Finally, he powered a punch into their guts and they both fell to the ground. Then he started wrestling with them. When he wrestled with me he didn’t hurt me. He just played around like I was his toy. With the two fat kids, he hurt them. He jerked up their arms until they were crying in pain. He played with their legs, twisting them with his powerful arms into positions that wracked their bodies with pain. Vinnie’s arms were much stronger than those boys’ legs. He twisted their bodies beyond their pain threshold. Finally he wrapped his arm around one of the kid’s neck while he wrapped his legs around the other kid’s chest. Then he started squeezing with his arm and squeezing with his legs. His huge weight trained bicep bulged into a giant peak of rock hard muscle and drove into the kid’s neck, smashing through his esophagus. We could all hear a cracking sound as Vinnie’s rock-like bicep smashed through the kid’s neck. Suddenly the kid couldn’t breathe. Then, Vinnie crossed his ankles and started squeezing his legs. His quads got huge as they bulged and squeezed the chest of the other fat kid. He squeezed harder and harder and the kid’s chest got smaller and smaller as Vinnie’s legs crushed it. All the air was pushed out of the kid’s lungs by the muscular force of Vinnie’s legs. Now that kid couldn’t breathe either. Vinnie could have broken the kid’s rib bones if he had wanted to. Vinnie kept crushing with both his arm and his legs. Both of the kids were going to die if Vinnie didn’t stop. Their faces got red and saliva started drooling out of their mouths. “You fuckin’ fat pigs. You’re so fuckin’ weak. You’re so fuckin’ fat. Look at my fucking muscles. Feel what my muscles can do to your weak little bodies. Feel the power of my muscles. You fat pigs ain’t nothin’ to my muscles.” The boys eyes were wide and filled with tears. They were drooling and ready to pass out. Their bodies ached from Vinnie’s smashing punches and now the brutal squeezing. There were going to have huge bruises all over their fat bodies. They were lucky because Vinnie didn’t break their bones. He could have done that easily. They knew they were nothing to Vinnie’s muscles. And they were very stupid. Very very stupid. The other kids looked at their crying faces and their bruised bodies and were so glad they paid the $2.00 for protection insurance. Vinnie gave the fat punks one more crushing squeeze and then he let go and stood up. The two kids looked up at him crying in pain as he put his leg on one boy’s chest and flexed his arms for all the other kids to see. Then he kicked them both in the chests, inflicting a final jolt of abject pain, and came over to me. “Tons of fun,” he said as he looked down at the crying kids and made fists a few times. “I love to hit. I love hitting human flesh. I love to squeeze the life outta kids with my big muscles. It’s just tons of fun.”

Then he turned and faced all the other kids. “If anybody squeals, you’re gonna look a lot worse then these two punks. Squealers get so much pain you’ll wish you were dead. Everybody got it?” Heads started nodding and kids were saying “Yeah, Vinnie. You’re the boss. No squealing on you Vinnie..” Vinnie smiled. “I think we’re gonna have 100% participation in our protection insurance program,” he said to me. “Tons of supplements., We’re gonna get huge!” I grinned and gave Vinnie a high five. I liked hitting those fat kids. I liked feeling my fists hit their flesh. I felt like a real man. I smiled and walked proudly back to the school yard, side by side with Vinnie.

I wondered what my friends thought about me now. Did they think less of me because I was friends with Vinnie? Were they going to shun me because I punched those two fat kids? Were they going to hate me? Fuck, I thought. I didn’t care. I liked working out with Vinnie. I liked gaining muscle. I liked hitting those kids. I didn’t care what my friends thought. Then Roger came up and said, “You’re so lucky to have Vinnie as your friend. He’s like the top stud and you’re his friend. That makes you a stud too Fred. God I wish I was you.” Roger patted me on the back, like he was glad he was friends with a friend of Vinnie’s. I looked at Roger and smiled. Roger didn’t hate me. He admired me. He wanted to be me! He already thought I was a stud. I pushed out my chest. I was a friend of Vinnie’s and I was a stud. I really felt great. It’s funny because many people think kids who are bullies are unpopular. But actually, lots of bullies are very popular with their peers. Just like Vinnie. The other kids really admire them for being so strong, so confident, so aggressive. They wish they were as strong and confident as the bully. These bullies become the alpha males of their group and all the kids want to please the alpha male. Vinnie was the alpha male and I was his friend. I felt so good.

Vinnie started showing off his muscles to the kids, letting the girls and some of the boys - the ones who just couldn’t resist their urges to feel Vinnie’s muscles - feel his muscles that were hot and covered with a little sweat from his light workout in beating up the fat boys. While Vinnie was doing this, Kevin grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the side. Kevin was the tallest and (except for Vinnie) the strongest kid in my group. He was two inches taller than me and probably outweighed me by 20 pounds. Several kids in our group, kids who were bigger than me, had gotten into fights with Kevin and they had always lost. Until Vinnie arrived, Kevin always won. He was definitely the leader of our group. Kevin looked me in the eyes and said, “Just because you’re friends with Vinnie doesn’t change things around here. Yeah, Vinnie can beat me up. But I can beat you up real easy. So don’t start gettin’ a big head or nothin’ or you’re gonna feel the power of Kevin’s fists. I’m not as strong as Vinnie but I’m a lot stronger than you.” He made a fist and punched me in the gut. It wasn’t a hard punch, but it was hard enough to really hurt. “You better not talk to Vinnie about our little conversation,” he said as I felt pain surging through my gut. Then he turned around and walked away. I rubbed my aching gut and looked at Kevin strutting away. God I wanted to beat up Kevin. I clenched my fists and flexed my little muscles. God I wanted to beat up Kevin.

Vinnie and I finished school and headed towards the bus, eating the sandwiches we had taken from the kids at lunchtime. Vinnie ate four and I ate three sandwiches. I had eaten 11 sandwiches so far that day, plus my big breakfast. I always seemed to be hungry, just like Vinnie. We stopped at the supplements store and bought a ton of new supplements with the protection insurance money we collected from the boys. We bought some creatine, which is expensive but builds muscle real fast, according to Vinnie. We got to his house and we made a huge portion of protein drink with creatine added And Vinnie let me have half of the drink! Vinnie was sharing the supplements with me equally! •