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Boundaries Part 1 (Short Story)

Boundaries Part 1

The resounding noise of a limp body landing on hard concrete drew the attention of several men in orange and black. The reactions among the men in orange varied from impressed to amused to irritated. The reactions of the men in back varied from different shades of indifference. It came as no surprise to any of them that yet another tiff had started back up. They would simply sit back and watched what happened.

A large bulky shadow loomed over the limp body of the poor victim. The beast of a man growled out a mocking question to the fallen individual, "You ain't much talk now are you?" With a swift, solid kick to the side of the other man laying on the ground the giant stalked away to continue his previous engagement. A low groan emitted from the injured man as his face still pressed against the hot concrete. In vain he tried to push himself into a sitting position just for his muscles to scream in protest and proceed to stop working all together for the man. He fell once again back to the concrete with another thud. Mentally cursing himself he once again tried repositioning himself.

"Sometimes I think you like stirring up trouble," a familiar voice called from above the man. One second the man was staring at the ground and the next he was yanked upward into a wobbly standing position facing an old friend. "Heh, thanks Joel," the beaten man thanked his friend with a crooked smile and rotated his neck until it locked in an awkward position. He hissed in pain and quietly yelped, "Ow ow ow!"

Joel rolled his eyes in mock irritation at his friend and once again set out to help his hopeless friend. With a flick of his orange cladded wrist Joel twisted his friend's head back into its proper position. The man groaned in pain again and hung his head after the motion. "Ugh... what the Hell man?" Joel shook his head and stepped away from his friend and scanned the area around them. Everyone had gone back to their own activities completely disregarding the pair.

"I could ask you the same thing, Mike. What were you thinking starting a fight with Griffin?" Joel looked down at his friend with a glare. Mike flashed Joel a toothy grin that didn't met his eyes as he responded, "Gotta show 'em who's boss bud. Besides Griff needed a good beating."

"Do you mean you beating him up or him helping himself to tossing you around like a ragdoll because that's what I saw going on," Joel fixed Mike with a dry and bored look. Mike clicked his tongue at his friends' words and waved a hand up at him in a dismissive gesture, "I almost had him." In no way did Mike have any advantage during the fight, but both him and Joel knew he didn't so there was no reason to state it.

Mike looked over Joel with prying eyes before sighing, "You're going meet the parole board tomorrow, aren't you?" That would explain much of the reason he hadn't involved himself in Mike's fight with Griffin. Bad behavior would set him back on getting time taken off his sentence. Also, it was no secret that between the two of them that Joel was the calmer individual while Mike was all spitfire and cruses. Mike was always more likely to start petty disputes for little to no reason. "Yeah, you could be too if you acted right," Joel stared at his friend with the same intensity that he always held.

Guiltily Mike looked away from his old friend. Everyone decided their own path within those barbed fences and concrete wall, including Mike. Before either of the men had a chance to address what Joel had said the buzzer went off indicating everyone was to report to the mess hall. Joel shook his head free of the building tension that he had caused with his friend and nodded off into the direction of the facility. "Come on, let's get some food."

Afterbeing friends for several years it was easy to just let the tension roll offtheir shoulders. After all it wasn't as if they hadn't had the same discussionover the past five years in that godforsaken place. As they walked towards themess hall Mike lightly knocked his shoulder against Joel's in a friendlyfashion, "Just so you know I had Griffin on the ropes." Joel shook his headwith a light chuckle at his friend antics, "Yeah and I've got a Frenchsupermodel waiting for me on the outside."