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The first time Joe Dick threw a fist to Billy's face they were in high school, and Billy's last name was still Boisy and Joe's was still Mulgrew. He'd been trying to punch one of the jocks who had grabbed his Bucky Haight album from him in the hall. Those assholes were always giving him a hard time, and Joe had put a new policy into play that he would always give a hard time back. He was done taking shit from all these losers. He threw a good, hard punch, but at that very moment, a totally unsuspecting Billy Boisy was walking down the crowded hall between classes and got in the way. He hit Joe back so fast that Joe didn't even have time to blink. A solid right cross hit him in the jaw, and the flash of pain made him smile. When he looked at the kid who threw it, he was kind of shocked that such a scrawny little fucker could hit so hard.
"What the fuck, why'd you hit me, asshole?" The scrawny kid yelled at Joe.
Joe laughed, "You got in the way, asshole, I was aiming for Rodgers over there. The dickwad stole my Bucky Haight record. Nice right cross, though."
Joe gave him a nod of approval, and then went after Kevin Rodgers. He didn't even throw another punch, just grabbed his album, spit on Rodgers, and took off. He made the very wise choice of cutting biology class and heading outside to have a smoke instead.
"So, who's Bucky Haight?" Scrawny kid seemed to have followed him outside. "Got an extra smoke?"
Normally, no one got a free smoke from Joe, but considering he'd punched the kid in the face, he figured he owed him one. He shook a cigarette out of his pack and held it out to the skinny kid with the quickly blooming shiner. The kid took it, and pulled a lighter out of his own pocket to light the smoke. Joe liked the way the kid's face went all contorted as he held the smoke in his mouth and lit it. Made the kid look tough, and older.
"So, who's Bucky Haight?" He mumbled around the freshly lit cigarette, lifting his eyebrows up when he looked at Joe.
"Only the greatest fucking musician to ever walk the fucking planet," Joe told him, and held up the album for the kid to see.
"Huh, never heard of him." Scrawny kid took another long drag of the smoke, and then exhaled as he spoke, the words coming out of his mouth as puffs of smoke. Joe thought it looked really cool and made a mental note to try that himself later. "So, you're Joe Mulgrew, right?"
He wasn't surprised that the kid knew his name, most of the high school knew who he was. It was inevitable when you looked and dressed so differently from the rest of them; you stuck out, and Joe liked sticking out.
"Yeah, who the fuck are you?" He puffed up his chest, making sure that he looked like he didn't really give a shit who this guy was.
"Billy Boisy." Billy looked like he was thinking something over for a minute, then he said, "So, my dad's gonna kick my ass when I come home with this fuckin' black eye, no matter what I tell him happened, so I figure you owe me. How 'bout you let me come over to your house and hear what this Bucky Haight guy sounds like?"
"I gave you a fuckin' smoke, we're even, asshole." Joe was about to turn around and leave Billy in the dust like he did with all the other losers at this school, but then he saw Billy smirk at him, shrug it off like he didn't give a fuck about what Joe thought, and Joe really liked that. He figured that if this Billy kid turned out to be an asshole he could always kick his ass later, so he changed his mind. "But, whateverthefuck, sure why not. No one's home at my place now, wanna blow off the rest of the day, go now?"
"Sounds good." Billy nodded at him, stamping out his cigarette and telling Joe, "Lead the way."
And Joe did, for many, many years to come.