I was sitting in the Arista office for no good reason.

I mean, I knew a member of Arista,
but I wasn’t a member. I had no official justification for being there.
I certainly had no official justification
to kick someone else out of the clubhouse.
So though it was technically true
that Eddie Cheung had no business being there, either.
I had no right to be the one to tell him to go.
Pots and kettles and all that.

I could see why he would feel angry at me for embarrassing him.
Were I in his shoes, I’d have felt humiliated for being kicked out,
and probably sought revenge. I can’t say what I’d have done.

What Eddie did was follow me after school.
I was with a bunch of friends,
so it was pretty brave that he tapped me on the shoulder.
When I turned around, he punched me square in the face,
breaking my glasses in two.
I stood there shocked as he walked away.

He wasn’t a threatening kid. I’d have jumped on him,
but some other guy had suggested a day or two before
that Eddie Cheung was a black belt
and I thought maybe it was unwise to mess with him.
If I’d thought about it for a minute,
I would have asked why a black belt would have
a) lacked the restraint to attack me on a street corner
b) just punched me and not done something more… martially artistic.

Anyway, he attacked me after I’d given him shit.
Probably should have been the end of it.
Except I was angry at him for embarrassing me.
More, I was angry that my glasses were broken.

So I did the chickenshit thing and reported him to the school.

He agreed to pay me back for the glasses
and he never did,
which is probably just as well.

I shouldn’t have been the dick in that situation.
I just didn’t like the dude.