5 The Stripes of a Tiger

'When is this gonna end?' I asked myself while sitting on the bathroom toilet seat watching someone's poor attempt in hassling me, I never gave any discounts on what I sold and it seems like this customer didn't know that.

"Come on, I'm good for it. I'll pay you double later." begged the boy who was now getting on my nerves. I zipped up my backpack sealing the cannabis from the addicted male who's faced dropped at me closing my bag.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and started walking to the door but before reaching the door I felt a hand fall upon my shoulder, rage sparked inside like a match throw onto gasoline. I turnt my head slightly to look down on the boy from my towering height.

"Move." I commanded him in a tone that would send a shiver down any person with common sense's spine, but unfortunately I was not dealing with a person who had common sense. I was dealing with an idiot who had no idea when to leave stuff alone.

"No. Matter fact, give me this." he said with greediness laced in his tone no doubt thinking about his next high or about how much money he could make with what was in my bag, I sighed knowing that this woild ruin my mood.

He tugged on my bag with a lot of strength prompting fme to let go of it which I did, an action that made him fall back and collide with the sink, I grabbed my backpack that went flying and placed it in the coner, cracked my knuckles and my neck in preparation for what was going to happen.

The boy tried to use the counter to get up off the floor but before he could adjust his balance he was met with a punch across his face, He fell back holding his bleeding nose crying out in pain.

I smiled, it's been a minute since I caused someone pain and I definitely needed it to take some stress off of my back. I went to the bathroom door and locked it so i'll br able to have free reign of the situation.

When I turned around, the boy had a punch directly aimed for my nose which I dodged by a hair and countered with a right hook to his jaw knocking him unconscious.

As the boy fell to the floor I wondered, what was the point of fighting if you get knocked out this quit. I shook my head in disappointment and looked at the man in the mirror staring back at me. My tousled hair, my tatted body, and even my overall rugged appearance was all thanks to the Gallagher genes.

"Maybe it's time to go back to my birth family." I said to myself, I just abandoned them and I felt bad. I don't know what that thought happened to me all these years but the least I could do was let them know that I was still alive.

With that thought in mind I grab my backpack and walked out of the bathroom pushing through the line at the door and making my way to my last block class which I had with Cookie.

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Bathroom guy's POV

"Dude are you okay?" asked a random guy who helped me off the dirty bathroom floor as I tried to gain clarity in my brain of the situation I was experiencing right now.

I pushed the guy off me and got myself together, being left sprawled out on the bathroom floor is an embarrassment that I have to make even. I said while looking at my bruised nose in rage.

"Fuck you Rick."

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Ricky POV

I walked through the empty halls going wherever my feet took me, I didn't know what the emotions going through my body were but one I could definitely identify is sadness, the sadness coursing through me veins as well as confusion.

"Who am I?" I asked myself in the empty halls, throughout my past life I always knew who I was and I had people already tell me who I am regardless if I knew who I was or not.

I stopped in front of a window, gazing out of contemplating. It had never occurred to me before how much I let my past life dictate my new life. There must be a reason that I was given this new life, and I damn sure wasn't for me to become an exact replica of what I was before.

Unexpectedly, the birds flying in the sky frozen, the people walking the halls froze as well, I looked around in confusion. I had no idea what was happening but it would soon explain itself when I looked next to me.

"You finally figured it out?" Lucifer said standing next to me looking out the window I was previously looking out of, he turned and smiled at me. I felt my heart speed up a little, what is this?, is this fear?.

"Is this fear that I has come to take my new life away, Is this fear that you'll never be able to see Santiago or Cookie, or maybe it's fear that you won't be able to go back to your family?" Lucifer said to me verbalizing what I was feeling inside.

"Do you think you deserve this second chance?" Lucifer asked staring deep in my soul searching for an answer that I couldn't will myself to answer, fear that the truth will change his mind and send me back to my rightful place, hell.

But the question still stuck to me, I knew I didn't deserve it. So why did he grant me a second chance, if he knew how bad of a human being I was then why did he give me a second chance.

"Change."

"I want to prove that a tiger can change its stripes, even if its only a few stripes they can still change. Maybe as proof to my father that I have made mistakes but I can change." He spoke somberly while fading away into the space around himself.

The world continued to move at its usual speed, the birds and the people going back to their original state but my mind was still in shambles, did I have what it takes to changes my stripes?