A Sun Lit Path

Chapter 27 "Spike Down" Part 2

Joey was speed walking down the halls trying to make an escape from us. Ryan got close to him and said,

"Dude, why did you leave us on the court? We won that round thanks to you!"

Joey stopped as soon as Ryan said that.

"Joey what's wrong? You don't seem to excited." Ryan said to Joey.

"You don't get it, Ryan..." Joey said. "This is why I stopped."

"Stop what?" I said curiously.

"Tch...When I was twelve, my mom signed me up to play a ton of sports. My brother and sister didn't do anything life changing like my parents did in their past. So my mom forced me to be the next Olympic star, you can say, by signing me up to play a lot of sports. She signed me up to play soccer, track, gymnastics, basketball, and finally...volleyball. I got really fed up with her shit forcing me to not be a failure like my siblings. I had this rage building up inside me for the longest time until finally, I snapped. Four years ago, my team was about to win the O-side championships. It was going fine, we were in the lead but that's when I snapped. I spiked the ball onto some girl's face and caused her to get nose surgery. When everyone was panicking the girl's father sued my family for injuring his daughter. He won the court case and kept pestering us for more money or else he would arrest me since he is one of the higher ups on our police force back in O-side. My family is still in debt to him and I get angry every time I'm here. Knowing I can't work to supply my family with money."

"Then why come here if you know you'll get mad?" Ryan said to Joey.

"At first I wanted to escape. My family didn't want me to go, but I made my way here secretly without them knowing but I feel like they're gonna know now after seeing me on TV. I'm worse than Margret." Joey said.

"No you're not." I said to Joey while pointing a finger at him. "It's not your fault your mom made you mad in the first place."

"It's not that! I'm mad about literary everything! I wanted to make my senior year the best with you guys. That's why I came here in the first place. But now everything is taking a turn for the worst! I wanted to forget about the debt and live like nothing happened here, but...but...I just can't. Cameron becoming 'hot', all of the boys wanting to fuck her, Sadie having a fan club, Femboy Hooters blowing up, Xavier dying, Alex getting prosthetic's, Margret almost killing Jess and Alex...and now this." Joey says while trying to holding back his tears.

"We still have fun. We just need to move past that." Says Ryan.

"I can't go on. As much I want to fight and stand up for everyone...I can't." Joey says while turning his back at us and staring at the ground.

"What do you mean that "you want to fight for everyone?" Don't you already do that, Joey?" I said to Joey.

"...no. Back when I was still doing all the sports that my mom signed me up for I was bullied. Every kid I passed by in the halls called me "mama's boy" since I was only doing it for her. They called me "Cry baby Sonic" since they will always see me cry in the back of my mom's car when my body was aching after I did all sports she signed me up for that day. Not only that I want to stand up for myself against the world, I wanted to stand up to my mom and tell her to just stay out of my business and let me live my life how I want to, but I knew that she wouldn't let me because of my siblings. " Joey says while walking slowing away from us. "You know...back when we did that Dungeons and Dragons session with Margret and whacked me with the wooden spoon and why I didn't fight back? It reminded me of how I hurt that girl. How her dad screamed at me telling me it was all my fault and how I should be put in jail. Part of me wanted to punch Margret. Part of me wanted to put her in her place, but no. I stayed on the floor curled up in a ball. I'm worse than Margret." Joey said as he walks away from us.