"Junella Simpson, you are really too, too much! You deserve better."

"Mary Beth, you just don't understand him. There's a soft side to him… really. Johnny's… I don't know… he's afraid that people are going to brush him off…"

"I know. So he pounds them into the dirt before hand, just to keep things in gear."

"Well… I'll admit, he does have a temper."

"Oh, give me a break, Junella. That's like saying Anne Boleyn had a headache!"

"No… you give him a break!"

"Like he gave Harry Robbins?"

I was afraid she'd mention that.

Johnny and Harry had both been thrown out of school for a week because they were fighting. Harry, however, in addition to the failing grades, was also going to have a big hospital bill. Johnny had broken his arm and his nose.

"And another thing," she went on, knowing when she had me at a disadvantage and pressing it to the fullest extent possible, "the morons that he hangs out with are even worse."

She was referring to Hank Smoot, Bill Scogg, and Ernie, a.k.a. T-Bird, only one of whom, T-Bird, was still in school, and he was walking a thin line himself.

"I know," I finally had to admit. I didn't like hearing what she was telling me, but it was hard to argue with her.

"You know it's the truth," she pressed.

"Yeah…"

"I mean… you can't have opinions about truth. It's just…"

"Mary Beth! You do not have to rub my face in the mud! All right?"

"Easy girl… don't be so sensitive."

But I knew she was right. I just didn't like hearing it.

"What do you see in him, anyway?"

I took a moment before answering. I could have said the same crap about seeing a different side to him than he showed to everyone else… a soft side… a sensitive side…

I could have said that I knew there was potential there, that he could develop into a first-rate human being…