Bully (part 4 & 5: flashback)

Four: Flashback

SUMMERS COULD GET REALLY HOT IN ROG’NAB. And disgustingly humid after the daily rains that foreshadowed hightide. That was why we were all sitting around shirtless, in fishscale shorts, or in Toad’s case; a swimmer’s thong. We’d just gotten done riding squids through the obstacle trails. They were basically abandoned construction sites laced with giant concrete tunnels and some half-built clay structures that our squids could weave in and out of.

Here, the coral trees were orange and brown. It was the beginning of summer so some of the coral still had polyps out, floating through the air like insects. If you looked close enough you could see neon-colored crabs and snails happily feasting on them after snatching them from the air. The other guys didn’t pay attention to such things. It was something stupid only I noticed.

They’d rather catch the orange newts that hid under dead coral or in uninhabited shells and tickle their stomachs until they peed. Toad was doing this now, giggling to himself. Flashing his yellow teeth.

“Dude! Stop that!” Phish hissed. Toad was trying to squirt him with newt pee. Toad laughed louder. He continued until Phish got up quick and back-handed him in the face!

“Fuck!” Toad hissed, tossing the newt behind him. “What’d you do that for?” He held his cheek. All the guys watched him, silent, wondering if this would spawn into an all out fight. We were all hot, sweaty, exhausted from riding squids all day, and covered in mud and clay. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, until Sail began to laugh out loud. Toad cracked a smile and began laughing too, still holding his reddening cheek. Soon everyone started laughing.

“Dude, I wasn’t about to tussle with you. Your dick is too close to the surface!” Phish pointed out Toad’s underwear-like bathing suit.

“I don’t see anything,” Harpoon joked, when clearly Toad’s apparel didn’t leave much to the imagination.

The boys laughed again. Harder this time. Toad walking around with his legs spread and gesticulating that he clearly had a big dick. They all tried not to look.

“Hey Sail, how about we camp out tonight!”

Sail looked around the clearing. “Yea, that sounds like a good idea.”

“How about here?” Harpoon said.

“I’d have to ask my mom,” I said and immediately wished I hadn’t.

“Dude.” Toad mocked, “Wouldn’t want to upset your momsy-womsy!”

<But she’ll be worried,> I thought. “Alright, I’ll just tell her when I’m home.” Wouldn’t be the first time my mom stayed up all night worried about me.

“You call me if you plan on staying anywhere! I know those boys’ moms have palm-d’s! It’s ’96 for tides’ sake!” My mother had scolded.

<Yea, so do all their kids,> I thought.

“Toad.” Sail growled. Toad snapped back to attention, calm and still. “We’ll go tell your mom, man.”

“Thank—”

“No,” Sail cut me off, “Don’t thank me. Makes you sound gay.” Toad scuffed. Sail glared at him and Toad immediately became blank-faced. “Harp, can you snag your sleeping bags?” Sail asked.

“Yea! Toad, let’s go.” On second thought, “Put some pants on first, man.”

“But one of your sisters might be home,” Toad smirked.

That was the second time in five minutes that Toad was clocked across the face. At least if he was the punching bag — I wasn’t.

Five: Flashback

WE WERE LAUGHING AS WE RODE BACK TOWARDS THE CLEARING. Sail was telling me a story about how he tried to finger one of Harpoon’s older sisters. She’d called him a puny little perv! “That’s hilarious,” I said, though I didn’t fully understand some of the schematics to “fingering.”

The trail led to an incline that just on the other side was a dip where our camp was. Our squids hovered above the ground, propelled by pressing air through their bodies. The boys manipulated their mounts by pulling certain tentacles that the squids held up for them to hold. The sun was starting to fall and it was dusk. Much darker under the thick cover of coral trees. Phish and the others had a fire going. Toad was acting like some sort of monster, bouncing from rock to rock growling — in his banana hammock again. I swear that boy would just be naked if we’d let him.

“What the hell are you fags doing!?” Sail said. We stepped out of the gloom into the firelight after hopping off the back of his squid. Their mounts joined the others in a feast of orange newts that they hunted around the camp. Sail held up a bag which led to all the guys cheering. They all knew that it was alcohol. Sail and I took a detour to Sail’s house where we raided the liquor cabinet. Sail promised that his parents would never notice. I don’t know if I believed that.

“Toad was just reenacting what Bubble Buckteeth turned into when she saw him in his boxers.”

“You ran into her on your way to Harp’s?” I asked.

“Yea,” Toad snorted. “She was making out with a tree.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Sail said.

“No, it’s true!” Harpoon laughed. “Tongue out and everything!”

“You saw this?” Phish asked.

“Yea,” Harp replied.

Sail and I sat on a large rock together after Sail handed out cups full of liquor. I took my first sip and nearly spit it out. I saved myself from embarrassment.

“She turned into some sort of she-beast!” Toad said, and he began jumping from rock to rock to dead coral imitating some sort of hooting creature.

“She was horny.”

“Did you finger her?” Sail asked.

“Hell no!” Toad stopped dead in his tracks. “Even I have standards.”

We all started laughing while Toad continued to bounce around in his skimpy apparel. All his jumping caused his junk to come falling out, “Yo Toad! Fix yourself man! Tides! No one wants to see that.” Phish hissed. Another awkward silent moment followed, like earlier, where no one was sure if it would turn to flying fists.

Then Sail burst out laughing and all the boys followed suite. They all took their cues from him. I took my cues from him.