Split by Mel Bossa

I was lying on my back on Sebastian’s lawn.
    “Oh fuck me.”
    I recognized Nick’s voice.
    He was pacing around me. “This is your fault, Dave. I swear to God, if that kid has anything broken…”
    There was a pounding in my head, but when I wiped my nose, I didn’t find any blood. David’s elbow must have hit me in the forehead, because I have a small bluish bump there today. Everyone says I was only out for less than a second.
    I can’t believe I fainted in front of Nick and his friends.
    I tried to sit up, but Terry held me back. “No, Derek, stay down. Sebastian’s getting some ice.”
    I heard a woman’s voice in the background. It was Mrs. Pinet, Sebastian and David’s mom. “What in heaven’s name is going on here!”
    David looked down at me and winked. His lip was fat. “Mom, it’s okay. We were just having a little fun and it got out of hand—”
    “A little fun? David, look at my tree! And the door! What happened to my door?”
    “I’ll clean it, Mom. Bas and me, we’ll take care of it. Right, Bas?”
    Sebastian had reappeared. He managed to slither past his mom in the doorway and was bringing me a pack of frozen peas. “Right.”
    “Who’s that for? What happened to that boy?” Mrs. Pinet sounded like a baby bird. “Oh my, is that the O’Reilly boy? Derek, is that you?”
    I sat up and my eyes moved around the front lawn. JF had bailed. Predictable . Sebastian sat on the curb with his head between his knees. Josh and Terry stood a safe measure away from Mrs. Pinet’s slimy front door. Both their T-shirts were ripped, and their hair looked like shrubs in the fall. They were almost as out of breath as I get when I’m having an episode.
    Nick was pulling the toilet paper out of the tree.
    “Nicolas, you leave that alone. Don’t touch anything on my property. I’m calling your father. You stay put. You and your no-good friends.” Mrs. Pinet was on her way to me. “Oh dear, look at you. What are you doing with these, these…these criminals?”
    I got to my feet and dusted myself off. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I clenched my jaw and held it down.
    Mrs. Pinet lifted my face to the street lamp and frowned. “Well, you aren’t bleeding. You look all right. Sit down. I’m going back inside to call Mr. Lund.” She walked away, and then said, “You know, Derek, your mom’s been through a lot. She doesn’t need all this extra worrying.”
    What was Mom going to say? Would she punish me? Would she call Dad? Would she cry and scream?
    I was hoping she would.
    At least that way, she wouldn’t be sleeping.
    Mrs. Pinet went back into the house and I sat down like she asked me.
    “That bitch is gonna call your dad, man.” Josh had taken a few steps in Nick’s direction and was trying to make eye contact with Nick. But Nick kept staring at the ground. His long hair hung down into his eyes. I couldn’t make out his expression, but I knew it probably looked a lot like the mask he had made. “So fucking what,” he whispered. “C’est la vie.”
    C’est la vie. That means “that’s life.” I don’t know why Nick said that. Life isn’t that.
    It just isn’t.
    “Oh, Nick man, I can’t get in trouble again, you know my dad…Come on, Nico boy, don’t lemme stand here with my dick in the wind.”
    Josh’s father is in the army. Josh can do a hundred pushups without breaking a sweat. His stomach is harder than a concrete block, on account of his dad’s strict regimen. “Come on, Blue. Fuck, come on! I’m fucking bailing, okay? And you shake my hand on it, man, you promise not to come after me tomorrow.”
    Nick threw a finger up in Josh’s panicked face. “Okay, fuck off,” he said quietly. “Get the fuck outta here.”
    Josh bolted out of the street faster than Carl Lewis. “I owe you one, Lund,” he shouted over his shoulder.
    David sighed. “Nick, why’d you let him leave?”
    David’s dark eyes shine every time he speaks to Nick.
    Like he has