no surprise, here

They called him “Little Armadillo,” which was redundant, “armadillo” meaning “little armored one” in Spanish. They called him that because he always wore a bulletproof vest – always. He wore it at work, at play, and even in school, where no one, not even the former NFL walk-on assistant principle, ordered him to remove it. When anyone asked – and few did, anymore – he said he’d been marked by a rival gang and that it, really, was the only thing keeping him alive. Few believed him, of course, but in this forgotten part of America’s forgotten corner, who could know? Then, he met a girl who said she wouldn’t be seen with him, with him wearing “That thing.” So, he took it off. Two days later, he was dead. Shotgun blast to the chest. He’d been right all along, everyone said, with a shake of a head. The girl’s name was Crystal and she didn’t even like him that much.