Free Jimmy by William Malmborg

to be great.   
    *  *  *
         He really likes her, Alan said to himself as he watched the two hug before parting at Tina’s place, their conversation having carried them there without interruption, which seemed unreal since their talks on the way home usually consisted of several moments of silence and then a hesitant See you tomorrow before separating. 
         Jimmy watched as Tina walked up to her house and then gave a quick wave when she turned to look back before stepping inside, a huge smile on her face.
         Jimmy had a smile too; one which didn’t fade away as he rejoined Alan on the sidewalk.
         “What?” Jimmy asked.
         Alan smiled.  “You’re glowing.”
         “Shut up.”
         “And now you’re blushing too.  My God man, you’ve completely fallen for her.”
         “I . . .” Jimmy stopped.  “Okay, maybe I like her a little, so what, I’m allowed.” 
         “Yes, you are allowed,” Alan said as the two started walking.  “But only just a little, and you can only like her, not love her.  Those are the rules for Mr. I Never Will Be Infatuated By A Girl like all those losers at school.”
         “Oh, you are so asking for a beat-down,” Jimmy said.
         “You couldn’t hurt a fly,” Alan said.
         “Wanna bet?  I elbowed Brett is the stomach right before leaving and was going to punch him too if a hall monitor hadn’t been coming around the corner.”
         “Epic!  No wonder you’re glowing.  You’ve kicked ass and have a hot girl going to prom with you.  Jesus.”
         Jimmy didn’t reply and Alan wondered if he was pushing it too far.  The trouble was that Jimmy’s relationship was exciting for him and he couldn’t help it.  His older brother had been alone for so long due to his self imposed prison, and now it looked like Tina might help him break free. 
         “So, what happened?” Alan asked.
         “Nothing really, he just put me in a headlock and I elbowed him right under the ribcage.”  Jimmy shrugged.  “I may have knocked the wind out of him, but I don’t know for sure.”
         “Sweet.”
         “It was nothing.”
         “Yeah, but you know how everyone is.  By tomorrow people will be saying you beat him up.”
         “True.”
         Physical contact always turned into more than it really was in school.  Simply being pushed against a locker could turn into a person having the shit kicked out of him by the end of the day.  Jimmy had experienced this quite a bit.  Someone would trip him in the hall or knock him off balance so he hit the divider between two doors, and he wouldn’t retaliate even though he could beat the crap out of them, and within a day word about the ‘fight’ would have spread, especially on Facebook.  Jimmy never seemed to care though, probably because he knew if the kids really wanted to fight with him they would be in for a world of hurt, not to mention the threat of being expelled once the school board got involved.
         “It’s too bad Brett wasn’t in the weight room that day when you showed everyone up,” Alan said. 
         “He’s had to have heard about it.”
         “Yeah, but if he had seen it he probably wouldn’t be such a jerk.”
         “The guy’s a dumbass and is always going to be a jerk.  Being able to out bench someone with free weights isn’t going to change that.”
         “Most seemed to shut up after that though.”
         “They did, didn’t they,” Jimmy said, the sagging smile getting a booster shot of ego enhancers.
         “Of course your strength is no match against my mad Kung Fu skills.”  Alan did a pretend hand chop with his statement.  Laughter followed. 
    *  *  *
         Samantha heard the latch of the door click open and looked toward it.  Despite being forced to do it, she was embarrassed by what was sitting in the bucket.  She had no