Rock Bottom

"Get up! Get up you piece of shit!" A strong kick lands in man's ribs as he tries to get his feet under him, breaking or fracturing some. The pain was so intense that he could only see white for a few seconds.

Even if he was most of the way drunk when the fight had started, the pain continued to hit him in waves. John had been having a bad day or a bad week, maybe just a bad year or even a bad life. He had lost his job a month back, a few weeks before that he had been caught with his bosses daughter (Lana) and had been fired. His boss(Ed) was furious with him and promised to ruin his life. He found another job but it was a shit job working in a grocery store and he didn't have the right mind for it. He soon lost it due to his lack of caring. On top of that Lana would have nothing to do with him, she was only interested in him because he was married and it would piss her Dad off. She was young so he couldn't blame her for that. John Carleton was not usually the type of man to cheat on his wife (Shelly) but she had told him that she wasn't sure it was going to work out and had left with their 1 year old son to live with her parents several months ago. Of course his ex-boss had made sure to tell her about the affair with Lana, it was only a matter of time before she asked for a divorce. A few hours ago, his then best friend (Chris) had invited him out for drinks. "Dude you have to get over here to Farleys Tavern" he said. "We can shoot some pool and have some beers." "I can't man I'm broke, I barely have what I need to pay the rent" John had responded, "plus I don't think I even feel like drinking right now and Shelly took the car when she left." "Fuck that!", Chris said. "Drinks are on me, let's have a good time. I'm coming to pick you up." At that point John felt obligated to go so he rode to the tavern with Chris in silence apart from the radio. Several beers and shots of whiskey later and they had been talking about their real life problems and shooting pool without many worries at all. "Man I don't know how it all started, out of the blue one day Shelly told me she didn't think it would work out, I said well what about Tommy? Even if you don't need or want me anymore a boy still needs his Dad." John had been unwinding the last few months of his relationship. "Tommy will be fine she said, probably will be better off without you around. At that point I said fuck you then, I'm going to have a drink. I went out to Shooter's and drank until closing time and when I got home she was gone. At that point I was drunk and had nothing else to do so I just passed out." "Fuck man that's harsh," Chris responded. She just left you? Maybe she has someone else? Or maybe she was never into you to begin with? Sometimes I don't know with Shelly." They continued to drink for a little while when Chris looks over at John with a smirk and says, "I'm the reason why she left you, I've been sleeping with her for a long time now. 'Your son' Tommy is probably mine. She named him Tommy after my Dad, Thomas. You never wondered about that? You could never put two and two together, she wanted me the entire time. All those nights when she would get home late from work, or when I would give her a ride home before you could pick her up. You never even realized. God! Your so stupid! And now she tells me that you've been cheating on her! You are such a piece of shit!"

John was dumbfounded, but anger quickly came to his rescue. "You fucking dare to say shit to me your supposed to be my best friend, your the fucking piece of shit. Your the one that's been going around behind my back all this time. God this is unbelievable. I can't believe you have the.." John was interrupted by a pool stick hitting him across the back of the head and knocking him onto the floor. "I bet you weren't expecting that motherfucker, his ex-boss Ed said. Damn I've been waiting to do that for a long time. Come on let's drag this piece of shit out back." John was so upset and blind with anger that he couldn't even think straight, he attempted to rush Chris but Ed tripped him. He had entirely forgotten that he was there. As soon as he went down they both started kicking him, relentlessly. The bar keep had to make them stop and settle their tab before they drug him outside to continue giving him the besting of a lifetime. Outside in the alley they were taking turns kicking, punching and taunting him, trying to drive him mad with anger and desperation. They were succeeding. "I have to piss," Chris said. "I'm gonna piss on you John, you piece of shit!" John struggled to get up, but between his fractured ribs and his head spinning from being beat half to death and being drunk he could barely move. He tried to call out but he could only gurgle around the blood and broken teeth in his mouth. Ed kicked him in the ribs again, "Hold still you piece of shit, after he's done I'm gonna piss on you too!" John was unable to get away from them as they pissed all over him, afterwards the kicked him a few more times and left him there. "Good bye you piece of shit! If I ever see you again it will be even worse, that is if you don't lay there and die like a pussy!" Chris said as he was leaving. The last thing John thought of before passing out was revenge.