Hurt by Matt Coleman

“What’d you think about me in high school?” Jack was grinning like a simpleton out a broken window at every piece of train graffiti that stuttered past.

The man shrugged beneath the weight of chains.

Jack squinted at him and wagged a finger. “No, no. No bullshit. Don’t avoid the question because I have you chained up in a barrel. Be honest.”

The man licked his lips and tasted gasoline. “You were kind of a bully. I mean, you were funny and all when it was somebody else, but …”

Jack’s eyes bulged. “Did I bully you?”

The man tried to breathe slowly through his nose, but the fumes made it onerous and nauseating. He had to take deep, burning lungsful past his broken teeth to keep from vomiting. “You called me Gary Fairy.”

Jack’s laughter echoed in the abandoned warehouse. “I don’t remember that.”

The man laughed, spuming sweat and gas. “Yeah. Pissed me off.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “I bet it did.” He flicked at his nose with a thumb. “Was I good at stuff?”

The man looked around. “I don’t know. You were good in welding class.”