Toby slouched his way upstairs and knocked on his 10 year old brother Felix’ door like he usually did when he got home. He pushed it open and found five 10 year old boys smashing wrestling toys together.
“What up freaks?” Toby said. He pointed at the TV. “What’s this?”
“Wrestlemania,” Alex, a husky voiced kid said.
Johnny, a blond kid with glasses straightened his neck and tried to get in Toby’s face.
“Who you callin’ a freak?” he said.
“You,” Toby said. “Freak.”
Johnny tackled him around the waist. Toby scrunched his arms and knees to his midsection in defense.
“No no no no, get off,” he said.
Johnny jumped up on the bed, which had been stripped of all blankets and pillows to make it a more suitable wrestling ring.
“That’s what I thought,” Johnny said, twisting his neck like a bird.
“Felix, look,” Alex pointed to the TV.
A wrestler with long, multi-colored hair stood on top of a ladder above another lying prone on a wooden table. He came down upon him with a flip and a crack and the kids screamed with delight.
“I hate to break it to you guys,” Toby said, “But this stuff is fake.”
Toby was surprised to see Felix crook his face defensively.
“It’s not fake.” the boys all said.
“I’m not saying I don’t like it, but you’ve got to appreciate it for what it is,”
Toby said.
“So when that guy just jumped off the ladder, that was fake?” Johnny said, “Was there cables strapped to him? Cause I didn’t see no cables.”
“Do you actually think this is a legitimate athletic contest?” Toby said.
“You’re a legitimate athletic contest,” Felix said. The kids all laughed.
“Good one,” Toby mocked. He couldn’t believe his brother was taking sides against him. “Remember when Triple H hit the Undertaker in the face with a sledgehammer?”
“Yeah.”
“That was awesome,” a big kid named Tim said.
“Okay,” Toby said. “Do you think that was a real sledgehammer?”
“Hell yeah,” Johnny said.
“He was bleeding everywhere,” Felix said.
“Okay, well, what do you think would happen if went over to your house and hit your Dad in the face with a sledgehammer?” Toby said to Johnny.
“He’d kick your ass,” Johnny said.
“Maybe. But either way they’d definitely put me in jail. Triple H didn’t go to jail. He was on TV the next night bragging about it.”
“He wouldn’t go to jail. It’s wrestling,” Johnny said.
“Yeah,” Felix said.
“I’m not saying that wrestling sucks because it’s fake. I really like wrestling, but it isn’t real.”
Johnny turned away. “Your brothers an idiot, Felix,” he said.
The other kids all agreed. Toby was stung. He always figured he would be the cool older brother who would awe all of Felix’s friends with his hilarious sense of humor and his ability to bring a different beautiful woman home every weekend, but now they were teaming up on him and would not listen to reason.
A wrestler on TV smacked another with a black folding chair and it bent to the shape of his head.
“What about that, Toby? Was that fake?” Johnny said.
“It’s a real chair but--”
“He’s bleeding!” Alex said.
“It’s probably a blood capsule,” Toby found that he was yelling.
“Don’t get mad just cause you’re wrong.”
“It’s either a blood capsule or he sliced his forehead with a razor blade.”
“He hit him with a chair, Toby. What’s so hard to understand?” Johnny said. He was calm, having proven his point.
“Yeah, what’s so hard to understand,” Felix smiled and laughed with his friends.
“Whatever,” Toby said.
“Not whatever, “Johnny tried to stare Ethan down. “Say it’s real.”
“It’s not real.”
“Say it, punk.”
Toby grabbed the remote control. “You want to see something real?” he said. He changed the channel to an mixed martial arts cage match. One fighter was kneeing the other in the face relentlessly. “This is real.”
“Change it back,” the kids all screamed. They jumped for the remote as Toby held it over his head.
“All right, all right,” Toby said and threw the remote on the bed. Jack, Johnny’s brother, scrambled at it and changed the channel back to wrestling.
Toby went into his own room. He grabbed a book off the shelf and began to sift through the pages. He could hear the kids through the wall jumping off the bed and smacking each other with pillows and fighting heatedly over trivialities and reconciling and patting each other on the back and gossiping like kids do.
