I tell my brother everything from my night with Moon to the party. I simply take all of the shit he throws my way for not making a move on Moon. We finally get to In-N-Out and park our cars.
"Jesus look at this line," I say as we walk inside to a line nearly out the door.
In front of us there are two skinny kids. One lanky one with dark hair and the most twiggy arms I've ever seen. Not to brag but two and a half of his biceps would make up one of mine. I wasn't ripped or anything, but football had given me an athletic build and I could confidently take off my shirt so there was something. The other kid has light brown or even dirty blonde hair and stood with his shoulders slumped. Kid was pretty short already and his posture was clearly that of someone who was sad about something. The reason they caught my attention was because the lanky one wouldn't shut up. He was complaining super loudly about how long the line was. Maybe we'd get lucky and he'd annoy people into leaving.
Eventually, it got to be too much for my brother to handle.
"Kid, can you shut the hell up. No one cares about your "wholesome diet" or your "journalistic integrity" were just waiting for our food so can it nerd," my brother says to the kid rudely.
"Don't mind him. He's just hangry," I say trying to get the tension to boil down.
"Well if you paid attention in English class, then you'll know that the term "fast" means able to move and operate quickly, but for this place, the phrase fast food is just misleading," the lanky nerd says.
"No one asked," my brother responds.
"The only thing—" the annoying kid starts to say.
"Your turn to order!" I interrupt and turn him around by the shoulder and lightly shove him toward the front.
I look over at the smaller kid who looks at me for a second. I notice something wrong with his lip. I have done something to upset him because his hand instinctively shoots up to cover his lip.
"Cool scar," I say trying to sound friendly.
He just looks at me wide eyed.
"Not as cool as mine tho," I say putting my hand into the shape of a claw and scratching the air in front of my face.
"Thanks," the kid almost whispers.
"Why do u hide it?" I ask.
The kid looks like he's about to answer before my brother hits my chest to tell me to order.
The two nerdy kids walk away and we get our food.
"What'd the nerd with the scar on his lip have to say?" My brother asks with a mouthful of food.
"Nothin much took effort just to get a peep out of him. Seemed nice though," I answer looking at my bacon hamburger.
"That other kid got on my nerves. Most likely the one who gets wedgies daily along with a swirly on Friday," my brother says smiling.
"Don't talk like that man," I say shaking my head.
"The kids the most stereotypical nerd. You can't see that then your blind," my brother argues.
"Says you. Ivy League nerd. Unless you bully nerds into doing your work. No way your dumb ass can make straight A's at Stanford without cheating," I reply in the most snarky tone I can muster.
"Whatever dude," my brother replies seemingly unfazed by my comment.
He's clearly trying to hide something.
"Don't lie. How do you do it?" I ask.
"Ok fine. This chick who I dated was the perfect ten. Hot as hell, blonde, tan, had a brain bigger than any nerd, but with the personality of a popular chick," my brother answers.
"Popular girls are dumber than bricks. The popular chicks I went to school with didn't know a tomato from an apple and had the personality of a cardboard box. Only thing they have is tight jeans and low self esteem," I reply.
"What about the ones you were hanging out with?" My brother taunts.
I pause for a second. Ok my statement was correct about Yasmine for sure, but Sam had a great personality and was plenty smart. Moon well, I'm not entirely sure. She seemed all to eager to believe the lies of fucking Brucks for crying out loud.
"I guess you got me there," I shrug putting down my chocolate shake.
He just gives me the "I win" smile and finishes his burger.
"So your girlfriend did your work for you?" I say.
"Well at first she did, but she helped me. Actually motivated me to study and shit. I don't know how. I mean I still party all the time, but I learned time management and shit," Jim answers.
"You've been acting weird. So what the shit with this Moon chick didn't work out," he says trying to encourage me.
"It's not like that. Look I just met her, but I really like her okay like a lot," I say.
"Well she apparently likes you to," he responds.
"Shut up," I say shaking my head.
"I'm serious. Babes don't get all ate up when you hook up with their friends unless they're into you," he says to me like I'm stupid.
"I didn't hook up with Sam," I argue.
"You know what I mean. She'll come around trust me man," he says and pats my shoulder.
We finish our food and head home
I can't get that kid with the lip scar out of my head. Why was he so afraid of a measly scar, but I had an idea why. A kid like that who goes to school with people like Kyler. I bet that gang has been torturing that poor kid his entire life. I promise when school starts I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure that people like Kyler can't hurt anyone ever again or I'm gonna get expelled trying. I think back to when Miguel talked about karate. I'll ask him about it later.