The Deal

Deals & Apologies

I walked up to the front porch and knocked on the door with shaking hands. If you're wondering why I'm so nervous, it's because of the last encounter I had with Josh...

Flashback:

*Imagine Josh's voice like scary from the perspective of an immature child's perspective during this whole conversation*

It was freshman year and I was fooling around with my friends, as most teenage boys do. I had a knack for trouble, of course not as serious as now, more like sticking my nose where it didn't belong and talking too much for my own good. Anyway, I had literally run into Josh, who was one of the best wrestlers on the school's team, and that's saying a lot considering we had one of the best teams in the area. Anyway, it was a scrawny freshman messing with a short tempered senior. You can probably see how this quickly ended badly.

"Watch it loser!"

"Shut up dumbhead."

"What'd you say to me?"

"N-nothing."

"I'm Josh. Who are you?"

"Tyler."

"Tyler, huh? You by any chance Tyler Stevens? Are you the one that's been messing with my sister?!"

"That depends. Who the hell's your sister. Pretty sure I wouldn't mess with your sister..."

"Lexi. Lexi Adams."

Uh oh. I'm in deep shit now, I thought to myself.

"Uh...There's a slight possibility we were messing with her. To be fair none of us thought a weirdo like her  would be your sister."

"You calling my sister a weirdo?"

"Uh..."

"So you'd do that if she wasn't my sister without a care in the world?"

"Uh..."

"Well I've got news for you kid. This isn't middle school where you make a girl cry and no one gives a shit. This is high school. You're at the bottom of the food chain. Be careful who you mess with because if you think I'm tough, know that there are plenty of other guys in this world who wouldn't hesitate to beat your ass up if you mess with their little sister. Because your new around here, I'm gonna let you off with a warning. But know that if  this happens again, you're dead. Understood?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"I'm not the one you need to be apologizing to. It's up to you what you do next."

From that day, I learned my lesson on messing with people and decided to stick to disrespecting teachers and other authority figures instead of my peers. Yeah it sounds bad, but no one gets hurt. It's all good. Anyway, I'm a little worried about getting beat up considering this is strike two. I went up to the door, and knocked. A guy I didn't recognize opened the door.

"Hello. Can I help you?"

"Hi. Is Lexi home?"

"Yeah. But she's busy. What can I do for you buddy?"

"I'm Tyler. I had to tutor her today... She left her phone in my car and I came by to return it," I spoke, giving the phone to him.

"Ah. So you're the idiot that made her cry. I hear you're quite the trouble maker."

"Yeah. If you don't mind me asking, who are you, how do you know Lexi, and how have I never seen you around."

"I'm Nick. I'm her brother's boyfriend."