It was the first warm day in at least a month. Joe and his friend Brennan had just gotten out of school, and they were walking to Joe’s car. Joe was six foot tall and on the heavier side. He had long black hair and brown eyes. He was the kind of person that always looked angry, but was actually very kind once you got to know him. Brennan was a scrawny person standing at about five feet and ten inches. He was always happy and an overall fun person. He had short brown hair and pale green eyes. As they approached Joe’s golden 2000 Chevy Malibu, Joe noticed a large dent the size of a softball on the top of his front right fender.
“Are you kidding me!”, exclaimed Joe.
“Awe man, that sucks. What kind of jerk would do that?”, replied Brennan.
“It has to be from a door or something; the dent is too high to be from a car backing into me.”
“That could be it. We can go check up with the school’s SRO to see if she can help us out.”
“Great idea.”
The two went back into the school they had been waiting to get out of all day, and they found the SRO (Student Resource Officer). She was a blonde that stood at about five feet and eight inches. She got out to the car and looked around a bit. She checked the surrounding cars for any dents or scrapes, but found nothing. She then inspected the dent on Joe’s car more closely.
“It looks like someone kicked it,” the officer pointed out as she put her boot onto the dent.
“See, a foot would fit perfect.”, She continued.
“So you’re telling me someone kicked my car while i was at school?”, Joe questioned talking louder and more pronounced than before.
“Looks like it. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t have any cameras in the parking lot, and there isn’t anything I can do to help,”, the cop stated in an apologetic tone.
“It’s alright, I’ll figure it out,”, Joe promised with a hint of anger and determination in his tone.
After the cop left, Brennan looked at the dent.
“Look,”, he said.”There’s a purple scuff on the bottom of the dent,”.
“The only person I know with purple shoes is DeJuan,”, Joe said quietly.
“Well it’s somewhere to start,”, Brennan pointed out.
Joe and Brennan sat down in the car and started to head out to DeJuan’s house. It was a short drive since he lived just around the corner. They pulled up to his house and parked in front of it. It was a decent size home that was painted a light blue-gray. Joe and Brennan walked up the concrete steps to the door and knocked.
“Do you really think he did it?”, Joe asked Brennan as they waited for a response.
“You never know. I don’t exactly trust him,”, admitted Brennan.
DeJuan opened the door slowly just barely peeking out as he did. He was an African-American fellow that stood at about five eleven, and was a little bit stocky, but by no means muscular. He had short black curly hair, dark eyes, and a big nose. He was the kind of person that did everything in his power to sound smart, but just came off as unintelligent, lazy, and a liar.
“Hey guys, whachu up to?”, greeted DeJuan as he opened the door the rest of the way.
“Nothing much man. Guess what happened today?”, Joe challenged hoping to get straight to the point.
“What?”, DeJuan asked with a blank look on his face.
“Somebody kicked a dent in my car,”, said Joe squinting his eyes at DeJuan.
“Awe no way man. Do you know who did it?”, Asked DeJuan in his most sincere voice.
“That’s what I’m here for,”, said Joe. “There’s a purple scuff on the dent and you’re the only person i know with purple shoes,”, Joe said beginning to let some of his anger show.
“Man you know i wouldn’t do that. We are friends aren’t we? Anyways i ain’t worn those shoes in a while cus’ of the snow. So basically there’s no way i could’ve done it. Plus, I just got off work,”, DeJuan said defending himself.
Joe hadn’t noticed it until just now, but DeJuan was still  in his work uniform. He was wearing navy blue pants and a button up valvoline shirt that had fresh oil on it. Joe felt pretty guilty for jumping to conclusions.
“Sorry man, I should’ve known that you wouldn’t do it. I just had to ask,”, apologized Joe.
“No problem man. I’ll see you two later, I have to go take a shower,”, DeJuan said just before turning around and closing the door.
“Well if he didn’t do it, then who did?”, Brennan asked as the two walked back down the steps and to Joe’s car.
“I have no idea,”, Joe said in defeat as he unlocked his car.
“What about that Tyler guy that you had problems with before?”, Brennan asked as Joe started the car.
“I don’t think it could’ve been him. He’s too much of a coward to actually do anything,”, Joe said chuckling slightly at the thought.
“True, but you should tell people to listen for him bragging just in case,”, Brennan recommended.
“That’s a good idea,”, agreed Joe as he sent a text to his old co-worker Kaitlin before putting his car into gear.
Kaitlin and Joe used to work together at Mcdonalds. They worked together and were good friends for about six months, but Joe hated the job. He quit and began to work at JcPenney instead. However, they did still keep in touch.
“I guess i’ll just take you home,”, Joe said to Brennan.
“Ya that’s a good idea. We’ll have to figure this out later,”, replied Brennan.
Joe drove down the street and saw Brennan’s road approaching. He turned left onto it and pulled in front of his house. It was a smaller white house with big windows on the front of it.
“See you later man, good luck,”, Said Brennan as he got out of the car.
“Thanks. See ya,”, Joe replied quickly before driving off.
Before Joe could drive far, He got a call from Kaitlin.
“Hey Kaitlin, did you hear anything?”, Joe said into the phone.
“Ya. Tyler has been bragging about kicking your car since he came into work. He said that he finally got you back for what you did. What happened between you guys? You two used to be such good friends,”, said Kaitlin in a concerned tone.
“It’s a long story. I’d really rather not talk about it. Anyways, thanks for letting me know. I’ll be up there soon,”, Joe said back to Kaitlin his town growing solemn as he talked.
Joe hung up the phone and made a U-turn in the middle of the road. Joe sped to Mcdonalds ignoring the stop signs that he passed. He finally arrived at the Mcdonalds parking lot and drove around the back of the building to find Tyler’s car. Joe saw it, and parked right beside it. He peeked in through the window of Tyler’s red Toyota Camry, and sure enough; Joe saw a pair of tennis shoes with purple soles sitting on the passenger seat. This was all the evidence that Joe needed. He knew now for sure, that it was Tyler that kicked the dent into his car.
Joe walked up the slightly inclined pavement of the Mcdonalds parking lot, and into the building through the door on the side of the building that led to the lobby and bathrooms. He walked past the bathrooms and straight up to the front counter. He looked back and saw Tyler telling a story to some of Joe’s old co-workers. Joe figured that he was most likely still bragging. Tyler was always arrogant. Tyler looked up to the front counter and met eyes with Joe and the color on his face disappeared.
Tyler stands at about five feet nine inches, and has long, curly, blonde hair. He’s scrawny everywhere except for his stomach which had a good sized gut on it. He had the shape of a forty year old, alcoholic, fat man, and he’s only 18. Tyler was the kind of guy that was usually all bark, but lately he’s been biting. What he’s been doing is usually stupid and pointless. This time, however, he really did bite.
Joe walked over to where the manager was standing and gave her a hug.
“Hey, Jamie!”, Joe said doing his best to sound excited.
“Hey, Joe! What are you doing up here today?”, she asked.
“I’m actually here to talk to Tyler. I’ve got something very personal that I have to tell him outside; if you don’t mind of course,”, Joe said with a sense of urgency in his voice.
“No problem, just make it quick,”, Jamie said to Joe before walking to the back and leading Tyler to the front.
Tyler’s mind was racing. He knew that Joe had figured the whole thing out one way or another, but he didn’t want to seem like a coward in front of all of his friends and co-workers. Tyler knew that he couldn’t take Joe in a fair fight, so he decided that he had to sucker punch Joe before he could do anything. The two of them walked out of the door, and sure enough, Tyler sucker punched Joe in the face before the door had even closed. Joe wasn’t surprised that Tyler would try something like that. When Joe caught his bearings, He swung his fist upwards and into Tyler’s lower gut. As Tyler doubled over clutching his stomach in his hands, Joe jabbed Tyler square in the face with his left hand. Tyler stumbled backwards finding his balance a few feet back and he still held onto his gut in pain. Joe cocked back his right arm and hit Tyler with the hardest, fastest right hook that he had ever delivered. Tyler fell flat on his back as his nose began to pour blood onto the ground like a geyser with red water. Just as Tyler hit the ground, Joe kicked him hard in the ribs just to be sure that he wasn’t getting up. Tyler laid there in pain as the manager, finally snapping out of her shock, called the police. Joe knew that they would be coming, so he went and sat down on a bench to wait for them. A few minutes passed by before Joe saw the black and white squad car pull up. The car parked on the other side of Tyler’s car. One Police Officer stepped out of the car and went to Tyler to help him up and talk to him. Joe saw Tyler shaking his head and then pointing to Joe. The Police Officer then walked up to him and began to ask him some questions.
“What was this all about?”, questioned to Police Officer.
“We just have some issues. He took the first swing, so i defended myself,”, responded Joe.
“I understand that, but you beat the snot out of the poor kid,”, said the cop.
“I know i did, and we won’t have any more problems now. I swear to it,”, promised Joe.
“Alright. I feel that you’ve both learned your lesson, so i’m going to let both of you go free. Just don’t let it happen again,”, demanded the cop.
The cop then walked away from Joe back to his Police car and drove off into the distance. Tyler walked back into the store narrowing his eyes at Joe as he did. Joe waited for the door to close and when it did, he walked over to Tyler’s car and kicked a dent in the front right fender, the back bumper, and just to finish it off, he kicked in his left headlight. Joe took a few steps back to admire what he had done, but he felt no sense of accomplishment. If anything, he felt guilty. Joe dusted off his pants and walked back to his car. He unlocked the door and sat down. He sat there for a while before he started his car. He realized that hurting Tyler and damaging Tyler’s car didn’t make him feel better at all. Joe realized that the Dent in his car wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was already too late to take back what he had done.