Bullies

They were nothing but Bullies.

“I dare ya,” Rick said, his grin suddenly turning devilish.

“I double dog dare ya!” Steve said, chuckling and holding the beer bottle to her lips.

Rosy looked at the bottle then up to the two boys. She didn’t want to drink it. She hated the smell of beer, so she knew it would be just as foul tasting. And yet they liked it. Was there something to it which no one knew until they actually had some?

Still, she didn’t trust these guys. They were trouble. They were currently suspended from school—why? No one really knew—but rumor had it that they’d be in jail if not for the intervention of  the formidable and influential Father Antonio, who was just as likely to bless you as he was to bash your head in if you set one foot out of line.

“Guys, come on. Not Rosy,” Hector nervously said, attempting to take the beer, but Steve snatched it out of his reach.

“Try that again and I hurt ya,” Steve said through clenched teeth. He then turned back to Rosy with his most charming smile. “Come on, Rosy. It’s just beer. It won’t hurt ya.”

Rosy turned pleading eyes to Hector. It had been his idea to come outside. Had he set her up for this? She didn’t think so, if the expression on his face meant anything. He seemed just as surprised and upset to see the guys as she was. She sensed Hector was trying to protect her, but from what? Then he might, if he had courage, intervene on her behalf….maybe.

 He was considerably smaller than Rick and Steve, though. Could she count on Hector being a person of honor such as Harry Potter who would sooner die than let one of his friends get hurt? But Hector really wasn’t her friend. Sure, they talked a few times, but these two guys were his best friends. Loyalty was rightly to them, not her.  In that case, wouldn’t she need Hector to be more like Neville Longbottom? Scared to death, shaking in his boots, yet still standing up to his friends when he knew they were doing wrong, even when they could easily put him in the hospital? 

Surely, she was being silly! She obviously read too many books. For goodness sake, she told herself, it was just a beer. She wouldn’t put Hector in such an awkward position with his buddies. Besides, what could happen right here in front of the teen rec center?

She attempted a smile and grabbed the bottle. Before giving herself the chance to change her mind, she put it to her lips, tilted her head back and… it was ripped from her hand.

“No!”

It was Hector. He placed himself in front of Rosy facing the other boys and let the beer spill onto the street. “You can’t do this,” he said, pushing Rosy back. 

“What the f…” Steve said. 

“You are so dead, Hector!” Rick said before plunging a fist into Hector’s midsection. “That was my last one.” An uppercut to the jaw sent Hector back against the parked car and he crumbled to the ground.

Rosy screamed. 

A door opened and light flooded onto the street. “What’s going on?” a man shouted.

“Run!” Steve shouted and the two bullies took off.

“Hector, you okay? You shouldn’t have done that. It was just beer,” Rosy said.

“No, it wasn’t,” he said, rubbing his chin.

“Huh?”

He pointed to the foamy puddle of beer in the middle of which lay a semi-dissolved tablet. “I couldn’t let them do that to you,” he said.

Rosy gasped. She then burst into tears and threw her arms around him. 

When she needed a person of courage and honor willing to stand up to bullies for her, she found a hero.