Page 18 of Inferno

Taylor grinned sheepishly. “Turns out Idon’tknow everything.”

They both laughed.

As they reached Manning’s locker, he noticed a group of upperclassmen approaching from the other direction. As the boys sauntered past, one of them knocked Taylor’s books out of her arms.

“Hey!” she protested as the posse burst out laughing.

“Oops!” taunted the ringleader—a beefy, dark-haired white boy. “Guess you’d better be more careful next time, dweeb.”

As another wave of raucous laughter erupted, Manning’s temper flared.“Hey, asshole.”

The retreating boys froze in their tracks.

After exchanging startled glances, they turned slowly to stare at Manning. The ringleader looked stunned, as if he couldn’t believe that a lowly freshman had addressed him so disrespectfully.

He pointed to his chest. “Are you talking tome?”

“Hell, yeah, I’m talking to you,” Manning growled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The boy’s eyes widened incredulously. “Excuse me?”

“Yo, you got a hearing problem or something?” Manning pointed at Taylor’s fallen books. “You need to pick those up and apologize to the young lady.”

Huddled beside him, Taylor muttered nervously, “It’s okay, Manning.”

“Yeah,Manning,” the bully jeered mockingly. “You’d better listen to the little dweebette before someone gets hurt.”

Manning didn’t blink. “The only one who’s about to get hurt up in here is you, motherfucker.”

The boy’s face reddened as his friends exclaimed in angry protest. An excited buzz was sweeping through the hallway as other students crowded closer to watch the unfolding showdown.

The ringleader looked Manning over, sizing him up before he smirked at his friends. “Can you believe this little dipshit?”

Their answering grins were full of tense bravado as they watched Manning saunter toward them. One of the boys—the token Negro in the group—couldn’t even look Manning in the eye.

Stopping in front of his adversary, Manning warned through clenched teeth, “I’matellyou one more time, asshole. Pick up those books and apologize to my friend.”

“Or what?” the bully challenged, sneering as he pushed his face into Manning’s.“Who’s gonna make me?”

Deciding they’d done enough talking, Manning threw a punch that connected with the boy’s jaw and rocked his head backward. Before the chump could recover, Manning was all over him.

The blows he landed feltdamngood, but he knew there’d be hell to pay later.