Beware of Bad Boy

Chapter 4

"In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty." -Christopher Morley

CALEB

"Caleb! Caleb! Come play with me!" Ugh! What time was it? The break of dawn? Why was this midget bugging me so early on a Saturday morning? I'd be having a talk with my little stepbrother about there being a time for play and a time for sleep.

I lifted my head from the pillow and growled, "Go bug your sister, runt. It's too early to open my eyes."

"I can't 'cause she already left. And it's not early, it's late. I already ate breakfast and lunch."  Chance took it upon himself to start dragging my blanket away.

I lifted my head to see my alarm clock, it was past twelve. That wasn't too early for a Saturday, so I decided to get up. I was supposed to hang out with my friend, Dante, today. He'd be pissed if I flaked out on him.

Dante was like a brother to me. We'd been best friends since the third grade when we'd both liked the same girl and used to get into fights over her. It drove the teacher and our parents crazy. Halfway through the school year, the girl moved away and we called a truce. We'd been best friends ever since. I often ate at their house because, unlike my Italian mother who was supposed to like cooking, Dantes mom was a genius in the kitchen.

I took a shower, dressed in something I could also go out in tonight and went downstairs. Going into the kitchen first, I grabbed a Gatorade and one of Chance's Lunchables from the fridge. My dad was on the couch watching ESPN. Julie was over by the shrine to Gianna, dusting the pictures and trophies, making them shine.

Catching my dad's attention, I told him, "Hey, dad, I'm driving down to Denver to hang out with Dante. I might be home tonight, or I might spend the night at mom's."

"Oh, Dante, haven't seen him in awhile. Tell him I said hello and remember it's a fresh start, son," my dad replied. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be a good little boy. Scout's honor." That was funny, since they kicked me out of the boy scouts. So not my fault. My parents were pissed, but more embarrassed than anything else.

Speeding out of the neighborhood, I saw an old man throw me a mean look. There went the neighborhood with Caleb Morrison moving in. I put on The Strokes, tapping my wheel to the beat. Fifteen minutes later, I was out of suburbia and on I-25 heading south towards downtown. I had The White Stripes playing on my stereo now, and Jack White was singing about being friends.

I could see the skyscrapers down in the valley from this part of the freeway. As always, I thought to myself, theres my city. I couldn't imagine having to live up north in the suburbs for the next two years of high school. But if I did, the moment I got my diploma I was moving back to the city.

As the freeway started curving around Coors Field, I thought about last night. I'd really like to kick Josh's ass all over again. I didn't know what to make of Gianna anymore. The girl confused the shit out of me. She dressed all sporty-preppy, but listened to hip hop. She was a popular cheerleader, but seemed anti-social at school. She had a boyfriend, but didn't really seem to want much to do with him. And who the hell was Jared? I hadn't met any Jared at school. Why would she call him in a crisis? Whatever, the girl wasn't my problem. Let her mama worry about her. 

When I pulled in front of Dante's house, he was sitting out front on the porch steps. He saw me, opened the screen door and yelled, "Mom, Caleb's here! I'm taking off!"

Climbing into my car Dante asked, "What's up? Aw, man, turn this shit off."  The "shit" he was referring to was The Pixies. Definitely not shit. He hooked up his music and put on Drake. Dante didn't like any of the music he liked to call "white boy music." He knew I liked all music as long as it was good, so I wouldn't mind anything he put on.

Answering his question, I said, "I don't know what's up. I dont live down here anymore, remember? So, what do you have in mind for today?"

"You remember those chicks we met playing basketball at the park on Monday? We could call them up and see if they want to hang out tonight."

"Sounds good. There was this chick at my new school I was planning to hook up with, but she was so clingy I had to ditch her ass last night."

"Cool, I'll call them and see what's up." Dante pulled out his cell and whined, "Damn, I just got a text from my cuz. Forgot I promised him I'd come check out his crew tonight."

"Taye? That's okay, we can just take the girls with us."

*****

We had to park a few blocks away from the club and walk. We'd picked up Nina and Skylar, the girls we'd met on Monday, at Nina's house and I was pumped to be out in the city on a Saturday night. These ladies were hot and I could tell they'd got all done up for us. The effort was much appreciated. It seemed as though we'd already paired off. Dante was walking up ahead with Nina while I walked with my arm around Skylar. The skirt Skylar wore was so short her ass was almost hanging out and I looked forward to pulling it up later tonight and sinking in.

Finally we reached the club where Dante's cousin was performing with his crew tonight. I hadn't seen his cousin, Taye, for months, but he was pretty cool so I didn't mind coming along. Besides, he'd been bragging the last couple times I'd seen him about how awesome his crew had become. I was curious to find out if he'd been telling the truth.

We got our drink and dance on with the girls. Thankfully, they both had fake IDs, otherwise their asses would've been waiting in the car. After being there for an hour, the lights turned off and spotlights came on in the far corner of the club where there was a raised area of the floor. The crowd cheered and turned their attention that way, expecting to be entertained. Standing under the spotlights was a group of about eight people dressed in gray hoodies. With the hoods up, they also wore black basketball pants and white sneakers. Their heads were down as the music started. A remix of "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force filled the club at almost deafening levels. Three of them lifted their heads and started breaking. I had to admit it was pretty tight and I recognized Taye as one of the breakers. A Hispanic guy began popping while Taye played off his moves with ones of his own.

After a few minutes, the music changed to Aaliyah's "Try Again" and the six guys ripped off their hoodies while two girls ripped off both their hoodies and basketball pants. The guys were now wearing their basketball pants and white tank tops. The guys split up in groups of three and each group surrounded one of the girls. Each of the girls wore pink tank tops with skintight black shorts, a definite improvement.

The guys took turns popping and breaking around the girls, pretending they were competing for the girls' attention. Before one could finish dancing, another one was pushing him out of the way and standing in front of the girl he was trying to get the attention of. While all this is going on, the girls would rotate between standing there with one hand on their hip while ignoring the guys and popping back at the guy in front of them at the moment. A couple times, the girls would push a guy away then continue dancing. The guy who got pushed away from her would fall back into a dance move.

I found this performance fascinating. Definitely the best I'd ever seen. The reason it interested me was easy, because one of those girls up there was my new stepsister.