Suzanne slunk back into the bar quickly, leaving Will and the girl outside. Will was fuming, and in more than one way. He paced for a couple seconds, more to let himself readjust in his pants than to think.
The girl who had come to get Suzanne looked at him curiously. "What were you doing out here with Sue?" she asked, suddenly. Will didn't imagine the accusation in her voice. He shrugged and stomped into the bar, brushing by her. Was it just him, or was he a little thicker again? Had he gotten older again?
He thought about ducking into the bathroom to look, but the sounds of commotion drug him further inside. Sue was saying something quietly, and then a man's voice said, very loudly, "I TOLD you, we didn't DO anything, it's just work! God, why won't you just let this go!"
In his head, Will had imagined Tony as.. thick, tall, strong, rude. The kind of girl he thought, subconsciously, Suzanne must be into, if she was into him. This guy wasn't even close. Thin, shorter than Suzanne by a couple inches, and preppy. Almost hipster, with a button down shirt, ironic tie, and a vest for God's sake.
Sue said something again, and Tony sneered in a broad arc around him. "Look, can we just get out of this shithole and talk about this?"
He had quieted down some, but Will had other ideas. Three drunken ideas, specifically. The first was that he was really pissed off that he hadn't gotten to go all the way, when he was so close. The second was that Tony was not nearly a good enough guy for his Sue. The third.. was that he could probably take him. He was big and strong now.
"Hey," Will said, stepping into the circle of two.
Tony turned his head to look at him, then grimaced. "Who dressed you?"
"Uh.. maybe you should leave her alone," Will suggested.
"Who the fuck are you?" Tony spat.
"I said, go away. She doesn't want to be with you anymore," Will said. His chest puffed up and he clenched his fists for emphasis, doing his best imitation of a knight in shining armor.
Sue started to interject, "Hey, stop, just--" but it was too late.
"Buddy, you need to back off, this isn't any of your business," Tony said. He made the mistake of extending a hand and put it on Will's chest.
Will hauled back and punched him. Sue gasped, and Tony groaned. But Tony was still standing, and Will, drunk on alcohol and his own sudden adulthood, swung with his other arm, catching the side of Tony's head. Tony toppled over, spilling onto the ground like a cappuccino. Sue screamed.
"I SAID JUST LEAVE US ALONE!" Will yelled, and now everyone was looking. The bartender was waving someone over.
"FUCK YOU," Tony moaned. "I'm pressing charges."
"Will, what are you DOING!" Sue said, dropping to her knees over her boyfriend.
"He was.. uh, he was bothering you, and I thought.. well, just leave him, we can go back outside and be alone," Will said, stammering.
Sue and Tony both froze for a moment, and then Tony was shoving her off of him. "---the fuck off me! You fucking bitch! THIS guy? You cheated on me with this guy!?" Tony said, pulling himself up by a chair.
Sue stammered, "I didn't-- we didn't-- nothing happened!"
"Save it. God you're such a hypocrite. God, I SHOULD have slept with Andrea, she might be a crazy lying whore like you, but at least she has fucking standards!" Tony was walking towards the front door, with Sue frantically following him, pleading for him to listen.
A heavy hand landed on Will's shoulder. Will turned and saw the owner- a big man, several inches taller than him, wearing a beard and glaring at him. The guy looked like.. well, actually a lot like Will did, now, he guessed. But bigger.
"You need to go, now."
---
Bill was making the short walk to where he'd stashed his bike after his ejection and rejection, slinking past Tony and Andrea, who were still arguing loudly in the parking lot. He'd had enough of them, and enough of the bar. For now.
He kicked a rock and yelled into the night. His fists hurt. His ego hurt. He scowled his way down the sidewalk, thinking about everything that had gone wrong that night. But he kept coming back to everything that had gone right.
He'd gone to a bar, hit on a girl, made it at least to second base. He'd had his first cigar, won his first fight, drank his first beer. Nobody would fuck with him again- he was a grown man. He probably wouldn't even have to go back to school! Yeah, he'd get a job, make a lot of money, work off some of the fat, and then..
Actually, he didn't feel so fat anymore. He rubbed his stomach, testing. Yeah, he'd lost some of it. Not all of it, but not so much of a gut now as a paunch. Nice! He was still a little heavy elsewhere, but now it was firmer, harder all over. He was strong, he thought, flexing his bicep and looking over it.
Except.. didn't that mean he'd got older again? He hadn't looked at himself since.. the bathroom? He was looking at his arm now, and something on his hand caught his attention. His knuckles were a little messed up, there were a couple scars, and it looked.. almost broken? It didn't hurt, though. More like he'd broken it before?
He stopped and looked up and down the street. Nobody was nearby. There was a closed store next to him, a big glass storefront with lights darkened inside and a street light behind him. It cast a good reflection, and he stepped closer to look.
Like he thought, he'd lost some weight. Or it had moved from his belly to the rest of his body evenly. He'd kind of been aware he'd grown a beard in the last couple hours, but was still sort of shocked to see it, a quarter inch long and full on his face. Those were the good parts.
He was also balding a little bit, his forehead looked huge on him. For the first time since this started, he realized how much he was looking like his dad, all of a sudden. He even had a few grey hairs at the chin like his Dad always complained about, having gotten them early. Maybe not as early as the curse had made Will now: 33. He held his hand to his nose, feeling it. His hand was definitely a little messed up looking, and his nose.. just slightly crooked, like he'd broken it years ago. His lower lip had a scar on one side that was almost hidden by his beard, but there was no hiding the one above his left eye, splitting his eyebrow. He looked like a thug, he realized.
He liked it.