Around 3 pm I was talking to my local mechanic at his service station (NE corner Fairfax and Melrose), and then suddenly he had to take care of something so I was just standing near one of the pump stations, and these kids pulled up in a fairly small and dirty car, slightly bigger than a Fiat but only by a bit. Fairfax High School kids, I figured. Five or six got out and the driver/owner, some geeky-ass Latin kid with bad skin and a mullet, turned up the volume.
It was a hip-hop track that seemed to really matter to these guys ’cause they were all half-ass dancing and slinking around — two girls, three or four guys, a performance. Except it was the worst hip-hop track anyone’s ever heard in their life and certainly the most irksome I’ve ever suffered through, and it was turned up so loud that the sound was fuzzy and distorted and punishing.
The older service-station customers were sneaking looks at the kids and rolling their eyes and presumably muttering “okay, now I have to listen to this ugly-ass shit on that crap-level radio or whatever…feral anti-social whatevers.”
I was just standing there and checking it all out but at the same time careful not to stare at anyone…no provoking, no eye contact. So I mostly just looked at the car and stared as the asphalt, but in their general direction. Inwardly I was muttering “you guys are untamed…plus your taste in music is shit and nobody wants to listen to whatever you’re dancing to” but one of the kids, a string bean with big eyes and grown-out hair, sensed or smelled something, and so just as they were getting into the car he stopped and looked (not glared but looked) as if to say, “Uh-huh…you thinkin’ somethin’…it’s in your eyes, man…I can see you won’t be startin’ nothin but I’m looking right back so you know that I know.”
So he knew and I knew but I decided “fuck this guy…no challenge or aggression but I’m not turnin’ away either…in fact I’m gonna eyeball him without getting too thorny about it.” He knew and I knew…go on, man…have a good day…the moment’s over.