Levi Harris: A Guide to Middle School

Episode 30: Conflicts

EPISODE 30: Conflicts

February 20th 2010, The Strawberry Milkshake

I woke up pretty early and I felt energetic on that Saturday. I had a quick breakfast of Coco Pops and some nice sweet orange juice. After breakfast I had a quick shower to make myself feel a bit livelier. I opened my journal and notepad and started writing in more ‘episodes’ for my story. After an hour or two I had completed my sixth episode and I felt quite pleased with how the episode was.

‘What you doing?’ My older brother said. I quickly tried to hide my journal and notepad but he had already seen me.

‘Oh, so you have a diary now. How gay.’ He said. I felt anger boil up in me. I pinched my left hand so hard I thought that the skin would tear. I never knew exactly why my brother showed much interest in annoying me and destroying my morale. I guess it made him laugh. The bad thing about it was that I had two older brothers and each were annoying. I would always try to out smart them when they piss me off but they just kept on playing mind games until it pissed me off. This older brother was called Joseph. He was just a hormone crazed idiot. He wasn’t book smart and he wasn’t street smart either. Not that I was street smart, I was pretty pathetic in that area too but I made up for it by being book smart and geeky. He then pushed me aside and snatched the notebook and started reading it. He started chuckling at some parts and breaking out into laughter at some parts. I was seriously ticked at him. He just wanted me to snap. I didn’t want to give in so I held in my anger.

‘Oi Zach! Come over here. Your brother’s a fag.’ He shouted. At this point my hand was bleeding. Joseph just stood there scratching his brown mini afro. His big eyes were just scanning the page from left to right. Zach, my other brother entered the room holding a butter knife. He also had a mini afro but he was really dark and really skinny and sort of tall. He was six-foot tall.

‘What’d you say? Lee’s a fag?’ He said. These guys were on my last nerve. I was resisting the urge of fighting back. I knew it would end bad for me as it always did.

‘Look at this shit he’s writing. Talking about his feelings and crap. What a fag innit?’ Joseph said. Zach’s laugh burst out and he snatched my notepad from Joe causing it to rip a bit. I cracked under the constant laughing.

‘Can I have my book back?’ I exclaimed. They both just burst into laughter at my words. I tried to make my way past Joe and to Zach to get my notepad back but Joe wouldn’t let me. He just shoved me back.

‘What? You wanna have a fight mate? Huh? Pussio!’ he joked about. But I wasn’t in the mood of kidding around. I was seriously pissed.

‘Oi Zach look at his eyes. He’s about to cry!’ Joe shouted. I tried to escape him but he just pushed me onto the floor. I had had enough. I stood up and threw my fist at his body. He reacted quickly and half-handled it but I still was able to connect my fist with his chest a bit. Then, I threw my body at him with my fists moving about like mad. He blocked almost all my hits until I hit him on the face which was a big mistake. He quickly lashed out at me, punching me all over my body including my right eye. I fell to the ground and started hiding my face from his fists but my body was clear in the open. He just kept punching and punching and I never thought he would stop. I could feel my eye burning. I couldn’t believe he attacked like that. Then suddenly there was a end to all the punching but don’t get me wrong. He still wanted to punch me it’s just Zach decided to end the violence and pulled him away. I felt so light but my whole body was aching. I was sweating like a pig and I just didn’t want to stand up.

‘Oi Joseph, chill out. He’s only thirteen. You’re like eighteen. Take it easy!’ Zach said. If Joe only knew the pain I felt all over my body. I knew I was on the floor of my living room for at least an hour. I knew I had a black eye. I could feel it. I just didn’t want to accept it. I just couldn’t believe what had happened. I walked upstairs and threw myself onto my bed. My mind was whizzing. It was presenting me with images of me beating up my brother. It sort of cheered me up. My back felt like it had a hung hump on it. I stroked it slowly. Then I felt the bump on the back of my head. That sure was one ass whopping. That was something that would emotionally scar me forever. There was always one problem with me and I hated it a lot. I was a really sensitive teen. Not in the way where my feelings are leaked like a old rusty sink. I was just easy to piss off and when I did get pissed off, it was hard to conceal my feelings. About an hour and two passed and I checked my watch. It read five thirty-two pm. I panicked. I had a date with Angelina the same day and I could barely stand up straight let alone bear the thought of her fretting over the fact that I had a black eye. I had to think of an excuse. I couldn’t tell her that my brother done this to me. I wanted her to think that my brothers were good for some reason. My date was at six o’clock and I had to get ready. I had to have another quick shower because of all the sweating and I had to change clothes too. I put on a white t-shirt and really black jeans and set off downstairs. As I passed the living room, Joe quickly ran out and stretched out his hand. ‘Oi, I’m sorry man.’ Here was my second problem. I had problems holding a grudge over people. I seemed to just forgive them straight away and wait for them to hurt me again. I guess I was an all round push over. I shook his hand and left the house and took my car (obviously being driven by a driver) to the place I always take Angelina. To Sea Cliff just to chill.

       We sat down straight away and I went to order the milkshakes; Two strawberry milkshakes. We sat down and just started talking about non-sense.

   ‘If I get rich in the future, I’ll look for you. I’d take you on a cruise around the world.’ I said. I knew it sounded corny but I was trying to be sweet. She smilled though.

   ‘That would be good. What happened to your eye?’

   ‘My brothers…’ I couldn’t lie to her face.

   ‘Damn, sorry. I wish they could stop doing things like this to you.’

   A lot of random topics were made while waiting for our Hawaiian pizza and all seemed euphoric… until this mixed-race boy with curly frizzy hair came over.

   I could tell he was coming towards our table when he stood up from his table which was two tables behind us with his eye focused on Angelina.

   ‘Hey. What’s your name?’ He said. He had a strong American accent. Angelina looked into my eyes then down at her table.

   ‘Err… can you excuse us. I’m kinda on a date with my boyfriend.’ She replied.

   ‘Yeah so can you piss off?’ I asked rudely.

   ‘Yeah whatever…’ he said as he through the remainder of my strawberry milkshake at my face. My white shirt was stained and I was instantly pissed. I stood up and wiped my face before pushing him back.

   ‘Oi, who’d you think you are?’

   ‘Don’t touch me!’ he shouted. I shoved him again and this time he fell on the floor.

   ‘Levi. Don’t get pissed forget about him.’ Angelina said, distracting me from all the anger. I looked into her eyes. She had stood up so quickly to stop me from kicking the boy. But then I was caught by surprise. I felt something smash into my left eye and I instantly fell down. I felt a burning pain in my eye and I grasped it and started howling in pain.

   ‘Get away from us!’ shouted Angelina. I could tell his presence left by the sound of his trainers on the ground. Angelina was right next to me as I stood up slowly grasping my eye. That was two eyes both punched in one day.

   ‘How’s my eye?’ I stupidly asked her.

   ‘It’s… messed up. You should go home. This doesn’t look good. You should put it under some ice.

I got home feeling bad and my eye feeling like hell and I just went upstairs to sleep where I had a nightmare that would bear a scar in my mind forever.