DINNER WITH THE DEVIL

PIUS POV

I was being chased by some bullies. At the mere sight of my face, one could tell that I was already tired. Blood oozed from my nose and mouth. I ran as fast as I could, but my vision was getting blurry.

"Get back here Pius, you son of a bitch!" I heard clearly as I was being called. I kept running, knowing that my life depended on it. I ran till I got to the end of the rooftop. That was when it dawned on me that there was nowhere else to run to. I felt my heart racing hard against my chest. My body oozed out bereaved sweats.

"You fool!" Arnold Jnr thundered as he came closer. He held my shirt uptight till I had no more air to breathe. He forcefully let go, and I slumped on the floor. He and his gang resumed beating me up. I already had enough of all their insults and with every strength in me, I pushed them aside and staggered up, "Leave me alone you fools! I have had enough. The only reason why you think you guys are important is because of your parents wealth. Remove the wealth, you guys are nothing, just a bunch of morons who bully people because they know that they are worthless, and bringing others down is the only way you can feel good about your miserable selves", I shouted at the top of my voice while panting.

At last, I could really tell them what I have bottled up for so long. I pushed Arnold Jnr backwards as he came closer to throw a punch at me. He was surprised that I could do such a thing. Arnold Jnr came closer to throw another punch, but like before I dodged it. He tried once more, and I returned the favor by gracing his smooth rich face with a heavy punch that sent him off balance while landing him on the floor. His friends rushed to help him stand up. He bled from the side of his mouth, you can't imagine how happy I was with myself for standing up to the Almighty Arnold Jnr.

"Wow! He has gotten so brave fellas, he fought back!" Arnold Jnr told his friends mockingly as they all laughed. Between their laughter and mocks, I could clearly sense anger, I would really be punished for trying to stand up for myself. Arnold Jnr and his friends came closer, and simultaneously threw punches at any part of my body they could find. I tried to stand up for myself in defense. But they were more powerful. They threw punches at me, which made me cough out more blood, but they didn't seem to care as they continued.

"Look at me freak...! Look at me! You should be very happy that a dignified entity like me touched a filthy, poor, disgusting and poverty-stricken body such as yours. I only threw a punch at you, and you had the guts to throw the same at me in retaliation? How dare you? Who left some crumbs of audacity on his plate for you to feed on?" Arnold Jnr shouted at me. Those insults hit me badly. I cried bitterly and wept for the day I was born into poverty.

As the eldest of three children born into poverty, I managed to get a scholarship to this prestigious university, hoping to fulfill my dreams, but the torture and bullying I got was unbearable.

Arnold Jnr came closer to me and whispered into my ears. "That will be all for today, I believe you've learned your lesson? However, this is not the end. Come back tomorrow for more episodes of your punishment for trying to stand up to me." He turned around and wanted to leave with his gang, but a shout brought them back when I stood on my feet and walked to the edge of the rooftop, determined to jump down.

"Man, don't tell me that dude is going to try and jump off this building?" Lucas, one of Arnold Jnr's friends asked hysterically. They all froze as they saw me standing at the edge of the rooftop staggering.

The students who were downstairs took out their phones and began to make videos of what was happening. While others stood and watched in disbelief. Some were urging me not to take drastic decisions, but all I wanted to do was just to end it all.

"Hey everyone! It's me, Pius. I just got a scholarship to study here, you know, after many years of being out of school. I know I'm a bit too old to be a fresher at this university, but it wasn't my fault, I swear. I came from a very poor family, and having the privilege of being a student here was a dream come true. Do you know what? I don't think it was a dream come true. I think it was the worst decision I made. Turns out some folks think that I'm not qualified to be here, and they are making my life a living hell, and today I want to end it all. Mom and dad, I'm sorry that it'll have to end this way, Jonathan, please take care of our parents and our little sister. I want the world to know that I tried."

"Pius! Please don't jump, it doesn't have to come to this, trust me!" a boy shouted from the crowd that was watching me.

At this moment, my mind was already made up. I turned back and looked at my oppressors. Arnold Jnr's friends all looked afraid, but Arnold Jnr, he just stood there emotionless, staring at me.

"You are a demon and there is no repentance nor forgiveness for the likes of you" I said while pointing to Arnold Jnr as I jumped down.

There were screams when I finally reached the ground. "It's all over now." I said to myself. In the last few seconds of my life, I had a slight smile on my face. But I still saw the face of my enemy. He looked down from the rooftop, watching my body laying lifeless on the ground. His friends dragged him out when they saw people videoing and taking pictures of them.

Before I shut my eyes, I saw him in the crowd in tears. He wanted to come to my rescue, but I refused. I weakly nodded in disagreement, I let out a faint smile, to show that I was finally ready to leave this cruel world. His fists clenched, as he brought out a small knife from his pocket, he charged into the building to end the reign of my oppressors. Shortly after, a loud cry was heard inside and everyone rushed to find out what happened. As I was wheeled into the ambulance, my subconscious kept asking "did he finally do it?"

OLIVIA POV

"Lick my shoes seven times, only then will I thinking of considering if I could forgive you for this awful act that you just committed" Arnold Jnr ordered as he removed his shoes, and handed them over to me, while his friend spread a handkerchief on the floor for him to keep his legs on. "You can't possibly ask me to lick your shoes, that's against my right and it is very wrong" I argued. Despite that, Arnold Jnr insisted I licked his shoes. "They are designers, and even your poor miserable life wouldn't be enough to pay for them" Arnold Jnr boasted.

"Fine, I'll do it, if that will make your highness forgive me" I said, surrendering to his demands. I brought the shoe close to my face and pretended as if I wanted to lick it, then in the blink of an eye, I threw them downstairs. Arnold Jnr, who insisted that his legs doesn't touch the ground rushed to see where his designer shoes flew off to. He saw them downstairs and turned to me in anger "You bitch! How dare you do that? I am going to kill you today!" He shouted and charged towards me.

I stood my ground, while shunning every form of fear that tried to find it's way to my fragile heart. "You, Arnold Jnr Palmer do not scare me. I am not some kind of puppet you can bully and get away with it, I will fight back with everything in me because I am a human being just like you, and we breathe the same air. Stay off my path Mr. high and mighty" I concluded and left, holding my head up high.

"This is the fault of that dead bastard, he challenged me, and now, another lowlife is doing the same too, it's high time I put these filthy things in their place" I could hear Arnold Jnr cursing as I walked out. I don't care about whatever he has to say, he should just stay off my path and everything will be alright. I can't easily be bullied. Now I have more important things to attend to, like grabbing myself lunch, because I am already starving.

I headed for the cafeteria, the word "food" gets me super excited whenever I hear it. While I sat down at the cafeteria to enjoy my homemade juice and burger which I came to school with, because I do not have any money to buy the kind of foods they sell at the cafeteria here, I thought of checking out our school's blog for any updates. The news I saw next frightened me. There were headlines such as "Brave student stands up to the most dreaded". There were videos and pictures of the incident that took place between I and Arnold Jnr minutes ago. "How fast does news travel?" I asked myself. I promised to maintain a low frequency and finish my studies here, I just hope this situation won't ruin it. I tried to reminisce and remember the incident that led to the confrontation I just had with Arnold Jnr. It started with me listening to some students gossiping about Arnold Jnr and the recent incident that happened. The whole situation made me angry as I thought of it.

"You know after what happened, I thought we were going to take a break, I didn't know that everyone would move around as if nothing happened, jeez! It's so creepy" one girl said to her group of friends who sat at a corner with her. "Well, those rich people don't even see us poor people as human beings, at some point, we had the opportunity to get a scholarship and study here with them, but it doesn't make them see us as anything" another girl supported. "That is why I always stay low so that none of them rich folks can spot me, I can't stand their bullying a bit, the goal is to graduate with a wonderful certificate, once you graduate from this school, it's a ninety percent probability that you can get a job anywhere" they kept talking as they moved on with their business.

I came out from the corner where I hid listening to their conversations. I kept on shouting on top of my voice how much of a monster Arnold Jnr was, I thought I was the only one in the hallway, I never knew at that moment I would come face to face with the devil and I was asked to lick his shoes as an apology for saying rude things about him. I swear I hate this guy so much, and if I happen to see him falling into a ditch someday, I wouldn't even blink an eye or try to save him. However, my meeting with Arnold Jnr was the beginning of my sufferings.

ARNOLD JNR POV

I was already on my way coming downstairs when I heard my father's conversation on the phone. I wanted to tiptoe back upstairs without getting noticed, but I guess I wasn't so lucky, my father saw me before I could even say "Jack".

"Get back here Arnold Jnr! I'm talking to you young man!"

That was my father yelling. I don't know what's wrong with the old man, all I am trying to do is just have some fun, but I can't even do that, gosh! He's so annoying. I quickly walked out and rushed upstairs, but guess what? He followed suit, while my mother followed him, pleading and begging him not to overreact because I was only a child. I ran into my room and quickly closed the door but my dad was faster, as he pushed the door open and barged into my room.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" I shouted in pains and disbelief by the slap my father gave me. My mother covered her mouth to avoid shouting. The slap left me partially blind with my everything in my room spinning all over. My father came closer and raised up my face and looked straight into my eyes, those eyes showed anger and nothing more.

"You are over eighteen years, and you should act like an adult, but I don't know why you have decided to be a curse to me. I am your father, you are my son, you live under my roof and you will do as I say. How many times do I have to cover for you huh? All you do is create scandals in your school, you are always on top of the bullying list, and the last person you just bullied committed suicide. He was a human being like you fool!..... I think it's high time I deal with this attitude of yours".

In my mind, I am laughing so hard. I am so used to my father threatening to do all sorts of things to me, just to teach me a lesson, but in the end, he just does nothing. Being an only child of such wealthy parents is a big flex, you get to do whatever you want. I and my father just stood there looking at each other, before he left. My mum followed him, but came back a few minutes later. I was still nursing the pain from the slap I just got from my father.

"Baby boy, I'm sorry for how your father treated you. He is just overreacting, I mean how can a man, commit suicide because of what another man did to him? It just shows that the said boy wasn't man enough. Bullying is one of those memories that makes you smile whenever you remember them. You'll remember the experiences and how you scaled through". All through my mother's speech, I was smiling, despite still being in pains. My mother is the only person who has ever supported me. I got to know from her that being the only child of such a wealthy and influential man, I was a demigod and could do whatever I want and get away with it. I just hugged her and thanked her for her understanding and support "Best mother in the whole wide world" if you ask me. My mother left my room, and promised to instruct the maid to get me some ice to help ease the pain I felt on my left cheek.

I know you might be wondering, who this alpha male is, the demigod, and the one that makes people tremble just at the sound of his name. Here you have it, I am Arnold Jnr Palmer, the son of Arnold Palmer. My father named me after him. I was told he and my mom waited for quite a while before they could have me, and because of that, they so treasured and pampered me especially mum. My father has the biggest law firm in the country, the lawyers here are all top notch, and my father's law firm has never lost any case since it's inception. Asides that, my father has many other companies in his name, but wait a second, guess who is going to inherit all that not too long from now? That's me of course!. I haven't even talked about my luxurious lifestyle yet, having an entourage whenever I come to school. I live the dream life everyone would want to live, so yes, I am who I say I am. I don't care if you call it pride or arrogance, the truth is that it doesn't change who I am.

I was lying on my bed and in my thoughts, when I heard a knock on my door, I ordered anyone who knocked to come in, oh, it's the maid, and she brought the ice pack like mum ordered. I instructed her to keep it on my table and leave. I stood up and took the ice pack, I gently massaged my left cheeks with it, I can say that I did feel better. Just then, my phone rang and I rushed to pick it. I smiled when I saw the caller, it was as anticipated.

"Hello man!, how are you doing? Hope your old man wasn't too hard on you?", my friend Jeremy asked on the phone. "Well he was hard on me, and I am getting fed up, if he gets any worse, I am going to have to run away and let him look for me like he did the last time I left the house. I mean what's the big deal in having some fun and letting these poor rats know their place? I asked Jeremy.

"We are just going to stay calm for a little while, then resume making the life of those idiots more miserable than it is", Jeremy supported me. We both laughed heartily. "What about that stuff I told you to find out? The stupid girl who tried to humiliate me" I enthusiastically enquired. I had asked Jeremy to do an in-depth background research and get me every damn detail about her.

Jeremy told me that her name was Olivia and she got a scholarship to our school because of her remarkable academic excellence. To be honest, I don't care about those, my only concern is making her life miserable since she dared to challenge me, making me a laughing stock on the school's blog after that little incident with her escalated over the school's blog.

Olivia just choose to play superhero with the wrong person, and I will make sure to frustrate her to death. Well I know that my father will soon forgive me and he will put everything behind him, but there's one thing that is certain. Arnold Jnr is never going to change. I'm out to let the whole world know that I am a king, and a king does whatever he wants to do.