Freedom -- A Rocky Lynch Story

Chapter 15

Rocky had to do a double take. He rubbed his hands over his eyes hard, hoping that what he was seeing was just a figment of his imagination. Maybe it was just something in his eye and he could just wipe it away. But when he completely turned his body to face the sidewalk, he learned that his eyes were not deceiving him.

Dan was slowly making his way towards Riley's house. He raised his hand and gave it a short wave before opening his mouth. "Hey, man. This is Riley's house, right?" He tossed the cigarette onto the ground and it landed next to Rocky's shoe. "Have you seen her?"

"What do you want?" Rocky growled. It took everything in him to not launch himself at the man and throw a couple of punches. If he could get out of this situation without violence, he would be proud of himself. His temper usually got the best of him, and at that moment, all he could think about was crushing this man's skull. The satisfaction he would feel from that scared him a little bit.

The man with greasy hair and yellowing teeth threw his head back in a laugh, taking a casual stance a little too close to Rocky for his taste. The closer he got, the easier it would've been for Rocky to jab his first up into this guy's jaw. "Whoa there," Dan said with a creepy smile. "There's no need to be hostile. I just want to talk to her. Besides, this is between me and Riley. I had no idea that you knew her anyway, dude."

"Yeah, I know her," Rocky said with his jaw clenched. The strong stench of tobacco and marijuana smoke filled the small gap between them and made Rocky feel sick. "She's not here, and you're never stepping a foot near her again. Do you understand?"

"So, I see some news got back to you about what happened last night," Dan sighed, scratching his neck. "Listen, she had it all wrong. We were just having a little bit of fun, that's all. If she didn't want it, she should've just told us."

Rocky scoffed at the poor excuse. "From what she told me, she didn't want any of that. And you should feel ashamed of yourself for taking advantage of a young girl. You guys are disgusting and pathetic."

The more Rocky said, the angrier Dan got. His mind was foggy from all of the cocaine that he had snorted, and he desperately needed another fix. In the wake of coming down from his high, he became irritable and violent. He thought he was doing a good job of keeping a pleasant mask on, but Rocky was slowly tearing off this mask and revealing his true self. "I'd be careful of the next words that come out of your mouth," Dan warned.

"Or what?" Rocky challenged. A cocky smirk grew across his lips.

"Or I'll give you a taste of what your little girlfriend gets from her daddy," he retorted with his fist clenched and slowly raising.

Those words traveled the airwaves into Rocky's mind and he saw a flash of white rage. Something that was told to him in confidence by a vulnerable girl was now being used as a threat, and it made him angrier than he had ever been in his entire life. Without even thinking, he balled his right fist and hooked the vile snake in the chin. "Like that?" he snarled. Dan flew backwards onto the ground, where Rocky kicked him in the stomach.

Blinding pain overcame Dan, but he knew he had to fight back otherwise he would be beaten by a scrawny teenager. With his elbow, he hit Rocky in the shin as hard as he could, causing the tall boy to bend over. When he was within arms reach, Dan pulled Rocky onto the ground and struggled to hold him down. "You're going to regret that," he coughed into Rocky's face, turning his head to spit out some blood. The grey sidewalk was now splattered with dark red spots.

Rocky thrusted his head forward, crashing his forehead into the other guy. He regained power, rolling Dan onto his back and throwing a couple more punches, one after another. "Don't EVER talk about Riley that way," he yelled as the punches flew. He had no idea how much attention he was drawing to himself. Before he could react, Rocky felt someone pulling him up and away from the man.

"Rocky Mark Lynch," his dad yelled, restraining his son. "What the Hell is going on out here?" He pushed his son a couple of inches away and took his position in between the two men. His eyes were fixed on his son, glaring at him furiously. He glanced back to the Dan as he started to stand up and held his bruised and bleeding face in his hands.

"This guy hurt Riley last night, and he probably came back to do some more damage," Rocky sneered at him from a distance.

"So, you decided to take matters into your own hands? That's really smart of you, Rocky." Sarcasm dripped from his father's disapproving words. He turned to the man on his other side. "I think you should get going," he suggested. As much as he wanted to defend the stranger, the look in his son's eyes scared him. Whatever this bleeding, beaten man had done to his son's best friend must have been awful if it led to this.

"I'm going to press charges!" Dan hollered after spitting more blood onto the sidewalk. "You're going to pay for this."

Rocky held his jaw in his right hand as he laughed. "Yeah, and I'm sure they'd be interested to hear about your illegal drug possession and sexual assault history, huh? You'd go down harder than I ever would, buddy." The truth hurt, and fear was visible in Dan's eyes. He walked down the street quickly with a bit of a limp. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Rocky called after him.