Barclay Davis - Old School, Part One
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| Art by Scopedog |
Awhile ago, Max received an email to attend his upcoming high school reunion.
Max had no interest in going, given the hell he experienced while attending.
Frida, on the other hand, wanted to get Max to go.
"Why do you care so much about this reunion of mine, Frida?" Max asks her. "You never went there, and you never knew what I went through there."
"Yes, but that was a long time ago, Max." Frida was trying to assure him. "People change when they get older. They become more wiser and mature. You really should give it a second thought. I used to be tormented in school by this one girl named Natalie Breyers. She used to pick on me every day until I was in tears. About a year ago, I crossed paths with her, and all she did was apologize to me for how horribly she treated me."
"I've already decided, Frida." Max tells her. "I'm not interested in going! I've had too many bad memories there!"
Frida wasn't pleased with Max's response. But she'll respect the decision he's made. For now.
***
Max went through his old yearbook, that he really hasn't opened since he received it. He went over some of the people he went to school with, and thinks about all the bad stuff he endured there. He comes across a photo of one of his worst tormentors - Wayne Clarke, Mark Henderson, Mario Esposito, Paul Mahovlich, Ray Dryden, and with them was Wayne's girlfriend, Janet James.
Frida sees him, sitting on the couch reading his year book, with Victor by his right, and approaches him from behind, saying "Whatcha reading?" which caused Max to startle scream.
"Oh nothing, nothing at all!😁" Max says as he hides his yearbook with his arms and chest, not wanting Frida to look at it.
Victor tells Frida, "Max is just going through his old high school year book."
Max, none too thrilled with what Victor told Frida, turned to him and said, "Gee Victor, thanks for telling Frida something I didn't WANT HER TO KNOW ABOUT!!!😠" At which point, Frida grabbed the yearbook from Max's hands and started looking at it.
"So, where are you in this book?" Frida asks Max, as she's going through it.
"I'm not much to be found in these pages." Max tells Frida. "I really wasn't popular when I attended."
"Nowhere's?" Frida asks.
"Well..." Max then shows Frida a picture of the bullies that tormented him. "I was that guy there. It was from that prom I went to, by myself." Pointing to the upper left corner of the picture where he's passing by, while his aforementioned tormentors were striking a pose.
"Gee, you look rather sad in that picture." Frida tells Max.
"I was sad there." Max told her. "Those guys in the photo had just made me look like a fool."
"How so?" Frida asked.
"Janet, The girl in the photo," Max said "told me there she had somethng special to give me. But it had to be by the auditorium. So I went to see her there. I had a crush on her at the time, so I was rather excited by what she had got me. Once I saw her, she told me to close my eyes. And, like the fool I was, I did. The next thing I knew, I was getting hit with super soakers and water bombs from those assholes. I felt so stupid going along with it."
"And that photo was taken after they did that?" Frida asked.
"Yep!" Max replied. "I think that was taken before I left. I really didn't feel like putting up with that bullshit."
"That's too bad." Frida said. "But I'm sure they all feel bad for what they did to you. And I'm sure that, once you meet them again, they can all tell you just how awful they were in..."
"FRIDA!!!" Max said, turning to her, frustrated. "I already told you, I'm not interested in attending my high school reunion. It was nothing but bad for me, and I don't wish to go through that again. And that is final!"
Max then turns to read his yearbook again, with a frustrated look on his face. But Frida, not content with that answer, moves to the front of the couch, where she grabs the yearbook from him and tosses it aside so that she can mount Max, with her arms tightly around him and snuggling up close to him, nose to nose.
"Maaax..." Frida says seductively to him. "Why don't you want to go to this reunion? Don't you care about what your old classmates are up to?"
"I...I just can't with this, Frida." Max tells her. "Why would I want to go back again? And for what?"
"To let them know that your alive and well!" Frida answers. "And to let them know that your still standing, with me by your side. I'm sure if they see you like that, they'll be so happy for you. And if they don't, and they try something bad on you...I'll fuckin' knock their blocks off of their bodies!" She finishes after curling her fist up.
"So what do you say Max, hmmmm?" Frida says as she starts nuzzling and kissing Max's face and neck. Max is equal parts frustrated and aroused by Frida, until he finally says, "Ok, fine. MAYBE I'll go to this reunion!"
Frida seemed rather pleased by that, until Max stuck his finger up and started waving it around, saying to her "UhuuAT!!! DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA! I said MAYBE! That's not the same as yes."
"Perhaps." Frida tells Max, leaning into him again. "But I like to think I'm halfway to my goal."
"Oh do you now, hmmmm?" Max says to Frida, while she responds "Mm-hmmmm" at him. Frida then pushes Max's glasses closer to his face and asks him...
"So tell me, Max...do I look different to you with your glasses on?"
After a moment, a smile curls up Max's face and he tells her "I'll say you do...I just noticed a little mole growing under your nose."
"WHAT?!!" Frida screams in panic, as she starts feeling around her face, only to see Max laugh at her.
Feeling had, Frida reacts by saying to Max "Oh, you LITTLE..." then grabs a cushion from the side and starts playfulling beating Max around with it, with Max mock crying out. Frida then grabs Max from his shirt, and throws him down on the couch, with her on top of him.
"You are so awful!" Frida playfully tells Max.
"I learned from the best!" was Max's response to her, and they soon start kissing and making out on the couch. Victor, sensing where this is heading, gets off the couch and leaves them on their own.
***
About a week later, at the Crow's Bar, Max and the Gang are all huddled at their table talking stuff. Soon, the conversation turns to Max's high school reunion that he doesn't want to attend.
"Is Frida still bugging you about going to that reunion of yours, Max?" Mitch asks.
"Yeah." Max tells them. "It's really quite annoying. She keeps bringing it up every chance she gets. For some reason, she's still insistent about me going."
"Maybe she wants to see what kind of life you led there." Pete tells him. "That way, she knows her childhood wasn't as shitty as yours."
"Gee, that's a nice thought you got there, Pete!" Max tells him, rather sarcastically. "Well, be that as it may, It's more and more likely I'm not going."
Then, Sam notices something, and alerts the Gang about it. "Hey guys, look who's back and going after Frida!" They see Rudolf trying to force his way onto Frida again.
"RUDOLF!😠😠😠😠😠" the Gang says in unison.
"An' Hirsh picked quite a time ta haf a day off!" Bob muses.
"Well. looks as if it's time for me to put the fear of god into that douche again!" Victor says, as he's prepared to confront Rudolf.
"You know the drill, Victor." Max tells him, as he gets up off his chair. "Let me have a moment to talk some sense into him, and when that fails, then you can have at him!" Max then proceeds to head over to Rudolf.
Frida was struggling to get Rudolf's hands off her. But Rudolf was too strong for her to break free. Max then taps Rudolf on his shoulder to get his attention.
"Hey Rudolf!" Max tells him with an extremely disapproving tone in his voice. "That's still my girlfriend you're trying to manhandle there."
Rudolf reacts to that by telling Max, "She's still seeing your loser self? How cute, huh-huh!" he then turns to a very angry Frida.
Max is growing more annoyed at Rudolf, as he grabs him by the arm, telling him, in a harsh tone "I don't think you understand just how serious I..." But just then, Rudolf turns to punch Max in the face, which sends him flying right onto the table where the Gang was sitting.
"MAX!!!" Frida screams, as she tries to run to Max, only to have Rudolf grab her by her wrist, and drag her to him.
Rudolf points his finger at Max and tells him, "Do that again, and you're dead where you stand!" as he takes Frida away from them.
Max gets up, holding his face in pain, after Rudolf punched him. Then, something inside Max sets him off. His face turns furious, with his eyes all lit with fire, and his teeth all clenched in anger.
Victor, feeling he's needed again, prepares to confront Rudolf. But he only takes a step, as Max put his hand down in front of him, telling him, in a growling voice, "NO VICTOR!!! It's time I started taking out the trash!"
Max then gets up to confront Rudolf again. But this time, as he gets up behind him, Max grabs Rudolf's shoulder to turn him around. And as Rudolf looks at him in anger, Max PUNCHES Rudolf in the face so hard, he's sent hurling across the bar and into a wall.
The entire bar saw that, and had this reaction:
As Rudolf gets up, confused and bleeding from his nose, he sees Max taking his jacket off, and throwing it to the side, while saying to him, "Ok, motherfucker. You've had this coming to you for a long time! AND NOW, THE PIPER WANTS WHAT'S DUE HIM IN FULL!!!"
Rudolf, outraged and furious at what was done to him, yells at Max, "YOU DARE TO THREATEN ME?!! I'LL SEE TO IT THAT YOU LIVE TO REGRET MAKING THAT MISTAKE FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!!!!!"
The entire bar was shocked and scared at what they just saw. None more so than Frida. Everyone thought Max has lost his mind and were concerned for him. But Max responds to Rudolf's threat by giving him the middle finger, and curling it up to tell Rudolf, COME AT ME, which only pisses Rudolf off some more.
Frida comes up to Max, and tells him "Please Max, don't do this, he'll kill you!"
"It has to be done, Frida!" Max tells her. "If not me, then who?"
Rudolf makes his move by lunging right at Max, throwing a punch his way. But Max's martial arts training starts kicking in, as he quickly ducks Rudolf's punch and follows that with a solid right to his midsection, where Rudolf, is bent in pain. Max follows that with a solid uppercut to Rudolf's jaw, which sends him flying and flat on the ground.
"You're getting too lucky, loser!" Rudolf yells at Max, as he struggles to get up. "It's about to run out for you!"
"Shut your ignorant mouth up, scum!" Max growls at Rudolf, as he waits for his next move. Rudolf incensed, charges at Max, who responds with a high kick to Rudolf's chest, which sends him back down on the floor again.
The entire bar is looking at all that, not believing what they're all seeing. Rudolf, growing more angry and frustrated at Max, continues to charge at him, throwing another punch his way. But Max manages to block Rudolf's punch by grabbing him by his fist, then grabs the other end of his arm and give him a solid knee to the wrist, which causes a gruesome snapping sound as Max manages to break Rudolf's wrist.
Rudolf, already reeling from the blows Max delivered him, grabs his wrist and holds on tight as he is in tremendous pain from it. He doesn't know how to react, as Max continues his assault on him, by delivering a well placed kick at the side of Rudolf's knee, which bends in a very unnatural and painful way. Rudolf reaches to grab his knee, as it has been blown out by Max. He has never been in a more vulnerable state, as Max continues pounding him with lefts and rights, as all his past frustrations are being taken out on Rudolf, who's becoming more and more a punching bag for Max.
Max's next blow send Rudolf, flying into the side of the bar. He's laid out on the floor all bloodied and broken from Max. He looks as though he's about to cry from the beatdown he's receiving, when Max picks him up by his shirt to continue beating on him.
As Max is about to deliver another blow, Rudolf pleads with him. "Please!" Rudolf says in an unfamiliar whimpering tone. "No more! I give up! PLEASE, I surrender, I beg you for mercy!"
"You want mercy?" Max growls at Rudolf. "Well then, here's what you're going to do. You're gonna walk right out that door, and never return!" he tells him, as he's pointing to the door outside, continuing "And if I find out you so much as stepped a toe in this place...I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN, AND FINISH WHAT I STARTED!!!" Max then takes Rudolf by the shirt with both hands, and heaves him to the door, screaming "NOW GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, YOU BITCH!!!" Rudolf, in pain and agony, struggles to get up, but he manages enough energy to crawl out pathetically.
Everyone looked at Max, who's still standing and still in rage mode, breathing heavily. They couldn't believe what they just saw. The pushover just pushed back at the big, dangerous bully and broke him. They were all wondering if this was the same Max Edwards they've all known for years. They all cleared out of his way, as Max headed back to his table, still in rage mode. As he got closer to his table, the Gang all stepped back in fear of him, as he took his seat. Max still hasn't yet decompressed from his mood, as he's breathing heavy and not saying anything.
No one wanted to go near Max, as they're still uncertain of him, until Victor, still on the table, approaches Max to talk to him.
"Heya buhhh-dee!" Victor cautiously says to Max. "Are you alright?" Max responds by quickly looking at Victor with wide eyes, which freaked him out, as he backed away in fear.
Max just stared at Victor with that look for what seemed like forever, until Max closed his eyes, turns his head towards Victor and, opening them, he gives Victor a soft smile and calmly says to him "Never felt better!"😊
When Victor sees that, he knows Max is himself again. They both exchange high fives, as the entire Crow's Bar erupts into cheers and the Gang huddles around him to congratulate him. Frida then runs up to Max to collapse onto him, giving him a huge hug in the process, and saying to him, "OH MAAAAAX!!!...Don't you ever scare me like that again! I thought I was going to lose you!"
Max just looks at Frida with a shy smile and softly tells her, "Guess I never had anything worth fighting for. Until now!"
"Oh Max!" Frida said, as she hugged and kissed Max, "I didn't think you could do it, but you went and beat that bastard to a pulp! You had absolutely no fear in you!"
Max was nodding his head in agreement with Frida. But then he stopped. Thought about what Frida had just said, and went "...Hmmmmm!"
Barclay Davis - Old School, Part Two