Of Cold Syrup

Carter was at the local Denny's eating breakfast with his best friend and confidant George Hailey. The waitress brought plenty of syrup for their pancakes, but it was all cold. "I hate cold syrup" Carter muttered as he reluctantly poured the sugary substance vaguely resembling the taste of maple onto his hotcakes.
"That's the problem with you Carter...well, that's at least one of 'em."
"What?"

Carter had barely uttered his question before his mind was on something else. His thoughts went back to his Junior year of High School. He'd been struggling with his Algebra and thought life couldn't get any worse. Looking back he was pretty naive but also unappreciative. He lost his simplistic world view and worry about Algebra only a few months later when his mother, father, and sister all died in a convenience store holdup. They were going to visit Carter's Grandma. Carter didn't go because he had lots of homework to catch up on which was really just George watching movies, playing video games, and drinking way too much caffeine. Those plans didn't turn out.

"You complain about what you've been given which is fine by me, I mean, who am I do tell ya' that you haven't been dealt a pretty crappy hand?"
"And?"
"Well, AND, the thing is that you never do anything about it. I mean, why complain about it if you're just gunna' lay down your sword and accept defeat?"
"It's just cold syrup, It's hardly worthy of a battle."
"Man, it's not just the syrup! You do this with everything. Take Sara as an example." George was right. Watching Sara from afar had been eating Carter up, but he wasn't ever going to do anything about it.

Carter had first noticed Sara in the sixth grade. Sitting behind her in Mrs. Sophie's math class Carter spent more time looking at the back of Sara's head than anything else. She used to twirl and play with her long blond hair. The twisting would become more intense the tougher the problem she was working on. Sometimes It would get kinked so hard Carter thought it would never get undone if she went a second longer and just at that moment she'd raise her hand and let her hair fall back to her shoulders.

"See, you've been in "like" with that girl since you were like twelve!"
"I'm not in "like" George."
"Oh excuse me, is it love?"
"No, it's something else, I don't know man."
"Alright, well this undefinable and nameless obsession has been going on for a long time and yet you've never even attempted to make anything come of it."
"Oh, and what exactly should I do oh wise one?"
"For starters order some warm syrup, I can't stand it when it's cold. After that, try convincing her NOT to go back to Vegas to see Kevin."
Carter twitched uncontrollably and knocked his silverware around the table, his spoon falling to the floor. "She's going to see kevin?!"
"Yeah."
"How'd you hear about that?"
"How do you think? It's not like I live with the gossip queen of the whole city or anything."

George was right, his twin sister Gwen knew everybody's business. For some reason everyone trusted her not only to keep their secrets, but also to hand other people's over. Her success lied in her ability to make everyone feel they were the only ones she wasn't screwing over. This is just what turned George into the semi-social outcast he'd become. It only took little leakages like, "guess who still wets the bed," or, "guess who has a crush on Mrs. Stevens?" After enough of this information made it's way to the general public George could not really be taken seriously.

"So are you going to do anything to stop it?"
"George, man, you really think I'm going to drive my beat up truck to Vegas and rescue Sara from the evil clutches of Kevin?"
"Yeah, doesn't sound too realistic does it?"
"No."
"Well, it beats sitting in Denny's for the fourth Saturday in a row eating pancakes with cold syrup."