He pushed himself up off the ground...slow and painful. The four of them were laughing as they walked down out the end of the alley, tossing his lunch back and forth between them. He stood and wiped his lip as they disappeared, shaking from anger, resentment and adrenaline. He couldn't let himself cry – if he was weak that way with himself he'd be weaker the next time he encountered them. Nothing would change if he didn't change himself.

Alek gave a painful, bloody, full-of-lies forced grin to himself and declared himself the winner because they weren't here and he was standing and alive. It was an easy lie to himself because he was well practiced in telling and hearing them.

He pulled the black marker out of his pocket and scrawled on the closest brick wall:

chunk it together
shift my forehead against the wall
see if I can get my thoughts
captured
before I'm called out again
my palms are tingling
so I cringe
and the bricks scrape the skin
and make fists before I turn around
gonna throw a punch this time
you want a piece of me?
sorry...I have none left.

Once that was done he capped it and placed it back in his pocket, as always. Time to go home.