The lone star

Andre sat by himself in his sixth period class, eagerly waiting for the bell to ring. While he waited in his chair, gazing at the clock, the teacher got up from his desk.

“I need to go make some copies. You guys be good. It should only take me a minute or two.” As soon as the teacher closed the door, one of his classmates, Julian, got up from his chair, and walked to the front of the classroom.

“Well, we’re not learning about anything else in this class, so why don’t we learn about our peers.” He grabbed the white chalk and wrote Andre’s name on the board. “Let’s start off with Andre. Hmmmm…. Andre, Andre Andre, what can I say about this guy? I mean, he’s too dark to be white, he dresses too white to be black, he’s too much of pussy to be a man, but his voice is too deep to be a pussy, so what the hell is he?” The classroom broke out in an uproar of laughter.

Julian’s rude remark was no surprise to Andre. After Andre began going out with Julian’s ex girlfriend Tracy, his hatred for Andre had grown immensely. Things were not always this way. In fact, they used to be the best of friends. Back in the day, they use to hit up the same parties, flirt with the same women, and be apart of the same gang, but as soon as they were in high school, Andre changed. As a result, he began to attend church, he began to excel in school and he began to loose his friends. Although he was often lonely, he was unwilling to change back. Andre was who he wanted to be.

Julian, however, was completely different. He was always talking to someone, even if they were on the other side of the room. Julian always knew about the

newest songs, the newest sports game, the newest fights, etc. Unlike Andre, Julian was

far from peaceful. As a matter of fact, he beat the crap out of Andre just for stepping on a new pair of his shoes. If the security guards hadn’t stopped the fight, there’s no doubt that Andre would’ve ended up in the emergency room. Julian was a stereotypical miscreant. He lived in the ghetto, he sold weed and alcohol, he cheated on every girlfriend he ever had, and he put money before anything else, even his family. Julian was who the world wanted him to be.

Andre’s habits used to be identical, but he changed his ways. Unfortunately, he changed so dramatically that he became an outcast. He would always spend his class time in complete isolation, working on homework or reading his favorite book. It’s not that he was unfriendly, he was a very calm and kind person, but he could never find any common ground with anyone. His classmates would ask him, “So did you see BET last night?” but he didn’t have a television. They’d ask him, “Hey, have you heard the newest rap song?” but he listened to gospel music. And no classroom would be complete without the famous high school question, “Have you heard about so and so?” but he hated gossip. People found this particularly strange considering he lived in the ghetto. After a serious of similar questions from his classmates and short answers from Andre containing a simple no, people just stopped talking to him. People would always say that Andre was on another planet. He always told himself he was in another state of mind.

Although he was an outcast, he was not ashamed of his differences. He rather enjoyed his diverse nature. He liked to think of himself as a fresh new button-up hanging on a rack of white tees or the only star brave enough to shine in the dark gray sky.

As the classroom’s laughter came to a stop, a young student, dressed in all black, entered the room holding a hall pass and a small note. Andre could tell by the blank expression written across the kid’s face that he had bad news.

“I’m looking for an Andre….”

“That’s me.”

“Andre, Tracy is real sick. She needs you to take her home. We tried to reach her parents but….” Before another word could find the way to the tip of his tongue, Andre’s heart seemed to jump out of his shirt. All the blood pumping through his veins came to a complete stop. He felt like a wrecking ball just took a swing at his heart. The blood began to rush through his veins once more as he hurried out of the classroom. It didn’t take long before he realized that he had no idea where he was going. He thought about going back to the classroom to find the student, but by the time he thought of it, he knew the kid wouldn’t be there. He searched throughout the whole school and ended up finding Tracy outside.

“What’s wrong? Are you ok? Do you need anything? Did you take any medicine yet? You want some water, some…” He paused to catch his breath, taking a long hard glance at his girlfriend. She wasn’t sweating from a fever, there were no sign of drowsiness and she had a wide grin spread across her face. So how was she sick?

“Don’t worry…. I’m fine. I just wanted to get you out of class early.” Although the thought had never crossed his mind, the fact that she had deceived someone to get what she wanted was not surprising at all. It was not the first time and it would not be the last.

Andre stood on the street, staring at his girlfriend. She had big luscious lips, covered in red lipstick, with hips as thick as a Harry Potter book. Her breasts were small and round like two baseballs, she had a pale face that was as white as Santa’s beard and her eye shadow was a dark shade of Pepsi blue. He often wondered why he loved her so much; they had nothing in common. Maybe it was the way they completed each other, how their differences brought them closer. Either way, he knew she was no good for him. He felt as though his love had imprisoned him; like his heart was in a jail cell, and he was going to get the death penalty. If only he could find the key to escape.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked, as her bright eyes twinkled.

“Huh?” he replied, shaking his head, bringing his mind back to reality.

She rolled her eyes. “Never mind. It’s Friday, let’s get some alcohol,” she said.

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just give me your jacket, and I’ll do the rest.”

“But why?”

“You know I hate it when you question me. Do you want the bottles or not?” He quickly handed her his jacket, knowing any hesitation would lead to an argument. He wanted to tell her it was a bad idea but he knew his opinion could not penetrate her hard head. “This should only take a minute.” Half an hour later, she returned to Andre with two bottles of Hennessey.

“What took you so long?”

“I got the bottles didn’t I?” She had a point, but he felt like something was missing.

“Wait! Where’s my jacket?”

“I forgot it.”

It took a while for the words to sink in. “Bu…bu…but my grandma gave me that jacket for my birthday!”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby! What’d it cost, like forty bucks? Buy a new one, shit.” Andre didn’t get mad. She talked to him like that every day. He was use to it.

“Why can’t I just go back and get it?”

“Because they’re going to be home soon”

His eyes bulged with surprise. “You stole it from someone’s house?!”

“Yeah. Do you got a problem with that?”

He shifted his eyes down to the ground. “No.”

“Then stop your bitching and let’s go before I drink this by myself.” He thought about asking who she stole the liquor from, but he figured the information was irrelevant. They walked to the park and before long, they were drinking their liquor. Tracy began to talk non-stop while Andre listened closely to every word she had to say.

“What do you like the most about drinking?” she asked.

“I love how it frees your mind from everything. It’s like the bars of stress have been lifted and your happiness can roam free.”

“Yeah…Free was a good host on 106 and park, but that’s not what I asked you. You need to learn to listen.” He turned his head so she couldn’t see him roll his eyes. “Anyways…. it’s getting late… we should go. Do you want to spend the night?”

“What about your father?” he asked.

“You worry too much. I’ll think of something.” As they entered the house, he saw Tracy’s father sitting on the couch, drinking a can of Coke. He kept his eyes focused on the television, as if they were having a staring contest. “My friend Danielle is going to spend the night, is that okay?”

“Sure,” he said, gazing upon the television. They went into her room.

“I don’t feel so good. I think I had too much to drink. I’m going to the bathroom.” As she finished her sentence, he could hear the rain falling slowly from the sky.

“Do you want me to get you anything?”

“No, I’m fine. It will only take a minute.” He knew a minute in the bathroom for a girl was an hour in the real world. Seeing that there was nothing else to do, he lay on the bed and turned on the television. As he flipped through the channels, the rain became heavy, as if nature were creating a drum line. He turned the channel to Fox and began watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It was at the part where Mr. Hyde turns into Dr. Jekyll. He felt bad for Mr. Hyde—how such a good man could become uncontrollably evil. The movie began to bore him, causing him to feel tired. Bags formed under his eyes as his mind took a long needed trip away from reality.

His eyes opened to a strange noise coming from the bathroom. “Are you okay in there?” he called from the bed. She didn’t respond. As soon as he got up to check on her, a ferocious creature emerged from the bathroom. It had blue fur, piercing red eyes and white claws that made samurai swords look like butter knives. He tried to move, but his

whole body was paralyzed with fear. The monster lunged at Andre, pinning him down on the bed. He screamed for help but his voice could not penetrate the sound barriers of the pounding rain. The creature pulled his arm back and ripped the flesh right off of his stomach. The monster pulled out his heart, crushing it in front of Andres face, splattering blood all over its fur.

“ANDRE! ANDRE!” He opened his eyes to find his girlfriend’s pale face lying next to him. “You were having a bad dream. It’s okay. It’s all over now.”

Andre rubbed his eyes. “Ugh, what time is-?”

“It’s eleven forty five.”

He yawned, stretching out his arms. “Is it morning already?”

“Nah it’s still night. Wow…that was amazing!”

“I didn’t know you had that much fun drinking.”

“I’m talking about after the drinks. Don’t tell me you don’t remember.”

Each piece of her sentence formed a puzzled look on his face. “Remember what?” he asked.

“You really don’t remember? That was the best two hours of my life but I guess you were too drunk to remember one second of it.” Without saying another word to Tracy, he put on his clothes and left the house. He didn’t know why he left, he just felt like there was no reason for him to stay. As he walked outside, he could barely see his own hand in front of his face. Even the moon had run away from the darkness that surrounded the night sky. All he could see was a single star, slowly being consumed by the shadows.

As he walked home, staring into the sky, two flashing lights caught his eye. He turned to see a red Chevy pull up beside him. He kept walking until the driver hopped out of the car and blocked his pathway. He could not make out the driver’s face; all he could see was a mysterious figure, dressed in blue jeans, Nikes, a white tee and a red jacket that looked rather familiar.

“Excuse me.” He tried walking past the guy, but the man blocked his path yet again. “Excuse me, sir.” He attempted to pass once more. This time the figure grabbed Andre and threw him to the ground.

“What’s your problem, man?” said Andre, filling each word with confusion and anger. The mysterious man walked towards his car, pulled something out of it and stood in front of the lights, making his face and his gun visible for Andre to see, causing a million questions to flood through his mind. What is he doing here? Why does he have a gun? How’d he know where I was?

Andre spoke as his lips trembled. “Julian?! Wha…what the hell are you doing?”

“What the fuck were you doing at my house bitch?!”

Not only was Andre perplexed, he was scared out of his mind. Sweat ran down the side of his cheek. “I…I was never at your house. Wha…what are you talking about?”

Julian fired his gun, missing his leg by a matter of centimeters. “Don’t play stupid with me.”

His sweat was now streaming down his face, and into his mouth, filling it with fear. “I…I…I…”

Julian took off his red jacket and held it in front of the headlights. “Does this look

familiar to you?” Andre took a quick glance at the coat. It took a while before he realized whom it belonged to, and an even longer time to control his fear long enough to form words.

“Wha…what are you doing with my jacket?” Andre asked.

“That’s not the question.” Julian loaded his gun while tears ran along Andre’s face, mixing in with the stream of sweat. “The question is, what the fuck was your jacket doing at my house and what the hell did you do with my Hennessey?”

Wait a minute. Tracy said she left my jacket at the house that she stole it the liquor from. She must have left it at his house. It must have been an accident. She wouldn’t set me up on purpose…would she?

“How did you know where I was?” Andre asked.

“I just called your bitch up and asked her. Goodbye old friend.” BANG!!!

Ten seconds later, he was lying on the ground. His body shivered from the night’s cold air, it shivered from the cold metal, lodged in his heart, and most of all, it shivered from the cold world. He lay on his back as he watched the star in the sky slowly vanish into the darkness.