“YUH-YOU SURE YOU GUYS DUH-DUH-DON’T WANNA GUH-GO BUH-BUH-BACK IN,” Derek asked his friends whilst staring into the JOCK-INFESTED Burger Hut Restaurant with great terror in his brown eyes.

  “Nah, Dawg. I’m straight,” Eric replied whilst shaking his head from side to side. “You’re on your own with this ‘suicide mission’.”

  As Eric playfully patted Derek’s left shoulder with his left hand, Jim spurted, “SHIT! I totally would, bromigo, but you see, I got, like, this Carpal Tunnel thing and…”

  “Oh, shut the fuck up, Jim!” Eric snapped off at his ‘friend’, cutting him off at mid-sentence. “We all knew your pussy-ass wasn’t gonna do nothin’.”

  “BRO, YOU TOTALLY DIDN’T LET ME FINISH!” Jim snapped back at Eric. “What I was TRYING to say was that I got Carpal Tunnel from FINGERBLASTIN’ THE FUCKING SHIT outta your Mom’s WET-ASS PU--”

  SMACK!

  “AGH! FUCK! URGH… ERIC! YOU BITCH!” Jim shouted at his ‘friend’ after he had slapped him in the face with the backside of his left hand.

  “Ghost Slap, bitch,” Eric snared as Jim now rubbed his incredibly sore nose and upper lip area.

  “Kuh-Kyle?” Derek uttered as he now turned to his best friend again. “Are you guh-guh-gonna…”

  “I CAN’T, DEREK,” Kyle interjected/answered. “I’m sorry, man, but I… I just…”

  “It’s auh-auh-alright. I understand.”

  Kyle looked over at Derek and nodded briefly before lowering his head, closing his eyes, and resting his forehead on the steer wheel grip in defeat.

  “Ugh… Well,” Derek sighed as he looked back at the front main entrance to the Burger Hut from behind the glass of the passenger’s side door of Kyle’s Car. “Here guh-goes nuh-nuh-nuh…”

  “Nuttin’?” Jim asked with a brief smirk after taking a brief break from rubbing his sore nose and upper lip.

  Derek briefly narrowed his eyes at Jim before he opened the passenger’s side door and stepped out of the Porsche 911.

  Stepping onto the concrete curb, Derek shut the passenger’s door behind himself, dug his hands in the front pocket of his red hoodie, gulped, and started heading towards the Burger Hut’s main entrance doors.

  “Shit... They’re gonna eat his scrawny ass alive in there,” Jim remarked as he, Eric, and Kyle all watched their ‘delicate’ friend head inside of the Burger Hut all by his lonesome.

  “So… What’s the game plan for Brent and his bitch-ass jockstrap goon squad spot Derek in there and start fuckin’ with him?” Eric asked Kyle with his brow lowered.

  “We can’t fight them,” Jim yelped out with widened eyes as both Eric and Kyle looked back at him with their brows scrunched.

  Quickly putting on a false ‘tough guy’ persona, Jim lied, “I mean, I totally would LOVE to fuck up Fuller’s shit and all, but with my wrist still damaged from finger blastin’ Eric’s Mom I’m pretty much useless… And, not to mention, they’d probably all fuckin’ WAIL on us until we start pissin’ blood.”

  Eric prepared to deliver another crushing ‘Ghost Slap’ to Jim’s face as Kyle just shook his head and looked back at the Burger Hut with concern lingering heavily in his now ‘tear-dried’ eyes.

  _

  “AH SHIT,” Josh remarked after taking a slurp from his Vanilla Milkshake to see that Derek Bentley had walked back inside of the Burger Hut again… BY HIMSELF.

  Before Josh could do anything Greenberg pointed out, “Well, look who decided to come back for some more!”

  The rest of the jocks… AS WELL AS BRENT all directed their attention towards Derek, who stood at the entrance with his hands still dug in his hoodie’s front pouch pocket.

  Derek had a cold sweat coming on as he looked over at the literal army of varsity football players.

  Brent glared at him as the stuttering nerd kept his eyes forward.

  Surprisingly, Derek started to walk up to the front order desk of the Burger Hut while everyone else all watched in astonishment and surprise.

  Brent, on the other hand, just snickered as Amber slapped him on the arm.

  Josh had a concerned look on his chiseled face as he waited for someone to mess with the defenseless eleventh grader.

  Standing at the front desk, Derek had a ‘ghostly look’ about himself as one of the cashiers asked, “Can I help you?”

  “Yuh-Yes. I’d like a Duh-Duh-Double Cheese Suh-Suh-Slammer,” Derek fumbled out to the Cashier. “Wuh-Wuh-With a suh-suh-side of fruh-fruh-fruh-fries and a large Duh-Duh-Diet Do-Do-Doctor Fuh-Fuh…”

  “Fizzle?” the cashier kindly asked Derek, to which he nodded in reply

  Typing in the order on her Order Screen, which was attached to her Cash Register, the Cashier, “Got it. Will that be all?”

  Derek nodded again

  “Alright. That’ll be seven twenty-seven… And your order number is ‘three twenty-three.”

  Digging in right pants pocket, Derek pulled out a crumpled up ten dollar bill and handed it over to the kindly cashier.

  Whilst Derek waited to receive his change, Greenberg leaned over to Brent from their place up towards the front of Burger Hut to ask, “Yo, B. Want me to go up there and fuck with him?”

  “Hmm… Let me see,” Brent smirked whilst Amber gave him a cold glare.

  “BRENT, DO NOT MESS WITH HIM,” Amber then sternly ordered.

  “Why not, babe?” Brent asked whilst still smirking.

  “Because, Brent. That’s Derek Bentley. He’s got… ‘issues’. I know because I work in the Library with him during First Hour at school.”

  “He’s just got a stutter, you guys” Josh interjected from his seat, causing Amber, Brent, and Greenberg to all look back at him in confusion. “Well… I think that’s all he has…. But still, Amber’s right, Brent. Leave him alone.”

  Narrowing his eyes at his supposed ‘best friend’, Brent snapped, “Y’know, Josh, my patience with you is starting to wear really fucking thin, dude. You’re already on thin ice for that shit you pulled back when I was fuckin’ around with Gordo earlier. Don’t tread on any further. If you do, then the ice will eventually break.”

  “Then just leave Derek alone, Brent,” Josh snapped back whilst also narrowing his eyes. “He’s not doing anything wrong.”

  “Oh, he’s definitely doing something wrong,” Brent stated.

  “What, Brent? What is he doing wrong?”

  “EXISTING.”

  As Derek waited up at the front of the facility for his food to get done after receiving his change Brent stepped out of his booth.

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  Adjusting his Letterman’s Jacket, Brent chuckled slightly as he strolled up to Derek.

  “Heh, heh… Hey, Derek.”

  Derek looked up at Brent and shakily replied in a low tone, “Huh-Huh-Hey.”

  “SO… What brings you back here?”

  “I wuh-wuh-was huh-huh…”

  “HUNGRY??? Like your pal ‘Gordo’ was hungry? Heh, heh, heh…”

  Knowing that Brent would shove him headfirst into a trash can like he did with Kyle if he were to reply, Derek just looked forward and didn’t speak a single word more.

  Josh watched from his seat irritably as Brent’s grin faded.

  Glaring at Derek now, Brent asked, “HEY. I asked you a question, dweeb. Are you ‘hungry’ like your friend was? ‘YES’ OR ‘NO’, BITCH?”

  Derek remained silent… Which just made Brent even angrier.

  Tightening his hands into clenched fists, Brent gritted, “ALRIGHT. ENOUGH BULLSHIT, BENTLEY. Either you turn around and walk out of here with all of your limbs still attached to your WEAK-ASS body or I’m gonna ‘remove you’ myself.”

  Derek stood strong as he continued to defiantly ignore the massive football playing all-star.

  “URGH… THAT’S IT,” a disgruntled Brent sounded off as he proceeded to grab onto the back of Derek’s belt with his left hand and lift him up off of the ground with only one arm.

  “HEY, EVERYONE! LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT! IT’S A ‘NERD-FISH’! HA-HA,” Brent madly cackled as he displayed Derek to the rest of his jock armada.

  As Derek started to kick and flop around in Brent’s unbreakable grasp, the female cashier who had just taken his order shouted, “HEY! KNOCK IT OFF, JERK! PUT HIM DOWN!”

  Brent just ignored the cashier as he continued to laugh hysterically at Derek’s unfortunate plight.

  Having enough of his teammate and supposed ‘best friend’s’ ruthless bullying, Josh got up out of his seat and started beelining towards Brent.

  He was halted immediately by Amber though, who got from her seat a few seconds later and placed a hand on his chest.

  “I’ve got this,” Amber said through gritted teeth as Josh looked down at her hand that she used to hold him back.

  Walking up to her boyfriend with stern intent, Amber reached up and pulled on Brent’s left arm, which was still holding up Derek’s ‘puny’ bodyweight.

  “Huh? What the… HEY. What ya doin’, babe,” Brent asked Amber in confusion as he looked down to see her tugging on his left arm.

  “LET’S GO, BRENTON,” Amber ordered firmly as she gave her boyfriend a ‘death glare’. “Enough is enough.”

  In the midst of his feeble resistance, Derek looked down and over at Amber in complete confusion along with everyone else in the Burger Hut.

  Brent, on the other hand, gave his girlfriend a heinous glare whilst he huffed, “Nah. I’ll tell you when ‘enough is enough’.”

  “REALLY NOW???” Amber asked in an even more irritated tone with her eyes widened. “Brenton, are you sure that you really want to do this right here? Right now? In front of all of your friends???”

  Brent had an angered look on his face now as Greenberg repeated in confusion, “Dude, did she just call you ‘Brenton’?”

  “SHUT IT, SEAN!” Brent snapped off at Greenberg, silencing his bull-headed underling.

  This made Josh briefly chuckle and shake his head as Brent looked back down at Amber angrily.

  “SO… WHAT’S GONNA BE, BRENTON,” Amber asked in a no-nonsense tone, causing her boyfriend to now shake with rage.

  Realizing he couldn’t win with Amber, Brent subsided his unbridled rage (for now) and sighed.

  Dropping Derek down to his feet, Brent lowered his arms and growled.

  “That's what I thought… Wise choice, babe,” Amber smirked whilst Brent continued to glare at Derek. “Now go sit back down at our booth, dear.”

  Huffing at his girlfriend, Brent looked back over at Derek and ordered, “Don’t ever come in here again, geek.”

  The Quarterback then skulked away back over to his both as Amber crossed her arms over her chest.

  Looking over to Derek, Amber asked in a kindly and caring voice, “Are you alright?”

  Frozen in shock at the fact that the literal ‘girl of his dreams’ was actually talking to him, Derek wordlessly nodded.

  “Sorry about that… And about what happened to your friend earlier,” Amber said on behalf of her psychotic boyfriend’s sadistic actions. “Brent gets a little… Rambunctious at times… But he’s harmless.”

  “Tell that to all the kids he’s beaten up at school for literally nothing,” Derek said to himself in his non-stuttering, ‘inner-monologue voice’ whilst he continued to stare at Amber in total shock and awe.

  Starting to become increasingly more ‘weirded out’ by the strange, non-speaking eleventh grader, Amber awkwardly said, “Well, uh… Okay, then. See you later… I guess.”

  Amber then turned away and went back to join Brent at their booth with Greenberg and Shaw.

  Realizing that the tension was somewhat ‘cooler’ now, Josh just sat back down in his seat at his own booth with other members from his team.

  Still shocked by Amber defending him against her jerkish boyfriend, Derek stood in bewilderment whilst the female cashier said to him, “Three twenty-three… Your order is ready.”

  _

  “Holy Christmas Shit… DEREK’S ALIVE!!!” Jim erupted in shock as he, Kyle, and Eric watched their shy friend walk out of the Burger Hut unharmed and not coated from head to toe in food waste from a trash can.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Kyle remarked in disbelief.

  “Son of a bitch. He ACTUALLY made it out still in one piece,” Eric followed with his head shaking from side to side.

  “WITH FUCKING FOOD!!!” Jim happily rejoiced as he eyed the food bag and drink that Derek was carrying in his hands.

  Eric rolled his eyes at Jim as Derek walked up to Kyle’s Car.

  Getting back in the Passenger’s Seat, Derek had a slight grin on his face as he situated himself and food.

  “So, D… Care to elaborate on how you’re NOT fucking dead right now,” Eric asked Derek from behind his seat with his brow scrunched in curiosity.

  “YEAH, I’d like to ‘second’ that,” Kyle followed as he looked over at his best friend in disbelief.

  “NAH, FUCK THAT SHIZZ,” Jim waved before directing his full attention towards Derek. “Let's get to the REAL important question, Der-Bear: DID YOU GET US ANY FOOD???”

  “Yuh-Yeah,” Derek started.

  “SWEET!” Jim joyously erupted.

  “Fuh-Fuh-For me,” Derek concluded, causing all joy and happiness that was within Jim to immediately die out like a blown birthday candle’s flame.

  “FUCK!!!” Jim then shouted angrily whilst Derek smirked mischievously at him, causing Eric to let out a brief snicker.

  “What happened in there, Derek,” Kyle asked his stuttering friend, who set his sights back on him. “Did Brent try screwin’ with you or anything?”

  “Yeah. He duh-duh-did,” Derek nodded.

  “What happened?” Eric asked.

  “Ambuh-buh-ber… She st-stopped him,” Derek explained.

  Kyle, Eric, and Jim all sat in joint-confusion now after hearing Derek’s unbelievable explanation.

  “ALRIGHT, now I’m even more confused,” Eric stated whilst rubbing the side of his head with his right hand. “Ugh… I need to clear my head.”

  “Wanna drink or ‘blaze up’, fam?” Jim asked Eric with a slimy smirk on his face.

  Eyes widened, Kyle looked back at Jim and said, “Now that’s the most sense that I’ve heard from you all night, Jimbo.”

  Jim nodded and smirked whilst Kyle told him, Eric, and Derek, “I have some beer back at my crib. We can all go there, but we’ll have to do our shit in the S.P.O.T. around back ‘cause if we spill anything in the house then my Dad’ll…”

  “Cause you to have a MENTAL FUCKIN’ BREAKDOWN like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman did to Private Pyle in ‘Full Metal Jacket’,” Jim groaned. “Yeah, yeah, Ky-Ky. We know. We know.”

  Giving Jim a quick glare, Kyle turned to Derek and asked, “You wanna come with, D? Or do you still wanna go home?”

  Feeling tired still, Derek replied after taking a sip of his soda, “Home pluh-pluh-please if that’s cuh-cuh-cuh…”

  “Cool? Yeah. It’s cool, brotha.”

  Kyle then turned his Porsche 911’s engine back on and put it into Drive.

  The four lifelong friends then drove off into the night leaving the Burger Hut… And their ruthless tormentors behind in their tracks and dust… Feeling victorious for once in their pitiful lives.