EPISODE 2: Chapter One / Part Two

Although the throbbing discomfort had dissipated by second period, the scabbed abrasion on Eddie's palm was a stinging reminder of what had happened earlier.

There was also his bruised pride to consider.

He was growing more angry as the morning progressed, which was at odds with how he'd felt just after the incident.

Initially, he'd been scared.

His nerves had been hopped up on pure adrenaline.

He'd replayed the encounter, ruminating on how he could have avoided it.

Had he and Simon used the main entrance, he probably wouldn't have seen Pearl and Scotty the entire day.

While sitting in math class listening to Mrs. Ellsworth drone on about Euclidean plane geometry, Eddie thought about the assault, imagining the incident from a different vantage point,

as if he were a voyeur witnessing

Pearl strike him.

Pearl's rubber lips stretched from ear to ear, smiling with perverse pleasure while punching Eddie's back.

Was it even a punch? Eddie wasn't sure, but for dramatic purposes he allowed that it was.

Before Eddie knew it, first period math was over.

He was barely aware of walking to Mr. Sherman's biology class.

Students passed him in the hallway, their faces streaking by like a smeared motion-blurred image on a photograph.

His memory of the event played on a continuous loop, and an unsettled feeling stirred deep inside his chest.

While Mr. Sherman was lecturing about energy synthesizing mitochondria, Eddie gazed at the dappled sunlight blanketing the courtyard.

He wondered if other students had witnessed his encounter with Pearl and Scotty.

He'd never gotten into a real fight, minor scuffles at the most.

He'd always imagined that if push came to shove, he'd be able to defend himself.

Now he wondered if he'd been a coward for scurrying away.

Pearl's words, Crow, you're a faggot, flaked off the brittle shell of his confidence.

He was not questioning his sexual orientation, but something more profound, his manhood.

Would he need therapy when he was in his 30s? Or overcompensate by picking fights or aspire to be an overzealous police officer? As far as he knew, he didn't want to be a cop.

But if some soothsayer were to assure him he'd have the opportunity to shoot Pearl during a convenience store holdup, Eddie would seriously consider it.