In Front of the Liquor StoreA Story by Tim![]() Homeless people have made a huge impact on my life, whether from buying me alcohol, or threatening to beat the s**t out of me.![]() I sat in front of the liquor store. The
anodized iron chairs, coated in rust and other nastiness, were an eye sore when
compared to the contemporary and aesthetically pleasing plaza. It was midday;
the Southern California heat getting to all the fast paced college students who
raced in to get their cold beverage of choice. I mad-dogged a lady who walked
out with a hot coffee"who the hell does that? Getting hot coffee in this heat?
I took another sip of my energy drink, the tartness making me lick my lips. Ray walked through the parking lot, from
the center of the little plaza, with that stupid smile. I knew she had told him
something. “Well I heard, from a little birdie,
that you are thinking of leaving your girlfriend,” he said, like an a*****e. “So she is resorting to getting my own
friends to ‘change my mind’?” I said, taking two little sips, before lifting a
leg to cross it on the other, neatly showing my knee high socks, as they peaked
past my slacks. Ray took the seat across from me at the
table, and we turned our heads to see a woman punch a guy in the face not too
far into the parking lots center. He screamed, holding his palms against his
eyes. The woman bolted for her car and peeled out. “I’m gonna’ grab an energy drink too,
gotta’ validate my parking homie,” said Ray, as we calmly went back to our own
business. He glided towards the doors of the
liquor store, and I began entertaining myself with some people watching. A security guard ran across the parking
lot, from the plaza’s movie theatre, and started hollering at a homeless guy
who was begging for change. The rent-a-cop got a little close to the homeless
guy and kept up his hollering, saying that he’d already warned him that he
couldn’t solicit in the plaza anymore. The bum spit in his face and ran. That
spit looked ridiculous from my seat, about a hundred feet away from the action.
Some woman that the bum had just tried getting change from giggled as the guard
began gagging. He puked a little bit and sat on the curb, saying something in
his radio. Ray got back and took to his seat.. “Anyways, you need to rethink this,
buddy. She is too good for you.” “Listen,” I began, as I always do when I
don’t give a f**k what someone is saying, “I simply don’t feel like being in a
relationship anymore. There’s not much to it.” “I don’t get you. She is perfect. You
guys don’t fight, and she takes care of you.” I rolled my eyes, “I don’t need someone,
and I don’t need someone taking care of me. I’m my own person. I don’t need to
explain anything to anyone.” “She deserves an explanation, because
she is so hung up on you its ridiculous.” I grinned at that, like I was ready to
fight a bear. The RTA bus rolled to the side of the
liquor store, and the people spilled out like innards. Still sipping on my
drink, I watched each person step off and onto the sidewalk as I listened to
Ray’s babbling. I really was in no mood to listen to him. A man came off the bus in filthy gray
tank top, holding a brown bag filled with random flowers. He had oversized
women’s glasses on and a decent sized beard going on, and unkempt long gray and
brown hair. He eyed us as soon as he walked towards the liquor store’s doors,
and I knew he was going to be paying us a visit. I anxiously waved my propped
up foot in small ovals. Ray saw the guy’s stares as well, but continued with
his business of trying to convince me as to how wrong I was about my personal
life. The grimy man disappeared into the shop. “Mike, no matter what, you know I’m your
homie, but I think you are making bad decisions.” “Ray, I don’t give a s**t what anyone
thinks. I can be a big boy and do my own thing. F**k you.” The man came back out of the liquor
store and started throwing his flowers around while spinning in circles. “F**k authority and do what you do!” the
man moaned at the sky, twirling amid his flowers. He pulled a chair to our
table and slumped into it. We busted out laughing and suppressed it when he
spoke again, “Listen, you know how many child molestations are being looked
into in the Catholic church? I don’t f****n’ know, but I’m sayin’, just let ‘em
do what they want! Let us all do what we want!” A girl walked out of the store
during this rant, and gave him a disgusted look. He flipped her off and called
her a cow. Ray and I just looked at the floor,
hoping he’d just vanish. “You know these congressmen, exposing
the sex freaks, are even worse. They want to f**k with their hoes and fetishes,
but they want to regulate us even in porn. F**k that, topple the man! Smoke
weed! Hydroponics!” his long winded rants released a wheezing sound in the
middle of each thought, trying to catch up with his breath. I wanted to egg him on, since I didn’t
have s**t to do, and couldn’t give two squirts of piss for Ray’s attempts at
saving my relationship. “Do you believe in aliens?” I asked,
pretending to give a s**t. “F**k no! That’s just plain garbage.
It’s the Scientologists, trying to make their cult have substance. Fashion is
passion, and Jerry Garcia could’ve told you that,” said the guy, who pulled out
a half-smoked cigarillo from his pocket, and lit it up. He patted himself up and down, looked in
his flower bag, and started murmuring to himself. I offered him my lighter and
he gave me the most grateful and toothless smile I’ve ever seen in my twenty
years of life. I felt good"I’m the kind of guy that won’t give even a penny to
a f****r asking to wash my windows as his four year old son asks if they will
be able to eat that respective night, but I was nice enough to light up a hobo
this particular day. I felt like I was important. I meant something. I made
another human being’s day a little better than it would have been without me. The security guard who was spat on
briskly walked over to us, eyeing the colorful bum. “I’ve warned you three times in the past
two days. Get the f**k out of here!” The bum took one puff of his cigarillo
and cocked his head towards the guard, “You, my friend, can eat a fat dick. You
are swine, and the emptiest vessel that God created.” Ray and I laughed harder than I could
remember. The security guard lit up and reported
to his radio that a disturbance needed tending to. I stood up and threw my can at the
guard. Ray did the same. The bum bit the stamen of a gardenia and growled. All three of us ran across a street and
a fourth of a mile. We reached a restaurants and bend over panting. “You kids know the way” “No, we just like to f**k with
authority,” said Ray. “I just like to assault people with
can,” I said. The bum gripped my right shoulder and
whispered something into my ear. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t understand a
word the b*****d said, but I shook my head. Tears poured from his eyes, and he
fisted bumped his chest. My feet were numb and I had a ringing in
my ears. The excitement was trembling through my being. The bum held me in his arms,
and it f*****g freaked me out, but it felt right. Ray laughed, and I flipped him
off behind the bum’s back. The RTA stop was only a few feet away, and
the bum just walked over and sat.. I couldn’t stop staring, and the sorrow I felt
for him was incredible. I hate feeling bad for people. I f*****g hate it. He sat
there, tapping on his knees, and singing gibberish. Ray laughed, but I didn’t. © 2011 TimAuthor's Note
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