Fight After School Story

FIGHT AFTER SCHOOL

Dwight is now starting to get some grey hair. He's been restless all day. He's already been to the gym for his regular work out, although he can't get much bigger. At 6' 4" and 270 pounds of solid muscle, he is every inch a man. His biceps are nearly twice as big as mine are, while the tape measure strains to surround his 52" chest. He wasn't always this big, but his devotion to the gym over the years as paid off. One thing he has always protected me and never backed off from a fair fight.

I tried to be popular in high school. I also tried sports all right but I was only good at gymnastics, considered a sissy sport in my high school.

Dwight was a defensive end on the football team. At 17 and 6' 1", 185, he had a fantastic body. His big chest and huge arms were always kept hidden in the baggy clothes he wore. You see, Dwight never liked to brag. Inside of him was a sensitive part, but I did learn that for sometime.

Snap! Eddie Peterson whipped the white towel on my ass. At 6'2" and 200, his solid muscular build would be no fighting match for my 5'10" 165 body. "Hey gymnastics girlfriend, wanna be my slave?" I could feel the mixture of fear and anger straining for release within my body. The son-of-a bitch pissed me off but he had paddled my ass twice before and I loss a tooth the last time I tried to take him on.

I looked him in the eye and said, "I might be smaller than you but I'm not afraid of you, I can take you on." I could scarcely believe I made such a comment. I had to think fast or find myself missing a few more teeth.

"So you can Miss Gymnast, well guess what?" Eddie had grabbed me by a handful of chest muscle and I felt like a bull about to be branded. "You know what. I'm gonna kick your ass, if you're man enough to stand up to me." By now a crowd of athletes gathered around, drawn to the smell of blood like hyenas on the prowl, they laugh and jeered yelling, "Come on Eddie, gonna let a pansy gymnast talk to you like that. Kick his ass."

By now I felt sick, wearing my practice sweats which showed off my swimmer's body, streamlined and well defined but not fit for a battle royale. I dreaded being used as an exercise in target practice. All I could do was tighten my abdomen and prepare for the worse.

I turned slightly and his huge protruding fist hit my rib cage and bounced off to hit my right chest muscle. "Holy shit, this is going to be bad." I threw a right cross more out of instinct than intelligence, but I got lucky and landed solid on his jaw.

He was deadly now as he came back with an upper cut to my right cheek. I could only see stars and what I thought was a one way ticket to heaven. When it seemed the worse, Dwight suddenly appeared.

Slightly smaller than Eddie, and not as good a fighter, at least Dwight was more in his class as a fighter than I was. Dwight wore a baggy sweatshirt and Levi's; his chiseled face was strong and he seemed determined. "Leave him only, Robinson." Dwight had moved closer.

Eddie was rather surprised. Of course, Dwight wasn't as big as he was, but he wasn't a sure win either. I held my head propped on the shower outside wall. I couldn't believe that Dwight would protect me. He was popular with the girls and I heard he had a big fight with some guy in the next town. He whipped him good from what I heard. They really went at it. But Dwight was a really quiet guy.

"Hey, Dwight this isn't your beef. I gotta teach this wimp some lessons. I ain't got a problem with you but it could become one. Eddie started to scratch his balls.

Dwight didn't say a word but he pulled off his baggy sweatshirt. I just about passed out again and everybody took a good look at Dwight without his shirt. He had high top sneakers, Levi's, and a big thick belt with a buckle. He had a hairy chest that was massive. He looked just like a young Clint Walker. He was fearless as he flexed his chest muscles. He had great arms as well about 16". He stood still with his hands firmly on his hips.

Eddie was in a spot. There was no backing down; He had to prove his manhood. With his sweat pants on and his bare chest showing a very muscular upper body, he decided to flex as well. "Look Dwight, you're starting to piss me off. What you doin' protecting Miss Cheerleader here. Everybody knows that all gymnasts and male cheerleaders are queers. What do you want to protect him for? You got no business here."

Dwight simply said, "Put up or shut up." Eddie was looking around, his best buddy Curtis Fields said, "You're afraid of him; he's a punk too. You can take him, whip his ass." Eddie swallowed hard but he couldn't back down, "OK, Hewitt, you made a big mistake. And you, Miss Varsity, I'm going to break your ass after I beat the shit out of him."

Eddie walked slowly up to Dwight and steered into his eyes, smiling. All of a sudden he took a shot at Dwight in the gut. Dwight had not tightened and he had to step back. Eddie smelled a kill; he followed with another rapid right to the kidneys. He was a dirty fighter and all that mattered was winning. Dwight came back, but he by then he had done the unthinkable- kicked Dwight in the balls.

There were no rules in this locker room, just two beefy hunks going at man-to-man combat. Anything goes in these school fights and reputations were made quickly by the success of a lucky winner.

Dwight crouched over in excruciating pain, his right ribs looked like they might be cracked. He was breathing hard when Eddie gave him a head butt. All that could be heard was Dwight's heavy breathing and Eddie's mumbling to himself, relentless to pursue the kill.

I'm dead I thought as Eddie took another uppercut. He'll kill me for sure after he beats up Dwight.

Eddie made another lunge for Dwight but Dwight somehow moved quickly and Eddie banged into the gym wall, seriously hitting his head. After he hit the wall, Dwight recovered and gave him a pounding to the mid section. Dwight threw Eddie against the wall and gave him a series of punches and blows that had him reeling. Dwight gave him one last devastating double fist to the back.

Eddie couldn't get up and everybody went up to Dwight. "Hey good job, Dwight. Guess he beat your ass Eddie. You ain't so hot. Way to go. Well, King you stood up to him, you had balls. You guys are cool."

They slowly walked away and Eddie approached Dwight saying, "This ain't over, not by a long shot." Moaning he breathed heavy saying, "Watch his ass and yours."

I sighed and looked at Dwight, who was putting on his sweatshirt. "Dwight," I hesitated, "Gee, Dwight I don't know how to thank you, that guy was so much bigger than me and had been picking on me for a long time." I rattled on and Dwight just stared at me. I didn't know what to do.

Dwight grabbed his gym bag and looked at me, slowly he said, "Nobody is ever going to pick on you again as long as I am around. You can think of me as your kind of body guard. You're a neat guy, Steve, and I 'm not going to let anybody hurt you." He put his hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. "I'd fight anybody for you, anytime."

Slowly he walked out of the gym and I looked at the bruises on my ribs. I was as sore as hell.

I couldn't sleep very well that night. I kept thinking about Dwight. He never talked to me before and I was so grateful to him. What could it mean? I always dreamed of a friend like Dwight, who could do all kinds of stuff, like play basketball, football, baseball. Dwight could do anything he wanted. He wasn't as good as me in schoolwork but I didn't care. I thought of him a lot.

I threw my books into the locker and I saw Eddie's face. His eyes were really cold and he said to me, "I'm gonna kill that boyfriend of yours. I think he's as queer as you are but I got a friend, Ed Mondo; he'll break him in two. Then we're coming after you. We're going to tie you to the bumper of Tony's car and drag you on the road until your skin falls off.

He was mad, really mad. "Shit!" I thought, "I gotta tell Dwight." Bill Russell ran up to me, he was a teammate on the gymnastics team. "Hey, man they're after Dwight, that Ed Mondo is huge. I'm worried about Dwight."

I was too. I was real worried. I had to see Dwight. Maybe I could hide him or maybe he could leave town for while. I couldn't stop thinking how Dwight had done this for me. I wondered so much about Dwight. I had always thought about him. His sister was in my Algebra class. She was college prep like me. Dwight was in technical training. He was in the Future Farmers Club. He lived on a farm and I lived in a small town. His sister told some friends that Dwight wanted to be a marine.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and it was Dwight. He smiled at me and massaged my shoulder very strongly. "You look worried," he said chewing on a broken toothpick. "I was thinking about you last night; you in those white tights on those parallel bars." "Dwight," my voice was rather excited, "that Peterson's got a friend, Ed Mondo. He's looking for you."

Dwight put down his gym bag. "I'm going to lift weights. Listen, I'm not afraid of Ed Mondo or anybody else. What counts is me and you." I looked down and then up at him, his eyes were a clear blue. "I don't understand." I was trembling. "What do you mean?"

Dwight put his arm around my locker door. "After I work out, we can talk. I never run from any fight. Will you stand by me?" "Of course," I stammered. "It'll be ok," Dwight rubbed his hand next to my face; "Don't worry."

He walked calmly down the corridor and halfway down, stopped and looked at me and continued to walk on. My other friend, Ted, looked over at Dwight and turned to me. "You know he accepted the challenge to fight that Mondo guy. They're fighting after school. They're going to fight at Bader's Park, practically the whole school knows. This Mondo dude is a really tough guy. Man it should be some fight. I gotta go to gym class."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I hurried to gym class. All through the school day I kept thinking of what would happen. I knew I had to be there.

I left school early and headed to Bader's field. Matt Loman, Eddie Robinson's friend, was clearing an area for the fight. He smiled at me; "Mondo's going to send your friend to the hospital. No shit."

A bunch of kids from the high school had arrived at that field. They wouldn't miss this for the world. Girls came smoking cigarettes and were putting on gobs of lipstick. There were a few of the high I.Q. geeks, who looked for some excitement.

Ed Mondo came and he was impressive. He was about 6'2", 220, a bodybuilder's build. He wore Levi's, boots and didn't bother to wear a shirt. He wore a buzz haircut and was chewing tobacco.

Dwight came and looked at me for some time and smiled my way. I felt really good and really calm. I was feeling a whole lot about this guy and the feelings were getting deeper. He wore sweat pants and sneakers and took off his shirt. Ed's friend gave some type of signal and the fighting started fast.

Mondo came at Dwight hard but he was heavy on his feet. His punches couldn't connect well. It was tense watching the fighting. Dwight got in some good punches to Mondo's gut and a wicked blow to the jaw. Mondo took a right to the eye socket and started to bleed. He turned out to be a bleeder. Dwight was taking some bad blows. Shit I was worried. The time dragged on and these hulking hunks battled with no rules and no blow too low.

Finally with a series of uppercuts and jabs, Dwight nailed Mondo and the superman couldn't get up. Dwight staggered over to be congratulated, victorious in battle. The crowd spread quickly when somebody yelled, "Cops!" I walked over to Dwight and I looked right at him. He put his sweatshirt back on and looked at me. "I told you I will never let anybody hurt you. You and I are going to be together. Nothing or nobody will bust your gut again.

I look at him today and I can still remember that day 25 years ago. Dwight hasn't had a fight for about 10 years but he always stood by me. He's a wrestling coach now and a PE teacher. I coach swimming and gymnastics. Dwight came into my life and turned it around. I'm a lucky guy.

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