

Omar and Ricky then decided to have at each other. Their fighting skills seemed to be evenly matched, but Omar's durability far surpassed that of Ricky's. Ricky was beginning to show signs of tiring after a mere minute into the fray. It was becoming painful to watch as his punches grew weaker and weaker.

Otto stood up hastily, bruised and beaten and nose running red, as though no one had ever laid a hand on him. "Yeah, stay down, you little prick!" he yelled as he kicked and punched the downed Norton.

Gurney laughed. "We're gonna smell like garbage after we're done kicking your butts!" he taunted before pulling Hal in for a headbutt.

It soon progressed into complete chaos. Punches and jeers were thrown without care from every direction. I could no longer keep track of it.

Yes, it was definitely time to make our exit.

Pinky made an attempt at joining the fray with her bat, but luckily I managed to seize her by the arm before she made it far. "Pinky! No! We are getting out of here!" I ordered as I pushed her to her bike.

Naturally, she struggled. "Gord! No, I wanna help them!"

"I don't care! We're leaving!"

Smack.

I heard myself hit the ground before I actually felt it.

I had no clue what had happened, but when I finally pried open my eyes I was only able to comprehend two details of my situation: it was quiet, only the distinctive New Coventry sounds audible, and Duncan was leaning over me, dominating my view.

Until I noticed the throbbing pain at the base of my skull.

I moaned, flat and dull. I was lying on my back in a state of confusion, much like the day when I first crashed my bike.

"He's alive!" Duncan laughed. He sounded surprised. Relieved, even, as though he weren't expecting me to wake up. "Are you okay, dude? That looked like it hurt..."

In my mind, I assured him that I was fine, but the words left my mouth as an obscure mess. As much as I wanted to sit up and inquire, I couldn't. It felt as though there was a weight on my chest keeping me pinned to the ground.

But when I looked down, I realized it was merely Duncan's hand.

"Oops, sorry, dude," he said as he lifted his palm.

I sat up slowly to take in my surroundings, my hand keeping my head balanced. Despite the dizziness, I was able to make out the fact that it was just Trash Heap and I, alone behind one of the tenements. No Pinky, no Townies, no Greasers. Just the two of us.

That... made me uncomfortable. What were we doing here?

"Wha-" This was all so confusing. "What the hell happened?"

He grinned. "Your girlfriend put the hurt on you, that's what happened."

"What?" Pinky had hit me? Of all people? The last thing I remembered was seating myself atop that mountain bike... "That is ridiculous, Trash Heap." ...with Pinky waiting behind me.

While holding a cricket bat.

After I had forbade her from entering the fight, something she wanted to do.

I paused.

Oh.

I huffed. Still, that was completely unacceptable. "Well, I will definitely have a word with her about that tomorrow!" I stated.

Duncan grinned. "Yeah, well, don't go too hard on her. You're okay, right?"

I glanced at my watch, taking much longer than it should have to read the time. "It's three-thirty in the morning?!" I practically shrieked. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours."

Two hours? "You waited here with me for two hours?"

He nodded.

"And you couldn't have taken me to a health clinic or anything?"

"I, uh..." Trash Heap rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't want you to get in trouble for being out after curfew, Rich Boy." He laughed innocently.

What a blatant lie. I scowled at him, standing up far too quickly for my own good.

My head was still throbbing terribly; an aching pain which left me fighting for dominance over my balance.

Duncan scrambled to stand after me, desperately steadying me by my shoulders. "Whoa! Calm down, dude! Don't knock yourself out again!" He chuckled, but the legitimate worry lining his voice was obvious. "Here, I'll get'cha back to school, how's that sound?"

"Don't. I'm perfectly capable of walking there myself," I assured him. I did my best to maintain a steady tone, but my swaying legs worked against me.

"Like hell you are. C'mon, I'll keep you safe."

And he did. We returned to the campus the same way we came, Duncan propping me back onto my feet each time I was at risk of collapsing. He explained everything that I missed; after Pinky knocked me out, a man that he and his friends apparently hated named Mihailovich had called the police, and the group dispersed.

He assured me Pinky went back to school. I was angry with her, but it relieved me to know that she was safe.

And that Henry had taken both bikes with him. Bastard.

So I had absolutely nothing to show for any of this. Fabulous.

When we finally reached the gates, Duncan was clearly prepared to leave me, but I wasn't quite ready to let him go yet.

"Alright, Rich Boy, get to sleep. You got school tomorrow, you know," he said with a smile.

I was thoroughly confused. I knew why the Greasers and the Townies had left, but why hadn't Duncan left along with them?

"Duncan, before you go..."

His attention was all mine.

"...I don't understand. Why on Earth did you stay with me after everyone else had left? For two hours? You could have gotten arrested, you know!" I furrowed my brows, extending my arms to either side to channel my confusion.

He snorted. "Did you wanna stay there alone?"

"Well, of course not! But... why? Why didn't you leave? I don't..."

Duncan shrugged. "Well, because you said we were friends, and I wanted to make sure you were alright," he replied, his expression soft, yet undoubtedly serious.

I stared for a moment with Duncan staring back, neither one of us saying or doing anything. It was so quiet, but it was a comfortable quiet. I softened. A laugh came from my direction, but it took a moment for me to realize it was my own. "Duncan, I wasn't..."

...I wasn't serious when I had said that. But right then and there, it never felt more true. He stayed to watch over me, like some protector. And he didn't even have anything to gain from it.

Duncan protected me because he wanted to. Because he thought we were friends.

He smirked. "Go to bed," he said before turning away.

I stared after him, at a loss for thoughts.

I said we were friends.

But... I mean...

...I wasn't serious when I had said that.