The Sokolov Family (Completed)

Chapter 7

7

It was later that day in the school hallway, with students using their ten minutes between class to rush around the school, shouting abuse at each other, chatting up members of the opposite sex and talking rubbish to each other. The latter being what I did with my two friends Patrick and Maureen.

On that day however, there was only Patrick. Maureen didn't struggle for friends the way we did and was off chatting with some girls in the bathroom.

Our conversations tended to be around the latest television show, which I would stream on a computer screen as there was only one television in the house and mum insisted on leaving that tuned into a news channel.

'Did you see the latest Azack's wives'

'What. There was another one?'

'No. I mean the one three days ago. It was amazing'

'Yeah, the mayor and his wives, I didn't see that coming'

It was at that moment, or half way through the sentence and my mind completed the sentence in the absence of works, that Brian bumped into Patrick. Let me just reiterate that before I continue. Brian walked into Patrick. Patrick was standing by the side chatting to me. Admittedly, he can be slightly animated when he's explaining things and maybe at that moment his arms stretched out. But definitely, it was Brian who walked into Patrick.

'You idiot. Watch where you're going'. Those were the words that came from Brian's mouth. They were uttered seconds before Brian punched Patrick to the ground. He took a second to look at him, then at me, challenging me to do something about it. I did nothing. Then he walked off, with his three followers behind him.

I admit it, when it comes to Brian, I'm a coward. I like to use the excuse that my parent have told Steven and myself to not draw attention to ourselves. But the truth is, even if they hadn't said that, I still would have stood there and done nothing. On the other hand if Maureen had been there, she would have stepped between them and punched Brian back. Not that I've ever seen her hit Brian, but I've heard her tell him to go away, with the use of profanity.