[Mac Sirloin]

When I went to Summer School in Grade 9 there was a kid there by the name of Joey. Joey was not very smart and constantly felt victimized despite being a mean little shit himself. At one point we walked to a nearby Sandwich shop at our lunch break and Joey got a drink. Right before we got to the school our group was roughhousing a bit and I ended up knocking the drink out of Joey's hand. Despite immediately apologizing to the little creep and offering to buy him another, he went into conniptions and would not talk to me from that point on.

Later that summer we had a police officer show up basically saying that Joey had got his ass beat and they were pinning it on me. After explaining myself the cop relented and I got the impression that Joey and his Dad would frequently pull shit like this. Nothing came of it but a dull warning and an indication of the batshit insanity that would follow.

Fast Forward to fall Grade 10, wherein I was walking home from School (all the way across the street) and I was approached by a very disshevelled looking man with the everlasting fat turd that was Joey hiding behind him. This guy was his Father, and he was drunk. He went on some insipid tirade in the middle of the street in front of countless parents and students about how 'If I was going around calling Joey a rat then Mr. Joey's dad would be sure to find out who the rat is." or something. Let it be understood that I didn't bother Joey at all in the time between speaking to the Police and encountering his drunk dad. I told him he didn't know what he was talking about and he should start acting like an adult, at which point he slithered away. The school banned him from the property and gave Joey some kind of warning.

But that wasn't enough. Sometime in early winter I was told at lunch that someone was looking for me. I thought nothing of it and went about the rest of the day the same. When school let out, I walked home as normal only to be stopped by some younger guy in the courtyard. This was Joey's cousin. He gave me some sob story about how Joey didn't have the best life and that his dad was really trying, but if I wanted to turn this into something involving my own family 'bring it on.' At this point I interrupted him, told him I could not care less about Joey or his family and that there were people actually bothering the kid at the school who he should try lecturing. I didn't want some White-Trash family fight over this little brat's spilled drink, and basically talked him down to the little pea brain he was. I later found out he;d been waiting around the school almost all day. At that point the harassment stopped.

Joey and I eventually became sort-of friends last year, I even got a few rides to work thanks to Joey, but I can never forget how malicious and bored these people must get. And how cyclical it all is. In hindsight I probably should have beat some sense into him, not that his dad wasn't doing a fine job himself.