Burned at Both Ends

3. Deal

| sorry for the short chapter |

5:45am.

Remember our deal?

First thing, I woke up from a nightmare by accidentally hitting my head against the top of my bunk. Then falling out of it.

Ryan was out of his bunk immediately, trying to help me stand.

I never had a nightmare that bad. It was fairly disturbing.

"Ricky, get up, buddy." Ryan said quietly.

I guess nobody else was awake yet.
I sat up and crossed my legs. I gestured for Ryan to sit in front of me.

"What happened? You kind of shouted, then I heard you hit your head and fall out of the bunk." He said. "Are you okay?"

"No," I shook my head.

Jesus Christ, was I about to cry? My eyes stung and it was harder to breathe.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I really..." I sighed and rubbed my eyes with my sleeves. "I really don't want to talk about it."

"Ricky..." Ryan mover closer and hugged me.

"It's alright. Go back to sleep, Ryan." I insisted.

"It's almost 6:00am anyways." Ryan said. "You want to stay at the bus today?"

"No," I shook my head. "I want to watch you guys perform today."

"Alright." He nodded. "Ricky... Are you really okay?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Okay." He pulled away and helped me up.

~~

7:33am.

Florida. Back stage. Stress eating away at me.
Typical day, huh?

I felt someone grab my shoulder and I turned around.

"Well, if it isn't the raccoon!" TJ grinned.

"Shouldn't you be with your band?" I asked.

"We don't perform until 4:30." He smiled innocently. "Now, how about that deal?"

"TJ, I really don't feel like fighting you right now." I said.

TJ grabbed my shoulders and pushed me backwards until we were completely away from the band.

"Well, now you don't have a choice."

~~

7:00pm.

"Ricky."

I hastily turned onto my side to see who was waking me up, and ended up falling off the couch.

"Holy shit, Ricky." Chris said.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you fight TJ again?" He asked.

"...Yeah." I admitted.

"You're gonna get yourself killed." He said. "I'm serious. TJ is a lot stronger than you."

I sighed. "I know. Probably."

~~

11:00am.

The band wasn't performing, and as promised, Ryan taught me how to fight.

"Alright, so what exactly am I trying to do?" I asked.

"Fight." He said.

"I meant--"

"I know. Try to tackle me." He said.

"What?" I asked.

"Try to take me down, kid." He said.

Physically fighting Ryan wasn't exactly something I wanted to do, but I guess he wasn't giving me a choice.

So I ran at him, grabbed his sides and tried to tackle him, but he grabbed my shoulders and slammed me down instead.

Luckily he agreed fighting in the field behind the Warped set up was better than in the parking lot.

"Try again." He smirked.

"Gladly," I said, grabbing his leg and pulling him down.

"...Nice." He said.

I chuckled. "Thanks."

Ryan stood up. "Alright, try it again."

I stood up a backed away from him. "You sure?"

"Don't go easy on me, kid."

So I ran at him again, first grabbing his arms, and then kicking his legs from beneath him. He fell and looked up at me, a bit surprised.

"Nice," He said, standing again. "Now, try it without running at me. Because if you get into another fight with TJ, chances are he isn't going to leave that much space between the two of you."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Alright. I'm going to fight back this time." He said.

11:05am.

I flung my fist towards him, but he grabbed both my arms.
I tried to pull my arms away, but to no avail.

I kicked his legs again, but this time I fell with him.
I fell on top of him, so I took the advantage to pin him.

"Should we stop now?" I asked.

"Nope," Ryan said.

He slammed his knee against my back and pushed me off.
He stood and pulled me up.

"Do that if TJ ever gets you on the ground." He said. "Well, I mean... Or anyone."

"Okay." I nodded.

~~

3:40pm.

After almost four hours of fighting lessons with Ryan, I wasn't as afraid of seeing TJ again, even though he could still probably fight better than me.

Remember, whoever you're fighting isn't going to let you have a do-over. He said.

So while I was walking around outside and saw TJ approaching me, I kept that in mind.

"Well, hello, 'Coon." TJ greeted.

"What now, TJ?" I asked.

"Remember our deal?" He said. It's as if he was actually in my dream last night and now he was mocking me.

"Yes." I replied simply.

"Good." He grabbed my shoulders and threw me down.

Shit. Of course he wanted to fight.
Part of me wanted to curl into the fetal position and cry, but the other part of me wanted to beat the living shit out of TJ.

He grabbed my arms and pulled me up quickly.
He let go of me, and I grabbed his wrists and pushed him down. He grabbed my arms again so I fell too.

He pinned me and basically started wailing on me.
I remembered what Ryan said and slammed both my knees against TJ's back, then pushed him off.

I quickly stood and ran back to the bus.

But a few feet away stood Angelo, crossing his arms.

"Shit," I muttered.

He started walking over, but he faltered for a second.

I felt TJ grab my shoulders and throw me to the ground again.
He raised his arm and made a fist, but I saw Angelo grab TJ's sides and pull him away from me.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" He yelled at TJ.

"Nothing that concerns you!" TJ shot back.

"Leave Ricky the fuck alone! Or you deal with me," Angelo threatened.

"Really? What can you do that can possibly hurt me?" TJ challenged.

"Just you fucking wait." Angelo hissed.