Ben Austen

He says, when we were six, I kicked his ass.

I'm not sure why he didn't lead with that.

Here's how he remembers it going down.

Like I hit you.

So you're like, you're physically...

He says he wasn't seriously injured or anything.

We were both just little kids.

I don't recall any of this.

Well, uh, I'm, I'm definitely sorry for that.

Uh,

I don't quite know what to make of it.

What does it mean that I did that?

I think, Eddie, I probably fought a lot at those times.

It's terrible I beat Eddie up.

This doesn't seem totally out of character for me.

I mean, I remember on the playground back then, kids throwing a ball in my face.

I'd get mad and throw it back in theirs, and then we'd go on playing.

What I don't get is why what I did to Eddie that day stood out so much from the other chaos of childhood around us.

In the middle school Eddie and I both attended, it wasn't uncommon for one kid to say to another, after school,

meaning at 3.30 in the parking lot or on the playground, we're going to fight.