We watched him continue running away, without looking back at us as we tried to catch our breath. I groan, angry that he outran us. I think that is the first time I’ve been outrun. I shake my head and kick the side of the building in defeat before walking away in the other direction back to the car. The guys, equally as angry as me hurried up and followed me. It was a silent walk back to the car, seeing that I was not in any mood to talk to them. Usually they would try to talk to me if I’m angry, but most of the time when they do that it’s just me losing my shit on them. Not physically, just verbally. I tend to yell when I’m mad, so its best to let me cool off before talking to me.

When arriving to the car, I put on some music to cool all of us off; It should release the tension everyone is feeling. We all stayed silent listening to music till we got to my house. I was the first to get out of the car, so I can go unlock the front door for everyone. Once the door was opened, I stepped inside, dropping my keys on a table next to the door before making my way to the kitchen. I looked around my kitchen to see if there were any sodas left for me to drink. There was none out in the open, so I went to fridge to see if there was some in there. I closed the fridge when I saw there was nothing in it. I sighed and grabbed a piece of paper to write to make note that we need to buy groceries.

I walked out the kitchen and made my way to the living room to see everyone is there relaxing and watching tv. I decide to join them as I go sit on the couch next to my brother. For the next 15 or so minutes we just hang out watching tv, till one of us starts a conversation.

“So…” They said.

“Hm?” I responded, as I continued to watch the tv.

“Are we not going to talk about what happened out there?” He replied to me.

I sighed, shaking my head, before responding to him.

“What’s there to talk about?” I say turning to face him.

“Well for starters.” He began.

I furrowed my brow, listening intently.

“He outran you.” He finishes.

“Yeah, I know.” I say with attitude.

He leans in, continuing with the conversation.

“Do you think he was a jock?” He questions.

We hear one of us laugh and we all face him.

“I don’t believe he is a jock.” The one that laughed said.

“Why do you think that Bob?” I say to him, squinting my eyes.

“Yes, he is really fast like jocks, and happened to have outrun you Gerard; An extremely fast motherfucker.” Bob stated. “but come on, if he was really a jock, he’d would’ve been the one to have pushed you back at the school, not the other way around.” Bob finished.

“So what? You calling me jock?” I say angrily.

“Gerard that’s not what I meant----“ Bob started.

“Just because I was on the track team freshman year, doesn’t mean shit, ok?” I interrupt.

“Listen, I was just saying that what you did is something a jock would do. Therefore, if the dude was a jock, he would’ve been the one to have pushed you and he would’ve been the one to fall on his ass, instead of you.” Bob said annoyed.

I sigh, rolling my eyes.

“Bob has a point Gerard.” The person who started the conversation said.

“Thank you Ray.” Bob said to him.

I groaned, standing up.

“Are we teaming up against me now?” I say, crossing my arms.

“No.” Ray began.

“We are just thinking thoroughly of the situation. It makes sense what Bob is saying.” Ray finished.

I sighed and sat back down.

“He’s not a jock and neither are you.” Bob says.

“Both of you just have the attitude of one.” Ray jokes.

I chuckle lightly to the joke. I’m not even made at the joke, that is actually true. I always had an attitude and it very much matches the attitude of a jock. It’s not a good thing, because jocks are morons, but its true. We all get a good laugh from the joke and continue with the conversation.

“What do you guys think we should do about the situation?” Bob says.

“Which part? The dude or the suspension?” I question.

“For the suspension part, I was thinking that we hang out at your place, so mine and Bob’s parents don’t find out we got suspended.” Ray said.

“What do you think Mikes?” I say finally involving my brother in the conversation. He’s been quiet throughout the entire thing.

“U-Um…” Mikey mumbles.

Mikey fidgets a little, playing with his hands before finishing what he was saying to me.

“Can t-they?” He stuttered.

I slightly smiled before responding to Mikes.

“If they stay hidden in the basement, then yes.” I said.

“Okay.” Mikey quietly said.

It’s not irregular that Mikey acts like this. He’s just very afraid to break the rules. Besides him getting suspended with all of us, he’s never broken a rule. I appreciate that.

---

“Alright guys.” I say to get their attention.

“Get the fuck out of my house.” I sassily say, making a pose as I point to the door.

They laugh a bit before talking.

“This isn’t your house.” Ray says.

“On the account of shut the hell up, I believe it is.” I respond.

They laugh as they make way to the door, as we say goodbye to each other as they’re leaving. I chuckled and plop down on the couch with Mikey, wrapping my arm around him as we watched tv together for the next couple of hours. About 2-3 hours after they left, Mikes fell asleep on me. Right when I noticed, I carefully pulled him off so I can get up and carry him to his room. I don’t mind carrying my brother when he falls asleep on the couch; He doesn’t weigh that much, so there’s no struggle. When I got to his room, I gently dropped his feet so I can open the door. Once the door opened, I picked up his feet and continued to take him to his bed. I set him on his bed and tried my best to tuck him in. He woke up a little and fixed himself before I left his room, closing the door behind me.

I walked down the stairs and past the living room to the basement where I sleep. My room is rather cozy I might say. The basement was so big that it was possible to build a room in here. There’s a total of 3 rooms in here. My room, the bathroom attached to my room and a small living room down here. The living room is never used, so it’s perfect for Ray and Bob to hide out here. Plus, there’s a mini fridge for snacks down here. The only issue about that fridge that it’s empty just like the fridge upstairs. I walk past the basement living room and enter my room. Nothing special to it. Just a room for a teenager to sleep in.

I stretch a little before I take off my shoes and crawl on my bed. I lay there, resting my head on my arm just looking at the ceiling. I did that for a good 10 minutes as I contemplated if I should take a nap or not. You know, being suspended would make you think you have all the free time in the world, but once you have the free time, you really don’t know what to do. At times you feel like want to do something, but often enough are just lazy to do it. I right now want to go and smoke, but I’m too comfortable in my bed and too lazy to get it. That and a nap sounds really good, so I might as well take one.

---

2:12 pm – Next day

Wobbling down an abandoned alley is quite fun I say. Especially if you’re intoxicated. I chuckled and collapsed against a dumpster, struggling to keep my eyes open. I groaned as I adjusted myself to lean against the dumpster. The fall didn’t feel like it was hard, but I took too much drugs that I’m not entirely sure if it was hard or not. I sat there for a bit with my vision blurring out, making it harder for me to stay conscious. I think I’m close on passing out. Oh well.

“For fucks sake.” Is the last thing I hear before I get punched in the face, knocking me out.

---

As soon as I am starting to come around, I find myself on the floor of a strange room. I blink rapidly to hurry up my vision to see where I am. When my vision cleared, I noticed I was in Frank’s room. Hm, wonder if he was the one that punched me--- Ouch!! That bitch punched me in the face again! I jolt up, angrily ready to yell at Frank, but am cut short from him starting to yell at me.

“What the fuck Bert! Why the hell did I find you on the verge of passing out in an abandoned alley, next to a gas station!” He yells at me.

I lean back, holding myself up using my arms.

“I can explain.” I say slurring. I think I bit my tongue when Frank punched me. Not sure which time.

“Explain right now.” He said stern as he crossed his arms.

“Okay so.” I started.

“My dealer got new stuff and wanted to see how strong the drugs were and well you can figure out the rest.” I chuckled, laying back down on the floor.

Frank sighed, shaking his head before responding.

“You are a dumbass Bert.” He sighs.

I shrug and continue to lie on the floor. I’m still high off my ass.

“You need to stop intoxicating yourself with drugs man. I draw the line at pot. I don’t mind that you smoke weed, but when you get into the stronger stuff, I don’t like it. You become more stupid than you already were.” He says.

“Ugh my head hurts.” I groan before laughing.

“That’s your brain trying to comprehend its own stupidity.” He countered.

I laughed and rolled over on my stomach.

“I swear if you puke in here, you’re going to get more than two punches in the face.” He said walking up to me.

“I won’t” I choke out, before crashing on his floor.

---

“What an idiot.” I say as I roll my eyes cause of the idiot passed out on my floor.
I sigh as I go grab my trash can and placing it next to Bert, just in case he randomly wakes up and hurls. He’s done it before when I crashed at his place one time and since then I know that if he’s in the extremely high state that causes him passes out, he’s going to need a trash can. After setting the trash can next to him, I walk past him to exit my room. I don’t want to stay in a room that is soon to smell like vomit because of a junkie.

I enter my living room, grabbing my jacket and keys before heading out. I don’t know where I am going, all I know is that I’m going out the house. After walking a good distance away from my house, I search my pockets for my lighter and cigs, lighting one real quick and taking a long drag out of it. I smoked the same cigarette for the next 3 blocks, stopping to put out the cig when I arrived at a diner. I am well aware that it’s late in the afternoon, but that’s not stopping me from eating breakfast food right now. This would technically be my first meal of the day, so I’m going in.

I walk up to the diner, opening the door excitedly as I made my way to get myself a seat at the bar. When I sat down a waitress came by and gave me a menu to look at, before she walked away to give someone coffee. I opened the menu, scanning to see what sounded good to me, that and seeing if I had the money for it. My search ended abruptly when I felt a hand slap my back. I angrily turn around to see who did that, just to see that it was the two moron jocks from yesterday. Why the hell are they here?

“What up Smokey.” Jock 1 said.

“What up.” I said coldly as I went look back at the menu.

“What are you ordering.” Jock 2 said as he got right in front of me to see what I was looking at.

I groaned in annoyance and closed the menu.

“Why the hell are you here.” I said to them, with attitude.

“Woah, calm down short stacks.” Jock 1 said. I gagged and turned away from them.

“Guess he doesn’t like us pointing out his height.” Jock 2 joked.

“Guess he just doesn’t like you two.” I mumbled.

“I heard that.” Jock 2 said and smacked the back of my head.

I got out of my seat after that and decked him for that.

“What the fuck!!” Jock 1 shouted and tackled me to the ground.

Everyone at the diner started to freak out and look at us. Some employees came and tried to ask these buffoons to leave, but they were busy trying to hit me. Jock 1 who tackled tried so hard to hit me, but couldn’t, because I caught his wrists. I watched as he tried desperately to get out of my grasp. You know for a jock, he is extremely weak. Who knew right? In the middle of that jock 2 tried to throw some hits at me too. He only got one hit in till he got pulled off by an old man who was trying to eat in the booth that I got tackled next to. The old man threw him out, then grabbing the one that was on me and throwing him out too. Everyone applauds the old man for kicking out the jocks and kindly helped me up.

“You okay?” The old man asked me.

I nodded, giving him an assuring smile. He nodded and asked me to join him in his booth. I shrugged and accepted. After we sat down, he started to ask me questions.

“What happened? Why were those men attacking you?” He says after sipping his coffee.
I sighed and leaned back in the seat, extending my legs out, being careful not to hit the man.

“Because they are morons.” I said.

“Oh.” The old man chuckled.

“I was just trying to order something, because I haven’t eaten all day and they just appear out of nowhere and cause trouble.” I say shaking my head.

“You also caused the trouble.” The man said to me.

“Excuse me?” I asked a bit offended.

He raises his finger to say wait as he takes another sip of his coffee.

“From the very little part I watched, you through the first punch.” He said.

“They wouldn’t leave me alone. I just wanted to eat.” I say sitting up in the seat.

The man just hummed. I hummed too before opening my big mouth.

“Not to be rude or anything, but clearly since you said this yourself that you saw me throw the first punch why didn’t you intervene with the fight earlier, then letting it escalate?” I said to him.

The old man leaned back in his seat before responding.

“Just like anyone who likes a good fight, I like to watch and see how far it will go.” He says.
“I know you can fight well, which is why I didn’t intervene. You must be either really strong, that you were able to keep that good of a grip on the first guy or the guy was just that weak.” He says chuckling.

“I feel like it’s both.” I say.

He smacks his lips and reaches for his coffee again.

“No listen.” I began. “I’m not like one of those people who think they are tough shit just because they are decently strong. I am one of those people who acknowledges how much strength they have and are okay with what they have. I’m never showboating about my muscles like those two who attacked.”

The old man nods.

“That and I’ve seen them try to jump the freshman at school and it’s really sad how the 14 year old’s can take down those 18 year old seniors.” I finish.

The old man chuckled. I couldn’t hear much of his chuckle dude to me being so focused on my stomach growling.

“Well, it was nice meeting you.” I began. “but I am really hungry, so I am going to go to a gas station for food.”

“No stay, order something. I’ll pay for you.” The old man said.

“That is a very kind offer, but I have to decline. I don’t want you to buy me food.” I said in hopefully the most politest way I can say things.

“Very well.” He said, getting up to leave a tip at the table.

The old man grabbed his coat and started to head out the diner.

“It was nice meeting you, hope you eventually eat today.” He said.

“Right back at you, it was nice meeting you. So long now.” I say waving goodbye to him as he did the same to me.

Once he was gone, I exit the diner and headed to the nearest gas station. Unfortunately, the nearest one is the one I was near yesterday right before those 4 fuckers started to chase me. I’m still going to take a risk and go there anyways. If I see them oh well, time to start running again right?

---

During the walk to the gas station I was thinking a lot. For one I was pleased with meeting that old man, he was very kind. Two I was shocked I was kind. Normally I am ass to everyone, but shockingly enough I was kind to him. Could just be because he wasn’t a threat to me. He was just a man who wanted to enjoy his meal but got caught in the action of 3 high school boys fighting in a diner. If I was a witness watching this and I got involved I would’ve been throwing hands. If I’m not being allowed to eat, I will get mad and start havoc myself. ‘I’m a born trouble maker, aren’t I?’ I sighed asking myself. I can’t entirely say that I am the way I am because of Bert. If I am being 100% percent honest, I’m only nice because of Bert.

I know I’m rude to him a lot, but we both know I don’t mean the rude insults to him which is why he is still my friend. If I never met Bert, I would be 10x the asshole I am. I might not show all the way how much of an ass I am because of Bert. He knows I am better than causing many stupid fights, hence why yesterday he was disappointed on what the fight was about. He was excited that I started a fight, but not happy with why it started. I got to agree. Starting shit just because someone is in your way is one of the stupidest things ever. I feel like it’s a fight those two jocks who wouldn’t leave me alone at the diner would have done.
I pull myself out of my thoughts when I arrive at the stop light to cross the street to get to the gas station, pressing the button as soon as I could. I can’t handle how hungry I am any longer. The lights turned red and the walking man appeared, telling me to cross the street. Once I crossed the street, I hurried up to enter the store and buy myself something to eat. When I got inside, I went to the chips section, hoping to get a big bag. I looked at the price the bag was and groaned. It was $3.45. That means if I got this, I would only be able to buy another big back and a big drink. That should at least leave me $1.35. I personally wouldn’t buy the extra bag of chips or the big drink, but Bert is most likely still in my home, so I got to bring something to feed him too.

I carry all my items to the cashier and quickly paid. I have to walk 6 blocks back home and it’s getting dark, so I don’t want to take any longer than I have to. I finished paying and quickly walked out the store and started to walk home. It’s going to take me a more time to get home than it normally would just because I am carrying to big bags. I sighed and continued walking. ‘This is going to be a very annoying walk home.’ I say to myself as I began the game of ‘my arm is getting tired, lets switch the bag to the other arm.’

---

As soon as I got home, I dropped the bags and took some time to stretch and try and feel my arms again. That was a painful trip home. I finished stretching and went into my pocket to grab my key to unlock the door. I opened the door first before grabbing the bags to bring inside. I kick the door close and head to my messy living room, dropping off the bags there before going down the hall to my room to get Bert.

I get to my room and I see that Bert is still knocked out on the ground. I should’ve been worried because I was gone for a good few hours, but my room smells like vomit, so I think he is okay. I make my way to the trash can first and went to empty it out, then returning to my room to wake up Bert. I kneeled and started to shake him to wake him up.

He wasn’t very responsive with the first shake, but with the next shake he started to stir. He started to come around after that. When he woke up, he carefully tried to sit up, but groaning when he felt his head hurt. I got up, slowly helping him up and taking him to the living room while I went to go get some headache pills for him. When I returned to the living room with the headache pills, Bert was already digging in on one of the bags of chips. I let him be and handed him the pills and told him to wait before taking them. I grabbed the juice I bought and handed it to Bert. He opened the pills container and took one and setting it in his mouth, then grabbing the juice I was handing to him to drink. After he swallowed the pill he laid back, closing his eyes for a bit before sitting back up to eat.

I didn’t find that weird. It’s just a method he does so he would feel better. I have tried that method when I had a headache, but it didn’t help me. It only made the pain worse, but then again, everyone is different, so you never know who that method will work on, aside from Bert.

The rest of the night Bert and I just hung out eating the chips I bought and watching tv. We luckily didn’t finish the chips or the drink, so we will have something to eat tomorrow. I took the bags of chips and hid them in the pantry and put the drink in the fridge before heading back to the living room where Bert is. We made small talk here there till Bert needed to leave. He might mostly live with me, but he kind of has another home and has things to do, so he doesn’t stay here much. I get up from the couch and walked Bert out, saying goodbye to each other and closing the door once he is out of my sight.

I turn around to turn off the tv, before going to my room. I instantly gag when entering the room, remembering that it still smells like vomit in there. I choke up and head back to the living room to sleep on the couch. Ugh that was disgusting. ‘Note to self: Buy air freshener.’ I say to myself, chuckling a bit, before going to lay down on the couch. I stretch, trying to make myself comfortable on the couch before sleeping. I groan in defeat because I was never going to get comfortable on this damn piece of shit couch. I sigh and just close my eyes. I soon fell asleep after that.

12:32 am – Fall asleep.

3:56 am – Wake up.

4:05 am – Struggle to go back to sleep.

4:26 am – Listen to some music.

4:34 am – Fall back asleep.

7:50 am – Wake up.

Notes

Helloooooo here is chapter 2 enjoy!!! Not entirely digging the first two chapts but eh its only the beginning of the story so it doesnt bother me that much. So long pals!!!

FYI: This one took me 4-5 hours. It is 9 pages long and has 4253 words. Wow. My ass is in pain. By the way, the cover is done by me. BYEEEEEEE

-Jordan