2- It is kind funny

After a long philosophy class, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore from writing, one of the few classes that was a bit cool, but that didn't change the fact that I was anxious to get out of the room, I tried to distract myself with my own thoughts while the others next to me talked about their restless nights with lots of milk and beer as if they were very drunk. On the other hand, they talked about their sad lives and how depressed they were because of it, they said they had emotional problems, how difficult life is, among other things. I find these people so pathetic, but in a way I was like that, I just didn't open my mouth to talk about myself, I preferred to spend my time thinking about things, because all the time it was and still is in full swing with a new thought every second.

The bell rang, making everyone run out of the room like ants, messing up their desks, pushing each other and shouting. I waited for my brothers at the exit gate, it stank of marijuana because some kids were smoking across the street and at the door, you could hear them coughing, one of the retards was incapable of smoking without almost dying. I spent 15 minutes smelling that smell, until finally the two of them showed up, we went up the hill to get home, then I found out what had happened in the fight, the boy had called Dani a faggot and that they had been suspended for three days. They didn't call. Why would they? It wasn't the first time this had happened, Alex had been suspended before because he hit a boy in the face with a blackboard eraser, breaking his glasses, another time Dani climbed on top of the toilet and started dancing, so he broke a lot of the thing. So getting suspended for punching that asshole was the least of their problems. 

Along the way, Daniel kept talking about how incredible the punch Alex had thrown at the boy was, and as everyone shouted, I kept one earphone in my ear and on the other side listened to what they were saying, adding little comments, because what I really wanted to do was listen to music. As we walked, I kept looking up at the sky, now sunny, it was probably going to rain, but like a figure coming out of nowhere, I began to observe a boy, a little overweight, throwing stones at a delivery drone, the ones people buy things from on the internet. He threw several times, the box was getting close to the roof, it was a race against time for him, he threw another stone, he didn't hit it, he crouched down with difficulty to pick up another one, he threw it, he failed, he took a deep breath, picked up the biggest one he had, threw it with both arms, he hit it, the drone stopped, the package fell between the roof and the ground. To his joy, the weight was in his favor, he ended up making the box fall onto the concrete, he opened it with a big smile on his face, which didn't last long, because there were books inside, he kicked the box in anger and left puffing out his chest. I wasn't surprised, nowadays it's rare to see anyone who reads books, let alone buys physical books, if it was like that before, imagine today.

I had already completed an hour's walk, my feet were starting to get tired, I was almost in agony from the pain of my foot on the palm of my shoe, my sweatshirt was making me sweat inside, my throat was dry because I hadn't drunk any water when I left that drugstore they call a school. In a way that was unexpected for me, Dani called me, snapping his fingers near my ear to get my attention, thus interrupting the music I was listening to. He just wanted to ask me which snack I would like, because we were going to spend the whole afternoon in the den, our hideout in the middle of the forest, except for Alex, a girl wanted to make out to him, so he wasn't going with us that afternoon. On the way home there was a new grocery store, we used to go to another one, but they were raising their prices so we went to have a look. After about ten minutes of looking around I decided to choose a hamburger, it was less harmful to my health than all that industrialized crap. As usual, Dani had to wait to choose what he wanted:

- What is this pastry?

- Chicken. - He answered not very cheerfully, he seemed like a withdrawn man.

- Ata! But what else is in it? 

- Just chicken.

- Osh! Okay, but there's nothing else? Cheese?

-There's cheese pastry.

- Oh no! I'll have a meat pasty instead.

- Okay.

 After that, Daniel took an extra-large packet of pepperoni, his favorite, and a 2-liter bottle of energy drink. We did this all the time, Alex sold drugs from time to time, until then they still thought I worked in a second-rate establishment. We bought junk food to eat in the forest, it was the quietest place for us, away from the city, away from their father, who in this case is my uncle, a drunk who spends more time hungover than awake, every night he goes to the bar and stays there until dawn, when he comes home he sleeps, and at dusk he goes back to the bar. We didn't want to be near him, he cursed us in every possible way, especially me. It seemed that he had a special hatred for me since he hated my mother, he made a point of saying so, he said that she had taken a man married to another woman, when I was born, he ran away, she left me on his doorstep so she wouldn't look after me. I feel like crying when I hear those words coming from him or when I remember it, I feel like crying with rage, I never did anything to make this happen to me, I was just born.

Back to reality, well, afterwards the three of us left that small corner market with several bags of extra-large snacks, an excuse for those companies to make more money without worrying that it's killing everyone little by little, but that's fine, everyone knows about it, but they don't do anything about it because it's so good and they can't stop eating it, and I was one of them. A snack like that has more than 3000 calories, which is more than enough for a whole day, but there's nothing healthy in it. There were a lot of bags, even with all of us, it was still necessary to use all our hands to hold all that junk food, I thought we were going straight to the den, but no, Alex forgot to feed his dog, Dani and I waited outside, while he went inside the house discreetly and got the food, then put it in the pot leaving the dog anxious with his mouth full of saliva, he petted him for a few seconds and left so he wouldn't be there when his father woke up.

 Alex found the lost dog in the forest a month ago, their father didn't like it, he tried to put the animal out several times, he hated dogs, but Alex wouldn't let him, he got attached to the animal like nothing before, Dani nicknamed him Tom, because of the Tom and Jerry cartoon even though he was a dog. Tom was one of the few things that made Alex make those cute baby faces. In those difficult times, the dog was what made him happy, perhaps an escape point apart from the little plants he used to use. As for Dani, I didn't really know, he tried to be positive, nothing seemed to affect him. As I told myself several times: 'it's his fault', this old man. The news was always about treating oranges like humans, but nobody would change my mind that mechanical oranges are better than rotten ones.

After feeding the animal, Dani and I separated from Alex, so we went straight to the burrow. We'd found it two years ago by then, and I call the place a burrow because it literally looked like a burrow. It wasn't very accessible, you had to go into the middle of the woods and walk up to the mountains, where ahead there was a descent, there we found an entrance surrounded by trees forming a wheel, after we discovered it, we spent most of our time inside, we didn't like our house, it stank of beer and expired food. The first time we set foot in that peaceful place, there were a few flowers and a lot of soil. Gradually we removed them, leaving only the plants. It was a beautiful place, as the trees, which weren't very tall, shaded the sunlight with their branches, making the place spectacular and the temperature pleasant. Dani had a habit of taking a knife to draw on the branches, she wrote our names among other things, sometimes she would say that there was something with glowing eyes watching us, but we never found anything, surely it was her fertile mind playing tricks. We spent whole afternoons talking, watching women on our cell phones, eating garbage, playing wrestling among other stupid things.

- The problem with coming here is that it takes too long - I say, out of patience, I've been there so many times that admiring the vegetation along the way is boring.

- Ah man, you have to be friends with the weather, you know? - Dani says, passing in front of me.

- What? - I said... - What did you mean by that? - I continued.

- You're looking at your watch every 10 minutes, time doesn't like to be marked, it wants to be free..." Dani replied.

 - I kept quiet for a while and said: Oh God, are you using drugs? - I smiled and joined in the meaningless game.

- Shut up! - Dani said, walking even faster to pass the entrance to the den, threw her body on the floor, took a deep breath and started to open the soft drinks, while I wanted to save my snack for later, restraining myself not to open it. 

After the first sip, he looked at me and said: 

- Do you remember when we bought ice cream for the first time?

- No.

- So you just gave it to me, you didn't even ask me which one I wanted. It was ice cream, right? So I wasn't going to complain. After six times, all trying each flavor to see which was better, vanilla or chocolate, trying to find out which stall had the best flavor. Then one day Ale asked me which one I wanted, like, nobody had ever asked me that, I didn't even know how to say it properly. I said both, like I like both so it made sense to get mixed, but then you told me vanilla was better, so I got vanilla, right? But then I thought, if vanilla was the best, why did I miss the chocolate ice cream? That's when I knew for sure, next time it was going to be chocolate and no one was going to stop me.

I was silent for a moment, just relaxing in the sunlight. I laughed nervously in the corner, like: 'what a muleke'. And I said: 'But isn't vanilla the best?

He didn't like it, he got that typical cute little angry face as always when he made the same gesture from anything to anything.

- Ah... in that same stall there was a store selling dueling monsters. 

- I don't even remember what that is anymore.

- It's like...that thing where you put some monsters in and they appear giant, so a lot of us showed up to see us play, me and Ivi.

- You two?

- Ahã....ai

- I don't like this guy very much.... - I interrupted, as I looked up at the sky, which was slightly covered by the trees, creating beautiful shadows on the ground.

- Why?

- Very warm.

- So - he put a smile on the corner of his face - he got muchi thothi because he thought a guy had taken his letter there.

- Even I was going to get angry.

- Yeah, so... then he was like fiki and then he punched me right in the nose.

I just laughed at the way Dani tried to reproduce this embarrassing scene.

- But because of a playing card?

- That's right. - She added. - They say his family was persecuted by the mafia before he came here. There you go.

- Bullshit.

- I don't know.

We paused in silence, then I laughed again, because we'd barely got there and we were already talking about a boy who'd probably broken his nose.

I changed the subject a little.

- I thought you were going to use your penknife on him - I said about the fight at school.

- Oh, never mind. - I said, lowering my head in a more fearful voice. I'd already noticed this pattern, whenever I wanted to avoid a subject, I'd say an 'ah! Never mind' and avoided the subject. As for his penknife, he kept it under his shoe sock, perhaps as a way of intimidating other people who tried to pick on him because of his appearance, size or whatever.

We sat in silence for a minute, the noise that the packet of crisps made when he put his hand in it and took it out was the only sound. We ate a lot, I wasn't satisfied with just one snack, and we went on to do something else that was a waste of time, like doodling in the trees with Dani's pocketknife, which I'd actually given him for his birthday. I'd found it in the street. I carried on talking shit, and that's what we did all afternoon, nothing more, it was our moment, my best moments. Deep down, when I looked at Dani or Alex I didn't feel deep feelings, like brothers or something, it was like a hole, something inside my heart that I couldn't explain perfectly, I just knew that at the same time I understood that it was best to stay close to both of them, the only people I could trust in this world.