“It got worse. They found me, dragged me to a school, and there were six of them with bats. They said they could bring more. You can imagine what they did to me. I don’t need to spell it out.”
“They hit you…?” Steve’s voice dropped.
Mano gave a humorless laugh. “More like beat the shit out of me. Face, ribs, and those bats weren’t for show.”
Steve stared at him, horrified.
“They threatened me. If I helped Ody again, they’d make him suffer worse.”
“What?”
“I wanted to help him, but I couldn’t. I’m on my own.”
“This can’t be real…” He shook his head.
“Since then it’s gotten worse. You’re the only one I could turn to. We need to do something,” Mano added.
“All this time this was happening and he didn’t tell us anything?” He frowned, rubbing a hand over his buzzcut before looking away, guilt creeping across his face. “Fuck…”
“Do you have people who can take them on?”
“For Ody? Say the word and it’s done,” Steve said without hesitation.
“Good. I’ve seen them harass him at uni. If I see them again, I won’t hold back. Be ready.”
“We will be.”
“How many people?”
“Seven for sure. I can bring more.”
“Bring as many as you can. We don’t know how many they’ll have.”
The memory faded as Mano looked back at Ody.
“I had to put an end to this. If I stepped in alone, they would target you. We had to show them we weren’t alone, that if they laid a hand on us again, they’d deal with all of us.” He glanced at the boys around them.
Most of Kash’s guys were already knocked out.
“I talked to your close friends, and they told me what time your class ended.”
Ody remembered Steve asking if he was okay. Now it made sense. They had figured everything out.
“I told them to keep an eye on you and Kash. They saw you holding a piece of paper.”
Mano’s mind flashed back to that moment.
Meet me in the backyard after class. If you don’t show, you know what’ll happen to Mano.
“What’s that?” Steve asked.
“Nothing. Trash.” Ody crumpled it and tossed it in the bin.
Later, Steve and Chris dug through the small trash bin and unfolded the crumpled paper.
They stared at each other, stunned.
“That bastard…”
