The Bully

Sarah stared blankly at the open books in front of her on the kitchen table. Tired of puzzling over chemistry equations, she stepped away from her laptop and cracked open a fresh can of Pepsi. Leaning against the sink, she took a large gulp and gazed out the window at the bull pen. Ronald was eating feed, his gigantic black-brown silhouette an alarmingly dense ripple of muscles. He lowered his head and flicked his tail. Flies scattered.

Deep bass beats shook the glass in the windows and the floorboards beneath her feet. A shiny orange Dodge Charger raced up her driveway; she recognized it immediately from the school parking lot.

“What are you doing here?!” she demanded, coming out onto the porch.

Leland, Carl, and Joey stumbled out of the car. She could tell they had been drinking, and there was a cloud of thick smoke lingering in their car.

“Y’all better get out of here before my dad gets back from rounding up the horses.”

“We just wanted to check out this bull ya got,” Leland said, approaching the pen.

“Leland, don’t!” Sarah rushed down the porch steps two at a time, her long brown ponytail swinging between her shoulder blades. Ronald never showed any signs of aggression before, but he stared at Leland in a manner that unsettled her.

He laughed. “I’ve been handling bulls my entire life!”

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The first time Sarah petted Ronald, they both weighed roughly sixty pounds. As the only bull on her family’s dairy farm, her parents weren’t inclined to keep him. Nine-year-old Sarah tried to convince them by arguing how valuable he could be for breeding purposes. When that argument didn’t immediately work in her favor, she flat-out begged.

She spent time with Ronald, scratching his chin and feeding him alfalfa hay. She brushed him and he nudged her arm, leaving a trail of saliva and snot along her forearm. “Ew!” Sarah laughed, “Gross!”

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“Leland, don’t!’” Carl mimicked in a high-pitched voice, his freckled face twisting into a grimace.

“Ronnie’s not gonna give me any trouble, are ya, Ronnie?” Leland approached the bull, beads of sweat visible on his forehead and in his dark hair.

“Show 'em, Lee!” called Carl from his position safely outside the fence.

“He’s full of shit,” Joey said to Carl. He leaned over the fence and yelled, “You ain’t gonna ride no bull!”

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Leland was the new kid in Sarah’s tenth grade class. Their teacher made the boisterous troublemaker sit next to the quiet, introverted Sarah. She understood this was their teacher’s attempt to settle Leland and make him behave, but it made class torture for her.

“What’s that?” he asked, plopping down next to her as the bell rang for class to begin. He snapped his gum.

She looked down to the back of her leg where a drop of glue had smudged in art class. “It’s just paste.” Sarah started rubbing her leg and plucking off white, gummy shreds of dried glue.

“You peed on yourself?!” Leland shouted.

“No!” She felt a flush rise from my chest to the crown of her head. “I said, it’s paste!”

“Oh my God, Sarah peed on herself!”

The teacher ignored them “Sit down, everyone, and open your textbooks….”

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Ronald shook his head and flared his nostrils.

Leland paled and started backing up slowly towards the fence.

“I knew it! Pussy!” Joey taunted.

“I don’t see you in here, jackass!”

“I never claimed to win first prize in three rodeos!”

Leland stopped.

“Also, I’m not an idiot!” Joey added. His manbun bobbed on top of his head.

Ronald snorted.

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Sarah sat in algebra class, trying to make sense of the equations in her textbook. She felt something small stick in her hair and swatted it. The boys snickered. As casually as she could, she raked her hand through her hair and saw her fingers were covered with dozens of multi-color star stickers. Leland, Joey, and Carl busted out laughing. Leland held a sheet of star stickers he had stolen from the teacher’s desk.

Sarah whipped back around in her chair. Her armpits were wet, and her neck felt hot. She combed out all the stars she could before wrapping her hair into a messy bun on top of her head. She looked down at her desk, praying the other kids in class would stop staring.

“Hey, Sarah,” taunted Leland, smacking his gum. “Heard you got a bull on your farm.”

She ignored him and plucked star stickers from her hands.

“C’mon, Sarah, let us ride him. I’ve competed in three rodeos. I know what I’m doing.”

“No.” she growled through her teeth.

She heard him slump back in his chair. He coughed deeply and said ‘Sarah sucks!’ under his breath. His friends laughed.

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“I’m not an idiot!” Leland said defensively. He took a step forward. A few black and white cows grazed and mooed behind Ronald.

Ronald turned to the side, showing off the enormity of his 1800-pound frame. He pawed the ground and bowed his head, his horns neatly pointed at Leland.

The wind caught in Leland’s throat.

“Come on, let’s go,” Carl said, a note of panic in his voice. “This is boring.”

“Yeah, let's get outta here,” Joey agreed, taking a few steps back behind the Charger.

“Listen to them, Leland!” Sarah shouted. “You’re gonna get yourself gored!” She read the signs of Ronald’s aggression and looked around frantically for her father. When she didn’t see him, she shoved her sweaty hand into her pocket and fumbled around for her cellphone.

Leland took another step back. His fingertips brushed the gate.

Ronald charged.

Sarah stepped forward and opened the gate, and Leland fell backward into the dirt. She shut the gate quickly but noticed Ronald hadn’t been running at full speed. She saw him slow and circle around the pen, snorting at the boys as if to say thought so. Sarah hid her smile.

On the ground, Leland’s face was white, his eyes wide and pupils dilated. He panted and wiped his hands on his camouflage-print pants.

Leland jumped to his feet and hollered, “Wooo-eee! You cowards! I told ya it was nothin’”

“Still didn’t get on no damn bull,” Joey muttered, opening the car door.

“Get in the car, ladies!” he shouted at his friends, pretending not to hear Joey. “Time to go!”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I bet this is your first time near a bull, and you’re damn lucky you got out alive.”

“That so?” Leland didn’t falter, his expression a smooth veneer of joviality. “Why’d you help me, then? You like me that much?”

Sarah huffed. “No! I’m just not gonna let Ronald go to slaughter because of you.” She brushed dust off her skirt.

Carl stuck his head out of the window of the Charger, his red hair a beacon in the darkening sky. “C’mon, let’s get your brother to buy us more beer!”

Leland looked at Sarah thoughtfully for a moment. “Thanks,” he said softly.

His sincerity shocked her. “You’re welcome,” she said finally.

“See ya tomorrow, Sar!” Leland said. He smiled at her and hopped into his car. “I’ll save ya a seat in class!” He winked at her and hit the gas pedal.

His car left sand-colored clouds in its wake. As she watched the dirt dissipate and settle into a low-hanging haze along the driveway, she realized Ronald had humbled him. She knew she could use this to her advantage if Leland picked on her again, but somehow, she knew he wouldn’t.

Ronald was munching on greens in his pen. He raised his head, his chalky-white horns pointed upwards. In the evening light, the majestic beast was impossibly grand, yet tranquil and subdued, like the moment after a clap of thunder. In awe, Sarah leaned against the fence post, contently keeping watch amid the pastoral calm until the stars poked through the indigo cloak of the expanding night.