One Block Down, chapter 2

Mike pulled himself away from the lockers and moved down the hall to the bathrooms. He found they were empty, thankfully, and once inside he moved to a mirror. He watched his reflection, wondering what the fuck had been going through his head to make him think that fighting the quarterback of the varsity football team was a good idea, when he outweighed him by at least 50 pounds and had more than a couple inches on him as well. He glared at his own face a few more moments before running the water and washing off the blood.

He pulled a paper towel out of the rack and dried his face, then carefully touched his nose. It hurt like hell, but he was pretty sure it wasn't broken. With a small sigh, he dropped the towel into the wastebasket and left the bathroom. In a sort of last-minute decision, he turned 180 degrees in the hallway and headed towards the other exit, deciding he'd had enough school for one day.

When Billie Joe left school later that day, he passed up going to Lou's and headed straight home. He was more than curious about just what had happened to his friend, especially after a few rumors that had been circulating. Dustin had come to his sixth period class with a split lip, and refused to say anything about it. Other people, though, had come up with some pretty interesting theories - going as far as to suggest that Mike hit on him, which Billie Joe knew was a huge lie. Regardless, he was interested in knowing the truth.

He found the door unlocked, and scampered inside. Tossing his backpack somewhere to the side, he practically ran to Mike's bedroom door and opened it without knocking, as customary. It was dark and quiet inside as he poked his head around the door.

"Mike?," he called out, sort of quiet so he wouldn't disturb Mike if he was sleeping.

"Yeah," Mike responded from somewhere in the darkness, in the general region of his bed.

Billie Joe stepped into the room almost hesitantly. For some reason he felt like he shouldn't be here, but he pushed that right to the back of his mind. "Hey...you weren't in class this afternoon."

"Way to call it, Captain Obvious," Mike said, sitting up to click on the lamp on his bedside table. Billie Joe winced as he saw the bruise forming on Mike's face.

"So...I guess you did get in a fight with Dustin," he stated, moving into the room. Mike grinned a bit.

"And again with the making light of banalities," he said, sitting up on his bed. "What'd you hear?"

Billie Joe sat on the foot of Mike's bed, then shrugged. "I heard a lot of shit. Doubt any of it's true. What really happened, though? What did he say to you?"

Mike quickly thought over his options. Billie Joe would have no way of knowing if he was lying, since Dustin himself was likely to twist the truth around to suit his needs. He could tell him that gotten into a fight because of what Dustin had said to him the day before, or he could lie. Billie Joe might be offended if he knew Mike didn't think he could take care of himself, or at least that's the reason Mike gave himself for lying.

"You know, the usual. I was just sick of it," he told the guitarist with a shrug. "That asshole needs to realize he can't just fuck with us and get away with it all the time."

Billie Joe raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Yeah, you sure showed him," he said flatly, looking at Mike's bruised face pointedly.

Mike sighed. "And I suppose keeping your head down and saying nothing about it is better, huh?"

"That's not the point," Billie Joe told him, sounding sort of impatient. "The point is, they're going to be ignorant no matter what you do. And besides that, you're only giving him what he wants. He wants to irritate you."

"And you're saying he doesn't irritate you?," Mike asked doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

"He does. Of course he does. But I don't let him know it," he explained. "I'm pretty fucking sure he knows we're not gay, if it wasn't that he'd bug us for something else. No matter how hard you try, you're never going to beat the idiocy out of him. You're just adding more fuel to the fire by reacting like that when he says shit to you."

Mike tilted his head back against the wall and sighed. "He didn't say anything to me," he admitted.

Billie Joe looked back at him, confusion obvious. "He didn't? Well then why...?"

"I was pissed off because of what he said to you yesterday. He never even bugs me that much," Mike went on. "But I saw him in the hall, at lunch, and I guess I sort of snapped. You don't deserve to get shit from him. He doesn't even know you."

"So...you picked a fight with one of the biggest guys in our school, because you wanted to...defend me?," Billie asked, still not exactly clear on the situation.

Mike shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that's one way to put it. I'm sick of him."

Looking down, Billie was contemplatively silent for a while. "Mike, there's always gunna be someone. Even if you get rid of Dustin, or make him change his mind, someone's always going to hate me, or you for that matter, for who we are - even if they have no idea who we are. You can't change that, no matter how hard you try."

"So you think I shouldn't try at all," Mike said, more of a statement than a question. He sounded tired and mildly agitated.

Billie Joe hesitated again, trying to think of a concise way to say what he was thinking. "No...I just think maybe, you should try being better than them. And stop caring so damn much what they think. I mean, we know who we are, so why should it matter what they say?"

Mike could see that this argument would get him nowhere, and Billie Joe had a point. Or, would have had a point, it if wasn't so glaringly obvious how much he cared himself, how much their comments got to him. He sighed. "All right, Billie. You're right, I'm wrong."

"You don't have to be so bitter about it. That's usually how it works out anyway," Billie Joe said with a small grin.

Mike sort of shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, whatever you say, man. Hey - I called in to work, I'm not going in tonight.You wanna see if we can get ahold of John and practice some?"

Billie Joe shifted sort of nervously on the edge of the bed. "Well, uh...I kinda, had this thing to do, later...I mean, I can cancel it, but..."

"No, that's all right," Mike said with a small, knowing smile. "You don't have to cancel your date just for me."

Billie Joe laughed sheepishly. "You sure? It's not that big of a deal."

"Nah, it's cool. You need some lyrical inspiration," Mike told him, almost jokingly but not quite. "Besides, I should probably catch up on sleep, or homework. Or both."

"Cool, thanks," Billie Joe grinned despite himself. He felt kind of bad for ditching Mike now that he had a day off, but he was right - he did look like he could use some sleep. "Hey, you need anything? Like, I dunno, painkillers and scotch?"

Mike smirked. "That does sound pretty appetizing," he said, carefully touching the bridge of his nose. Billie Joe noticed now that there were bruises forming on either side of it, as well. "Nah, I think I'll be all right. Thanks though."

The two punks talked and joked for a while, until about six that evening. As the California sun was dropping towards the horizon, Billie Joe vacated Mike's room in favor of getting ready to meet Mistee, the girl he'd been seeing for a couple of weeks now. He took a quick shower and hunted down some reasonably clean clothes from the piles on his bedroom floor, using his practiced technique of 'If it smells clean, it's good enough.'