Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (3 page)

After about ten seconds the
“crumpled heap of stupid” on the floor came to, coughing and inhaling
frantically. His teammates rushed over to help him to his feet while staring at
me with disbelief. I calmly stepped towards them and looked them all over with
a satisfied stare and said in the most polite tone,

“I’ll be in the principal’s
office. I’m sure he’ll want to speak to me now. You should help your friend
over there too because he’ll want to speak with him as well. You all have a
nice day.”

Mission accomplished. I didn’t
have another physical confrontation at Deerfield High again. But that confrontation
was never forgotten and now big stupid’s little brother Brian was the new
starting quarterback. He’s never said anything to me but he has given me some
nasty looks from time to time.

So you can understand my
hesitation, but unfortunately football was my only option. Basketball was out
of the question. I was only six feet tall back then and the entire basketball
squad was giants—the shortest guy was six foot four. I would look like a pigmy
next to those guys. Soccer wasn’t an option for me either; I just didn’t care
for it at all. So football was my only realistic option to avoid having to
watch my sister for two hours doing something I didn’t like. I’ve always been
great at the running back position because of my speed, strength, and
awareness. Our school’s running back was a scrub, so I knew the coach was
looking for a better alternative.

I was just hoping I wouldn’t
have the same kind of problems with Brian that I had with his older brother
Adam. Actually Brian was a great quarterback, light years better than his big
brother and I knew it would be better to befriend him than beat on him. He may
leave the team and the team wouldn’t win a single game without him. He was
definitely NFL-bound, no question. But I wasn’t ready to deal with him if he
wasn’t open to burying the hatchet on his brother’s ass-kicking.

Now there I sat at our kitchen
table feeling stupid because I just got played by my mom and she used Sarah to
accomplish her goal with Sarah not being aware of it.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and
it could only be one person at our door this early, Tony Martinez; my only real
friend. He just got back in town a couple of days ago after spending the summer
in Israel with his dad. His parents were separated for about three year, but
his dad tried his best to still be part of his life. My dad and his dad were
both Navy Seals and the best of friends and that’s how Tony and I met. We’ve
been friends for as long as we both could walk.

We both started martial arts
together but Tony excelled drastically. He was a natural and he picked up on
everything to perfection. Because of our friendship our instructor never
allowed us to fight against each other in any tournaments. I was grateful for
that because Tony would have handed my butt to me easily.

Tony has always been
considered attractive and he had a demeanor that just attracted attention from
those of the opposite sex. So to say he got a lot of play from the girls was an
understatement. The downside to all that sex appeal is that he started
experiencing sex early and didn’t have the maturity to handle it. So when his
parents separated he just took it to another level. Now his viewpoint towards
girls was extremely cold and uncaring. But he never pressured me to go his
route even though we were close. He would always tell me that if he could do it
all over again he would do it the way I was doing it now.

Despite his shortcomings he
was extremely intelligent and never saw anything less than an A in any of his
classes. When they tell you never judge a book by its cover, Tony was the
definition of that warning. If you didn’t know him like I did, you would expect
him to be some athlete who didn’t find academics very important. That would be
an inaccurate assumption. He was all about the grades and even though we both
played football with some of the neighborhood kids, he didn’t try out for any
sports at school. He said he’d rather perfect his pimping than his punting.
Tony was a natural comedian and can you blame him? He was an African American
teenager with a Hispanic last name so he had to develop a thick skin and he
learned quickly how to give better than he got.

I would often ask him why didn’t
he stop being such a player and he would answer, “I can’t help myself from
helping myself.” Even with all his faults he was a great friend and he never
judged me for my shortcomings and I owed it to him to give him that same
respect.

“Hey, dude! You’re cutting it
close this morning, huh?” I said.

“Aww, man, you know I got to
make an entrance.”

“Yeah, whatever, Casanova.”

“You mean blaca-nova.”

We both laughed at his crack
on himself. Sarah heard Tony’s voice from her bedroom upstairs and came running
down the stairs screaming his name like an ’N Sync fan; eyes gleaming with
excitement.

“Boy, move!”  She demanded,
shoving me out of the way. Before Tony could stop her she jumped in his arms; hugging
him tightly. 

“Tony I missed you so much. Don’t
ever leave me like that again!”

I could see he was getting
uncomfortable with her signs of affection, especially with my mom looking on.
He tried to break away but Sarah wouldn’t let go. The look on his face while my
mom gave him “the look” was priceless. I thought he was going to piss his
pants.

“Okay, okay! Man, girl, give
me six feet! Whew!”

He exhaled after she released
her grip but not before landing a big juicy kiss on his cheek.

“So you’re kissing my baby
right in front of my face!” my mom protested.

“No! No! Mrs. Storm, it wasn’t
me…it was…”

“Are trying to say my
fifteen-year-old forced you?”

“No!”

“So you
did
kiss her?”

“Oh no wait, please Mrs.
Storm!”

My mom had the sternest look
on her face but Sarah and I knew she was teasing Tony. Tony didn’t and after
she stared at him with “the look” a little longer, he got so confused he
started blaming himself.

Finally, none of us could hold
it in any longer and broke out laughing.

“Aww, you guys are wrong!”

“Dude, you fell for it, you
can’t blame us,” I said.

“Stop teasing my baby!” warned
Sarah. “This is my future husband.”

“Uhh, no I’m not!”

“Please Tony, I’m fifteen now”

“Yeah and you still got milk
behind your ears. I’m not ever getting married. So me being your ‘hubby’ is
slim to none.”

“You say that now but we’re
going to the same school this year so those rats you date are going to have to
scurry along.”

“What?”

I’d forgotten to inform Tony
prior to today that Sarah would be joining us at Deerfield High. His eyes were
bulging as he shook his head trying to make sense of what he just heard.

“Oh no, you are lying!”

“Nope.”

“You
are
going with
us?”

“Yep,” Sarah answered
teasingly, nodding her head. “So you will be seeing a lot more of me,” she said
gesturing towards her body like it was on display at an auction.

“Jesus! Take me now,” Tony
yelled while looking up at the sky. “I’m ready to come home, lord! Oh well Dick
Cheney had Bush, Whitney had Bobby and crack, and I got you huh?”

“Are you referring to me as a
drug, Tony? Well, crack is addictive so I’ll be your addiction!”

“No, that’s not what I’m
trying to say! Mrs. Storm?”

“Nope, Tony, I got nothing.”

“No help…nothing? It’s because
I’m black huh? A brother can’t get any help? Ok I guess that’s how it is then.
Come on, let’s go, stalker,” Tony teased.

“Whatever, Tony!” Sarah
complained, pushing him out the door….

D
eerfield
High, what a wonderful establishment. Whatever. It was a good school but after
being here for so long things got kinda stale and routine. Of course it wasn’t as
bad as other schools for sure but Deerfield still had its issues. Most of them
were from overcompensating spoiled brats.

“MMM, mmm, mmm…the new possibilities,”
Tony said while looking over a few girls that walked past us in the hallway.

“Calm down Tony. Down, boy!” I
teased.

Tony was already scoping out
the new female students as we walked down the hall.

“Dude whatever, it seems like
God poured a pitcher of beautiful all over this school and I’m thirsty, very
thirsty.”

Tony did have a point. There
was an abnormal amount of new students and the girls were all very attractive. There
were a few familiar faces but it seemed like we had more “freshies” this year.
A lot of the students we knew either graduated or had to leave Deerfield
because of the recession after 9/11. A lot of working families were losing
everything and could no longer afford the high property taxes and cost of
living in a place like Deerfield. We watched over the last two years five
families on our street alone lose their homes to foreclosures. Families we knew
and grew up with. It was sad, but I knew other families in less desirable areas
were suffering even more.

The world was a depressing
place to exist in. No one was living anymore. We were just getting by or
surviving. Most adults don’t believe teenagers think like this, that all we
think about is sex, video games, and social networks. And for the most part
that’s accurate; but even with all of those distractions, most of us still find
a way to be aware of the world around us. It’s called the Internet and YouTube.
We just act out in front of adults because it’s amusing to watch their
reactions to our behavior. If adults knew how much free entertainment they
provide teenagers, they would first be upset and then would likely start
ignoring us. And that would be bad, because attention is one thing almost every
teenager needs in their lives to feel important.

“Hey, Aiden. I know you are
focused and everything, but dude you need a girl for real.”

“Tony, you know…”

“Yeah bro, I know but hear me
out…”

Tony leaned towards my ear as
if he had a secret that if revealed would mean disaster.

“Just because she’s your girl
doesn’t mean you
have
to have sex with her. The thing is bro, the right
girl in your life makes you a better man, completing your circle. They force us
to grow up. I’m seventeen and you’ll be seventeen in a couple of weeks. If not
now, then when?” Tony said while giving me an assuring nod.

“Anyway I gotta bounce Aiden
but I’ll get at you during second period.”

As I watched Tony maneuver
down the crowded hall, I realized that he might have just given me the most
realistic and honest view about the relationship between men and women. But
where the hell did he get that from? I just couldn’t see that inspiration
coming from the mind of a seventeen-year-old player. At the time I only
partially understood the wisdom he bestowed on me. It wasn’t until later in my
life did I fully realize his statement. I was only sixteen and had a very
limited viewpoint on the connection between the sexes and why we needed each
other. Later that day when I asked him where he got that from, he told me his
dad gave him that wisdom during summer vacation.

They were talking about women
and what happened between his parents. His dad told him he fought his mom
constantly when she was trying to get him to grow up. Tony said he made his dad
feel like he was brushing off his advice, but it must have been important for him
to share it with me.

I was going to be seventeen on
September 16th. We were going to a club that Tony’s cousin owned downtown not
far from the Hard Rock Café. Tony’s cousin started off as a club promoter and
soon opened his own spot. He was a pretty cool dude and he always tried to give
Tony whatever he wanted because of how much he looked up to Tony’s dad. He was
laying out the royal treatment for us on that night. It was an eighteen to
enter, twenty one- and-over to drink night club, but he assured us entry
wouldn’t be a problem for either of us. I was nervous at first but then I
thought what the hell. You only turn seventeen once.

I glanced over at Sarah to see
how she was taking in this new environment and as usual she had this “it’s not
all that” look on her face. She was such a troll princess. Ugh!

“Well, if this is all high
school has to offer then bring on college baby!” she yelled. “Okay, lil’ big
brother, I’m heading to class, okay?”

“Try not to get into trouble.”

“Yeah, me getting into
trouble? Please Aiden, this place is so lame it would be an insult to get in
trouble here. I should have gone to Lake Forest. At least they have a little
more class over there.”

“Whatever Sarah. Now your
class is—”

“Aiden stop! This place is not
that big, I’m sure I can just read the numbers on the doors and figure out
where to go. This place seemed to be designed for idiots; did you need
directions on your first day? Wait! Don’t answer that. I don’t want to think of
you any less than I do now. Have a good day brother…don’t get lost in this
mental hospital, okay? Bye-bye now!”