Page 29 of My Heart Still Beats
Me. Not the jocks, of course. They’re the big men on campus.
I did. The blue-collar brainiac who was trying to save a kid from three bullies who think they own the freaking school.
I didn’t end up getting in trouble, but only because the principal believed my story. When I asked what would happen to the jocks, I got no answer.
Wrong. Ididget an answer. Just not in words.
Nothing.
Big fat nothing would happen to those Neanderthals who tormented that poor geek.
I’m sick and tired of what my life has become.
So I don’t go.
I don’t go to work.
I’m sick of it.
Braden, the good son, always went straight to work when he was in high school.
But I’mnotthe good son.
I never wanted to be the good son.
I miss my mother, but I don’t have a lot of memories from before the fire. I was only three.
Now? This is the life I lead. Working my ass off while I’m still expected to go to school and maintain perfect grades and attendance.
Today I’m not going.
Instead, I walk to the convenience store to get some beef jerky. I’ve got a few bucks in my pocket, and beef jerky is what I’m craving.
Dirk Conrad and his two minions, Jerry Thompson and Carlos Ortiz, stand on the side of the store, smoking cigarettes.
“Hey, Black,” Dirk says to me.
“Hey.” I walk past them.
“Come here,” he says.
These three are no good, and I know that. Still, I turn. I turn because I’m curious. What the hell do they want with me?
“What is it?” I ask.
He offers me a cigarette. “Want a smoke?”
“Sure.” I grab one.
I haven’t smoked a cigarette in years. Last time was in middle school with my friend Junior, who later moved away. We coughed and hacked the first time, but then that nicotine high drifted over us and we lit up again.
By the third cigarette, we had stopped coughing, and by the fifth, we no longer felt the high, so I stopped.
Just to be on the safe side, I hold the smoke in my mouth before I exhale. I don’t want to hack in front of Dirk and his cronies.
“What are you guys up to?” I ask.
“Hanging. Looking for some fun.” He blows a puff of smoke toward me. “What are you doing? We never see you around here.”
