Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-28180791-20180501003758/@comment-28718853-20180516163347

"I do this for you, and I get everything you stole from me returned?" I ask, intending to make sure that this isn't a trick. Diana's grin doesn't waver and she replies, "That, and I'll do three favors for you."

I rub my chin and mutter, "This is a pretty big offer. I'm not exactly a fan of dressing up in suits."

Diana shrugs and turns her back to me, "Then it looks like my friends and I will be turning your life upside down for the remainder of the school year...and the years after that."

She begins to walk away and I call out to her in desperation, "Wait wait wait!"

Diana turns back to me with her sinister smile and asks, "Change your mind Roger?"

I nod submissively and say, "Yeah, I'll do it. But I expect everything to be returned to me by the time this wedding is over."

"Guaranteed Roger," she responds as she steps out of the classroom.

With her gone I finally leave the school and make my way home. When I get home I head upstairs to my room and call someone on my phone. As soon as he picks up the first thing I hear is, "Roger?"

"Dennis?" I respond. "Oh hey man, it's been awhile. Listen man, thank you again for helping me with those tests.  You really saved my ass last semester," says Dennis. "Glad I could help. Hey, you remember that favor I could ask for?" I ask. "Yeah man, it's still on the table," Dennis responds.

"Well..." I clear my throat, "I need your help."

_____

The wedding comes and goes, but I never show up. It's night out and my position is exposed next to a campfire and several tents. I stand there trembling with sweat trickling down my skin. A bright pair of embers appear in the pitch black darkness, and soon Zynn the Hellhound appears, followed by Patricia the Ogre, Lauren the Wurm, and finally Diana with an expression nothing short of enraged.

"You traitorous son of a bitch!" Diana screams as she points a rightfully accusatory claw at me, "I looked like a fool at the wedding! My own sister laughed at me!  Do you know how that made me feel!?"

"Since when should I ever care about your feelings when all you do is pick on me!?" I shout in retaliation though deep down I was quite scared. "I gave you the chance to make that all go away!" Diana shouts back, "You wouldn't have even have had to do anything!"

"Even if I did show up, I doubt you would have kept up your end of the bargain and returned to me all of the money that you stole from me!" I yell out. Diana's face gets even redder and she screams, "Roger, I had that money ready to give to you by the end of the wedding!"

"Horseshit!" I scream out, now angry myself.

"Y-you know what!? Screw it!  Ladies, let's milk this snake dry!" Diana yells.

The four mamono start toward me, but stop when a voice calls out, "What have you done to deserve his assistance? Nothing you boneheaded hypocrite."

Dennis's Arachne girlfriend Fiora lowers herself down from a tree. Soon Dennis himself steps out from the same tree wielding a baseball bat. "You four have no right to be picking on someone like that," he says, addressing them directly.

I turn in time to see my other friend Howie drop down from a tree alongside his Mantis girlfriend Diamond. Diamond points one of her pincers at the group and says in a hard, monotone voice, "You four should back off."

"The cavalry has arrived!" shouts my Minotaur friend Tiffany who charges in with her small boyfriend Aiden riding her shoulders.

The final pair to jump into view are Michael and his Succubus girlfriend Yuki. "You four are pathetic," Michael says as he points his broomstick handle at the vicious group.

Zynn steps forward and raises a paw toward everyone. "We're just here for the snake. Now the rest of you move aside or it's gonna get real nasty real fast!" she warns.

"None of us are backing down!" Dennis declares as he grips his bat tighter.

Diana sighs and shakes her head, "It's your trip to the hospital."

A fight breaks out and my spirits rise at the sight of my friends holding their own against the bullies, but they quickly fall when I see their ranks collapsing. While they were outnumbered four to eight, the bullies were fighting back with skill that I could only see in a martial arts tournament.

Lauren bats away both Howie and Diamond with her tail. Zynn seems to be having a leisurely time roughing up both Tiffany and Aiden. Patricia is countering Michael and Yuki hard. Diana is showing Dennis and Fiora that they would have had a better chance against a small group of Goblins. With the odds quickly falling out of our favor, I turn and make a break for it.

The darkness envelopes me as I move further from the campfire, but there was no way that I was going back to that mess. The dim light that remains guides me to an abandoned shack that I dive into and shut the door behind me.

My heart races as I fumble for my flashlight and shine it around, making sure that I didn't have a second occupant with me. Once I was satisfied that a mamono wasn't about to jump at me, I jog over to a cabinet and pop myself inside. I shut the door and switched off my flashlight.

There is no way of knowing how the battle was going back at the camp. Were my friends turning it around and winning? Were they still losing? Was the battle already lost? While these questions plagued my mind I felt a tinge of guilt run up my spine. I abandoned them just like that, but what could I have done? I was simply a nerd who completed his homework and played videogames. My body wasn't that of a macho man.

A thundering boom followed by cracking wood breaks my thought process. My heart stops as I quietly pray that it's one of my friends who came to check on me.

"I know you're in here you coward! Your little ambush party failed miserably!" Diana shouts.

Welp, that didn't last long.

The door is ripped away and Diana furiously drags me out from my hiding place. She forces me onto my feet and punches me across the face. "Why didn't you show!?" punch. "I was humiliated!" another punch. "I thought we had a deal!" another heavy punch.

"I'm so sorry!" I cry out. "Shut up!" Diana screams as she punches me in the gut. This causes me to drop to my knees and clutch my chest. Diana is glaring at me with unbridled rage.

I hid my face, frightened by what might come next. Nothing happens. I peek out to see that her face has softened, but she still had some anger left in her. "Why Roger? Why?" she whispers.

"I...I just wanted to teach you a lesson. I was just so fed up with you bullying me all the time that I thought I could get back at you," I utter, to afraid to move. "I really would have given you back your money. All of this could have been avoided," she says. "I...honestly don't believe that," I cough up.

Diana says nothing, but she smiles. Was I forgiven? Have I gotten through to her? Could we move past this?

My answer comes in the form of her placing her foot on my chest and pinning me to the floor. She gets on top of me and cuts off any form of protest with a French kiss. "Again, this never had to happen," she whispers as she tears off my pants.

When morning comes I'm lying flat on my back with a black eye. Last night had been rough and I take the time to come to terms with what happened. Diana is nowhere to be seen, but I am unsure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I sit up when I remember that my pants were gone and find them laying several inches from me.

I put them on and drop onto a bench. This whole setup? The revenge plot? It clearly wasn't worth it and I paid dearly for it. My friends did not deserve to be put up to the task and they suffered as well. What would they think when I saw them again? I should have just manned up and attended Diana's wedding like she asked.

A creaking sound puts me on edge and I spot a Jinko peering into the shack, but it's not Diana, it's her sister Tulip.

She wears a concerned expression and she asks me, "Are you alright? I heard about what happened last night."

I say nothing and look away, too ashamed of myself to speak.

"Look, I'm very sorry my sister tried to put you up to that. I had no idea that it would turn out like this," Tulip says. "Congratulations on your wedding," I mumble as I stare down at the aging floorboard.

"Listen, you didn't deserve this. Neither you nor your friends did.  I feel guilty for allowing this to happen since I goaded her into bringing a boyfriend to my wedding as proof that she had one," Tulip says as she opens the door and soon takes a seat next to me.

My only response is a sigh.

"Well, if it helps," Tulip reaches into a sack on her waist and takes out a plastic bag containing money. She drops it into my hands and my eyes widen. It was MY money. All of the money that Diana stole from me.

"I...I don't understand," I utter. "Found it the night I came home from the wedding. She tried to come up with multiple excuses, but my parents and I saw right through her lies.  Let's just say our parents had a nice long talk with her," Tulip says with a warm smile. "But...she's going to be really pissed when she sees me again, she'll think I snitched to your family," I say, growing worried once more.

"You won't have to worry about that. She and her unsettling cohorts are spending time in the juvenile detention center.  You'll likely not see them at school for awhile," Tulip replies, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

"My friends, how are they doing," I ask. "They're fine. Demonic Energy brought them back into shape," Tulip says as she pulls me into a gentle hug and adds, "They lost against Diana's friends though."

"Figures," I mutter as I pry myself free from her hug and rise off of the bench, "Well, I better get back home. It's going to be awkward explaining to my Mom how I got this black eye."

"She's aware, my Mom told her. She'll just be happy to see that you're home safe and sound," Tulip says as she joins me in standing. "That's reassuring," I say as we both leave the shack.

We pass by the camp and see that it has been cleared out. "Let me walk you home. Your Mom's making her signature caramel chocolate cake and I'm not going to pass that up.  My husband's already there and he's eager to meet you.  Again, sorry for making you have to go through all that," says Tulip.

"It's alright. I'm just happy that it's over," I reply.

Man, Diana and her friends being behind bars means that I won't have to worry about her for some time when I'm at school. Same with whoever else has suffered her torment. Hopefully she learns her lesson and becomes a better person. If not...well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now I have a delicious caramel chocolate cake to gobble up!