The Bully

The Bully doesn't know what's happening. He's confused. angry. He doesn't understand why there are two policemen there talking to him.

His mom is angry too. She always understands. "My son is a good boy. He barely knew the kid. He had nothing to do with this. Get out of my house and stop harassing my family."

There was nothing special about the kid. Just another nerd who grated on the Bully. The Bully didn't treat the kid any worse than the any of the other gnats at the school - so why was this his fault? 

Last week he'd made fun of the kid's handwriting and everyone - including the teacher - had laughed. If everyone had laughed, why was he the bad person? Why was everyone now upset at him.

Really, for the most part, the Bully hadn't even touched the kid. Sure, he told his buddies to stuff the kid in the locker every now and then - but that wasn't him, that was them. And of course his buddies were just doing what he told them, so it wasn't their fault either. 

There had been plenty of others before the kid. None of them had done anything to themselves. All of them had been fine. And now just this one kid and suddenly what the Bully has been doing is so incredibly wrong? Suddenly everyone cares. It's not fair.

Sure, he told the kid if he saw him again, he'd stuff him in one of the tackling dummies before practice, but he didn't mean it. Of course he didn't mean it. He never does, everyone knows that. Why was the kid so upset?

There had been hundred of kids before and all of them had been fine. If they were all fine, then obviously it's not him, it was the kid. His big brother had done so much worse to so many other kids and everyone still loved his brother. No policemen ever sat his brother down to ask what happened. 

The other kids who left the school because they couldn't take it, that was their problem, not the Bully's. Why should the Bully have to change?

The Bully thinks to himself: "They are picking on me. Life's not fair. Every school has a bully and I was just doing my job"

The nerd, he doesn't agree.

Context