Chapter 2

Chapter 2

There I stood over the unconscious skater; my knuckles and forehead bleeding, arms covered in blood, and panting. I don’t know exactly what just happened but there he was, lying like a corpse with my shoe print still on his face. Who knew that sticking up for others when cause this much chaos in my life. I just wanted things to be back to normal. That’s when I remembered the few Goths sitting on the ground behind me. They all had their mouths hanging slightly open and the look on their faces said something like ‘what the hell is this guy going to do next’. I completely forgot that they were there the whole time during the fight. I decided that it might be a good idea to leave before someone came and arrested me. I turned to start walking home when one of the Gothic kids stopped me.
“Thank you for standing up for us.” he said with a scared, yet trusting look on his face.
He seemed very twitchy and nervous, like he wasn’t sure if I would high five him or kick him in the chest. Either way I tried to be friendly.
“No problem, they deserved it anyways. I can’t stand it when people like them pick on others for no reason. I mean you didn’t do anything to them.”
“Well, you looked really cool out there. You gave those assholes a real beating. You must’ve taken karate or something like that right?” he asked as I looked at him with sympathy and confusion.
I couldn’t help but wonder why he was talking to me? Was he trying to thank me or something? Or was he just afraid and didn’t want me to hurt him to?
“No I didn’t actually. I haven’t had a day of training ever in my life. In fact I hate fighting. There’s no point in hurting others for your own gain. That’s why I feel kind of bad for punching that one in the first place.”
“Really? Well they deserved it for picking on us. I’m just glad someone finally did something about it. But are you sure you’re not a fighter?” he asked with a puzzled look.
“Yeah, I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m just good at fighting. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been strong, just naturally strong. And I never knew what to do with it, until now.”
“I don’t understand why you’re not like those skaters. I mean you seem to be a pretty cool guy and very strong. Normally people like you are real popular and real douche bags. Why are you so different?”
“Honestly no one ever really liked me. I’ve always been an outcast that no one wants to be around.”
“Aw, that sucks, why do people hate you so much? It’s not like you go around fighting people all the time, right?”
“Yeah, I never really understood why. Either because of my parents’ reputation or me just being different; I don’t really know. There has just always been this thing that makes it easy for people to hate me. I’ve always felt like… but, yeah, don’t even bother mentioning me helping you. It would probably just give people another reason to make fun of me.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to. God knows, I don’t want you mad at me. But, hey, what’s your name anyways?” he asked me as I started to leave.
“My name’s Drake, Drake Kalpos, and I never got your name either?”
“Well my name’s Matthew Roderick, but you can call me Craven. In fact, don’t call me anything other than Craven.”
“Okay Craven. Well I guess I’ll see you later then. I got to get home before my mom grounds me for being late.”
“All right, see you later Drake! And thanks again!” Craven yelled as I started to run home.
I always liked running better than walking. Walking kind of felt like not moving to me, or if I was moving it wasn’t anywhere near fast enough. But as I ran home through the puddles getting the bottoms of my pants wet I thought about how weird today was. I mean, these sorts of things never really happen to me. I got in a fight, I got knocked out kind of for the first time, and I talked to someone for once without them being mad at me or making fun of me. It felt good, in a way, that all of this happened. Like things might actually get better from now on. But there was also another feeling that I couldn’t shake. It felt like, just by meeting Craven, that my whole life was about to change. But then I remembered that I had to get home soon or mom would ground me. So I ran faster home as little drops of blood fell from my knuckles and disappeared into the water where they vanished like the whole thing never happened.
            But, unfortunately, I got home three minutes late and my mom grounded me for three days. That was her rule, one day of grounding for every minute late. She may have been a crappy mom but she was still a strict mom. Sometimes I wondered why she even cared. And dad wouldn’t get home ‘til later that night; maybe not even ‘til morning. I barely even saw him anymore. He would always spend way too much time gambling. He gambled almost the entire money mom earned. Other kids’ parents say he went crazy working out in the Nevada desert for too long and brain damage from heat stroke is what caused his gambling problem. But if you ask me, he was just always trying to win that big jackpot so that mom wouldn’t have to work anymore and I could go to a good school. He just cared too much for us and didn’t know what else to do. After he lost his job things got a lot harder for us. Even though I was an only child and there weren’t a lot of us living in the house, mom’s money started getting really thin as the weeks went by. It’s been a few years since dad lost his job and we had to move into this crappy house, but we still managed to keep living on what we had. It was hard, but then again, so was everything else in my life.
But I went to bed early with barely any dinner, there was barely anything to eat around here seeing as mom was the only one bringing home any money these days. I never understood why my mom stayed with him through it all. When I asked her she would always say that she loved dad more than anything else on this earth. Even though he wasn’t the way he used to be he was still the man she fell in love with and had given her heart to. She said she would stay with him no matter what. And I could somehow always tell she wasn’t lying. She had this look on her face that told me so. I had crappy parents, that’s a given, but still I always hoped I could find a love like that someday. It was the only reason I didn’t kill myself. But even though I went to bed early I couldn’t sleep. It was the same thing every night. I would fall asleep early after a long day and then I would start having nightmares. I’d have horrific nightmares of ancient battles, plagues and most of all, death. Someone always died in my dreams. I never had I good dream or at least one that I could remember anyways. The closest thing I ever had to a good dream was the week I didn’t dream at all. But after I’d wake up with my head sweating and my body burning I’d stay up for hours at a time writing my poems. They were the only thing I could look to when I was lonely or afraid, but that night was pretty basic. I woke up after having nightmares of people being ripped in half and eaten alive. Their blood would lash out and hit me in the eyes and cover my whole body in a thick red coat. And the hellish dogs that were eating them would sometimes stare at me with a murderous gaze and snarl at me, as if challenging me to come any closer. Then they would just return to devouring the people they had just killed. The worst part about it, which is what woke me up, was that I could still hear the people screaming as they were being eaten. Some were old, some young, but they all screamed in pain the same way. But I was able to make it through the night, even though the memory of it gave me chills.
             The next few days at school were pretty much the same as every other day. But then something happened Friday that never happened before, but I still liked it. I was walking through the halls to go to lunch when I heard Craven yelling at me to wait for him. I stopped and turned around to see if I was imagining things. But nope, there he was, frantically dodging through the people in the halls. It was actually really strange seeing as no one usually talks to me. “Hey, wait up!” he yelled after running to catch up with me. I always walked fast for no reason. Another thing I didn’t understand.
“Hey you’re Drake right?” he asked while panting for breath.
“Yeah, I’m surprised you remembered me. How you been Craven? Those skaters aren’t still bothering you, are they?”
“No, actually, they haven’t come near me since you beat the crap out of them. I guess they thought that you and me were tight friends or something like that.” he said while messing with the chains on his pants.
“Wow really? Don’t they know I don’t have any friends? But I guess its better that they’re not bothering you anymore. So what have you been up to lately?”
This all felt really weird. I never talked with anyone, and here I was talking to this guy as if me and him were friends or something. It felt pretty good and things seemed a little bit warmer when I was talking to him. But I would never let him know that. He’d probably think I was gay or something.
“Well I guess we are kind of friends now. I mean we hang out, sort of. And we know each other’s names.” he said now messing with this glow stick he pulled out of his pocket.
He didn’t seem to be paying attention to me. He seemed more interested with anything he could get his hands on. But I didn’t care; just talking to him was good enough for me. I didn’t feel so excluded around him. It felt like he might actually accept me for who I was.
“I guess so.” I said with an uneasy voice.
Now I was really confused. Normally people couldn’t stand to be near me. I was always so positive and cheerful and bright that people got really pissed when I was around. I was also really smart, even though I was failing. I understood all the work, but I always felt like I should be doing something else, something more important.
But now we were in the lunch room sitting down with other Goths and just chilling. Of course, I was the lightest person at the table, wearing all white, except my hair which was the darkest black you could imagine. I never really understood why I wore all white. But my guess was that it make being in the dark not so bad.
But anyways, I was just sitting there enjoying my hamburger when Craven asks me, “Hey, Drake, do you want to go to a rave tomorrow?”
I almost choked on my burger because of the shock it gave me. I punched myself in the chest a few times so I could breathe.
“What?” I asked after clearing my throat.
“Yeah, my other friend can’t make it because he broke his leg and now I have an extra pass. I was wondering, if you’re not doing anything --”
“Yes I’ll go!” I shouted before he could finish his sentence.
This time he was the one surprised. I answered so fast I guess he thought it was strange. But I guess I was just excited. I had never been asked to go anywhere before, by anyone. Well, except my mom when she was going to the grocery store and that was only because she needed my help carrying groceries.
“Well, great then. It’s tomorrow night at nine. I’ll right down the directions to get there for you so you don’t get lost. Oh, and by the way, it’s a rave so make sure you bring glow sticks or you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. I really don’t want to look like the idiot who brought an outsider.”
Then he pulled out a sharpie and wrote down the directions on a napkin. This was great I was actually getting invited to somewhere for the first time ever.
“Thank you very much!” I said while trying not to smile.
“No problem. It’s the least I could do after you stood up for us the other day.” Then he handed me the directions to the rave right as the bell rang to signal lunch was over. “I’ll see you after school!” Craven yelled as the rush started.
“No, you’ll see me tomorrow. I have free period on Fridays after lunch so I can get out of here earlier!” I yelled so he could hear me over all the noise.
“Oh man, you suck! Oh well, see you later!” and that was the last I heard before I started running out of the building home.
It was the best day I ever had at school. As I ran home in a joyful mood it slowly started to fade away. The reality set in as I realized that I didn’t own any glow sticks and I knew my mom wouldn’t give me any money. And I knew I couldn’t show up without them. I didn’t want to embarrass my new and only friend. He’d probably get mad at me and not want to talk to me anymore. I had to find some way to get them. Then, I don’t know why, but the thought of stealing them came into my head. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but it might be the only choice.