Worth it

Torment

There was a handful of things that Lars loved in the world. He loved spiced cider in the autumn, he loved loud music, he loved sleeping in, he loved cooking, he loved tea, he loved the few people he trusted, and he dearly, dearly loved his pet snake, Sugar. Even as she was getting on in her years, she still acted like a clownish baby, Lars thought, always playing on his hands, licking his face with her little tongue, snuggling around his arm, or on his lap, or nesting in his hoodie pocket for a nap. She escaped her cage so many times, Lars would not be surprised if he woke up with her on his chest, greeting him with a gentle touch on the nose. Some people had cats or dogs as their most treasured non-human friend. Lars had his snake.

There was also a near endless multitude of things that Lars absolutely despised. And one of them was bullies.

Growing up, he was frequently the target of older kids who loved to pick on him for his scrawny frame, his bright red hair, his complexion, and his inability to fight back. Sometimes he'd come home with scratches and bruises from the physical abuse, and sometimes he'd just come home in tears over the names he was called. Dirty awful horrible names that made him want to curl up under his bed with Sugar and hide forever. When he got older, some of the names didn't bother him as much, so kids would step up their game, and hurl out worse names, or even racial epithets and slurs that Lars was too ashamed and scared to tell his parents he received. He'd tell Sugar though, and she would react only with love for him.

When Lars got older, most kids found he wasn't even worth teasing, and instead just isolated him. There was, however, a select few kids who still would come around every so often to see how they could aggravate Lars, finding his temper was easy to ignite.

After Lars and Ronaldo's friendship had gotten back on track, Lars had found that he could hardly care about those people anymore, so whenever they came around, he'd shrug it off, or turn his music up louder, or walk away, or, if things got physical, threaten to call police. That usually shook them off.

There was one teen, Stanley, who was determined to get a rise out of Lars again, just for laughs. Having been targeting him since day one, he knew Lars had a pet snake, remembering that one science class where Lars brought her in as an extra credit project. When he made a joke about snake meat, Lars had shot him the dirtiest look possible, and Stanley had a pretty good idea of what could make that kid's fuse blow for the ultimate freak out.

After finding a dead garden snake on the road, flattened in the middle by a tire, Stanley took it home, giving it a quick taste of white spray paint, and glided off on his bike into town to find Lars and give him a sweet surprise.

Meanwhile, Lars and Ronaldo had been walking down a residential street, arguing over whether or not Ronaldo had seen a ghost in his fridge.

"Just look at these pictures I took last night!", Ronaldo pointed at the images on his phone, "You can see the ectoplasmic glow against the tub of cottage cheese!"

"That just looks like the fridge light," Lars countered, rolling his eyes.

"The fridge light isn't green."

"Well neither is that light."

"Squint! Just squint and you'll see the green!"

Stanley caught sight of Lars walking alongside Ronaldo Fryman, the town's local idiot, as Stanley considered him, always seeing him wandering around town with a camera, babbling on and on about the stupidest things. It would be fun to see that bumbling moron's reaction to this, Stanley thought.

Stanley whizzed past Lars on his bike, making a sharp u-turn, and hopping off, "Hey Lars!", he grinned obnoxiously.

Lars was about to shoulder past him when the teen pushed him back, to make him stay in place, and gave an unamused look, "I don't have time for this Stanley."