Chapter 1: Prologue

A/N: Something light to start off.

"You don't want to be a pussy, do you?"

Robby shook his vigorously. His dad was so cool. He knew everything.

"Good. Now make a fist. No – not like that. Thumb right there." Johnny corrected his grip and held up his palm. "Now, punch as hard as you can."

Robby swung his fist, putting his whole body behind it just like Johnny had told him to.

"Good boy." Johnny smiled. "So what have you learned?"

"Big boys don't cry." Robby replied, proud of having remembered it.

"And…?"

"If Trevor calls me names again, punch him in the face."

"Good boy." Johnny said proudly, ruffling his hair.

The piece of tissue up his nose was already red and his cheek throbbed from the punch, but Robby didn't mind. He'd done it – what Dad had told him to. He'd thrown the bigger boy to the ground and pummeled him into dirt. He'd made him cry. He couldn't wait to tell Dad all about it.

But maybe Dad already knew because he looked surprised when he saw him and then smiled, nodding in approval.

"Dad, you won't believe what happened. So Trevor came up to me…" Robby launched into his story but was interrupted by his Mom slamming her purse onto the table.

"Robby, go to your room." She said sternly.

"In a minute, mom. So dad…"

"Robby! Now!" She said louder.

Something was wrong, Robby could tell, as he looked between them. Mom looked mad and Dad wasn't smiling no more. He knew better than to disobey when they got like this. So he slunk back to his room, his high spirits from before receding fast.

No sooner than he had closed the door that the voices started. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but the tone was unmistakably angry. He hated this. Hated it when they got like this. It gave him a bad queasy feeling in his tummy. And it was worse this time. It felt like he did when he had done something bad. Somehow, he knew they were fighting because of him.

"Robby, come on out here." His mom called out finally.

It didn't look good. Mom was standing in the kitchen, arms crossed and staring angrily at Dad. And Dad was at the table with his 'bad Robby' face on.

"Robby, your mom told me that you picked a fight with another kid?" Johnny asked.

Robby nodded, looking down at the floor, unsure of how to answer. He hadn't picked the fight – Trevor had. He'd only done what Dad told him to. Why were they making him feel bad for that?

"You can't do that anymore, okay?" Johnny said sternly. "You can't go around punching other kids."

"But you said…"

"Forget what I said. Listen to what I'm saying now." Johnny looked at Shannon for a moment. "Fighting is wrong. You use your words. Or go to a teacher. I don't want to hear that you got into a fight ever again, okay?"

It wasn't fair. You told me to do it and I'm s'posed to listen to you. I only did what you told me to. Why are you making me feel bad for it? Robby wanted to cry. He wanted to yell and scream and stamp his feet and throw stuff until one of them picked him up and shushed him and made him feel all better again. But he knew better than to act out – especially when they were both already mad at him. So he swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded.