It seemed forever before I broke away from the crowd and got to the locker room doors. At the door was the guy with the bandages on his head. I didn’t need to be told what was going on inside.

“That your money?” I pointed to the guy’s feet.

“Wha’ money?” He looked down.

I balled my fist up and used it like a hammer as I smashed the sucker right in the middle of the bandages with everything I could muster. He didn’t make a sound. He just grabbed his head, looked up at me for a second as if he was really surprised, and then slowly sunk to the ground. I ran past him into the locker room.

Juno was holding Cal, and Tyrone was punching him in the stomach. Juno had his back to me, and when he turned, it was right into my fist. The pain shot up my arm, and I just knew the hand was busted. Juno turned Cal loose to get at me, and when he did, Cal hit him. Juno fell forward on top of me. He must have weighed a ton. I hit my elbow on a bench and lost all the feeling in my arm. I was trying to push Juno off me when I heard something slam into the lockers. It was Tyrone. Juno got on his feet and headed in the direction of Cal. I thought he was going to tackle Cal, but instead, he went by him towards the door. I made a jump after Juno, and I caught him by the foot. I was on the floor, trying to twist his leg, when I heard a gasp. I turned to look, and Cal was bent over. Tyrone was trying to get away, but Cal was holding one of his hands. Tyrone was punching Cal in the face with the other. Then Cal pushed Tyrone’s other hand away, and I saw the knife. He had stabbed Cal!

Tyrone jerked his hand loose and plunged it again into Cal’s side. I went to put my hand on the floor to push myself up, and suddenly the side of my head exploded as Juno sent his foot against my jaw.

Juno went out the door and I stumbled after him. I heard screams outside and a shot.

I looked at Cal; he was sitting on the floor against the locker. I pushed myself up and got over to him.

“Don’t talk, man,” I said. I could see he was hurt bad. “Don’t talk …”

“You get a win … you got to talk about it …” Cal said. He was smiling. “It’s too sweet to just let it go. Talk to me. How’d it feel?”

“It felt good,” I said. The pool of blood was growing, and the bloodstain on his shirt was growing bigger every moment. I put my fingers on it and looked at it. I could hardly see it because I couldn’t stop crying.

“Tell me about it, Lonnie,” he said. His voice was a whisper. “We got it, didn’t we? It was us out there, wasn’t it?”