Johnny had felt like he had made the right decision, even though it had hurt like hell to watch her leave, spitting venom with her final words of hate. The nod from his father had proven that, at least until a week later and she still hadn't came back.
"What the fuck did you do?" his father screamed as he beat him with a belt. "She's not coming back and it's your fault!"
That was the last time the beating was one sided, but the blame never stopped. It was Johnny's fault she had left, even though he was just trying to defend his dad. He didn't mean to make her leave, he just wanted her to be nicer to his dad, as well as him. He never wanted her to go away. He was just trying to help.
The answer to the question would have more than satisfied everyone present that night, but some truths aren't meant to be shared with others, so Johnny did what Johnny did best: he dodged.
"Fuck you!" he stabbed his finger in Drew's face. "I don't gotta answer shit." He turned to Jenny. "And fuck you, ya slut!"
Drew threw his smoke and drink to the ground, pushing Johnny back with a hard shove. "You've got three seconds to apologize to her, or I'm going to beat your ass."
"Why?" Johnny threw his hands into the air. "What's the point? She ain't gonna give you any trim either way." He got right in Drew's face. "It doesn't matter how bloody you get your hands, chubby." He smiled. "She's never going to love you."
If there was ever a straw that broke the camel's back, this was it. Not just Johnny's words, but the evil grin that followed, it was the final nail in the coffin of Drew's self-control.
Drew replied to Johnny's venomous words with a right hook to his eye. Johnny stumbled back several steps, nearly falling on his ass from the force of the hit.
"What the fuck?" Johnny spit out the words in blood, trying to get his feet back under him.
Drew surged forward, following after him as Johnny stumbled back, replying to him once again with a swing, this time with a left hook. Johnny went down flat on his back this time.
"Come on, mother-fucker," Drew said, taking a few steps back, giving Johnny some breathing room. "Get up."
Johnny spit blood out of his mouth. "Shouldn't have let up when you had the drop on me, fat-ass." He started to get up. "Now I'm really gonna fuck you up."
Drew nodded his head, saying nothing as he got his fists up in front of his face and waited for the fight. Not a trace of fear was in his face, only rage.
Sarah spun to Jake. "Aren't you going to do something? Someone is going to get hurt!"
Jake shook his head. "Naw, this thunderhead has been brewing for some time. It's probably best to just let this play out, so they can get it out of their systems."
Sarah was about to reply but was interrupted as Johnny rushed Drew, slamming into him like a runaway train. Drew took the impact pretty well, but they both went to the ground, immediately grappling for leverage as they hit the earth, trying to get the best of one another.
"Got you now, fat boy," Johnny said, who was on top, bringing down his fist on Drew's jaw.
Drew took the hit with a grunt, tasting blood as it filled his mouth, dirt getting into his eye as his head bounced off the earth.
"You just bit off more than even you can chew, chubby!" Johnny cackled, rearing back his fist for another swing, bringing it down hard on the side of Drew's face.
His head bounced back off the ground like a pinball bouncing off a bumper. More dirt got in his left eye, as his right eye started to swell shut. Consciousness started to sway in and out like a distant buzzing insect.
"Not going to be able to see," his mind screamed. "Going to black out!" Panic started to replace rage.
"So," Johnny gave Drew a little shake, "Was the slut worth getting your ass kicked?
Leave it to Johnny to refocus Drew's anger. He punched out, focusing more on the sound of Johnny's voice than anything, making contact with Johnny's throat.
Suddenly unable to breath, Johnny started to gasp and choke. Drew easily knocked him to the right, then rolling to the left, getting back on his feet, rubbing the dirt from his good eye.
Johnny slowly got his breath back, while Drew blinked the rest of the dirt from his eye, finally clearing his vision.
Johnny stumbled to his feet, letting out a slow but finally controlled breath.
"So," Jake said from the sidelines. "We got this all out of our system now, boys?"
"Fuck no!" they said in near unison.
"Twinkie joke isn't going to work this time," Jake thought to himself as the two combatants moved in towards one another.
There were no pit-bull charges this time as they slowly moved forward, fists up in front, like they actually knew what they were doing.
"Come on guys," Sarah said. "This is such stupid shit."
"Fuck him up, Drew!" Jenny added.
Sarah turned to her friend. "That's real helpful."
"Johnny's got this shit coming," Jenny replied. "And Drew is just the guy to give it to him."
Her words got Drew moving. He threw two quick jabs at Johnny as he moved forward, which Johnny easily dodged.
Johnny replied with a wild Haymaker that came in wide and hard. Drew threw up his arm, blocking it cold. He then grabbed Johnny's arm with both hands, spun around so Johnny was behind him and then pushed forward, taking Johnny with him and flipping him over his back.
Johnny's feet flew up and over Drew as he shot through the air, crashing down on the ground in front of Drew.
"Shit," was all Johnny was able to say before Drew started kicking him.
Sarah looked at Jake. "Are you going to do anything?"
Jake shook his head. "This is pretty much over, Johnny ain't getting up after that." Jake took another drink of his beer. "If it was the other way around right now, I would definitely be pulling Johnny off of Drew, but since its Drew, no worries. He'll kick him a couple more times and then he'll be done."
"Apologize!" Drew said after the third kick.
"Fuck you!" Johnny replied, trying to crawl away.
This time Drew kicked him in the face.
"Whoa, Drew-man!" Jake was finally concerned. "You've proved your point. Johnny's ass is kicked." He had almost reached Drew.
"Not until he says he's sorry!" Drew stabbed his finger at Jake.
Johnny coughed up blood. It was quite apparent that Drew's last kick had broke Johnny's nose.
Jake looked down at Johnny as blood flowed from his nose like a faucet. "Tell her you're sorry, bro."
Johnny's eyes were filled with malice as he looked back at Jake and then at Drew. The steel he saw in Drew's eyes told him there was only one way to end this.
"I'm sorry," Johnny said, looking at the ground.
"Look her in the eye and say it!" Blood spit from Drew's mouth as he talked.
"That's good," Jenny ran up to Drew, never looking at Johnny. "That's enough. I never should have let it go this far." She touched the side of his face, looking at his wounds. "Man, that looks like it hurts."
"I'm alright," he whispered, all the pain was gone, now that she was touching him.
Sarah felt sick to her stomach about everything that had just happened, she looked at her watch and lied. "It's getting late, I need to go home."
"Okay, yeah," Jenny replied. She looked back at Drew. "See you at work tomorrow?"
"Yeah, bright and early," he tried to give her a smile, but it was too painful.
Jake stepped up to Sarah as they walked back to the car. "Sorry about all this..."
"Don't," she said, pushing him away. "You could have stopped this way before it got out of hand."
He watched them leave, saying nothing more. "Sheltered people just don't get how the real world works." he thought to himself.
Walking back to his friends, he noticed how they separated themselves from one another. Johnny was at the edge of the pond, washing the blood from his face. Drew sat on the hood of his car, smoking a cigarette, an easy twenty yards away.
Looking down, he saw the case of beer, scooping it up,
he grabbed a beer from the box and tossed it Johnny's way. "Head's up!"
The can hit the ground in front of Johnny with an exploding fizz.
"Mother-fucker!"
"Take your medicine and shut the hell up," Jake replied.
Walking up to Drew, he sat down beside him on the hood of the Ford, handing him a beer.
Drew replied to the beer by handing Jake a cigarette.
Jake took the smoke, letting Drew light it. "How you doing?"
"Better than stud-muffin," Drew nodded his head over to Johnny.
"Yeah," Jake whispered. "You messed him up."
Drew eyed him through bloody and swollen eyes. "That surprise you?"
"No," Jake shrugged. "Well, maybe the level you took it to was more than I expected."
"He deserved it."
"That goes without saying."
They both chuckled lightly.
"So what now?" Jake asked.
"I'm getting out of here," Drew replied, exhaling smoke. "You can come with, but that fucker ain't getting in my car."
"We can't just leave him out here."
"Sure we can," Drew got up, grabbed what was left of the case of beer and opened his car door. "You coming?"
"Nah," Jake replied, looking off towards town. "My house is about three miles off, if we cut through the fields."
"If you feel like the exercise, that's your call. You got enough beer for the haul?"
"Yeah, there's another case back there not even open yet. How about you?" He pointed at the opened box in Drew's hand. "There enough left in there to quench your thirst?"
Drew looked down inside the cardboard. "Yeah, there are eight or nine left, so I'm good." He looked back at his friend. "You sure you want to hoof it?"
"Somebody's got to look after his sorry ass," Jake replied, looking back towards Johnny. "You two have gotten in plenty of brawls in the past, but never this bad."
"Nope," Drew agreed as he finished his beer.
"You guys gonna be able to mend fences after this?"
Drew dropped the empty beer can back into the box. "Is he ever going to be able to stop being an asshole?"
Jake nodded his head as he looked off, knowing his question had just been answered. "Alright, be safe on the drive home," he turned and walked back towards the pond.
"After all the beer I've ingested and weed I've smoked, how is that remotely possible?" Drew asked, getting into his car.
Jake turned back, throwing up his hands as he walked backwards. "Okay, how about good luck?"
Drew gave him a thumbs up as he started up the old Ford. "That's more like it."
Johnny looked up towards Jake as Drew sped off down the dirt road. "That fat fuck leaving us here?"
Jake nodded toward the North. "We'll cut through the corn and be at my house in about an hour or so."
"I'm in no fucking shape to walk!"
Jake scooped up the un-open case of beer. "I could split this with you and just leave them here then. I'd rather carry twelve beers than twenty four anyway."
"God damn it!" Johnny replied, slowly getting up and finishing the last of his beer. They both knew Johnny would rather limp home than drink all by himself. "Gimme another beer."
"You already finish that one? Christ man, you drink like Drew."
"Half of it fizzed out on the ground, cause you threw it at me, ya ass."
Jake shook his half empty can. "Well, might as well start lightening the load now." He handed the beer to Johnny, as he finished his can. "Open it up from the handle. It's easier to carry that way."
"I know how the hell to open it," he growled, quickly ripping open the cardboard and grabbing two beers.
Jake took his beer, cracked it open, and held it up for a toast. "Here's to long walks with good friends."
"Fuck you," Johnny replied, opening his own beer as he started walking.
Jake laughed as he followed after him.
Chapter 9 Long Walks-Long Thoughts
Drew cruised down the dirt road at an even seventy miles per hour with his stereo cranking out a song by a band called The Dead Motorcade. Their song fit Drew's mood perfectly, as it went on about tainted love and how dying is easier than dealing with women.
He punched in the cigarette lighter and fished out a cigarette from his pack of smokes. "What the hell just happened back there?" he thought to himself. He had felt like a bad-ass at the time, beating Johnny down like the punk he was, but the more he thought about it...
"Why did she stop me?" he looked at himself in the rearview mirror. "Was it because---"
His words were stolen from him as the change in the road suddenly demanded his attention. The road had curved off to the left while he went straight, causing his monster Ford to dip down into the ditch, and then back up into a field where soy beans were growing. Drew's car dipped down as it went into the shallow ditch and then shot back up as it flew into the beans. He could actually feel his ass lift off of the seat right before his head slammed into the roof.
"Fuck!" he yelled, slamming on the brakes. A broken cigarette hung from his lips as he tried to get control of his vehicle, it would have been quite comical, if it hadn't been such a scary situation.
The giant Ford headed straight for a gnarled, twisted old crabapple tree that stood at the edge of the field.
"Shit!" Drew had managed to slow it down considerably from the speed he was at when he first flew off the road. Unfortunately, he still hit the crab tree with enough force to slam his head into the steering wheel, as his hand smacked the headlight switch. He lost consciousness as the car engine died and the headlights went out.
As everything went silent, the cigarette lighter popped out, ready to do its job.
They walked side by side, drinking. Within fifteen minutes they were walking less than one hundred yards from Drew's wrecked car. The dark, cloudy sky masked it from their vision as they walked right by. They discarded two crushed cans of beer like they were aluminum beacons leading to the wreak, completely oblivious.
The demon followed after them, flowing around the cornstalks of the first field and the soybean plants of the current field as a gray mist. It trailed behind, weaving back and forth between the plants as the teenagers walked down the rows of the crops. The monster wasn't sure if anything else interesting was going to happen or not, but he had a hunch something was right around the bend that was going to take things up a notch. Noticing Drew's wrecked car in the distance, the creature chuckled to himself at the other two's ignorance of their wounded buddy, well Jake's buddy at least. That got ideas stirring in its mind dealing with the immediate future.
Jake handed Johnny a new beer as well as himself, as they walked past their wounded friend and on towards an old, abandoned house with more history than both of them put together.
"Why doesn't somebody knock this fucking relic down?" Johnny asked as they moved towards the old building, dabbing his still bleeding nose with his T-shirt.
"Bad Mojo, supposedly," Jake answered.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Place is cursed, you remember."
Johnny chuckled. "This is the house where the little girl was never found, right?"
"That's a funny thing?" Jake asked.
"Well, the parents killed themselves right after the press started slinging shit, right?"
Jake cocked his head as he looked at Johnny. "I still don't see what's funny."
Johnny threw his hands up. "They must have been guilty if they killed themselves, ya dumbshit."
"Spent a lot of time studying the case, right?"
"Don't have to," Johnny took a long drink of his beer. "That shit is OJ simple. Just because the glove don't fit, don't mean I didn't co-mmit murder!" He laughed at his half ass rhyme.
Jake pulled out a cigarette. "The wife killed herself, not the husband."
"Bum a smoke," Johnny said, holding out his hand. It wasn't a question, it was a goddamn command.
Maybe it was everything that had happened so far
that night. Maybe it was how Sarah had reacted to everything Jake had said or done or not done that night. Maybe it was just Jake getting sick and tired of Johnny's bullshit. Maybe it was the demon, pressing on Jake's emotions. Whatever it was, Jake had had enough, and Johnny was the only target in sight.
"When was the last time you bought a pack of smokes?"
Johnny actually took a step back in surprise. "I supply the weed, man."
"That I usually give you money for, you worthless shit!"
"What the hell is your problem?" Johnny asked. "You got the same hair up your ass that Drew does?"
"Yeah, I do, you asshole."
Johnny looked genuinely confused now. "You wanna screw Jenny too?"
"No, you dumb-ass! I think you deserved to get your ass kicked for all the nasty shit you said about her."
"I was just trying to let Drew know what kind of girl she really is."
"Bullshit!" Jake gave him a hard shove. "What you did, didn't have anything to do with but you."
They looked at one another, sizing each other up.
Johnny threw his can to the ground, raising his arms up. "Go ahead, then motherfucker. I'm already limpin' like a beat dog, this is your best shot to take me down."
"On your best day," Jake lit up his smoke. "I'd still mop the floor with you, and you know it."
Johnny took a hard swallow. "Put your money where your mouth is, buddy." He suppressed the urge to cough up blood, barely.
The demon smiled from the sidelines, some more fun shit might happen after all.
"Here's your smoke," Jake flicked the lit cigarette at Johnny, hitting him in the chest, ambers bouncing off his shirt like a cheap bottle rocket.
Johnny stood dead still, looking at his old friend.
Jake reached into the case of beer, grabbing a handful of cans and throwing them out onto the front yard of the old house. "This is your cut of the beer that you didn't pay for." He threw out another handful. "Drink up and have a good time all by your lonesome."
"You're leaving me out here? Where am I supposed to crash?"
The Damned Summer (The Ruin Trilogy) Page 8
