d a l t o n *
This week is going to be very hard for me; my best friend, Mickey, is a senior and is graduating on Friday evening. I'm not ready for him to graduate and go off to college, especially because there's something that I really need to tell him, but I don't know that I'll find the courage to do so...
"Hey, D," Mickey says, sitting beside me on the park bench after school. Since it's the Senior's last week most of them are on their senior trip, but for some reason, Mickey didn't go with them, so he's hanging around town.
"Hey, Mick," I say, looking up at him as he sits down beside me.
'Now,' I tell myself. 'Tell him now, it's a perfect time!'
But of course, do I actually say anything? Nope.
"Excited for Friday?" I ask him, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"Yeah, but I'm a little nervous, too, I don't really know why..." he says, looking at me.
"I think that's normal, I mean, you're leaving high school and moving on to college..." I trail off, feeling a pang of sadness.
"Yeah, well anyway, wanna go to Jack's tonight?" He asks me, gratefully changing the subject. 'Jack's' is a local diner here in town that we often go to. Most of the time when we walk in, Jack yells our names out and asks if we want our usuals.
"Yeah,"
"Dalton! Mickey!" Rings out Jack's familiar voice once we've entered the diner.
"Hey, Jack!" We both call out at the same time, drawing some stares from other customers.
"Your usuals?"
Both Mickey and I nod and take our normal seat at our normal two-seater booth. Our normal waitress, Nia, walks over to our table with my Pepsi and Mickey's Mug Root Beer in her hands.
"Hello boys!" she says sweetly, looking from Mickey to me. "Friday's the big day, huh?"
"Yep, yep it is..." Mickey says, trailing off. "Hey, if you can get that warden back there to let you off, I'd love for you to be there," Mickey and I have called Jack 'the warden' for pretty much ever.
Nia smiles her famous smile and laughs a little. "I'll see what I can do,"
Nia is a beautiful woman, who works as much as she can at the diner to provide for her two children as a single mother; she's been working at the diner since Mickey and I were in third grade, and back then she was a high school student trying to get money to go to college. She picked up an extra job, and by 19, she was pregnant and the father was gone, though she didn't let this get her down, she worked harder, picking up extra shifts and making enough money to move into her own house. A few years after Nia had her first child, she got pregnant again, by the same man after he promised her he'd be there for her...he left again, and although he's tried to get her back many times, she refuses because she knows she doesn't need a man.
After Mickey and I have eaten and paid, we leave the diner and head down the street. We don't exactly know where we're going, we're just walking. We walked to the diner together since it's so close to both of our houses. Maybe now---maybe I should tell him now...
Mickey looks at his watch and sees it's 7:30.
"We should go ahead and go home, you have school tomorrow..." he says. "I'll walk you home,"
I nod, losing all the courage, not that I had it anyway, to tell him.
Tuesday morning, I drag myself out of bed, dressing slowly and heading downstairs for a quick breakfast of peanut butter toast and an apple.
"Good morning, sweetie!" Mom says as I walk into the kitchen. "I made you breakfast this morning, you have a little extra time."
"I do?" I ask her, feeling confused. Generally, I either walk or take my car.
"Yes, you do, I'm driving you to school today, I need to speak with Principal Higgins,"
I look up as I sit down in front of the plate with scrambled eggs, bacon, a waffle, and orange slices. She sits a cup of milk in front of me.
"You didn't do anything, I just need to talk to him about something," she adds, seeing the horrified, and probably scared, expression on my face.
I walk into the school before Mom even gets out, her having told me to go ahead. I never asked her what she was going to talk to him about because I knew she wouldn't tell me. I walk through the hallway, to my locker, put my combination in and put my stuff away. I head to my first-period class early, English. Carly, one of my friends, slides into the seat behind me.
"Good morning," she says breathlessly.
"What did you do? Run a marathon?" I ask her.
"No, I ran to class,"
"...Why?"
"Because Martin was chasing me."
"Why?"
"I don't know. He's my little brother, I don't know why he does the things that he does."
