If I were a girl, I’d probably have a diary. Maybe.
Why not? I don’t have anyone to talk to who would understand what I’m going through. I don’t really have any friends. There are no cousins around, and my mom doesn’t get it at all.
Yeah, if I were a girl, I would have a diary.
What do girls say in these things anyways? How do they talk to themselves in them? I mean, how would I start? Dear diary, it’s me again, Gabe. How’s it going? Whatcha been up to?
What a stupid idea – a boy with a diary. I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I had one of those things and someone found it and actually knew what I was thinking. Nope. I’ll just keep talking to myself in my head instead.
#
It annoys my mom to no end that I haven’t made friends with anyone at school yet. She accuses me of not trying, and she’s not wrong. I DON’T want to be friends with anyone here.
When she works late, I have the house to myself and I don’t have to worry about hearing her complain about me making my own troubles by not making the effort to blend in more.
Why would I want to just blend in?
I don’t want to lose who I am just to become one of these kids who grew up in this town. Their lives seem like they suck to me. I definitely don’t want to be like them.
None of them.
There are these two new kids, though. I’m hoping that maybe I can be friends with them, but we just met. I mean, they have been sitting with me during lunch, but that’s pretty much it, and I don’t want to get my hopes up too early. I haven’t said anything to my mom yet because I know she’ll take things out of hand, probably invite their whole family over for dinner, and then set up her idea of a playdate for me and the other new guy, Jonathan.
That would be so embarrassing.
Nope. I don’t say a word and just keep up my ‘I can’t stand this place’ routine.
So when she’s home early, I make sure to leave the house as soon as I can after school. I always end up at the same place…the pizza spot. It’s the only place I know, so here I sit, for hours, bored as hell. There’s nothing else for me to do, so I just people-watch. I get one slice and a small soda and sit here watching everyone go in and out, living their dull, small-town lives.
Today, a new dude walks in and orders a large pie and then just stands near the counter, waiting. I’ve never seen him before, and for some reason, I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s the smoothest guy I’ve seen. I feel like I have to watch his every move.
The moms coming in and out of here for their regular take-out orders seem to be losing their minds when they see him – straightening their clothes, fixing their hair, hoping he notices them.
Pathetic.
If he does look up at them, he flashes this half smile that makes them giggle a little before they say hi. I can tell he’s just being polite, but he is not interested in any one of them. And I get that with everything.
I realize that I do recognize him. I saw him the first time I came here, before school started. He’s the guy in the suit who made Richy leave me alone. He didn’t even need to say anything; he just walked in, and Richy shut up when he saw him and walked away from me. It was weird but I was glad.
He looks around and sees me. I’m embarrassed because I don’t know if he saw me staring or not, so I just wave like a doofus. He flashes a smile at me and gives a head nod, and in my head I can hear him say, What’s up, to me in the coolest voice.
I look away and go back to my thoughts.
It’s Friday, and my mom has a plan for us to do stuff all weekend. Tomorrow, instead of waking me up at the crack of dawn to help clean the house, she’s waking me up at the crack of dawn so we can go to the flea market in the next town over. Then Sunday, after church, we’re going to this new restaurant for brunch that just opened up across the river. Sometimes I think she feels sorry for me not having any friends and wants to keep me busy, and then sometimes I just think I’m a fill-in for her, not having a boyfriend yet. I guess it could be worse. I don’t know how, but that’s what I tell myself to get through.
Suddenly, the door opens with such force that it bangs against the wall, and everyone in the place gives a little jump except the new guy. He just glances up for a second then goes about his business. The guy who comes in looks super angry and stomps right up to this new dude.
He’s big too. He scared the shit out of me, but my man doesn’t move or give him any attention. He just picks up a town brochure that’s stacked near the register and starts to read it.
Everyone else is watching him, though.
“So you’re the new guy fucking my wife, huh?”
The cool guy doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even look at the guy. He just keeps to his brochure.
“Hey, bud, I’m talking to you,” the big man says a little louder.
The guy looks up, and he looks pretty surprised that this guy is now in his face. “Me?” he says.
“Yeah, man, you stupid or something?”
The new guy gives a little laugh before facing him and saying, “naw, not stupid at all. Listen, you don’t know me, man, so I don’t know what you think you came in here to do, but I’m not playing this little game with you.”
“You think messing with my wife is a game?” asks the big dude.
The new guy gives an exaggerated, confused look.
“Have you seen my wife? I mean, you clearly knew who I was when you came in here, so I assume you know who my wife is, too, yeah?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen her around. What does that have to do with anything?”
The new guy puts this spooky little evil grin on his face, takes a step closer, and says, “Well, I don’t know who your wife is, but I’ve seen most of the women that live here so I’m pretty sure I know what she probably looks like, with her oversized jeans, scrunchi and stretched out mama bear t-shirt. If you’ve seen my wife, and we put both wives next to each other, I guarantee your wife wouldn’t come close. So with that said, why in the hell would I want to fuck your wife, Billy Bob?”
Lizzie walks up to the counter with a large pizza box and interrupts. “Hi Warrick. Sir, your pizza is ready. My dad says there’s no charge today if you just wanna go.”
The new guy turns his back completely to the big guy, grabs the pizza box and says with a smile, “thank you, darlin’.”
I guess Lizzie was trying to stop what looked like was about to happen, but it’s too late. The big angry guy is turning red and has already balled up his fists.
I can’t help it, my reflexes tell me to stand up, but I’m definitely not brave enough to go anywhere near them though. So I don’t know what standing up was going to do.
Just in time, two townie cops walk in.
This is around the time they normally come here for their dinner break and tonight it happens to be perfect timing.
When the new guy turns back around with his box, the angry guy raises his arm and throws the sloppiest punch I’ve ever seen. It was almost in slow motion. The new guy saw it coming a mile away and was able to take a step back before any type of contact could be made.
The new guy just says with a little laugh, “whoa there, slow it down cowboy, you do not want this fight with me.”
Wait – whoa cowboy? That’s what Samantha said to me before. I take another look at the man and realize, this is the dad. This is why Jonathan and Samantha act so cool at school. It’s because of their dad.
The first cop calls out right away, “hey Donnie, what are you doing?”
Donnie is caught off guard; he didn’t realize the policemen were there.
The other cop doesn’t say anything, but he quickly walks up to the big guy and stands between him and the new guy.
The first cop calls out, “you alright, mister?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good, officer. I’m all good,” he responds.
Asking again, the first cop says, “Donnie, what was that? Why did you just try to assault this man? You know we can take you in for this, right?” he waits for a response but gets nothing, so he asks, “you been drinking?”
The big guy still doesn’t answer, so the first cop turns to the new guy and asks him if he wants to press any charges tonight, to which the big guy lets out a noise which shows he’s just realizing what he’s done.
The new guy stares at the big guy for a moment and it’s hard to tell how this is gonna go.
Finally, Warrick says, “no officer, I don’t think that will be necessary. I won’t press charges at this time, but I would like it put on record what you just witnessed, just in case this isn’t over.”
“Will do. You can come by the station on Monday and get a copy of that if you want to, sir.” He thinks for a sec. then asks, “What’s your name?
“Warrick, but I go by War,” he says, and both officers turn to look at him. Giving him a good once over trying to assess if he’s going to be a problem with a nickname like that, but Warrick doesn’t flinch. He just flashes that cool dude smile of his and walks around them to leave.
“Enjoy the rest of your evening, officers,” he says, just before heading out the door.
The police hold Donnie at the pizza place for a long while after that. I can’t hear what they’re telling him, but all I know it must be pretty serious.
If I were Donnie, I wouldn’t mess with that new guy ever again.
The entire pizza place is buzzing. People can’t believe what they just saw.
I can’t believe that’s their dad. That makes so much sense, and I really want to be friends with the new kids now – well, definitely the brother Jonathan at least.
*Image: Police Officers Badge – StockCake created by AI
Alright come on with the rest of the story 😴 🙄 😑
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