Chapter 6

I have a recurring nightmare about six surgeons playing Jenga with a human being, except they only take pieces out.

From the bottom of the steps, I looked up at the house. Some rich kid was buying popularity with a party. His parents were away for the weekend. From the look of things, they were colluding to make sure their little boy and his friends had fun. The steps were steep; I'd hate to carry a piano up the damn things.

"You can't come in," a giant, with about a hundred too many tattoos, said when I reached the front door.

Seriously--a bouncer for a high school party?!?

"You weren't invited," he said when I kept walking forward. Maybe I had 'NOBODY' stamped on my forehead in ink only popular people could see.

"I said you can't come in, kid." The bouncer stepped towards me and put a hand on my chest.

My right arm moved slowly. I didn't want the monster to throw a punch! My thumb and index finger wrapped around his wrist. He froze, his eyes blanking a little. I turned and extended his arm out. Reaching up, I placed my left palm on his forehead.

Heat!

He collapsed and would have smashed his face if I hadn't yanked up on his arm. Heavy fuckwad! I turned him over to check his pulse. I'd never put someone out that quickly.

Kids were watching through the open door. I smiled at them after checking on Mr. Leviathan. "Lucha Libre sleeper hold! I come from a long line of mascadores. I'd be wearing a mask right now except I favor pink and flames, which my family thinks is TOO gay. I wear it totally straight, but you can't go against family in Lucha."

A few jaws dropped.

"What?!?" I exclaimed. "Don't tell me you guys think wrestling is fake? Don't believe the hype, yoh! One hundred percent real!"

They pressed against the walls as I walked by them. The people I wanted weren't hard to find since their need for attention drove them to be the loudest.

I walked into the center of the room and waited. Bailey and her entourage noticed me first. Stephanie and Marie would have stood up to greet me if Bailey and Janet hadn't grabbed their arms. Janet glanced nervously from Reggie to me. Bailey looked excited! Magdalena smiled, settling deeper into the chair. Brianna was terrified and unsure where her eyes should rest. The other cheerleaders looked as excited as Bailey but for a different reason--Reggie was staring at me hungrily.

"Reggie," I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "We need to clear the air."

I turned slightly, "Bailey, I want to try you completely bare."

I glanced at her crotch to make sure everyone got it. I smirked at Reggie and counted to five in my head. "Bailey ... that was a now thing!"

It could have gone ugly for me if Reggie thought it through. Bailey made thinking impossible for him by standing up and snapping her fingers at Janet, Stephanie, and Marie before walking to the doorway behind me.

Reggie charged! I tucked my head as he drove his shoulder into my gut. Hitting the wall hurt, like fucking badly! Reggie reared back for a punch. It was too late! I had my right hand on the back of his neck. Driving two fingers into base of his skull, I directed heat at his spine. Reggie's legs gave out. My left hand was at the front of his neck to catch him as he dropped.

"Nnnng!" Reggie mewled. His eyes widened in panic as his inability to move from the neck down registered. I tried to breath--in, expand the ribcage, out. Wow, that fucking charge hurt! I caught my breath a second before his friends caught on that it wasn't going well for Reggie.

"If one of you takes a step forward," I said to the room, "I promise this motherfucker is never going to walk again, and you'll be his wheelchair buddy!"

I looked behind me. We had not bounced far enough from the wall to allow anyone behind me. Taking another deep breath, I tried to remember my plan. The pain in my ribs made me question whether it was actually a plan or just a challenge to a pissing contest.

"The first time I fucked Bailey was at the Retreat," I told Reggie. "Was she your girlfriend at the time?"

He recovered enough courage to stare angrily at me. I squeezed my fingers, sending heat shooting down his spine. Reggie screamed, the pain making his body convulse.

"Was Bailey your girlfriend at the time?" I asked.

"Noh!" he grunted.

I made Reggie scream for the benefit of the idiot who had taken a step forward. "I will be happy to have this conversation with you on your knees, asshole. I'm sure Reggie would love it too, because I'd demonstrating what I can do with you instead doing it to Reggie."

The idiot took back his step.

"To be honest with you, Reggie, I get it," I said. "I don't, but let's pretend."

I pulled up to straighten his spine. "I would have been happy to call a summit for you, your boys, the cheerleaders, and the popular kids to negotiate with Bailey about not fucking me anymore. I didn't have anything to do with it. She wanted to get even for you fucking whatever that girl's name is; I was a handy penis. Any of your friends would have done as well, shithead, and we both know they would have nailed her in a heartbeat. The thing is I had to put my best game on her. You don't know how it goes because you get pussy all the time. For us normal guys, repeat pussy is how we roll."

I looked around the room at the cheerleaders, "I gotta tell you, Reggie. I can't shoot a basketball for shit, but I don't need coaching to find a girl's clit or all the other places they love to be touched by a hand that knows how to be sure and gentle at the same time."

"So..." I said. "I WOULD HAVE understood if the Popular Kids Court decided I needed to work my way up to Bailey, and she had to stop until I put in the time all of you have to be considered one of the cool kids."

He screeched as the heat touched every nerve ending in his body.

"But then you tried to kill me!"

"NO!" "Wait!" "He didn't!"

His friends tried, but nobody had stopped him at the pool so I didn't give a fuck. I twisted his head and made them look as I pushed scorching pain through his body without letting him scream.

"This thing of yours, Reggie, it didn't have anything to do with me. It was between you and Bailey." I said, turning his head back to me. "The stupid pool stunt made it about me. Check it, fuckhead! Not about you and me, but about ME!"

"So let's be clear, did Reggie try to kill me today?" I asked the room.

The pain was a crown around my head, closing its orbit slowly to the middle of my forehead. The Third Eye opened! I forced them to see, know, and accept the truth.

"The thing is Reggie, I'm glad you did," I said, opening the Eye wider to curse everyone in the room as bad as I could for the next few seconds. "Because it's the excuse I've been waiting for."

I know what they saw when they looked at me! In the stages of grief, I built a village on Anger, waiting for the day some stupid motherfucker invited me to let out everything I felt since my mom's death. Reggie screamed! And screamed and screamed! No one tried to save him because no one wanted to live in my village.

"That's enough, Mateo."

Two voices, one from my left and one from my right. They were touching my shoulders. Bailey and Janet! Janet's hands grabbed mine. She stroked them until I let Reggie go.

"Get out!" Bailey said to the room. Some of the kids ran!

Stephanie and Marie cradled Reggie, hushing him and massaging his head. Janet led me to a chair. I stared at the wall. I wanted to go after the kids. It had never been about sports, or popularity, or brains. I wanted to make everyone hurt as much as I did!

Bailey stood in the middle of the room looking between Reggie and me. She sighed before speaking. "That was worse than I thought it would be."