A Fishy End

Chapter 37

"Well, I'll be," David drawled as the men passed his front porch. Kyle spared him a single glance. "Imagine that, a bunch of white guys following some spic around. Never thought I'd live to see the day."

Ahead of Kyle, Rick froze and turned to face the man, his face burning. "I am ethnically Indian, good sir. Spic refers to Hispanics. It's bad enough you would insult me or my people, but you don't even know what my people are. Really!"

David just laughed. "You fucking coloreds all look the same . . ." A series of slurred words spewed from his mouth, along with a fair amount of spit. He managed to insult about every ethnic group possible, including a few, like Italians, that Kyle was pretty sure were considered white in everyone else's book. He even said the N word.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Caleb howled from beside Kyle. He started forward. Kyle grabbed the back of Caleb's shirt. Caleb spat out a string of profanities of his own.

"What's your problem?" David snapped. "You got a black lover or something?"

"I do," Darren growled.

"He's one quarter African American," Kyle barked. "Are you as fucking blind as you are stupid?"

Caleb froze and looked back at Kyle, his face surprisingly calm suddenly. "Bro," he said. "Nice come back." Kyle smiled.

"Should have known, a part . . ."

Caleb's face changed in an instant. He turned and began to cuss again, drowning out the words with some choice language of his own. Kyle couldn't hold him back and was being dragged slowly onto the drunk's porch. Ryan moved to block Caleb. "Let it go, man. He's not worth it."

"Guys," Rick said, authority ringing in his voice. "Come on. We must not stand here and let this man bait us." He turned and strode toward his own house. Kyle and Ryan got Caleb turned around and they followed, the drunk still spewing slur words, calling them pussies and other names for backing down. Darren flipped him off and followed them.

"He's not worth it," Ryan repeated as they mounted the front steps to Rick's house.

Rick turned, his eyes cold. "Oh no," he contradicted. "I think he's worth it. Quite worth it."

A sly smiled played across Caleb's face. He glanced back at David. "I agree. When is the next dark moon?"

"Not for a couple weeks. We should not be seen arguing with him publicly." He gave a meaningful look at Caleb. Caleb nodded.

He turned and looked at Ryan, whose expression was more thoughtful.

Ryan nodded slowly. "Made his own decision, really. Agreed."

"Agreed," Kyle said.

"Agreed," Darren echoed.

They all turned and went inside.