Walter winced as he dabbed his nose with the t-shirt. “I’d been watching her sit there for a while. Then these pricks start harassing her, being stupid and asking if she was red everywhere. I wasn’t gonna say anything until he put his hands on her. So I told him to leave her alone, and when he didn’t, I pushed him.”
Hector smiled. “Good for you. Was Charlie the one I knocked out?”
Walter’s face soured. “No! Charlee’s the girl, and now she probably thinks I’m the biggest wuss ever—no thanks to you coming in with your one-punch knockout.”
Charlie’s a girl? Then it dawned on him. “Wait.” He stopped in front of Walter, forcing him to stop. “You’re mad at me for helping you out?”
Walter frowned. “I could’ve had that guy. I was getting ready to make my move.”
Hector’s eyes shot open. He wasn’t sure if he should laugh or shove Walter. “Are you kidding me? You were on the ground in a fetal position.”
“I had a plan!”
This time Hector did laugh. “And what was that? To play dead?”
Hector laughed even louder now. Walter shoved past him and started walking again. Hector followed him, continuing to laugh loudly. He was glad now that Walter’s response had been so utterly ridiculous; otherwise, he might be pissed. Here he’d risked getting in trouble, very possibly arrested, and Walter’s ungrateful ass was mad about it?
“Go ahead; laugh it up.” Walter said, walking a little faster now. He turned to Hector with that same glare he remembered so vividly from the last time he’d seen Walter back in high school. “It’s what you’ve always done, right? Why stop now?”
Okay, now Walter was pissing him off. “Look, don’t be stupid. There was no way you were gonna make a move back there. You were already down, and there were three of them and one of you. If I hadn’t showed up when I did, you’d be the one lying there unconscious right now, not him. I didn’t have to get involved, but I did. You’re welcome, ass**le!”
Hector stopped then spun around. Fuck this! He stalked back in the direction of the parking lot. For the first time since he’d slugged the guy kicking Walter, he began to feel the tingling pain in his knuckles. Maybe he should’ve let them beat Walter’s ass.
“Why did you?” He heard Walter ask.
Taking a few more steps before deciding to stop, he turned around. “Because it wasn’t fair.” He shrugged. “Three on one is how pussies fight. I hate that shit.”
“You didn’t in high school.”
Walter’s words stunned Hector for a second, and then he reacted to them. “That’s bullshit!” Hector pointed at Walter, stalking back toward him with a purpose. “They never hurt you. Okay, so they teased you and messed with you, but they never ganged up on you to physically hurt you. If they had, I would’ve stepped in.”
This was the very argument he’d had with himself for months now. For too damn long, he’d been plagued with the guilt that Walter very possibly had done something tragic because Hector and his friends had pushed him over the edge. As much as it was a relief to know that Walter was alive and well, he hated that Walter did see him as the same kind of piece of shit as the guys kicking him while he was down today. Because ever since that last day he’d seen Walter, it’s exactly what Hector had felt like.
Walter shook his head and started walking away. Suddenly Hector was mad again. This wasn’t fair. “What was I supposed to do, Walter? You were bigger than most of the guys back in high school. Why didn’t you stop them? Why didn’t you ever stand up for yourself?”
Walter turned around. “Like today? Against more than one bully? Because I got news for you: it was never just one. Oh no. You said it yourself, ‘Pussies don’t start shit one on one.’ It was always at least two or more, and you saw today how that ends.”
“Still, you fight!” Hector insisted. With Walter on the ground today, Hector had been outnumbered, too, but he never once thought about that when he went at them.
“I’m not a fighter like you, man.” Walter said loudly. “I don’t have a knockout punch. Hell, I don’t have a punch period.”
Hector was tired of this. All these months of beating himself up about Walter, was ending now. “And what?” His voice was so loud he practically yelled. “You think this happened overnight? You think this is just some gift I was given? It wasn’t, okay? It took years of training and hard work at the gym. You should try it sometime. But let me tell you something: I am not like them.” He pointed behind Walter with conviction. “I’m sorry, okay?” He lost a little of the conviction as the guilt inundated him once again. This is what he’d been hoping for months that he’d get a chance to say to Walter someday, and now here was his chance. He took a deep breath when he saw Walter’s confused expression. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop them from breaking your robot.” He took another deep breath. “And I’m sorry for all those years I stood back and watched them bully you without saying anything. I really am, Walt. I’m sorry.”
Walter stared at him for a moment and then glanced away. Obviously, he wasn’t expecting to hear this from Hector, and that’s what burned the most. As much as Hector didn’t want to admit it, he was as bad as the guys beating on Walter today. Maybe he’d never physically beaten Walter, but he’d been a part of beating Walter’s self-confidence to the ground for years. Any sense of self-worth Walter might have ever had, Hector had a hand in beating it lifeless. Hector knew he’d never join the jerks he hung out with in ganging up to beat on someone, but how were Walter and some of the other weaklings that got picked on regularly supposed to know that? Of course, they’d never fight back. Who would fight a group of overconfident bullies that included a trained fighter among them?