He’s hard not to notice.
Always
donning a faded, ugly black shirt
bearing the scary,
pointy logos of bands I’ve never heard of.
Bands I
never want to know about.
Long, greasy
hair crudely parted down the middle.
Like Jesus.
The savior
of noisy rock?
“No,”
scoffs my
friend, Monster in hand and Obey hat cocked off to the side
“He’s the
son of the devil. He probably wants to take it from Satan in hell.”
He chuckles
in a way that even makes me think he’s a jerk.
“Good luck
buddy.” He sneers, half laughing, and quickly walks away.
I approach
him reluctantly, hoping that no one, not even people peering out the windows in
their classes can see me.
He would
normally be in English right now,
listening to
a spineless teacher give bland lectures about the classics,
but after
his tormentors got the best of him one day in the middle of a Lord of the Flies discussion,
he has
permission to sit outside and read in peace.
“Uh, are you
Melvin?”
“Why, yes.”
He replies nervously, yet with a nerd’s zeal.
“Look, can I
copy your math homework? I’m a little behind.”
I spoke too
loud.
I can
already notice some other students who have severed their attention to history
and science to stare out their classroom doors.
“Hail
Satan!” I hear someone yell in the distance.
He sighs and
shakes his head.
“Yes, I have
today’s assignment right here.”
He hands it
to me and puts his cheap, oversized headphones back onto his head,
the faint
sound of his music ringing out,
something
that doesn’t sound akin to demons
battling.
Do I dare
ask?
“Hey.” I
grab his attention. “What are you listening to?”
“Oh, just
some Wu-Tang Clan.”
I contort my
face in surprise.
“The Wu? I
would’ve never guessed you listened to that stuff.”
Noticing
that I’m sounding a little too interested – God forbid that – I quiet down.
“Whatever.”
I brush him off. “Let me copy this real quick.”
I sloppily
begin scribbling down the equations with their corresponding answers,
no regard to
understanding or learning of any kind,
but I notice
Melvin.
The Wu was
still playing, “Bring Da Ruckus” if my ears served me correctly.
His face
solidified into a statue-like state the longer he listened,
his head
bobbing ever so slightly
like he was
in a trance.
Then
something happened.
It must have
been the end of the song,
I could
faintly hear the gathered members of The Clan shouting out
“So bring it
on! So bring it on!”
with so much
menace, fervor, and aggression.
So much
spirit.
The worried,
beaten dog look that seemed permanently fixed to his face melted into a smile.
A smile so
slight, but clearly full of confidence.
Of joy.
It radiated
it.
A hint of
teeth was about to show when it happened.
Richard
McKinnon – the biggest, most arrogant annoyance on campus.
Must have
weighed 250 pounds.
Ran up to
Melvin and smashed in the side of his head with his foot
shattering
his right headphone.
“Bitch!” he
yelled, followed by contrived laughter.
Students
jerking their necks to look outside their classroom doors.
The smile
vanished instantly, turning into a flustered look.
He seemed to
ignore the pain
if there was
any.
He didn’t
say anything,
just took
the headphones off and hung his head down.
I see I’ve
only copied three and a half problems.
“Hey man.”
He slowly
looked up at me, the beaten dog look back in full effect.
“I’ll take
the zero.”
I said, and gave
the sheet back to him.
At the end
of the day I began walking home past the mall as I usually do,
head down,
focused on the concrete sidewalk and all its nothingness.
I noticed I
had $30 dollars in my pocket.
Outlets for
cheap food and drinks were plentiful.
There was a
game store at the mall’s far end with people already waiting in line for some
sports game that was going to be released that night.
Losers.
And there
was a Target.
Huge store;
groceries, Starbucks, everything.
I took a few
steps toward a lackluster Mexican food place to grab some greasy carne asada
fries to munch on when I stopped dead in my tracks.
I turned
around.
Went to the
Target.
Walked in.
And went straight to the
electronics section.END.
Well, there you have it! I'll be posting more short stories and poems as I find time to write them. See ya.
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