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The $4.60 was definitely worth it, in the older boys mind. Two-dollars thirty-cents spent on a bottle of Fanta and another for a bottle of Coke was not how he expected to be able to formulate all the shit going on in his life. Pausing the ancient Game Boy that got him more odd looks then the bulging book bag or his young companion, he glanced around at the early winter snow around the dirty gas station. His companion lived near the overpass about a mile and a half from the high school, and both boys had already frozen their ankles in the snow covering the back football field.
"Damn, shoulda worn my fucking hiking boots, look at this shit... How the hell do you walk home in this every day?"
The younger boy thought, looking around the snow, and said "Well, don't you have to walk in it in the morning?"
"Well yeah, but I live like 3 streets over from the school."
"This snow looks like fucking shit..."
They continued on in relative silence, the kind of silence you got in large cities, where you still hear all the cars but are so used it them you really don't. Eventually they came to the sidewalk tunnel under the overpass.
The older boy took a long swig of his soda, put his still paused Game Boy in his large jacket pocket, and gestured around at the appearance of the tunnel.
"Seriously, the whole world's gone to shit!"
Both boys took long swigs of their sodas.
"I know, it used to think it was okay but the more I look the more I see it."
Now out of the tunnel, the younger boy pointed up at the sky and began speaking again.
"Look, you can see all the fucking smoke and shit!"
Neither boy particularly liked swearing, and they both knew the other didn't either, so they knew that this was actually a deeply important and serious conversation. The older boy spun the volume knob up on his Game Boy and unpaused it, getting sucked back into Tetris.
"Hey, what all'd you bring?
Pausing the game again, "The cable to hook up your Nintendo, some games, another Game Boy and some games..."
"Sweet."
Now nearing the younger boys house, and deep in the residential zone, the younger boy began talking about some of the things that had changed for the worse about the neighborhood. The older boy, having lost at 187 lines, put away the Game Boy and shoved his hands deep in his pockets in a vain attempt to warm them. He spoke up then.
"Hey look, someone left a shovel out... surprised nobody's nicked it..."
"Yeah."
"Wouldn't it be fucking awesome," the older boy said, getting a fresh deposit of snow down his skate shoes, "If you accidentally left your shovel out, and you get home, and instead of someone have fucking nicked it, they, like, shoveled your drive or some shit?"
"That would be fucking awesome, but nobody would ever do it."
"That's the fucking problem, this world is to fucking dark." He kicked a pile of greyed snow for emphasis. "Seriously, We spend our whole
fucking day in this shit, and our parents too, but they're the ones that get to relax. Like, I get that a job is a lot harder then high school, but seriously? You can't give us like one fucking hour? When I get home, I just want to take my fucking pants off and play some damn Nintendo!"
"I know! I just fucking walked home through all the shit in this town, I just want to escape that! Take off my fucking pants and do something fun and colorful and interactive! Video games are fucking perfect for that!"
"I think it's probably that, cause, like, I don't like sports games, right? And it's not cause I'm bad at sports, I'm actually okay in most sports, it's because if I wanted to do sports I'd go outside and play some fucking sports! I can't go do Mario in real life."
The older boy seemed to be in thought after completing his last statement, then spoke again.
"And when we get to your house, we are NOT taking our pants off."