Breaking Down Your Walls

Chapter 7

Mike

Many things in life happen for whatever reason. Sometimes they affect us negatively, others positively; yet, more often than less, it is a matter of choice on the quality of their impact.

Today was a day like that for me. Only for me, I didn't care about the impact it would have. I was done with sugarcoating things or being the quiet guy. To most people, being the good guy often meant to be very polite and thoughtful, without much regard to their own self. So, for me, today was the day I stopped being a good guy for others primarily; it was time to be a good guy for myself.

School started weirdly positively. I met a few hateful glares from some ignorant freshmen at the courtyard of the school. My hand gripped automatically to a fist. I expected to hear a snide comment on my thug appearance.

Suddenly, those hateful gazes turned into fearful ones looking at someone behind me.

'What's up, broski?'

I turned around, seeing Sam, George and Cendric smirking at me as Sam offered me a hot coffee in a disposable cup.

I smiled at them and took the coffee 'thanks' I mumbled and took a sip. It was not very sweet but it was very flavorful. 'Where did you get this?'

'The Cult of Coffee' George answered as he took a sip of his own coffee 'best blend I tasted in two years.'

'You started drinking coffee last year' Cendric reminded him with a loud whisper, which made me chuckle and George smacked Cendric's shoulder.

'Idiot, you embarrass me!'

I laughed at that and they soon laughed too.

'Wanna join us? We were about to go on the smoking area and chill. Bell's ringing in like thirty minutes, so we got time' Sam said smoothly.

I looked at them closely 'do you mean it?'

'We have no reason to ambush you if that's what you-'

'No!' I almost shouted 'It's just, uhm' my voice went soft and low so that he was the only one who heard me 'I really appreciate it. With all this crap going on about me.'

Sam nodded understandingly while the other two cocked their heads to Sam.

'His business' Sam said sternly and the other two almost immediately lost interest in what Sam knew about me and they didn't.

'I will tell you some other time. I promise' I said firmly.

After this chat, we went to the smoking area. They asked me if I smoked, to which I answered negatively. My father and brother were smokers and I always hated it. I have tried to smoke tobacco once and it wasn't a nice experience. Smoking a shisha though, with a nice apple flavor, that was incredible. I had smoked apple flavored shisha once and it was light, airy and flavorful. When I shared this detail with them, Sam almost spat his coffee out.

'Dude, most people we know at school think that shisha is used for illegal substances.'

'Most people are idiots; fearing the unknown and using that fear to make a prejudice appear, oldest trick for crowd control. Was this before or after some assholes took pictures of you guys in a shisha house? That people started describing you as a gang?'

The three of them looked at me surprised 'How did you know about that?' George asked.

'Some idiot last year was trying to make you guys look bad because Sam here wanted to be the music club's president. So of course, his competition found a way to badmouth him and make him lose the elections. Patching you with the thug group tag was effective, right?'