CONFLICT'S CONFLICT
Parallel lives. Do you ever think about what other people are doing? I do. I think about it all the time. Sometimes I find myself lost in thought when I try to compare what other people are doing compared to what I am doing.
After the car exploded, I found myself in the passenger seat thinking about Conflict. I felt really badly about how things had turned out. I wanted to call her and try to squash any ill will that had developed between us. I was thinking about what she was probably doing at the very minute that I was killing Tough Guy. I decided that I would call her and try to patch things up.
She picked up the phone after the second ring. I started with the usual two questions. I asked, " How are you and what's going on?" She answered both with one-word answers. She said, " Fine and nothing". I had hoped that she would be a little more sociable, but it really didn't matter. Like I said before, conversations with Conflict were like walking through a minefield. You had to be careful about every move that was made. I decided to run straight through, and hoped I remained unscathed.
I said, " You don't have to be a jerk about this. If it didn't work out the way you hoped, I am sorry. But we can both be adults".
She didn't say anything for a long while, but I could hear her clicking her gum. It was a really annoying habit, but I didn't want another thing to fight about. Finally, she asked me if I was through? I said I was. She asked me if I would meet her at the park so we could talk. I told her that I would be there in ten minutes.
When she hung up her phone, Conflict went into One Punch's room. He was lifting weights. He told her to come back in an hour when he was finished. Conflict stayed and said, " He's meeting me in the park in ten minutes".
One put down the weights, grabbed a sweatshirt of his dresser and walked out of his room with Conflict.
They drove in silence to the park. When they arrived, Conflict told One that she wasn't too sure that this was a good idea.
Conflict started to admit that I had been almost as nice to her as I possibly could have been. One looked confused, but he was determined. He had to put a beating on me. For years he had told all of his "boys", that his sister was off limits. If he didn't deal with me, in exactly the manner he had threatened, then his word was garbage on the street. I had put him into a situation that he had to throw me a beatin'.
I understood One's dilemma. I expected him to be in the park waiting for me. I expected the beating and I was prepared to take it like a man. But, I had No waiting in the car. I told him to keep a close eye on the fight. I wasn't prepared to take "that" much of a beating.
Poser's Dictionary
GASSED- excited, happy
WAR CRY- noise used to alert members of a crew
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