"Yo Daniel, give me the cig, man. I am thirsty, " said a pale Mike.
Daniel blew out a lazy O and, after watching it drift for a few seconds, said, "Dude, drink some water."
"You know what I am thirsty for, bitch. Gimme the cig."
"Hey, fuckface, you look very pathetic when you are angry. Here, take it, " Daniel said while flicking him the half-burnt cigarette.
"They always do this shit. Always, " said a hunched-up Nicolas.
"What can we do, bro? Daniel is a sad excuse for a friend and Mike is like a rabid dog, " whispered Jacob, the biggest guy in the group, so that the bickering idiots didn't catch him gossiping.
While they were gossiping, Mike suddenly lunged at Daniel.
Nicolas and Jacob saw Mike pouncing on Daniel. They quickly separated them before they got into any serious fighting. Daniel's clothes were pretty roughed up but all in all, he didn't have any serious injuries. However, there were some scratch marks on his hands from Mike. Nicolas helped Daniel while listening to his mumblings.
"I am telling you he has got a mic in his ass. I didn't even say much to him. Who jumps on someone so suddenly?"
Mike caught some of Daniel's mumblings and asked or rather shouted, "What did you say, Deadbeat, huh?"
Mike lunged at Daniel again but was intercepted by the other boys. Unknowingly, they had already reached the turn where Daniel will separate from them. His home was in the outskirts of the city and the other boys lived nearer to the middle area. They all stopped and chatted for a few minutes.
Then, Jacob placed Mike like a sack of potatoes on his shoulders and said to Daniel, "Okay, Deadbeat, tomo–"
"Not you too, " Daniel groaned while facepalming.
"Well, you can't blame us. Mike really had a moment of enlightenment today when he named you Deadbeat."
"GET OUT of here!" shouted Daniel, full of frustration at that damned nickname.
All the remaining boys quickly scooted away and Daniel trudged along the road in rage. In this part of the city, there was no one at this time aside from the occasional street dog.
Daniel shivered, thinking of the dog that almost bit him a few nights ago. It was a big black street dog. He had to run quite a distance to escape it. His thoughts suddenly stalled. Just then, he had seen a black tail, presumably of a dog behind a streetlight pole which was strangely flickering. He carefully walked along the road. He tried not to turn back, in fear of the dog but curiosity eventually got the best of him.
There, behind the streetlight pole, in the shadows, was the same dog from a few nights ago. It was shivering all over and looked as if it saw a ghost. Its eyes were glazed over and drool was coming out of its mouth. If it weren't shivering and whining pitifully, Daniel would have thought it was in heat. He looked at the dog for a few seconds and when the dog looked his way, it quickly ran away from there.
'Maybe that bastard finally went mad, ' thought Daniel thinking of the dog.
His thoughts eventually shifted from the afraid dog that almost bit him to the dogs that bark at him all day. His so-called friend Mike and his brother Mike.
"Great, just great. Why do they annoy me so much? Why name me stuff?"
"Why Deadbeat? I am not dead."
"No, it's not that. Mike said my temperament is like that of a dead ghost. How does that even make sense?"
"At home, Michael nags me to study blah blah blah... At school, Mike says I am dead."
'I will punch that bitch Mike in the face one day, ' thought Daniel touching his arm where Mike scratched him.
It's not like he hated Mike's guts or maybe, he did. Mike just reminded him too much of his brother. Their personalities were miles apart but somehow both managed to get on his nerves. Their names were the same and both were annoying or nagging him all the time.
Daniel put his hands in his hair. His thoughts or grumblings had shifted from his friend Mike to his big brother Mike or Michael.
"Just call me by name for God's sake. No Danny, no Deadbeat. Just Daniel." He grumbled having been fed up of that name for a long time.
'That name should have been gone away with Mom and Dad.'
'Maybe, it would have been good if I was also gone away that day.'
He shook his head and sighed. After some minutes, he found something new to nag about.
"Everyone is just messing with me. So what if I am 162 cm. That's not short and I can still grow some more."
Daniel was what people would call a scrawny and short kid. He had messy black hair and black eyes. He had a totally normal face. An average kid by all means. His clothes were cheap. His shoes were old. Everything about him screamed ORDINARY. His only uniqueness was that he was an orphan. Not really a great thing to be unique in if you ask him.
So, with only his thoughts as his partners, he reached home. It was a one-storey shabby house in the city's outskirts. It was quite rundown. Paint was peeling off. Electricity and water were not regular. All in all, it was a poor family's home.
Without ringing the bell, as the bell had been damaged long ago, he entered. He didn't even consider knocking or announcing his arrival, just opened the door.
'Hmmm, the lights are off. I wonder why?'
Then, the lights suddenly flicked on and started flickering. There, only 2 feet away from him was Michael, his brother. Sporting a calm face–too calm. Like a sea before a tsunami.
He took a few breaths to calm down and then said, "Danny, why are you coming home at midnight?"