Two Boys Learning

7. Bloody Knuckles

The library came into view. Will could see Tristan sitting on the steps, his backpack a step below him. He was reading a book.

Will stopped in front of him. He looked up, and a smile brightened his face. He stood, opening his mouth to say something, probably a hello, just before Will slung his backpack to the ground and punched him in the face.

Tristan gasped, his smile gone, and lifted a hand to his nose, which was starting to trickle blood. "Dude! What was that for?"

Will curled his lip and punched him in the stomach. Tristan doubled over, gasping.

Will bent over him so his lips were right next to his ear. "Don't mess with Ash," he growled, bringing his knee up into Tristan's face and breaking the boy's nose.

Tristan staggered back, falling onto the steps of the library, looking terrified. An older lady rushed out of the library. "Boys!" she called. "If you're going to fight, do it somewhere less public."

Will felt a crooked, terrible grin grace his lips. "She's right, Tristan," he said, walking backwards. "Let's fight."

Tristan narrowed his eyes and picked himself up off the library steps, then rushed at him and threw a right hook to Will's jaw. His head snapped to the side, but he only laughed at the pain and ducked under Tristan's next swing and flipped him over, slamming him into the cracked sidewalk.

Tristan gasped, the blood from his nose streaming down his face now. His nose was definitely broken, but Will didn't feel at all bad.

He said I lived in a shack and my dad was a trashy drunk who didn't care if I lived or died.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Will said, placing a booted foot on Tristan's chest and leaning over so he could get a very clear look at the boy who looked like Riley.

Riley would never have said that.

"My dad was a trashy drunk," Will said mildly. "I lived in a shack before I moved here. He didn't care if I came home every day after school, and sometimes he threw beer bottles at me. So if you're gonna make fun of Ash, why don't you make fun of me, too. Or is it too hard for you to understand that if you mess with him again, this--" he punched Tristan in the face again, and his knuckles jarred against the other boy's teeth, splitting the skin "--will happen every. Single. Time."

Tristan gasped for air, groaning. "Obay," he said, the blood in his mouth making him hard to understand. "Obay! I'b sorry!"

"Hmm." Will shoved himself off of him, leaving a footprint on the boy's chest. "That was fun. I'd have expected more of a fight, but..." Will inspected his knuckles. The skin had split, but it wasn't bad.

He turned and left after grabbing his bag. "See you tomorrow," he called over his shoulder.

~ ~ ~

It was raining.

Whenever it rained, his father got drunk and fell asleep on the couch, snoring like a bear. Ash usually sat on his bed, looking out the cracked window as the rain made puddles in the backyard that wasn't much of a backyard and more of a junkyard.

Ash sighed and grabbed his phone, pulling up the photos app and scrolling through pictures of him and his mom.

When Mom was alive, Daniel was sane. Now, Ash's father hit him and bruised him and hurt him with both words and fists.

"I bet your parents hate the sight of you. Maybe he hopes you're dead."

Tristan's words echoed in his head. Ash wiped at his face, hot tears pricking the back of his eyes.

Ash had lessened the blow of what the new kid had said when he told Will, but he more-or-less got the point across. And the worst part was...

Everything Tristan said was true.

He was worthless. His dad hated him because he blamed him for Mom dying. He lived in a shack. No one cared, not even Will.

Ash paused on a picture of his mom, one where she was smiling at his father. It was one of the better days, when they almost thought they were going to pull ahead of the bill and have enough money to buy something-or-other.

Then his phone lit up with a call.

Ash blinked. The caller ID was unknown.

Hesitantly, Ash put the phone to his ear. "H-hello?" he said, hoping he didn't sound like he was crying.

"Ash."

Ash almost dropped the phone. "Will?" he asked incredulously. "How did you--how did you get my number?"

"Uh...you put it in my phone and told me to call you?" He sounded amused.

"Oh...right." Ash's face burned.

"I, uh, called to tell you that Tristan shouldn't bother you again." There was a dangerous edge to Will's deep, quiet voice.

"What do you mean? How did the study thing go?"

"Um. I broke Tristan's nose."

This time Ash did drop the phone. 

"You what?" he asked when he got it back to his ear.

"Well, I punched him the first time, and I don't think it did too much damage aside from making it bleed, and then I punched him in the stomach, and then kneed him in the face, adn I think that was what broke it--"

"Why?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Will whispered, sounding unsure, "I don't know."

"Will--"

"I really don't, Ash," Will said, but his voice sounded tense. "I have to go. See you tomorrow in Mrs. Sukiyaki's."

"Wait--"

"Hmm?"

"Oh. Uh. I didn't think you'd actually wait."

Will chuckled. It was a nice sound, even distorted as it was through the phone. "I did."

"Obviously."

There was a moment of silence. Then Will said, "Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"I actually do have to go."

"Oh. Uh. Goodnight, Will."

"Night."

The line disconnected, and Ash held the phone to his ear for a moment before letting a slow grin curl his lips upward. He fell back onto his bed, his arms thrown out to either side of him. He grinned up at his ceiling for no reason. A warm feeling blossomed in his chest.

I can't believe this, he thought. Will broke Tristan's nose for me.

Looking back on the conversation in the school's lunchroom, he realized that Will had been asking him to tell him what Tristan said so he could discern whether he should go to the library to beat him up or not.

Ash laughed out loud. Will was like his guardian angel.

And he knew then, though the word seemed foreign to him, what he could call his and Will's relationship.

Friends, though Will might not agree. He was like a dog, in some ways. Fiercely protective, yet soft in some ways to some people.

And it seemed Ash was one of those people.

- - - - - - - 

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What did you think of Tristan? Total ass, huh?

Q: Ever gotten into any fights before?

A: Not unless you count with my siblings, nope. I'm Switzerland.