Revelations in the alley of a Taco Diner
The next time that Carson and Braxton encountered the Winchesters it was in the parking lot of a Taco Diner. Their wealthy parents had taken them here for supper, and they had resorted to blows in the parking lot. Their mother was shouting at them to stop, while the Dad just rolled his eyes, unphased. A waitress out on smoke break debated with her friend if they should call the police.
Braxton had brought his girlfriend Geraldine to this show. In the middle of flailing arms, they knocked her to-go box out of her hands.
"God!" Geraldine's nostrils flared.
"I'm so sorry!" Braxton paused, looking on in horror.
"Here, I'll help you clean it up, we'll throw it away, we'll get you a new dress._See what you did, you dick?! Help." Braxton snapped his fingers at Carson. He stooped to help if only because of the looks that Geraldine was giving him. Carson was in love with her too, a problem at the center of the sibling feud.
Geraldine and the boys scooped up the steaming pile of food. They then walked in a bickering troop to the dumpster and a squat trash can. When they got there, they saw them from a distance behind two other dumpsters.
"Dude! It was like they were doing science with these freaking limes!" Dean Winchester was back here in the garbage bay kicking around rotten produce. The troop of three kids paused, listening to the vaguely familiar voices.
"I found a banana. Or what I think was a banana before the theory of evolution took over..." Sam sighed, leaning heavily on a dumpster.
"Hey, you okay?" Dean rushed to his side and took his shoulders. Only when both of them were standing there by the dumpster did the brothers and Geraldine realize that it was The Broom Sticks.
"Man, dealing with a Hungry Ghost is bad enough when you have, you know, a pretty big pantry. Trying to deal with this Ghostbuster B.S. at the same time that we have literally no food?" Sam rubbed his forehead.
Dean took his brother by his shoulders. Graceful, like a dancer, he turned him around in his arms. The three unsuspecting classmates looked on in wonder as Dean held his dizzy little brother there in limbo. They were impressionism, there with their stained, ill-fitting clothing that had lost its color in a world without modern conveniences.
"It'll pass, man..." Sam swayed, clinging to Dean's oversized leather jacket.
"Yeah, well if it doesn't, I'll just carry you around for a bit...Right, like when you were three?" Dean smiled.
Sam didn't retort, which sent the darts of concern hailing from Dean's eyes.
"You'd think it'd be easier to find food in the dumpster behind a Taco Diner...I thought these places were supposed to be like the holy Mecca of Mexican chow?" Dean's face twisted in consternation and he held Sam's head by his hair.
"Dean, the people are eating the food, not throwing it away..." Sam growled, hungry to the point of peevishness now.
Braxton looked at Geraldine in her soda-stained dress. She had turned the color of newspaper, holding the remnants of her domed-over to-go plate that had fallen on the ground. Too ashamed to go near them, she set it out on the lower trash can just out of their sightline and stepped back a few feet.
"It's like observing wildlife..."Carson quipped.
"Shut up, see if they actually eat it!" Braxton put his finger to his lips.
Geraldine decided that day she hated both of these two boys. The only thing they enjoyed doing together was destroying other people.
"Hey! Sammy, hey! Do you smell that? It's like they just threw something away...look..."Dean wrapped his arm around Sam. The boys and Geraldine snuck out of the line of sight. Dean picked the ruined plate up and held it up to Sam's face.
"Is it weird that it almost makes me sick since I haven't eaten in a long time?" Sam frowned.
"Nah, I feel kinda like that too...but check this out...Huh? Cilantro...chicken! Dude, you're a health freak. You love chicken. Also, this extra parking lot dirt probably adds...vitamins, maybe? Yeah, and minerals, minerals are rocks, right?" Dean smiled broadly, pushing the plate into Sam's hands.
"Dean...it has been a week since you ate a full meal...you should take it..." Sam frowned.
"I told you chicks dig skinny. I'm on a diet!" Dean grinned.
"Dee...it's not funny."
Dean nodded.
"Listen, Sam. The way I see it one of us is gonna have enough food to live until Dad comes back, and one of us isn't. If one of us is gonna make it, I'd like it to be you..."Dean nodded.
Sam stared at him, food in his shaking hands. Geraldine burst into tears there hiding behind the dumpster, silent, Cheetah-streams of mascara and regret for the way she had treated the "Broom Sticks."
"So, what? You're just gonna die for me?" Sam shook his head.
"Damn straight. I've lived longer. You deserve a shot." Dean smiled.
"No...I'm sorry, but no...You mean well, but the way I see it I'd rather starve to death with you than stay in this crap hole of a world alone with Dad. Or, just alone, as apparently Dad is never coming back." Sam huffed a heavy breath.
Dean studied him.
"Well, you're eating most of the vegetables then." Dean smiled again and he looked at the trash can.
"Dude, check this...It's gonna be like in that Disney cartoon with the dogs? 'Member, they had like the spaghetti out back of a restaurant?" Dean took two rotten produce crates and made them seats. Sam stared at him, jaw gaping.
"Alright, but if you think I'm rolling any of this food toward you with my nose, you can forget it." Sam sat down and set the plate down as it was the Ark of the Covenant.
Carson and Braxton's parents started shouting for them.
"Babe, we have to go..."Braxton tugged at Geraldine.
"It's Geraldine, not babe. We are broken up as of right freaking now. I will get a cab. Tell them...and leave me alone..."
"You don't mean that..." Braxton's shoulders sagged.
"You two were more interested in gloating over starving kids from school than you were offering to buy them some food, and you both are loaded! We're done..." Geraldine shook her head.
"You know something, bitch? I didn't see you buying them any food. Fine, I break up with you. Whatever..."Braxton and Carson did an about-face leaving her there shivering in her soda-soaked sundress as nightfall was creeping.
"Now if we just had something to drink..."Dean frowned.
"I can...get you both a soda from that machine over there?" Geraldine said, stepping into their line of view, surprising herself.
"Hey, whoa! Geraldine, are you okay?!" Sam looked up from cutting his chicken in half, surprised to see a girl from their school. Geraldine was surprised he knew her name since he never spoke to anyone.
"Did somebody...do something to you? Your clothes...Who am I killing and do you need a doctor?"Dean looked like he'd be sick as he looked her up and down.
"No, no! Not like that... It's...It was just my dick boyfriend being himself, but we broke up so it's fine...um...you think you want a soda? I could go for one..." She held up her coin purse.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Sam frowned.
"I'm fine...I just saw the light I guess. Wait one sec..."She held her finger and scurried to the soda machine. Dean looked at Sam brows raised in wonder.
She came back with two large bottles of Coca-Colas for Sam and Dean and a little Diet Pepsi for herself.
"Thanks!"The brothers cried in unison, as eager as baby birds brought a worm when she placed them in her hands. They smiled at each other. For Geraldine this was a simple gesture of friendship, but for the Winchester brothers it was Christmas morning. No one knew whether to laugh or weep.
Things simmered to a silence. Then, Sam looked up at Geraldine, eager to speak, unsure what to say, flicking his hair out of his eyes.
"Hey, uh...there's more of this if you want some?" Sam indicated some slices of chicken.
"Yeah, and once you blow the gravel off of it, it's extra nutritious..."Dean smirked a little bit, showing he knew how lame their situation was as he dusted his tortilla clean and smiled painfully.
"No, I...um...I'm the one who threw it away. I already ate."She smiled at them, a bit guilty.
The two boys nodded at her and tucked into each the equal half of their food. She watched them eat licking their fingers, eyes closed in relief. Sam was even getting a bit teary-eyed, but acted as if he wasn't, sipping the soda quietly and looking off so they wouldn't notice. They did notice, and Dean and Geraldine exchanged a knowing look, but they didn't say anything to him about it.
"You know...you guys? The school throws away a god-awful load of food. Sam, if you want...I can help smuggling the garbage before they lock it up? I mean, it's fresh food and they're just throwing it away every day..."Geraldine said awkwardly.
Sam looked up laughing. He had a piece of cilantro hanging from the edge of his mouth by its stem and for one second Geraldine realized the shy kid from school was pretty cute.
"Hell yeah, you know I'm down to help with that! School lunches are great...Lunch ladies now, that's another thing...That's like the last level of Doom kind of thing...but we'll deal with that when it comes..."Dean took a long swig of his soda, smiling around the bottle. Today, at least, he and Sam had eaten. Today was a good day.
Sam studied Geraldine's face.
"Thank you..."He nodded. She was about to say something else.
"Dude! Check it...quick...front me some of the lettuce!" Dean sat up attentive. Sam looked over. A little mouse had crept innocently into the alley. Normally that would have startled Geraldine, but the way Dean smiled at it made her think of it as it was a dog or cat. For this starving boy living in the shambles of their city, the mouse was as much his friend as it was to Cinderella.
Sam sniffed back a laugh and handed Dean some lettuce. Dean made it mouse bite sized strips and clicked at the little guy. Geraldine saw fairytales in his eyes as he held his own rare food out to the little creature, smiling broadly as the mouse accepted it.
"Hey, little man...we have leftovers, huh? Scored really big today..."Dean whispered as the mouse shyly nibbled the leaf pieces.
Dean laughed and looked at Geraldine. Then, his face took on a serious expression, concerned now more with her safety than his impending starvation and homelessness.
"So, let's walk her home, Sammy, because this is a skeeve part of town at night."
Geraldine wondered the rest of the way back to a cab first and then her house if these two brothers were men, or mice, or angels...