Kids

...straight into a tall man, the only thing he could see as the man scooped him into a bear hug was matted blond hair like his. The man struggled to bring Harvey's flailing body to the police car. He had to waddle each step to the car while he kept Harvey face pressed close to his chest. He was just two feet from the car when he loosened his grip and Harvey kicked him square in the balls. The man bent over with a son of a bitch and one hand in a cup around his balls. Harvey started to run in the direction of Jason and away from the man with his hair. He was confused and scared. His dad died six years ago..

"Harvey, Harvey, wake up!" His dad said through the red itchy blankets wrapped around Harvey.
"Come on! Come on! Let's go out and throw the ball, it's almost eleven!" Harvey started to stir under the blanket, it felt warm and fuzzy like Hallmark commercials. His bed begged him to stay in it, but the strong warm hands that gripped his shoulders jerked him from his sleep. He wasn't in his bed, though, and it wasn't his dad's warm hands, they were Officer Brown's and he was in a dumpster behind Jet's Pizza.

Harvey Lee scraped his tongue against the chapped blood on his lips. The flecks of red fell to rest on the outskirts of his bottom lip as he bent over an ashtray outside the Super America. The Super America clerk bent over the counter to look through the large glass window at Harvey and his friend Jason before he picked up the phone to call the police.
"Ya there back again," he sighed through the receiver before he hung up and turned toward the next customer, a middle aged lady with a quilted jacket.
"You know there's minors digging through your ashtrays?" She said with a scrunched face like a principal reprimanding a student. The long pauses on the words minor and yours demanded accountability from the weary thirty year old.
"Yes mam, I just called the police," he replied like a good student.
"Good. For heaven's sake where are there mothers?" The woman asked.
"Knowing those boys, they're probably dead or in an insane asylum," he replied and the woman's face went quiet.
"Did you get my speedy rewards?"
"Yes mam."
"For the hot dog, too?" The clerk looked down and noticed the hot dog in her meaty palm.

Outside, Jason wiped off the lipstick stain from a Virginia Slim and started to fumble in his pocket for a lighter.
"Give me that!" Harvey yelled at Jason. Jason lit it up and took a drag before he held it out to Harvey. Harvey reached in for it but Jason pulled it back before Harvey could pinch it. He laughed and put the glowing cherry right in the open sore on Harvey's upper lip. The pain soared straight to his brain like a pop fly, but he caught it and threw it back with a punch to Jason's arm. Jason flared up and socked him back just above the cuff of his leather jacket. Harvey dropped to the cement holding the bare of his neck. He relished the rush of blood, it felt good against his steely skin. He let go of his neck and brushed the greasy blond hair out of his face before he got to his knees and leveled off with a hand out in front of him like the three-point stance his dad taught him.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you!" He screamed before he lunged at Jason. Harvey made contact and they flew to the ground. The rocks of cement ground into Jason's back and just as Harvey began to curl his fingers around Jason's natty brown hair, they heard sirens pull in the parking lot. They stood up and saw Officer Brown in the car. They didn't even look at each other before they picked up parts of the broken concrete from where they fell. The concrete felt familiar in Harvey's cold sweat. It reminded him of the baseballs thrown to his dad in the backyard, the concentration before the wind-up and the steely sweat that his nerves dripped against the laces. He let his fingers run over the clump of cement, the individual pebbles were ground into the black tar like memories, and he embraced it's oddness as his own.
"Fuck you!" Jason yelled before he hucked a chunk at the car's windshield. Officer Brown jumped out of his car and started toward the boys with his hand on his gun holster. Jason turned and started to run but Harvey just stood there with the rock in his hand. He stood like the pebbles in the tar. He felt stuck and tired of trying to free himself.
"STOP!" Officer Brown yelled with an out stretched hand. He was about twenty feet away from Harvey before he started to pick up speed. Jason stopped and turned back towards Harvey.
"Come on Harvey!" He yelled. Harvey turned around and looked at him, his eyes reflected the same lack of pain that Harvey showed during fights. Harvey turned back around toward the uniformed arm outstretched about ten feet away. Harvey looked at it's hand, it was pink and warm, and he looked at his own, sheer white against the black cement. He rolled the chunk in his hand before he dropped his arm and loosened his grip. The officer stopped and dropped his arm too.
"Come on Harvey, your mom wants you to come home," he said with raised eyebrows. "Come on, just put the rock down." Harvey looked down at the rock that cradled loosely in his fingers, he hadn't seen his mom since she dropped him off at the Juvenile Detention center. She had pushed his body out of the car and told him that he wouldn't need to come home, she knew he would end up there anyways. But he hadn't done anything that day. He hadn't done anything today.
"Fuck you!" He yelled back at Officer Brown. "Your not my father!"
"I just want to help, Harvey," Officer Brown stretched his hand out to show his palm. "Please just come with me. You must be hungry," he said taking a step closer.
"Get away from me," Harvey yelled as he re-tightened his grip on the cement. He was hungry. His stomach twisted without nicotine.
"Please Harvey," he said as he took one step closer.
"I said get away from me," Harvey yelled louder, the shrill of his voice rose like the pop-fly.
"Harvey you need to come with me," he commanded and took another step.
"Wrong move," Harvey said as he pulled the cement towards his face. He let his hand drop just like his dad taught him before he wound back and threw the chunk right at him. The chunk soared through the air and Harvey watched un-amused as it went straight into the officer's face. The officer dropped to the ground holding his face and Harvey ran...