Acceptable Imperfection

The morning comes faster then expected. I knew that I should have slept, but I couldn't. I was listening to music straight into the morning hours. I hadn't meant to, it just happened.

I have dinner with my parents this afternoon and I hadn't slept a wink. If I went to sleep now, I'd be late. So I'm forced to stay up. When I walk down the stairs I see that Alex has let herself. I scowl at her unkempt appearance. She could have ran a comb through her hair before coming over.

"Morning doll." She smirks.
"I could call the police for this you know?" I say removing a cup from the cabinet.
"You love having me around."
"No, I don't." I retort scoffing lightly.
"Don't be so sour." She moans falling back into the chair.
"I'll stop being sour when you stop popping in anytime you want to."

Alex is quiet afterwards. When she's quiet, she isn't so bad. But when's cocky and won't shut up there's nothing more that I wish then for her to leave. The two of us eat in silence before we turn to each other.

"A new family moved in." She tells me.
"Really?" I respond.
"Yeah. It's actually just three girls. But the oldest takes care of the other two."
"Why?" I ask.
"Their parents are gone or dead or something. I don't remember. The two twins are going to be going to the highschool here while the other one, the oldest, is going to be working down at The Corner."

The Corner was a place were all the poor work and the delinquents visit. I'd only been there when I was 14 and our other friends had dared to us to go inside. It was a dark, dimly lit building. It used to be a hotel but it closed down.

The mattresses were stacked along the rows and you could see straight up into the blue sky from the atrium. There's tables of buttons and pins and needles. If you go further you see an old bar that all the delinquents hang around.

Andy had gone it with me. We walked up the steps to see all of them looking at me. Jack, the most popular, turned to me with a crazy smirk.

"Future delinquent?"
"I-I don't know." I'd stuttered.
"You will. I can see it." He smirks before pulling out his lighter and lighting up a cigarette.

That had been 4 years ago. By now he would be 21 years old at only seventeen when we'd met each other. He was in the bank as well. He was one of the ones robbing it. But he hadn't shot me or Andy. He only looked at me real good before running off before the cops could show.

We hadn't spoken since that one time. After that our communication had stopped.

Abruptly I stand up walking out of the house. I grab my shoes on the way out. My legs weren't as sore as they were yesterday but then could start back up again around 5 PM.

Jack had been arrested multiple times. One of the reasons I hadn't seen him since the robbery. He was locked up for awhile but I knew he'd get out soon.

Outside the fall air wraps around me. It's almost suffocating, but I have to deal. I can see the moving truck parked outside the house next door. Three girls were running around the yard. Two bleach blondes. Their hair was so blonde, it was almost white. . . Then the tallest and most likely the older one, with long brunette hair.

She was moving boxes while the other two had been rummaging through them in the yard. Of course. I think sourly. We're stuck with two slobs that don't care.

I step off the broken steps -I'd meant to fix them- and looked over at the car. It was a hand me down from my older sister. It was a Blue Pontiac Torrent. I would get a new car one day, but until we get better medication for my 'virus' I'd have to wait.

I couldn't be working real hard for a car with my legs.

"Oh! Look! It's one of our new neighbors!" I turn my head to see the two blonde twins running at me with excited gazes.
"Hello." I sigh turning to them.
"I'm Nikki !" Blue eyes says.
"And I'm Bradly." Brown eyes smile.
"Evan." I move past them towards the car only for Bradly to grab my arm.

"Aren't you going to show us the neighborhood?" She flutters her mascara thick eyelashes at me.
"No."

Bradly and Nikki's faces turn to shock as I move past them and into the car. I swear I'm the only male in this neighborhood. I was a young adult stuck in a neighborhood of annoying girls. I already knew I wouldn't like Nikki or Bradly.

Maybe Alex would. . . They could exchange tips on how to annoy me.

I pull out of the long drive way, catching the eyes of the other girl. The older one. She looks at me for a moment before looking away. She carries the boxes into the house and doesn't stop. The other two, Bradly and Nikki, watch her.

The coffeeshop isn't as far as I thought. Exhaustion was all I could feel. I really shouldn't have stayed up all night. I was already feeling tired at 10 in the morning. A quick caffeinated drink wouldn't kill me.

I step in to see the newspaper on display. I smirk,

DELINQUENT TO BE ALLOWED OUT ON GOOD BEHAVIOR : THE SAFETY OF THE CITIZENS IN PERIL?

They think that Jack could kill? I knew he'd be let out soon, just not today. I read over before ordering a simple black coffee. I hated the fancy things.

"What do you think?" Someone says next to me.
"Huh?" I turn to an older man, most likely in his forties.
"I think it's pretty stupid to allow a delinquent out. He and his friend robbed a bank. Next thing you know him and his friends will be shooting up a school."

That one struck a nerve. In a way, I admired Jack for his head strong ways. He never let anything bother him and always treated things in such a simplistic way. I wish I could be like that. He was the only one that didn't hound me with questions the moment they'd learned I had a strange virus.

"He wouldn't do that." I protest.
"What? Are you his friends?" He questions.
"That isn't anything that concerns you." I contradict.
He scoffs, "Anyone who hangs around him is a delinquent himself." "Just knowing a criminal doesn't make you one." I growl before snatching up both the paper and the hot cup.

It wasn't the first time someone had told me that. That would be like saying all the greasers were just like Dally Winston from The Outsiders.

Just being friends with them doesn't make you a delinquent.

I stir the contents of the cup around before turning to the guy inside. The mans smirk gets wider as he points to me and then word delinquent. I wasn't going to turn out like that . . .