Never Give Up

Alex's Lecture

We all got in Cristina's big, black, 4 door, truck.  You wouldn't have thought that Cristina would drive a truck, but that was the thing about her, she always surprised you.  Alex got in the bed like he always did. George hopped in the back and I sat in the front. Sometimes I took us home and sometimes Cristina took us home.

We jammed out to the radio for the whole ten minutes it took to get to her house. We hopped out of the truck and walked into the averaged size house.

George didn't know how to act. He looked like he was in a different world.

"Hey mama." I called out to Cristina's mother.  There were quite a few long nights of me staying over because my mom wasn't home, or we got into a big fight. Her mom treated me like I was her daughter. I owed her.

"Hey baby, how you doing today?" She asked in her accent.

"Good, I hope it's okay that we brought along a friend. His name is George and he's in my Chemistry class."

"That's fine. You guys have fun."

We walked down to the basement where Cristina turned on the tv and we all plopped on the couches. George stood still.

"Are you going to sit" I asked.

He sat beside Alex. We watched tv for a while before I brought up the conversation that Alex would've rather left for.

"You need to stop with all this." I told him.

"Hey, if he wants to do it, let him." Cristina chimed in.

"You want him to get expelled and then not graduate with us?"

Cristina got silent.

"I don't see why you care. If I don't get expelled, I'll fail. I'm not good at math or anything for that matter."  Alex was right. He wasn't the smartest, but we loved him just the same. It wasn't his fault he had other things to worry about. There were a lot of missed days because he had to take care of Amber and his brothers. It wasn't his fault.

For the first time that night, George spoke up. "I'll tutor you."

We looked at him like he was an alien.

"What? I'm a mathlete."

Alex laughed. "Of course you are."  Cristina and I gave him the look.

"I'm not getting tutored by a mathlete."  Alex said.

"It's that or you're not our friend anymore." I commanded.

"You can't do that."

"He's right Mer, you can't do that." Cristina took Alex's side.

"Alex, I'm not letting you get expelled or fail. We're all going to college and we're all going to be surgeons. Now quit your whining and let George tutor you."

"That's your dream. For you itcan become a reality, but my reality is that I'm going to be stuck in this hellhole for the rest of my life being a damn mechanic or wrestling if I'm lucky." Alex yelled. 

After moments of silence, Alex sighed and complied. "You're lucky that you're all I've got." He gave a half smile which made me smile.

Call me mean, but I protected the ones I cared about and with Alex not having real parents who cared, it didn't help much. Amber had a hard time juggling three foster children who were both in high school and fought all the time.