“Hey, guys,” I say in an upbeat tone, or what I hoped was. “How are you doing?”

I grab Claire’s hand and hold it tightly. I don’t look at her, but I could see her in my peripheral vision. I couldn’t believe one could turn more red than crimson, but I now knew it was possible.

Honestly, I felt bad for the girl. I was using her to satisfy my current need to piss someone off, and that someone was the group in front of me.

Actual hate oozed off the now four people in front of me, James and Lisa had come over when they saw me approach them. It was almost visible,

“What the actual fuck Cooper!” Mark almost screamed at me. His face was red, just like Claire’s but this was pure rage. It made me wonder like I had countless times before, what had I actually done to cause this much malice. Mark’s veins in his neck were visibly bulging, and I could tell he was scaring Claire a bit but I wasn’t done with the poor girl yet.

Amy and the others were watching the confrontation, and it seemed like Ben was preparing to step in if needed, and with my current mood, it was definitely needed.

“Woah, calm down,” I said, smiling all the while which I knew would piss him off even more. “I always knew you were a bit of a girl but didn’t realize you had periods too!”

SMACK!

The sound seemed to echo as Mark gave me a solid right hook to the jaw. It almost downed me, I stumbled back across the sandy beach. Claire tried to drag me away, but Mark came again, he was pure hate in human form. He tripped on a rock as he launched his blow and was instead about to punch Claire in the back of the head, on accident of course.

A small part of me wanted it to land. This would ostracise Mark. Claire was well liked if a bit quiet. But my conscience pulled through, I had dragged the girl into this mess to annoy them and it had blown well out of proportion. I twisted around so that I could shield the oncoming impact.

The punch slammed into the back of my head and the lights went out briefly.

When they came back, my vision was red. I was lying face down in the sand. I could hear some shouting and the sounds of crying. I was pissed.

I clambered to my feet, slowly. I brushed the sand from my clothing and turned.

Ben was shouting and arguing with Mark who was being restrained by James. Amy was beside me, comforting the crying Claire.

“Clay, are you good?” Amy asked.

It was a stupid question. My parents were dead and I’d just had the living daylights literally punched out of me.

“Oh, I’m good. Very good.” I smile. It was an empty and cold smile, and something in my eyes must have indicated what I was about to do because Amy jumped to her feet and tried to stop me.

Tried was the key word there, as I shrugged her off and charged towards Mark. Ben tried to grab me after hearing Amy’s shouts but I ducked under his grasping arms and tackled Mark, bringing James down with us. I was the first to recover from the tumble, and proceeded to mount his chest and send slamming blows into the cunt’s face, each punch perforated and accompanied by a word.

“DON’T. FUCK. WITH. ME. TODAY.” I scream and just as quickly as the red vision came, it was gone. Ben had reached us by this time, but I stood up before he could restrain me. I was done. Mark was on the floor and James tried to scramble for me but was intercepted by Ben. I turned and walked away, sparing once glance at Lisa and Madison and another for Claire and Amy.

Claire was crying whilst Amy was trying to soothe her, she gave me a look that was filled with some sort of emotion. Pity perhaps?

I left them all there on the beach, and walked over and down the other side of the hill.

I continued walking for a minute or so before I started to cry.

======================================================================

I made my way home slowly, taking a scenic route. I had a lot to think about after all. I was a jerk, using Claire as a piece in my games that I was playing with Mark and the others. I decided I would try and make it up to her. Perhaps take her on an actual date.

I was also still fuming about Mark. Whilst I’m regretful the situation escalated so much, and even sorry about ruining Amy’s plans to cheer me up, One thing I won’t apologize for is smacking the shit out of that head in ass moron.

My phone rang for what must have been the dozenth time, and just as all the times before, I let it ring out. It was shortly followed by another text notification, I had also gotten plenty of those in the two hours since. I hadn’t even checked my phone since the incident.

I was approaching an old park I used to play in when I was younger when my parents actually cared about me or at least were more attentive. My thoughts started drifting in a dangerous direction. Was I the problem? My parents kept their distance, my friends became my dedicated enemies and I had just caused a nice girl some unwarranted distress.

I never got why my parents kept my distance. I never got why my friends started hating my very existence. I never got any of these things. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

I pulled out my phone and called Amy. She was the source of most of the missed calls.

“Clay? Where are yo--”

I interrupted before she could continue.

“Amy, wait a second. Where is Claire?”