Way back, almost seven years ago, my brother and I had became friends with a kid named Saadiq. A couple times prior to actually introducing ourselves, we had seen one another in the neighborhood and when we were at school. He attended a school down the street from mine, so when my brother and I would stop by the Dunkin’ Donuts a block away, we would see Saadiq and his younger brother walking to their school. Time passed and we met, talked about our shared love for Bruce Lee and anything martial arts related, figured out that our houses were literally across from each other’s, and that friendship blew up quicker than you could imagine.

This is the story of how that friendship ended in hilarious fashion.

A few months in and Saadiq had felt like a brother to us. We frequented the courtyard outside of his house, which was visible from our bedroom window, and we had so many different mini adventures. He was very narcissistic but had a flair for showing off and wanting to help others show off too. The kind of person that you could tell had never met his match before, in dancing, fighting, smooth talking the girls in the neighborhood, or anything else really. He often called the house to talk to me about the newest girlfriend he had and how she was everything he ever wanted, I just smiled to myself because I knew a week from then he’d forget her name and move on; something I was not partial to doing. In every aspect, we all had the kind of vibe that reminds you of those old coming of age stories. One day in particular changed that era of peace forever, and that was the day that my brother and I met Thomas.

Tom (in the red shirt) was a this guy who had charm and a laid back style nobody could duplicate. He was over 6 feet tall and had green eyes, in all ways he stood out. He was playing basketball in the same park that I brother and I were at practicing our different martial arts. I was doing some capoeira that I’d learned and my brother showed me how to box. This caught Tom’s eye and he came up to us and asked where we’d learned. We had no formal training, but he did, and upon realizing that we were self taught, he encouraged us to exchanged numbers and we were training in Kenpo karate under him the very next day. Come to find out that he and Saadiq knew each other from way before, to the point that they called each other “brothers.”

Saadiq had not planned for us to cross paths. It wasn’t until a few years later that I would learn he didn’t want us to meet because he would feel threatened by us, as we proved a few times to be better at hand to hand combat than him. Needless to say, when we started hanging out with Thomas, Saadiq felt some kind of way. And things got even worse when we began training karate at Tom’s house, bringing in more and more people who wanted to learn and become a part of the team. It started out with the 4 of us, and by the end of the second year of that brotherhood, we had around 14 guys all learning the style and hanging over Tom’s house nearly every weekend.

We trained for years to become as strong and goal oriented as the characters we looked up to in the movies. There were plenty of days where we would spar with each other, barely able to breathe, but we kept at it. Even a few summers ago when there was a heat wave, 7 or 8 of us were outside every summer day without fail, sparring and morphing our minds. When there was snow caked on the ground and ice crystalized across the park benches, we still fought one another. And after 3 years of fighting and having deep conversations about the world and who we all want to protect, there was a legitimate brotherhood between Thomas, my actual brother, and I. And Saadiq had slowly shown his distaste in the imagery. He eventually only came around every once in a while.

One day, when we all we over Tom’s house and after two or so hours of practicing, we all sat in the living room and joked and talked, like usual. The conversation fell upon Batman and how he ran his city from the shadows, something Thomas was always a fan of. He began to compare himself, rightfully so, to the Batman, and he named my brother Bane, for his brute strength and how well he held his own  against Thomas. Then came the moment I’ll never forget. He looked at me, and with a look of pride he called me Dick Grayson. The very first Robin, the ultimate protege, the one who would eventually become Nightwing and even don the Batman’s cape himself. I was more than happy to be such a strong person for our group, but Saadiq, who heard it all and didn’t say a word, left the house and we didn’t see him for another couple of weeks.

Time passed and my skills were becoming undeniably sharp. Me and Saadiq used to be equals, but I gained headway because he stopped coming to train, so he felt a little insecure about that. It all came to a boiling point when his little brother got hurt on a summer day and Saadiq refused to console him. He told him to man up and stop crying. I on the other hand, tried to help him stand. Saadiq got mad at me and Thomas told us to fight it out because this was something that was obviously deeper than the situation at hand. Saadiq put on his boxing MMA gloves and I refused to put mine on, choosing to keep my hands down during the fight. He got many good hits in, but when his little brother looked at me afterwards and said “Thanks,” I knew I won. I showed him what it really was to have peace on the brain and still defend what you thought was right.

Some time later, Saadiq and his brother moved away to California. We had squashed the remaining beef we had but I knew he was taking some feelings with him. At first it was only for the summer, but the summer turned to fall and then winter, and we were told later that the move was permanent. He was no longer around, yet my brother and I still trained with Thomas and developed our skills. The idea of a rematch did come to mind for me, but it would be futile. By now he has probably moved on and learned a staggering amount of new things, as have I, and a rematch would only call old bad blood to the mix. But, with that being said, despite the tiny instances of drama, I look back on our 5 year long friendship and feel happy that it happened. It truly was a coming of age journey.