Cowardice

Smeltings sucked. His parents sucked. Life in general pretty much sucked.

Piers Polkiss thought this stuff pretty much every day. He thought it both in school,and out of school. Today was a Saturday,and he thought it twice as much on Saturdays,because his parents normally kept him in. Today,however,he'd stormed away from a shouting match with his dad,and had walked to Dudley's house.

He rang the doorbell,and it was answered by Dudley Dursely,Piers' best friend of several years. He also appeared to be in the middle of a shouting match. He shoved Piers inside while yelling at his father,who wasn't making any effort to yell back.

"I WANT one! Everyone else HAS one and I WANT ONE!"

"Yes Duddy...yes,we will..." Dudley's mother,Petunia,was frantically making dinner in the kitchen. Her manner,and all her 'yes,Dudley..'-ing reminded Piers of zombies he'd seen on last night's horror movie. Dudley's dad slammed down his breifcase.
"YES,Dudley! We WILL! Now let me get on with my work!"
"Don't yell at him!" Petunia scolded. Dudley shoved Piers towards the stairs,and stormed up. Piers followed. Dudley flicked the light on in his bedroom,not bothering to go across and open the curtains. Piers sat down on the bed,looking around the room,wondering if Dudley had aquired any new stuff since the last time he'd been in here.
Dudley joined him on the bed. It creaked. "Got any food?" he asked.
"Don't fucking say hi properly,then."
"Hi. I'm so hungry..." he whined. "They put me on another diet..."
Piers snorted. "Me dad says I'm grounded. I fucking just stormed out. He's a wussy little..." He paused,not knowing the right word. "Oy,Dudley...I need to ask a favour,anyway."
"What?" Dudley said,looking up from where he'd been glaring at his old quilt cover.
"You know that dickhead in our year...John...you wrote graffiti about each other in the bogs..."
"Yeah? What?" Dudley said. That little stunt nearly got them expelled.
"'E beat up my sister."
"What? You mean little Kerry?"
"Yeah,little Kerry. What a bastard!" Piers hit his hand with his fist. "No-one fucking beats up my sister! He tries that again,and I'll smash his fucking head in!"
There was a short silence after that. Dudley poked his finger into the holes in his bed cover.
"Oy,Dudley.."
"Yeah?"
"Remember that one time we beat up Harry Potter?"
"Yeah?"
"Well,that was back in the old school...didn't John hang around with us then? An' he hit Harry right where it hurts...he was nearly crying..."
"Yeah,he did."
"John seemed to enjoy it a lot."
"Yeah,big deal. So'd you. You held his hands behind him,and I kicked him."
Piers reached down to tie up his shoelace. Then he put his hands in his pockets,and looked at Dudley Dursely.
"Why'd we keep doing that,anyway?" he said slowly.
"Because Harry Potter's a dickhead,you always said so." Dudley told him. "He's a loser! He's freaky. My dad says people like him are a danger to society."
"Yeah." Piers said,not wanting to disagree. "But..." The but hung in the air,daring him to say what he really wanted to.
"John said my sister was a tart. She's only ten." Piers plundged on. "I saw 'im...he was calling her names,and she called him something worse,and he called her a bitch and before I knew it,he'd hit her..."
"So he didn't really beat her up then."
"I don't bloody care! She's my sister! And what stupid cowardly bastard hits a ten-year-old girl anyway?"
The words stirred something else up out of his brain...something a schoolteacher had yelled at him after he and Dudley hit Harry...that had been something about cowardice,too...
He wondered what Dudley would do,should a member of his family get hurt. But the only members of his family he didn't hate were his parents,and he wasn't even sure about them,sometimes...
"Get over it,Piers." Dudley said,leaning back on the bed. It creaked some more. It'd probably fall apart very soon.
"Why do people do that?" Piers said slowly. "Harry I can understand...I think. But Kerry?"
"He's just a cowardly bastard,like you just said,okay?" Dudley whined.
"You used to beat people up,even if they said that." Piers said thoughtfully. "They'd call you fat or something,and you'd just hit 'em..."
"I don't like being called fat!" Dudley snapped angrily. "If they're so stupid as to call me fat,they deserve it! Teach them a lesson. Or make sure I get there before they do so they're too scared! I hate being called FAT!" he snarled. "It sucks!"
"But sometimes after you done that,they'd keep at it,'til you'd hurt them so bad they were scared of you." Piers said.
"Get over it!" Dudley whined. "Want to play MegaMutilation3?"
"Not especially. Hey Dudley...what if I called you fat?"
"I'd tell my dad and he'd kick you out."
"Oh. I told John what I thought of him and he said he'd get his big brother on me."
"So?"
"So it's not fair!"
"Piers,don't you ever stop whining?"
Piers got up. "Mind if I go home?" he asked,and walked downstairs. He wasn't sure why on earth he'd just walked out,but upstairs he heard Dudley's bed collapsing,and smirked to himself.