Disclaimer: I disclaim, AJ
"Why weren't you in sixth period?" Vince whispered to me after my Dad walked back to the office.
"Because I left before shop," I replied.
"Did you miss the fight?" he asked.
"Did you see it?" I asked, avoiding the question.
"No, I went to class," Vince said. I just laughed. I know Vince wasn't giving me a hard time about not being in class when he missed every opportunity he got.
"Good for you. You can give me the notes, then," I said flippantly.
"I didn't say I took notes. But I was there," he replied.
"Do you know who was fighting?" this was the best way I could think to word the question without lying to my best friend.
"I heard that Letty was kickin' some dude's ass. But I don't know who," he said, as if he had just told me some extremely interesting information.
"It was Diego Rodriguez," I replied. Vince looked surprised that I had more details about the event than he did.
"How do you know?" he asked.
"Because I know all,"
I said cockily. Vince just laughed and shook his head. "No, I saw
it. But that prick punched her after she let him up. I, uh,
intervened, and then Letty and I left so she wouldn't get in
trouble," I admitted.
"That's…" he hesitated.
"What?" I asked.
"Nice and really unlike you," he said bluntly.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically. Jerk. He was right, though. It was unlike me. I was typically not going to stick my neck out for anyone, except maybe him and Mia- and now Letty.
"You know what I mean," he said. I did know what he meant. He was happily oblivious of Letty's real life and the relationship that we had. I wasn't about to share any more information.
"So what are you doing tonight?" I asked with a devilish grin on my face.
"I don't know," he said giving me suspicious look. "What am I doing tonight?"
"Want to go kick that Diego guys ass with me?" I asked. Vince loved to fight. Any opportunity Vince had, he would fight. He was really good at it. We all have our own unique skills and talents. At this point in our lives, Vince probably could have beaten me up. Of course, I would never have admitted that to anyone. We were both pretty big for our age, but Vince had a lot of experience fighting with his step dad.
"Hell yeah!" he said, getting really excited. "Where?"
"I don't know. I don't know him. Who does he hang out with?" I asked. I knew we weren't going to his house. That was just asking to get arrested.
"I don't know but I think he busses at his uncle's restaurant, uh, Calimas," he said.
"Well, we'll have to go see if he wants to hang out after he gets off work," I suggested.
I didn't even notice that Letty had walked in. She was standing directly behind us.
"Oh, can I come?" she joked.
We both jumped a little bit with the sound of her voice. I knew it was her and didn't want to turn around. Damn. I guess we should have talked somewhere Letty would not be, like school.
"Damn, Letty, don't sneak up on people," I said, still a bit shaken.
She smiled. "Who's sneaking? You are the ones being sneaky. This is a garage, not the girls' bathroom," she said, trailing off to go put on a work shirt.
Did she just call us girls?
"We'll find him, it's cool," Vince nudged me and spoke quietly before continuing to work on the piece of shit Honda someone brought in earlier that day.
We all worked for a couple of hours until Dad closed the garage for the day. I had gotten so focused on my work that I forgot what Vince and I had planned for the evening. This was how Vince and I were dissimilar. I knew that he was focusing on the fight and only working to pass the time.
"I will see you at the house, son," Dad said, leaving me standing with Vince and Letty.
"I'll be along," I told him. I looked over to Vince and saw that sparkle in his eyes that most kids get on Christmas morning. It wasn't Christmas yet. But, to Vince, fighting was better than Christmas.
"You ready?" he said, tapping my arm.
"You guys don't even know where you are going," Letty smiled.
"It's LA, he could only be so many places," I joked.
"Do you know where he is?" Vince asked her.
"I wouldn't tell you if I did," she said, walking off towards her abandoned house.
"She does. Go ask her," Vince said.
"You go ask her. You're acting like a damn spider monkey on crack," I joked, pushing him in Letty's direction.
He ran up to her. They talked for a few minutes while I just stood back and watched.
"Alright, we have to get to Chester Street, somehow," Vince replied, walking back with a little jump to his step.
"She told you?" I asked, shocked.
"Of course," Vince said with an arrogant grin on his face. This really surprised me. Why would she tell him? She had been pretty obstinate about me even knowing who he was earlier. And, she told Vince just like that. I shrugged it off and just gave him a little push.
"Well that's like twelve miles. That's not where he lives is it?" I asked.
"No, apparently everyone in her class has to work on some Spanish project. And he had talked to her about going over to David McCord's house to do it tonight. And I know where David lives," he said, as if I should know this David character.
"Who the fuck is David McCord?" I asked.
"Just some 7th grade punk," he responded.
"You hiding 7th grade friends from me?" I mocked.
"Yeah, all this time. I've been running off hanging out with 7th graders and not telling you," he joked. "Nah, I lived near him before we moved out here."
"I'm still not walking twelve miles," I said. It was already 5. By the time we walked twelve miles, I doubted they would still be working on whatever project they had. No one was that studious.
"That Honda in there is running pretty well now," Vince suggested, pointing at the garage.
"What the hell?" I said.
"Like anyone would know," he pushed. "Besides, that dude tried to fuck up Letty. We can't just let him walk."
He was going to play it like that, huh? Pulling the Letty card. Damn. He got me.
"Alright. But, I'll drive because you can't drive for shit," I said, pulling my keys out of my pocket and unlocking the garage. This was a bad idea. But, it sounded like a lot of fun. Vince was a bad influence. Or at least that was my defense and I was sticking to it.
My Dad had been teaching me to drive since I could walk. I was confident enough in my driving ability. But, I was not extremely confident in taking someone else's car out of my Dad's garage to go find some kid to beat up. It didn't seem to stop me from getting the key to the car from the office and unlocking the doors. Vince hopped in the passenger side. He looked so excited. I had to laugh. I cranked the engine and pulled out.
I handed Vince the key to the garage. "Go lock it back up. I don't want it to look suspicious," I said. If Dad happened to drive by and saw the door open I was pretty sure he would know something was up. After Vince locked back up and jumped into the car, I pulled onto the main road. I had never driven in the car without my Dad. It was fun. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. It had never crossed my mind before to actually take any of the cars out after my Dad left for the night.
Vince turned on the radio and I opened the windows. I drove, trying my best to keep it within the speed limit. Getting pulled over for speeding would not lead anywhere good. We pulled onto Chester Street.
"Which house?" I asked. I didn't really know what we were going to do after we found the house. Vince and I never really went looking for people to beat up. It was typically more spontaneous than all this.
"It's that one," he pointed. We parked down from it a bit and just sat there.
"So, how do we know if he's there?" I asked. I didn't want to sit around and wait if he'd already left.
"I don't know, Letty said he would be," Vince replied.
"Alright, well I guess we'll just wait?" I asked.
"Sure, I don't have anything else to do," Vince said.
We just sat there for about an hour. We played paper football and talked about people from school and cars from the garage. Vince spent the better part of the hour trying to convince me to go out on a double date with him. Double dates were not really my style but I knew I would do it in the end, for Vince.
"Dude, he's probably not even still here," I complained.
But, right after the words came out of my mouth I saw Diego leaving the house and walking down the street. "Shit, there he goes," I said, pointing him out to Vince.
Vince and I got out. He still looked so excited. I locked the car and put the key in my pocket. Vince was already half way down the block approaching him. This wasn't really the kind of street that we needed to fight on, though, so I called out to him. It was far too residential and light.
"We can't just jump him here," I said to Vince. He stopped walking. Diego still hadn't noticed us.
Diego turned down some random side street and Vince and I smiled at one another. That was a better location. Vince took off after him. I picked up my pace, but was not running. By the time I got to the street, which was much less residential, much more vacant businesses, Vince already had him pinned up against the wall and was talking to him, or rather yelling. But, I was impressed with Diego's forthrightness.
"Dude, what the fuck is your problem?" he asked, pushing Vince's hand down. That was clearly a mistake. Vince took that hand and hit him square across the face.
"Hold up a second, Vince. I want to ask this dumbass a question," I said, walking up. Diego looked at me like he had remembered our interaction earlier that day.
Vince picked the guy up, his nose already bleeding.
"Why you been given Letty shit? That was a mistake," I said, getting up in his face for the second time.
"Dude, I hadn't done shit to her," he said looking me square in the eyes.
"Wrong answer," I said taking all the anger I had built up from today and hitting him in the face. I didn't let him fall over, though. I held him there. "Try again."
"I'm sorry," he said, spitting out some blood.
"Still didn't answer my question," I said, this time hitting him in the stomach.
He let out a pretty pathetic moan. I looked over at Vince. He looked like a hungry coyote that was being held back from its kill. I didn't really know what answer I was looking for, but I figured he would never give me the right one.
"What do you want me to say?" he asked.
"This kid's an idiot," I said to Vince, allowing him to come back in. He was having a blast giving this kid a hard time.
"You think it's fun to hit girls?" Vince asked, hitting him pretty damn hard. He hit him a few more good times before I tapped his arm, signaling him to back off.
"I heard you give shit to girls all the time. Uncool move," I said getting back up in his face.
"I won't," he said, though it seemed very difficult for him to speak. He was pretty bloody at this point.
"If I see you even look at Letty again, I swear, you won't be walking away from the next fight," I said, hitting him one more good time before Vince and I walked off.
We were still floating from the adrenaline rush that comes from a fight, especially a fight you clearly won. However, I would not describe this as a fight. This was a lesson. And, hopefully for Diego's sake, a lesson well learned. I looked back and saw him sitting there. I knew he would be okay but did not anticipate him being in school the next day, or the rest of the week really.
We walked back up to the car and got in. We didn't really say much on the drive back. We each had a little bit of blood on our shirts. But, we were basking in the rush of everything that had just happened. I was really enjoying driving. The air was cool, but it felt awesome, freeing.
I turned the car back onto my street. I couldn't believe this had been that easy. I hadn't even seen a cop the entire drive. I turned up into the garage.
"Shit," I said pulling up. I looked straight ahead locking eyes with my Dad who was standing by the garage door. My soul sank.
TBC
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AJ