Ci vediamo

5. Living a dream

I only have one class on Tuesdays and it's in the late afternoon so unless I have an assignment to hand in, I usually don't go to the University until after lunch. I woke up early and prepared breakfast and lunch since I was going out for a while. After having breakfast, I carried my stereo and water bottle to my 'address', the steps of an abandoned house.

I sang and danced and and was having fun trying to forget all my troubles especially since it had been a few weeks since I last "serenaded passersby".

"Yo SP! Look who it is! The fag of the streets!"

I stopped in my tracks on hearing the slur. That wasn't the issue though. With this town full of all kinds of degenerates, you'd think 'fags' wouldn't be an issue. The problem here was "SP" or "Espy". That's what everyone 'close' to him called La Espada.

I turned around to face the three guys heading towards me, one of whom had just called me a homophobic slur and the other was the bane of my existence.

I watched in confusion as La Espada kicked his friend in the abdomen... hard!
"This is a civilized society. Either get with the program or go back to the caves! Don't ever use slurs around me EVER again! Got it?" He added.

His friend who was crouching on the ground visibly in pain nodded vigorously.
La Espada looked at me with a cold gaze that I was already used to and walked past me without another word.

"What were you thinking you fool? You know SP doesn't entertain talk like that around him!" The other friend said lightly kicking the homophobe on the ground and immediately ran after La Espada like a good dog.

I watched him enter a grocery store, leaving his friend outside and I followed him inside.

"Hey asshole!"

He turned around with a clenched fist.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it! I don't associate with losers so run along." He said coldly.

"I seem to be taking a lot of your time for someone you supposedly find insignificant! Listen, I know you don't give a shit about anyone but yourself and that bitch Sister of yours but stay away from my house. You sent your lackeys and they destroyed my property. If it's me you were looking for, here I am!"

He stepped towards me with a menacing glare and he whispered something in my ear; "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be worm food. Be careful not to let that confidence of yours turn into hubris because next time, I may not be as civilized."

I froze and felt a shiver run down my spine at his ice cold words. He walked away from me and I turned back, walking out of the store at a speed of lightening. I picked my stereo and ran until I was safe inside Care's apartment! What was I thinking?

I lay on the sofa, my mind racing. Why had he defended me? Yes, he'd never called me any slurs but his friends always did... in his absence. Right.
Hypocrite! What's the point in punishing someone for saying out loud what he was already thinking and then continuing to associate with them? And why am I expecting the devil's spawn to have any morals?

I put that unpleasantness out of my head, had lunch and left for University an hour earlier than previously intended.

Determined not to let the morning's events ruin my mood, I went to one of our favorite meet up places. A karaoke bar/restaurant. Karaoke night was always on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we always made sure to go on any other days but those two! I went early because I don't like crowds and the place was almost empty in the early evenings of Karaoke nights!

I sat at a booth alone wearing a hoodie and I placed my order.
Another customer walked in and came to my booth despite the place being almost empty.