Losers Never Win

Chapter 12

The next day Cain was sitting on the porch steps of his group home. He had gotten suspended for five days because of the fight from yesterday. Of course that didn’t bother him, he was just upset that he wouldn’t be able to spend time with Serena.

            Letting out a deep sigh Cain thought back to the other day, dwelling on the incident at lunch. To be honest he wasn’t over the situation, and planned to settle the score the moment he got back to school. Had it not been for the campus security he would have torn through Jake and his friends; at least that's what he thought.

            “Hey,” someone said, breaking Cain from his daze. He looked up and spotted Serena standing with her book bag on.

            “What up?” he replied, sounding slightly down.

            “Nothin’,” Serena took a seat next him on the steps.

            “Why you aint at school?” Cain asked. It was lunchtime after all.

            “I was, I just left early,” she admitted. “Really, I didn’t want to go to school at all.”

            “I feel you,” Cain replied. He sat up straighter and stretched his arms out. “You hungry?”

            “Kind of,” Serena nodded.

            “I know a lil spot that got some good food,” Cain informed. “You down?” Serena answered Cain’s question with a smile.

            “Sure!” she exclaimed. “I just hope they’re not too pricey.”

            “Don’t worry bout that,” Cain told her. He got on his feet and headed down the sidewalk with Serena behind him. “It aint too far from here. Just around this corner.” They walked up the block to a place called ‘BB-Grill’. Cain held the door for Serena as they went inside. “What you want?” he asked, staring at the menu.  

            “Umm…” Serena studied the various types of meals they had and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said in a childish manner.

            “You eat burgers right?” Cain questioned, watching her nod her head. “Then get that number two. It’s one of my favorites.”

            “Okay,” she agreed. The cashier whipped out a pencil and pad ready to take her order. “Umm, can I get the number two… with uh, Sprite please.” she nervously told the worker.

            “Ight, and you?” The cashier turned her gaze to Cain.

            “I want the number five,” he said, pulling his wallet from his jean pocket. Serena realized Cain was going to pay for her meal and blushed on the inside. She unknowingly leaned closer to him, brushing his shoulder. Cain felt the warmth of Serena’s body and glanced at her, smiling unintentionally. “Aye, you can find us a seat?”

            “Y-yea,” Serena nodded. She searched the small restaurant for a spot to eat. On the far side of the room was a table with two chairs by the window, which was perfect. Serena briskly made her way over and took a seat. When Cain came over carrying their food, she smiled brightly. He passed Serena her drink and sat down in front of her. Cain wasted no time and ripped the wrapper from his burger, taking a mouth size bite. Serena giggled at his appetite. “I see someone’s hungry.”

            “Hell yea,” Cain replied, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “I’ll try and be as civilized as possible,” he joked.

            “Don’t worry, I won’t judge,” Serena picked up her burger and bit a small piece off. She looked up while chewing her food and saw Jennifer Hudson on TV singing. The movie playing was ‘Dream Girls’. “I love this movie!” she pointed to the TV screen behind Cain.

            He glanced over his shoulder and continued to eat. “I aint neva’ see it before,” he admitted.

            “What!” Serena exclaimed. “I’ve seen both versions, the new and old one. The new one is better to me though. I love Jenifer Hudson, she’s my favorite singer.”

            “For real?” Cain asked, stuffing a hand full of fries in his mouth. “I aint never really heard her sing before.” Serena’s eyes flew open to his response.

            “Hold on, Imma let you hear somethin’.” she went into her book bag to find her music player. “You can’t really hear the TV, but I got that song on my Mp3.” Serena pulled the device from her bag and scrolled through her songs, finding what she searched for. “Listen to this,” she put an ear bud in Cain’s ear, letting him listen to part of song ‘You gonna love me’.

            Cain put his food down and secured the ear bud in his ear with his hand. “Yea she can sing,” He nodded, hearing Jennifer Hudson hit different levels of notes.

            “She can do more than sing,” Serena added. “Like, when I was lil, I use to want to be a singer. And I wanted to sing just like her.” She stopped talking, thinking about her childhood. “But that was just a stupid dream I use to have.” Serena seemed slightly down about what she said, but brushed it off and smiled at Cain.

            “Can you sing?” Cain asked, eating his food again.

            She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe…”

            “Only one way to find out,” he said, grinning at her.

            “No, way. I’m not about to sing in here,” Serena refused.

            “Who says you gotta do it here?”

            “I’m not singing at all,” she replied.

            Cain nudged her foot with his own. “Not even for me?” he wondered.

             Serena took a deep breath and sighed. “For you… I guess I could make an exception.” Cain smiled, showing his crooked teeth. “But under one condition,” The smile dropped off his face and he raised an eyebrow. “You sing for me first.”

            The two broke into laughter. “Yea, we’ll see about that.” Cain responded. Serena stopped laughing, but continued to smile. It’s been a long time since she had this much fun, and she didn’t want it end. Because there’s no telling if it will ever happen again.