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Baby-Dick McCallister?"

Liz's face went red, her eyes immediately shot down to the
table. I buried my face on the table, wrapped my arms around my head. I
was one "Baby-Dick" from sobbing uncontrollably.

"Baby-Dick?" asked Liz, quietly and almost free ofinBection.
"Is that his nickname?"

Ilifted my head up to look. Marie nodded, that awful shit-
eating grin still wrapped along her sexy, bitchy face. Troy began to laugh,
quietly. T-Dave, you motherfucker! If this panic attack ever ends, you're
so fucking dead!

"Uh, Marie;' said Liz. "Do you want to go out for a cigarette?"

"You don't smoke;' said Marie.

Liz looked at Marie, her brow furrowed. She whispered
something in her ear. They both got up, and began to walk away, as
Marie fumbled in her purse for her pack of American Spirits. Opening
the pack, she shoved one in her mouth. Then, with an unlit cigarette
between her lips, Marie turned back to me with that awful bitchy grin
of hers and, in an obnoxious squeal, yelled "Bye Baby-Dick!"

Fuck you T-Dave, fuck you Marie, fuck you Liz. Ifl ever re-
member how to breathe again, 1sweat I'm going to go jump off the roof

T-Dave sat across from me, staring solemnly at his section of
the table. He looked like he wanted to say something. 1sat, stewing in
misery, utterly incapable of breathing, looking at T-Dave beneath an
angry red haze of pure, unadulterated hatred.

"...Well?" 1asked, angrily.

After a moment, T-Dave opened his mouth, still looking
down at the table. He spoke in a dull, solemn monotone.

"...I'm really sorry, Billy. That did not go at all how Iplanned."

"Well, you've been calling me Baby-Dick in front of everyone
for the past three months. How did you think it was going to go!"

"I did not anticipate that. 1 hadn't realized that the name had
spread quite so far. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry. I'm really, really
sorry. Icouldn't have known."

I looked back down at my own section of the table. 1slammed

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