Hope and Dreams part 2
#2 of h+D
Issac woke up early to get to the fridge before his mother. He quickly emptied half the remaining vodka from each bottle, and added water. Then leaving the beer in the cupboards to get warm and disgusting, he topped it off with opening the whiskey and tipping the bottle over on the counter, ensuring she would complain her way away from the drinks and hopefully get to work.
It's sad that these were the little things he did for his mom. He didn't help wash dishes when it wasn't his night, he didn't laugh at her jokes or do her laundry when work was busy, no he just made sure she didn't get too drunk by 9am, when she had to be at work. He sighed heavily and got his bag for school, a bagel in hand, and money for the coffee place down the street.
It was a chilly October mourning, so a jacket and a scarf helped a little. Issac arrived at Lucky Bean Coffee Shopè and ordered his usual, adding two creams and a sugar. He got one of the free butters and a knife to butter his bagel and sat at one of the cafes leather seats, calling the gym. His car had been towed that morning, they had dumped it at the only car pound in town.
Issac had to laugh at the sadness of the situation, it would be better there then broken with him. He finished the bagel and left for the bus stop. It wouldn't be the first time this year he needed to take the bus. Thats when Vincent pulled up.
He was in a convertible this time with a group of other people Issac didn't know. They all looked groggily at him, but Issac still saw the contempt in their eyes.
"Need a ride man?" Vincent asked from the passenger seat.
The driver actually openly complained, and the others rolled their eyes.
"You're too nice man!" the wolf muttered loudly enough for Issac to hear.
Issac would have loved a ride, but those people didn't like him as it was and this would only make it worse.
"Nah, there's no room. Thanks though". He said walking more quickly to get away.
"You sure?" Vincent asked confused.
"He said no man, let's go". The driver pushed, jumping forward a little with the car. Vincent sat back in his seat, no longer hanging from the window, and they drove away, his eyes watching the dog for a while as they frove.
Issac sighed again that morning, he thought it had to be a record, three sighs in under an hour. The bus rolled up, nearly empty of anyone in his grade, not that it mattered. Issac sat up front, and started hearing the words 'gay' and 'fag' being thrown around. Issac put his headphones in his ears, and blasted his music. Sighing a fourth time, if only on the inside.
School went normally. He took a test, listened to a lecture, and got pushed into the lockers by the basketball team. They all gave him one shove, hit his books to the ground and walked away laughing.
"Are you ok?!" asked his friend Trina, helping him up and to collect his things. She was a raccoon, but tall and thin and hot as hell. "You can't let them do that."
"I know." Issac said, "but if I fight, then I lose AND then they continue anyway."
He walked her to her class, ending their talk with a hug and receiving a "Good luck."
Issac had to laugh at that. Good luck had nothing to do with his life, his life was a continuing train of bad luck. But, he needed to be three classes down do standing around lollygagging wasn't getting him anywhere.
Walking into the last period of the day is always an anticipating moment. Only 40 minutes to go, Mr. Hopper was an old, might as well be blind, man. He gave easy tests, good grades, and never knew, or cared when kids texted, talked or broke the rules in general in his class. So when Issac got a text, he immediately flipped open his phone and read it.
It was Vincent, asking if he still wanted a ride. Issac replied yes, if the car wasn't full again.
That's when Issac found out Vincent wasn't a short texter. He replied in a paragraph, asking why Issac hadn't gotten in the car?. Then apologized for it and somehow incorporated that Issac should just stay in the library until 5pm, when practice and his other things ended, all wrapped together with no shortened words, abbreviations, numbers or symbols.
Issac returned, asking what the other things were?, but didn't get a reply.
Mr. Hopper gave them all a brief assignment, reading 20 pages and (no joke) think about the relationship between the two characters in the story and how its changed. Not write a paragraph, just think about it. Issac rolled his eyes with a smile and packed up his things. The bell rang not a moment later.
Issac waited until the crowd of over eager students made it through the door before leaving himself. He then walked to his locker, and hung with his girlfriends until they left. Joking with them, he told them he had something to do, but only that it involved a member of the football team and they didn't know what. They all had decent guesses, tutoring, revenge, working out, hell maybe even sarcasm. But Issac smiled to himself, they would never seriously guess who he was meeting.
So Issac went to the library as instructed, finishing all his work, and had a half hour to just relax.
Vincent appeared out of nowhere, a red hoodie on, and jeans. He teased Issac, lifting him up, in his chair with both hands from behind, and doing crunches with the weight. Issac laughed quietly, actually panicking inside, trying not to fall until the librarian kicked them out.
"Your ridiculous." Issac said, following the wall of fur. "So strong."
"You don't weigh that much dude." he replied "Besides," he flexed with a goofy smile. "Are you surprised?"
Issac laughed at Vincent's stupid jokes all the way to the car. It was the same one from yesterday, but not from that morning.
"Weren't you in a convertible?" He asked getting in.
"Yeah, my sister needed the car to get hours for her license, permit and stuff." Vincent said, shoving his books in back, and putting his football stuff in the trunk."Uhh, how's your car?"
"In the car pound," he said. "or whatever it is called where your towed car gets dumped." Issac sat up, thinking a little off. "Vincent, are we friends?"
Vincent gave him a look, "I thought so, why?"
"Well that's just it, why?" Issac said, hoping he didn't knock the bear to his senses. "None of your friends like me much, and we literally started talking to each other yesterday, for like ten minutes."
Vincent pulled out of the parking lot.
"Well I thought it was enough time." He replied with a bit of frankness, "Are you ok?. You seem jumpy."
Vincent was very calm about it all, like it just happened all the time, and maybe to him it did.
"I'm fine, I just don't get why you would see me as a friend. Mr. Football star and hotshot." Issac wasn't being a jerk about it, he just said it in a calm level voice.
"Your cool." Vincent said after a pause. "We click. We like the same music, hate the same stuff, little skinny guy, big fat guy kind of thing." He did a little dance then to make Issac laugh, and it worked.
"SEE! We do click."
The car was silent for a while, until Vincent put their songs on. They screamed them out together until they hit the gym.