"Fixture? Hah, I've never seen him before last week."
"He was away."
"Where?"
"She didn't say."
"Probably prison." She paused. "How does she know him?"
"He's a friend of the family."
***
"Why didn't you tell me you had trouble with Byrne?" Count asked me walking home from football practice. It was the end of September and for the first three weeks of school I didn't have a problem with anybody - not counting the unwanted affection of Jenny Wade - until I stumbled upon Rex Byrne in the third floor boy's room. Rex and his Grease Monkeys where catching a smoke between classes.
"Well what do we have here?" Rex said from behind his cigarette. He was leaning against the window ledge, his legs and arms crossed in front of him.
"If it ain't Hollywood," a second monkey added.
I didn't know walking into that bathroom was breaking an unwritten rule. Hollywood's learning curve was going to cost him. It was Byrne's gang's territory, and they guarded it jealously.
"Ain't this the douche bag that hangs out with that weird chick? You know, the one that lives next to the boneyard?" asked monkey number three, I later learned his name was Ed Nugent.
"That's the faggot," a redheaded greaser chimed in.
"Sorry, I didn't think the sign said assholes only," I said.
"You're dead moron," Nugent said.
"The sign on the door says no faggots. Looks like you need a reading lesson," Rex Byrne said.
The bell rang. "I'm out of here," I said.
"You ain't going nowhere." Byrne said.
I dropped my books and swung at Nugent. I caught the side of his face. He dropped to the floor. I faced the others. Byrne's steel tipped boot found my gut. My wind escaped me. On the floor I curled into a ball.
"Isn't this sweet," Rex said picking up a textbook. "He has his little bitch's name written all over it." I felt the rush of air from the textbook before it smacked the top of my head. My head exploded with pain. "That little cunt ain't nothing but a headache," Rex laughed as he tore the paper cover off the textbook and held his lighter under it. I lay helpless as Shannie's name burned.
"Faggot, do yourself a favor." Nugent groaned regaining his feet. "Grow eyes in back of your head. You're going to need them - I'm going to kill ya." Standing over me, he spit on my face before he planted a boot in my crotch.