The Miracle Clinic

xChapter 25 - A Tale of Two Best Friends (4)

At middle school a few days after Marcus isolated himself from Ronnie, the two find themselves on opposite ends of the hallway. Ronnie goes to wave at Marcus but Marcus ignores him, as he does so. Ronnie notices a book fall out of Marcus' open backpack. Ronnie goes to pick it up but when he looks back, Marcus is nowhere to be seen.

"Guess I'll go ask a teacher," Ronnie says as he walks over to the main office.

Inside a classroom, Marcus is sitting at his desk waiting for the class to start. However as he is waiting, he feels a pair of hands grab onto him and toss him to the ground.

"The next day, the same shit that happened every day began again."

Marcus looks up to see Hunter standing over him, wielding a metal baseball bat. Marcus flinches as he sees the bat. However, he drops the bat in favor of just punching Marcus repeatedly.

"Hunter would come and attack me and everyone else in the room..."

As Marcus is getting beaten, he glances around the room to see other students either laughing or just ignoring what was happening.

"Would just turn the other way."

After several seconds of slamming his fist down onto Marcus, Hunter gets up to catch his breath, as he does so he looks down at Marcus. Marcus struggles to try and get up but Hunter pushes him down with his foot.

"Buddy I don't get it, why are you trying to get up? You know I'm just going to hit you some more," Hunter teases.

"I just...I just don't want this to go on," Marcus says.

"Is that so," Hunter says while he grabs the metal baseball bat and lifts it up, "well too bad."

As Marcus closes his eyes and Hunter begins to swing the bat down, the door to the classroom opens and Hunter stops.

"However, that day something I never expected, happened."

Marcus, confused, opens his eyes to see that the person who just entered the classroom was Ronnie Everst. Confused as to why he's there, Marcus tries to talk but notices Ronnie is holding the book that he dropped earlier. Hunter gets up and walks over to Ronnie. Ronnie is standing there motionless as Hunter walks over to him.

"Hey kid, the fuck is up with you?" Hunter asks,

"My two best friends..."

Ronnie isn't responding to Hunter as his hands, which are in the shape of fists, begin to tremble and he bites down on his lip. Hunter glaring at Ronnie goes to lightly tap him on the chest with the baseball bat but before he can do that, Ronnie quickly grabs the metal bat with one of his hands. Marcus looks to see Ronnie's eyes wide with a furious rage he's never seen from him before.

"Back. Off," Ronnie utters as blood begins to drip down from his mouth.

"Were about to fight."

Hunter looks to see that Ronnie's gaze is looking toward the bruised and bloodied Marcus. Hunter chuckles to himself before he grabs Ronnie by the shirt and slams him into the ground.

"You shouldn't be trying to mess with someone if you can't fight," Hunter yells as he rips the metal bat out of Ronnie's hand and goes to swing it down on Ronnie.

However, Ronnie manages to kick Hunter in the legs, sending Hunter down to the ground. As the two of them get back up Ronnie shouts, "I was just letting you get the first hit in."

"Why's that?" Hunter snarls.

"Because," Ronnie says as he runs over to Hunter, "I never throw the first punch in a fight, but I'm always the one that ends them!"