It had been a long night at work and I had a 20 minute walk ahead of me. My car was being worked on and neither of my parents could take me because they both had to work themselves. No matter, the exercise was good for me anyway, and I'd rather walk than take the city bus.
Around the corner of 14th and Boston, a few blocks from my house, I heard some `scuffling'. I turned around quickly to see what the noise was, and saw two masked men slowly approaching me, making audible sneers.
"What?" I instinctively asked into the darkness towards their dimly illuminate faces.
"Drop your wallet on the ground." one said.
"No." I firmly replied. I wasn't going to punk out to these guys, although at the same time I felt like I was gonna shit my pants.
How old were these guys? I bet I could outrun them. We locked eyes for a moment till I abruptly turned and made a run for it. I heard their footsteps quickly following behind me. I ran out from the sidewalk where I had been and turned onto a street that I knew turned into a neighborhood. I wanted so desperately to capture anyone's attention. I needed help because I knew I wouldn't last long.
I continued to run and felt an intense burning in my legs. I hadn't run like this in forever. I was starting to kick myself for not doing a better job of working out regularly. And I thought being skinny was enough. Ha!
As I was running through the neighborhood, I let a loud yell expel from my mouth as often as my shortness of breath would allow. "Help!" I was screaming.
On a corner where I had turned, I passed by a house whose open garage had a light coming out from it. I glanced to the side as I ran by it and realized there was a person inside kicking a punching bag. I turned on the curb and practically jumped towards their garage.
"Please help me!" I gasped to the person in the garage, whom I recognized as Damian Styles from my school. He was a grade above me and seemed pretty mean, but I was desperate. He looked up from his punching bag, his shirtless torso covered in sweat. Looking past me, he saw the two masked thugs who had stopped by his mailbox.
Not even wearing shoes, Damian strode outside his garage onto his driveway.
"What the fuck are you doing on my property?" he asked, his voice booming.
"Look here, another mouthy kid whose money we can take. Cough up your wallet too, kid. With the size of this house, something tells me you got some dough." one of them snickered.
Damian turned around and faced me. "Get back." he told me, although not rudely.
He turned back around and faced the two would-be thugs and said, "If you want my wallet then come get it." he pulled a leather wallet out of the pocket of his black gym shorts then put it back in. He then lifted up his fists in front of his face and stood poised, ready to fight.
"Really kid? We're two grown ass men, you're gonna take us on?" one of the thugs laughed.
"Shut your mouths and come back your talk up." Damian said daringly.
"Fuck you." the taller one said. "Take care of him." he said to the other. The assailant reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife, brandishing it.
I gasped and cried out, "We just need to call the cops!"
"Shut up and get back." Damian said without taking his eyes off the man. The man crept towards Damian and without hesitation, Damian threw a powerful kick and his foot landed right in the man's face. An audible `crack' could be heard and the man fell clean to the ground.
"Is that all?" Damian taunted. "All it took was one kick? Are you that weak?"
"Ah...." he groaned faintly as he clenched his broken nose. "Dude we need to leave. Fuck their wallets."
"Dude, are you serious?" the taller thug said. "These kids are teenagers."
"Come on, please. We need to get out of here!" he cried out forcefully.
"I'd leave if I were you. I was just getting started." Damian said ominously.
"Fucking lucky." the taller thug helped his partner up and they took off in the other direction as drops of blood trailed from behind them.
Damian turned around to face me trembling in his garage.
"I'm s-so sorry." I said, completely stunned by what I had just seen.
"Don't apologize." he said. "However, I am sorry for being rude to you earlier."
I started walking away from the end of his garage towards his driveway, but he stood in front of me.
"Are you mad?" I asked kind of fearfully.
"No." he said simply.
"I should probably go." I said, unsure.
"Don't leave." he said. "I want to talk." his voice was rough and deep.
I looked him over. His leg muscles were bulging, and he was audibly breathing as he came down from the adrenaline rush. He looked like he could tear me in half, so I didn't really have a choice in the matter. I was staying.
"We go to the same school, don't we?" he asked.
"Yeah, we do." I said.
"I've seen you around." he said. "Who'd wanna hurt a guy like you?" he asked, shifting from his previously stern attitude.
"I don't know. I didn't even know those guys. Probably just random thugs." I shrugged.
"Worthless. That's what they are." he grumbled.
"You're in the underground fights, aren't you?" I asked.
"Yeah. Have you ever came and seen me?" he asked, his face lighting up.
"No." I averted my eyes as I answered.
"I ain't gonna hurt you." he said as he put a big hand on my shoulder. He was a good six inches taller than me.
I looked up at him and tentatively asked, "What'd you wanna talk to me for?"
"I got a hunch that if I do something like this-" he started as he put both of his hands on my underside and lifted me off the ground "-then you'll enjoy it."
I watched his bicep muscles tighten as he held me easily.
"Enjoy it, huh?" I said, although he was right. I started feeling giddy as I looked down into his fierce blue eyes.
"So I was right." he let a smile dance across his face for the first time that I had ever seen.
"What's this about?" I laughed.
"I know what kind of guy you are, Michael." he said plainly.
"Huh?" I asked, bewildered.
"I've heard about you." he said, still vague as ever.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"You like guys." he said as he let me down.
"So what?" I asked defensively.
"Let your guard down. If I had a problem with it, you probably wouldn't be standing in my garage right now, would you?" he said.
I felt embarrassed. "No, I guess not."
"Anyway, I want to take you to dinner. It's kind of funny this happened tonight. I had no idea how to approach you at school. We don't even talk." he said.
"All you would have to do is say the words." I said.
"Not that easy when everyone thinks you're some badass." he said.
"Well, aren't you?" I laughed. He didn't.
"There's more to me than what these fists can do." he said.
"Guess you'll have to show me." I said with a smile.
"Right then. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 5:00pm." he said kind of nervously.
"You don't even know where I live." I laughed.
"Er, yeah. Then why don't you let me walk you home?" he asked.
"Okay. I'd hate to get mugged after having so narrowly avoiding it the first time." I said.
"Oh yeah, about that. Unless you got these with you," he started as he lifted up his fists like had done earlier, "then don't go walking around alone downtown at night." he smiled.
"Hey, we don't live in Detroit." I said.
"Just a suggestion." he said.
"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" I asked him. "I nearly shat myself when he pulled out that knife."
"Well first, most people who have weapons haven't been formally trained on how to use them. And secondly, not to be dark or anything, but spend your childhood with an abusive father and you'll learn how to take and give a punch pretty fast." he said.
"Oh wow, I'm sorry." I said, feeling pretty awkward at that point.
"Don't worry about it. I just branched off that with formal lessons. Mainly Muay Thai, but I've dabbled in other arts. I like to be cultured in that regard." he said.
"Do you ever date girls?" I asked.
"I'm too wild for most girls." he said.
"Wild how?" I asked.
"Michael, I beat the hell out of other guys for my money. Most guys my age are flipping burgers." he said.
"Yeah but Damian, maybe it's just because I'm a guy, but I find that pretty hot." I said as I felt my face turn beet red.
"So what, did you pop a woody when I subdued that guy?" he joked.
"No, but you earned my trust faster than anyone I've ever known with that." I said.
He smiled as we arrived on my doorstep.
"So um, er.. thanks for saving me tonight." I stammered, feeling pretty uncool.
"See you tomorrow. Oh, and if you don't show.. I'm kicking your ass." he grinned at me and turned around to walk home. I let myself in and collapsed onto my bed.
I mulled over what had just happened and put my face in my pillow. Muffled, I screamed "OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD YES!". Thankfully no one in the house would be able to hear me, but I was ecstatic. There was no way I was sleeping tonight so I just sauntered over to my closet to put together the best looking outfit.
Eventually I felt my eyelids getting heavy and I curled into a ball on my bed as the ecstasy lingered. I closed my eyes hard and played the night back in my head, from how Damian had looked with his body glistening with sweat and how easily he had lifted me off the ground. Butterflies swarmed my stomach again and I nearly rolled off the bed as I hugged myself in excitement.