T-Bag/Maytag, spirit
Title: Your Eyes Are Almost Dead
Character/Pairing: T-Bag/Maytag
Prompt: #55, "spirit"
Rating: PG-13/light R-ish
Summary: Maytag finds out who Jimmy is, semi-continued from this at a later time.
Author's Notes: Well, like I told thelana, I planned on T-Bag telling Maytag about Jimmy, but I don't like dialogue that goes on forever, even if it is T-Bag. After about the first paragraph I'm thinkin' "shut the hell up already" 'cause most people don't tell stories in a very interesting manner anyway. So in comes the flashback, and it becomes T-Bag/Jimmy with Maytag bookends. But that's ok, Jimmy's fun too. Sorry to all the T-Bag/Jimmy lovers for the "not with Jimmy" line, maybe some other time. :D And the title is taken from the song Holocaust, which I find far more creepy than I ever did when I think of it in reference to T-Bag. O_O You're a wasted face, You're a sad-eyed lie, You're a holocaust
Oh, and there's relatively non-graphic het, if that bothers anyone. Shout out to Brian for the taxidermy. B)
Why were the best things in life always so bad for you? Maytag pondered the idea as he stared up at the ceiling, eyes half closed and cigarette nearly falling from his mouth. T-Bag plucked it from his lips and moved to stand against the wall.
“Hey, that was mine,” Maytag protested sleepily, though he didn’t care enough to bother getting up.
“You were about to fall asleep and burn a hole in your chest.” T-Bag took a long drag from the half gone cigarette and tipped his head back as the smoke slowly spiraled upwards. Whoever had said smoking wasn’t cool had been so wrong, or at least Maytag thought they had been. Living with T-Bag, cancer probably wasn’t his biggest concern anyway.
Still, it was his last one, and was now being happily enjoyed by T-Bag. Not worth the fight, a fight that would only get him a bruised ego and some nice little burns for the trouble. Instead, he settled for dropping his head to the side and watching the smoke drift from between T-Bag’s lips.
Sometimes he forgot how much older T-Bag was, old enough to be his uncle at least. Age became just a number behind bars when you couldn’t judge someone on their profession or car or how big their house was. There were no stages of life, no students or businessmen or heads of corporations. Just men serving time. Those who had been business owners on the outside were easily outranked by men who had never finished high school or worked an honest day in their life.
So it was easy to forget that T-Bag had been killing things probably before Maytag was born. It was only when he looked at him and saw the years written on his face that he realized how much more T-Bag had seen and done than his meager existence. All he knew was who he’d killed or tortured or who had tortured him, there were all those years between that were a mystery.
“You ever have a girlfriend?” Maytag asked, trying to keep the question light and sound like he didn’t really care whether he got an answer or not. For all he knew, T-Bag could have been married, as unlikely as it seemed.
T-Bag raised an eyebrow and lowered the cigarette, slowly blowing the smoke in Maytag’s direction as he studied the boy. “Where’d that come from?” Maytag shrugged and turned his face back to the ceiling like he was finished with the subject. T-Bag considered the question for a minute. “Yeah, I have.”
Turning his face back, Maytag tried to hide his smile, “A lot of them?”
“I dunno about ‘a lot’. What’s wrong with you, gettin’ jealous or somethin’?” T-Bag chuckled, putting out the cigarette on the edge of the sink.
“No, I was just wondering. ‘Cause you told me about, like, every girl you ever killed but not any that were just, you know, your girlfriend.”
“Don’t see how it’s any o’ your business.”
“Guess it’s not,” Maytag relented. He had his answer. As much of an answer as he usually got, at least, and it didn’t seem likely that T-Bag would share such trivial stories as taking a little blonde girl to the school dance.
“I didn’t tell you,” T-Bag continued, “‘cause there’s not much to tell.”
“Were they pretty?”
“You questionin’ my taste?”
“No,” Maytag snickered, “Did you...did you kill any of them?” The hopefulness in his voice amused T-Bag more than the question itself.
“Some.” One of those psycho-analyzing people had told him he killed them ‘cause they never lived up to his expectations, that he’d projected all his insecurities onto them so they were never good enough and it was all their fault. He just killed them to watch them die.
“Jamie was my prom date. Did you kill your prom date too?”
“Never had a prom date. Never went to the prom,” T-Bag frowned, not that he actually ever really wanted to go to the silly dance and drink punch and feel up his date in the back of her daddy’s car, ‘cept maybe that last part, but the fact he’d never had the option still bothered him. Stupid girls.
“How come?” Maytag sounded baffled that anyone could not go to the prom. Leave it to the popular kid to not understand.
“Didn’t want to. Drove into town with my cousin instead.”
“That was better than getting laid?”
T-Bag smirked, “Who says I didn’t?” Maytag’s face scrunched. “No no no, not with Jimmy.”
“Oh. So...”
“One o’ Jimmy’s friends, I suppose. Don’t remember who knew who.” It had been a strange night, but still more fun than all those kids fumbling around in the school gym had had. Lacking the bigger sources of entertainment, young people from small towns found their own fun, most of which consisted of driving, drinking, and sex. All of which had suited him just fine.
“Was it like a party or something?”
T-Bag smiled to himself, “Somethin’ like that.”
It was a good thing no one was on the road that night. Jimmy had pulled up to the house and nearly parked on the front porch, even though he swore he hadn’t been drinking. The fact there was a fresh beer stain on the passenger seat and a couple empty bottles on the floor didn’t really support his argument. Theo threw his jacket on the wet spot and climbed in, slamming the door a few times before it stayed closed.
The truck never did run right, and only one of the speakers worked with the other one cutting in and out, but they played the radio anyway. Theo hung his arm out the window that had been broken the summer before and never replaced, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the gas fumes weren’t so bad. “Where we goin’?”
“Town, I guess,” Jimmy shrugged, taking the corner towards the main road so fast Theo clung to the door for fear of falling out the open window. “Unless you wanna go to the school n’ mess with ‘em. Pop their tires or somethin’.”
“Nah.” Point of goin’ out with Jimmy was to forget the fact he’d been conveniently shunned from his classmates’ little festivities. They swerved onto the main road, crunch of gravel replaced with uneven pavement that rattled the truck every time they hit a bump. “Take it easy on the potholes, huh?” Theo cracked his neck, slipping his hand out the window to hold onto the roof and keep from bouncing out of his seat.
It wasn’t that long of a drive, just seemed longer ‘cause there was nothing to look at and even less to see in the dark. Theo was sure that any minute they’d see some headlights headed in their direction, and Jimmy would run them right into a tree. But five songs passed uneventfully on the radio, plus the time Theo spent fiddling with the knob that kept falling off, trying to find a station that came in better.
They pulled into town and skidded down the main street, almost the only street, suddenly hit with the realization there wasn’t anything to do there either. “Watcha wanna do?” Theo murmured, watching some old woman locking up her store. Harassing her for awhile might be kinda funny, but it was too early to be chased out of town.
Jimmy turned the truck around, managing to only run up on the curb a little, and headed in the other direction. There was always someone at the restaurant, and they were always more bored than they were. “Hungry?” he asked as they pulled up to the little building with dirty windows and trash in the parking lot, “I stole some money from mama’s purse.”
Theo shrugged and hopped out, kicking an empty cup across the ground as they went inside. Jimmy ordered as much food as they could afford while Theo slid into one of the greasy booths, away from the nosey waitress who would ask all kinds of questions if they sat at the counter. There was ketchup smeared on one of the seats, he left that side for Jimmy, who didn’t notice when he sat down.
“Workin’ this summer?”
Theo didn’t answer, elbow on the table and chin in his hand. Papa had said he had to, but Papa said a lot of things.
“Here ya go, boys,” the waitress set the food on the table, eyeing the two of them over her shoulder as she walked away. The taller one had been in before with other no good kids from town, but the little one wasn’t familiar. Looked like nothin’ but trouble, though. She wouldn’t feed the stray cats in the back alley, and she didn’t like serving those two.
Theo stirred his soda and watched the ice spin in the glass. Jimmy wasn’t doing a very good job of distracting him, all he could think of was all the silly girls that had probably gone to the prom alone rather than go with him. Picking up the silverware, he shoved the dull knife through the center of his burger.
“Food ain’t that bad,” Jimmy laughed with his mouth full.
Theo ordered himself to stop the pitying and eat, but he only managed to pick at the fries. Probably should’ve eaten more, he figured, put on a bit of weight so we wasn’t so scrawny and then maybe the girls would like him better. Dammit, thinking about it again. Wouldn’t matter, anyway, he’d still be the weird Bagwell kid.
“Gonna finish?” Jimmy asked, already reaching for the burger with the knife still sticking out of it. Theo pushed it towards him and downed the last of his soda.
Jimmy was halfway through the second supper, needing a good meal as much as Theo did, when the door opened behind them. A small crowd of kids, in their late teens maybe, piled up to the counter to argue the to-go order.
“Hey, I know her,” Jimmy grinned, “Nicky!”
A girl near the back of the group turned, and Theo raised an eyebrow at her torn jeans and big boots. Ladies in his neighborhood all taught their daughters to be proper little dolls and wouldn’t let them traipse around in boots made for workin’ men.
“Watcha doin’ out here, Jimmy?” She leaned against the booth on Theo’s side, studying him with as much amusement as he looked up at her with.
“Nothin’ yet,” Jimmy shrugged and pushed the empty plates away.
“Who’s this?” She rested her arm just behind Theo’s neck, leaning so close he could smell the shampoo and cigarette smoke on her.
“S’my cousin, Theodore.”
Theo was glad when she just smiled at him, too many people frowned and gave him weird sympathetic looks. All the gossip must not have made it to her, or she just didn’t remember.
“Y’all got the truck, right?”
Jimmy nodded, pointing out the window to their rusty excuse for transportation that was sitting unlocked in the parking lot. Like anyone would steal it. They could crawl through the missing window if they wanted it that bad.
“We’re headin’ out to my house, could fit some people in the back of that thing.”
“Folks gone again?” Jimmy wasn’t real sure what her parents did exactly, but they were gone more often than not. Wasn’t much else to do, so they paid the check and loaded half the group into the back of their truck. Theo insisted he drive since all that extra weight sliding around in the back was liable to make Jimmy flip ‘em over within two blocks.
Nicky slid in the middle, leaning into Theo on the turns. Such a funny girl, different than the meek creatures that plagued his school. Every now and then she’d grab the wheel and watch Theo struggle to keep them on the road. “Hey now, little girly, gonna dump your friends in the ditch.” She just laughed and shifted over to Jimmy’s side.
Her house turned out to be just outside of town, a bit run down mostly from lack of attention. It could use a little weeding and maybe some new paint, but it looked nice enough. Nicky let them in and took Jimmy to help her carry the beer while Theo poked around the living room. An overflowing ashtray, dead flowers in the vase, he half expected to find a dead cat that hadn’t been fed. The floor was sticky and covered in stains from spills that hadn’t been cleaned up. Didn’t look as nice as blood stains.
“Hope y’all ain’t picky,” Nicky said as she made space on the coffee table for Jimmy’s arm load of beer. Theo had nearly forgotten there were other people in the room, they were just like all the kids from school, boring and easy to ignore. He perched on the arm of a chair and watched them clamor for the bottles. Maybe if he waited till they were drunk enough, all those dead plants outside would light up real nice with the matches in his pocket and they wouldn’t even notice.
“Hey,” Jimmy poked him in the arm with a cold bottle, “Here.”
“What’re we doin’ here?” Theo groaned.
“Waitin’.”
“For what?”
“Her.” Jimmy jerked his head to where Nicky was sitting on an end table, knocking off unopened mail in the process. He pinched Theo’s cheek. “Think she likes you.”
“I’ll cut your hand off.”
“I can still whoop ya with the other one, little guy.”
Theo glared up at him. Jimmy wasn’t that much taller anymore, not like he used to be, and Theo was pretty sure he could take him. If not by pure force, there was always the pocket knife. Nicky’s giggling distracted him, and he went back to watching the idiots make drunken fools of themselves. She seemed to like the attention more than any particular person, but he could’ve sworn she kept lookin’ at him.
He was about to demand Jimmy leave with him when Nicky tugged on his arm. “C’mere, wanna show ya somethin’.”
“You’re gonna love this,” Jimmy snickered, following them down the hall and into her bedroom.
“The hell...” Theo mumbled, stopping just inside the doorway as he came eye to eye with a stuffed squirrel on a shelf.
“Like ‘em? My grandpa stuffs ‘em,” Nicky proudly picked up a cat, probably someone’s pet that had mysteriously gone missing by the look of it, “I help out.”
“What’s a girl like you doin’ pullin’ the insides outta all them critters?” Theo smirked, running a finger over the squirrel. The thought of her with bloody hands and a little corpse on the table made his pants just a little tighter.
“It’s fun,” she shrugged, putting the cat down, “That was the neighbors’.”
Theo licked his lips and stepped a little further into the room. The bed was normal enough. There were even cute little pictures in green frames next to it, but all those dead faces lined the walls. He wished it was his room. “How do ya do it?”
“It’s real easy, just empty ‘em out and fill ‘em up with sawdust and sew ‘em up. Grandpa does the sewin’, though. Jimmy said he was gonna work last summer, but he chickened out, didn’t ya?”
“Did not,” Jimmy huffed, arms crossed over his chest, “Didn’t have time.”
“Theo would help out, wouldn’t ya?”
Papa had said he needed to get a job. Theo nodded, though he knew he’d never really do it. Maybe for a day, then he’d get distracted with something else and stop showing up. “Watcha get paid for somethin’ like this?”
“Few bucks for the little ones.”
Damn, if only someone would pay Theo for everything he’d ever cut open. Little ones weren’t that fun anymore. Come to think of it, Nicky would look awful pretty sittin’ on her bed with those same blank eyes, lookin’ back at all those animals. “You’re one messed up little girl.”
Tryin’ to fuck her with all those faces on him was distracting, but it did help keep the image of her bloody fingers in his head. The threesome thing just wasn’t workin’ out, though, as she kept gettin’ distracted with Jimmy, and sharing had never been one of his strengths. “Better pay attention, girly,” he pulled her face towards him by her hair. Jimmy made an irritated noise but waited his turn.
Long scratches ran down his back, and he slid his hand up to her throat without thinking, cutting off all those pretty little moans. Her nails dug into his sides, but she didn’t try to push him off. The way she just kept bucking her hips and staring up with those wide blue eyes made him push harder, almost enough to cut off her air completely. He was gonna break her and choke all that fiery spirit right out of her. If he timed it right, she would die just before he came and be a nice addition to that collection of hers, left sprawled on the bed for those friends of hers to find in the morning, but Jimmy grabbed his shoulder.
“Come on, man, that’s enough.”
“Shh,” Theo shook him off, but Jimmy wasn’t giving up.
“Stop it.”
“I said hush,” Theo snapped, pausing his thrusts but leaving his hand wrapped around Nicky’s throat.
“Come on, Theo, not this one. I like her.”
“Ugh.” He rolled his eyes and looked down at the slightly disoriented ones beneath him. What a waste. She was awfully weird, though, might make for some fun another time. He lessened the pressure at her throat just enough that she’d stay alive and finished with much less enthusiasm, rolling over to wait for Jimmy to have his turn so they could leave.
“She left her boots on,” T-Bag smiled and shrugged, digging in his pocket for his own cigarettes. Maytag hadn't missed a word as he stared wide eyed from the bunk and snickered. Everything about T-Bag was more interesting than he was.
“Aw, my story sucks now,” Maytag sulked, though he’d pretty much gotten used to T-Bag being better at everything. “Did you ever get to kill her?”
“Nope. Jimmy would’a had me hanged for it, kid got awful attached to her. Only girl ever paid him a lick of attention.” Truth be told, he'd kinda liked havin' her around too, if only because she was utterly bizarre. She was sent off to boarding school for awhile after burning the old church down 'just because' but came back all the more rebellious. He still would've killed her the instant Jimmy said it was ok.
Maytag smiled at the almost sweet gesture, if not killing someone could be considered sweet. He almost brought up the beat up old photo he’d found but caught himself before he said anything. They were cousins, close enough for T-Bag to give up a kill for him, that was a good enough answer to who ‘Jimmy’ was.
“That still wasn’t a girlfriend story,” he reminded.
“You asked ‘bout the prom.”
“So now tell me about a girlfriend.”
Character/Pairing: T-Bag/Maytag
Prompt: #55, "spirit"
Rating: PG-13/light R-ish
Summary: Maytag finds out who Jimmy is, semi-continued from this at a later time.
Author's Notes: Well, like I told thelana, I planned on T-Bag telling Maytag about Jimmy, but I don't like dialogue that goes on forever, even if it is T-Bag. After about the first paragraph I'm thinkin' "shut the hell up already" 'cause most people don't tell stories in a very interesting manner anyway. So in comes the flashback, and it becomes T-Bag/Jimmy with Maytag bookends. But that's ok, Jimmy's fun too. Sorry to all the T-Bag/Jimmy lovers for the "not with Jimmy" line, maybe some other time. :D And the title is taken from the song Holocaust, which I find far more creepy than I ever did when I think of it in reference to T-Bag. O_O You're a wasted face, You're a sad-eyed lie, You're a holocaust
Oh, and there's relatively non-graphic het, if that bothers anyone. Shout out to Brian for the taxidermy. B)
Why were the best things in life always so bad for you? Maytag pondered the idea as he stared up at the ceiling, eyes half closed and cigarette nearly falling from his mouth. T-Bag plucked it from his lips and moved to stand against the wall.
“Hey, that was mine,” Maytag protested sleepily, though he didn’t care enough to bother getting up.
“You were about to fall asleep and burn a hole in your chest.” T-Bag took a long drag from the half gone cigarette and tipped his head back as the smoke slowly spiraled upwards. Whoever had said smoking wasn’t cool had been so wrong, or at least Maytag thought they had been. Living with T-Bag, cancer probably wasn’t his biggest concern anyway.
Still, it was his last one, and was now being happily enjoyed by T-Bag. Not worth the fight, a fight that would only get him a bruised ego and some nice little burns for the trouble. Instead, he settled for dropping his head to the side and watching the smoke drift from between T-Bag’s lips.
Sometimes he forgot how much older T-Bag was, old enough to be his uncle at least. Age became just a number behind bars when you couldn’t judge someone on their profession or car or how big their house was. There were no stages of life, no students or businessmen or heads of corporations. Just men serving time. Those who had been business owners on the outside were easily outranked by men who had never finished high school or worked an honest day in their life.
So it was easy to forget that T-Bag had been killing things probably before Maytag was born. It was only when he looked at him and saw the years written on his face that he realized how much more T-Bag had seen and done than his meager existence. All he knew was who he’d killed or tortured or who had tortured him, there were all those years between that were a mystery.
“You ever have a girlfriend?” Maytag asked, trying to keep the question light and sound like he didn’t really care whether he got an answer or not. For all he knew, T-Bag could have been married, as unlikely as it seemed.
T-Bag raised an eyebrow and lowered the cigarette, slowly blowing the smoke in Maytag’s direction as he studied the boy. “Where’d that come from?” Maytag shrugged and turned his face back to the ceiling like he was finished with the subject. T-Bag considered the question for a minute. “Yeah, I have.”
Turning his face back, Maytag tried to hide his smile, “A lot of them?”
“I dunno about ‘a lot’. What’s wrong with you, gettin’ jealous or somethin’?” T-Bag chuckled, putting out the cigarette on the edge of the sink.
“No, I was just wondering. ‘Cause you told me about, like, every girl you ever killed but not any that were just, you know, your girlfriend.”
“Don’t see how it’s any o’ your business.”
“Guess it’s not,” Maytag relented. He had his answer. As much of an answer as he usually got, at least, and it didn’t seem likely that T-Bag would share such trivial stories as taking a little blonde girl to the school dance.
“I didn’t tell you,” T-Bag continued, “‘cause there’s not much to tell.”
“Were they pretty?”
“You questionin’ my taste?”
“No,” Maytag snickered, “Did you...did you kill any of them?” The hopefulness in his voice amused T-Bag more than the question itself.
“Some.” One of those psycho-analyzing people had told him he killed them ‘cause they never lived up to his expectations, that he’d projected all his insecurities onto them so they were never good enough and it was all their fault. He just killed them to watch them die.
“Jamie was my prom date. Did you kill your prom date too?”
“Never had a prom date. Never went to the prom,” T-Bag frowned, not that he actually ever really wanted to go to the silly dance and drink punch and feel up his date in the back of her daddy’s car, ‘cept maybe that last part, but the fact he’d never had the option still bothered him. Stupid girls.
“How come?” Maytag sounded baffled that anyone could not go to the prom. Leave it to the popular kid to not understand.
“Didn’t want to. Drove into town with my cousin instead.”
“That was better than getting laid?”
T-Bag smirked, “Who says I didn’t?” Maytag’s face scrunched. “No no no, not with Jimmy.”
“Oh. So...”
“One o’ Jimmy’s friends, I suppose. Don’t remember who knew who.” It had been a strange night, but still more fun than all those kids fumbling around in the school gym had had. Lacking the bigger sources of entertainment, young people from small towns found their own fun, most of which consisted of driving, drinking, and sex. All of which had suited him just fine.
“Was it like a party or something?”
T-Bag smiled to himself, “Somethin’ like that.”
It was a good thing no one was on the road that night. Jimmy had pulled up to the house and nearly parked on the front porch, even though he swore he hadn’t been drinking. The fact there was a fresh beer stain on the passenger seat and a couple empty bottles on the floor didn’t really support his argument. Theo threw his jacket on the wet spot and climbed in, slamming the door a few times before it stayed closed.
The truck never did run right, and only one of the speakers worked with the other one cutting in and out, but they played the radio anyway. Theo hung his arm out the window that had been broken the summer before and never replaced, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the gas fumes weren’t so bad. “Where we goin’?”
“Town, I guess,” Jimmy shrugged, taking the corner towards the main road so fast Theo clung to the door for fear of falling out the open window. “Unless you wanna go to the school n’ mess with ‘em. Pop their tires or somethin’.”
“Nah.” Point of goin’ out with Jimmy was to forget the fact he’d been conveniently shunned from his classmates’ little festivities. They swerved onto the main road, crunch of gravel replaced with uneven pavement that rattled the truck every time they hit a bump. “Take it easy on the potholes, huh?” Theo cracked his neck, slipping his hand out the window to hold onto the roof and keep from bouncing out of his seat.
It wasn’t that long of a drive, just seemed longer ‘cause there was nothing to look at and even less to see in the dark. Theo was sure that any minute they’d see some headlights headed in their direction, and Jimmy would run them right into a tree. But five songs passed uneventfully on the radio, plus the time Theo spent fiddling with the knob that kept falling off, trying to find a station that came in better.
They pulled into town and skidded down the main street, almost the only street, suddenly hit with the realization there wasn’t anything to do there either. “Watcha wanna do?” Theo murmured, watching some old woman locking up her store. Harassing her for awhile might be kinda funny, but it was too early to be chased out of town.
Jimmy turned the truck around, managing to only run up on the curb a little, and headed in the other direction. There was always someone at the restaurant, and they were always more bored than they were. “Hungry?” he asked as they pulled up to the little building with dirty windows and trash in the parking lot, “I stole some money from mama’s purse.”
Theo shrugged and hopped out, kicking an empty cup across the ground as they went inside. Jimmy ordered as much food as they could afford while Theo slid into one of the greasy booths, away from the nosey waitress who would ask all kinds of questions if they sat at the counter. There was ketchup smeared on one of the seats, he left that side for Jimmy, who didn’t notice when he sat down.
“Workin’ this summer?”
Theo didn’t answer, elbow on the table and chin in his hand. Papa had said he had to, but Papa said a lot of things.
“Here ya go, boys,” the waitress set the food on the table, eyeing the two of them over her shoulder as she walked away. The taller one had been in before with other no good kids from town, but the little one wasn’t familiar. Looked like nothin’ but trouble, though. She wouldn’t feed the stray cats in the back alley, and she didn’t like serving those two.
Theo stirred his soda and watched the ice spin in the glass. Jimmy wasn’t doing a very good job of distracting him, all he could think of was all the silly girls that had probably gone to the prom alone rather than go with him. Picking up the silverware, he shoved the dull knife through the center of his burger.
“Food ain’t that bad,” Jimmy laughed with his mouth full.
Theo ordered himself to stop the pitying and eat, but he only managed to pick at the fries. Probably should’ve eaten more, he figured, put on a bit of weight so we wasn’t so scrawny and then maybe the girls would like him better. Dammit, thinking about it again. Wouldn’t matter, anyway, he’d still be the weird Bagwell kid.
“Gonna finish?” Jimmy asked, already reaching for the burger with the knife still sticking out of it. Theo pushed it towards him and downed the last of his soda.
Jimmy was halfway through the second supper, needing a good meal as much as Theo did, when the door opened behind them. A small crowd of kids, in their late teens maybe, piled up to the counter to argue the to-go order.
“Hey, I know her,” Jimmy grinned, “Nicky!”
A girl near the back of the group turned, and Theo raised an eyebrow at her torn jeans and big boots. Ladies in his neighborhood all taught their daughters to be proper little dolls and wouldn’t let them traipse around in boots made for workin’ men.
“Watcha doin’ out here, Jimmy?” She leaned against the booth on Theo’s side, studying him with as much amusement as he looked up at her with.
“Nothin’ yet,” Jimmy shrugged and pushed the empty plates away.
“Who’s this?” She rested her arm just behind Theo’s neck, leaning so close he could smell the shampoo and cigarette smoke on her.
“S’my cousin, Theodore.”
Theo was glad when she just smiled at him, too many people frowned and gave him weird sympathetic looks. All the gossip must not have made it to her, or she just didn’t remember.
“Y’all got the truck, right?”
Jimmy nodded, pointing out the window to their rusty excuse for transportation that was sitting unlocked in the parking lot. Like anyone would steal it. They could crawl through the missing window if they wanted it that bad.
“We’re headin’ out to my house, could fit some people in the back of that thing.”
“Folks gone again?” Jimmy wasn’t real sure what her parents did exactly, but they were gone more often than not. Wasn’t much else to do, so they paid the check and loaded half the group into the back of their truck. Theo insisted he drive since all that extra weight sliding around in the back was liable to make Jimmy flip ‘em over within two blocks.
Nicky slid in the middle, leaning into Theo on the turns. Such a funny girl, different than the meek creatures that plagued his school. Every now and then she’d grab the wheel and watch Theo struggle to keep them on the road. “Hey now, little girly, gonna dump your friends in the ditch.” She just laughed and shifted over to Jimmy’s side.
Her house turned out to be just outside of town, a bit run down mostly from lack of attention. It could use a little weeding and maybe some new paint, but it looked nice enough. Nicky let them in and took Jimmy to help her carry the beer while Theo poked around the living room. An overflowing ashtray, dead flowers in the vase, he half expected to find a dead cat that hadn’t been fed. The floor was sticky and covered in stains from spills that hadn’t been cleaned up. Didn’t look as nice as blood stains.
“Hope y’all ain’t picky,” Nicky said as she made space on the coffee table for Jimmy’s arm load of beer. Theo had nearly forgotten there were other people in the room, they were just like all the kids from school, boring and easy to ignore. He perched on the arm of a chair and watched them clamor for the bottles. Maybe if he waited till they were drunk enough, all those dead plants outside would light up real nice with the matches in his pocket and they wouldn’t even notice.
“Hey,” Jimmy poked him in the arm with a cold bottle, “Here.”
“What’re we doin’ here?” Theo groaned.
“Waitin’.”
“For what?”
“Her.” Jimmy jerked his head to where Nicky was sitting on an end table, knocking off unopened mail in the process. He pinched Theo’s cheek. “Think she likes you.”
“I’ll cut your hand off.”
“I can still whoop ya with the other one, little guy.”
Theo glared up at him. Jimmy wasn’t that much taller anymore, not like he used to be, and Theo was pretty sure he could take him. If not by pure force, there was always the pocket knife. Nicky’s giggling distracted him, and he went back to watching the idiots make drunken fools of themselves. She seemed to like the attention more than any particular person, but he could’ve sworn she kept lookin’ at him.
He was about to demand Jimmy leave with him when Nicky tugged on his arm. “C’mere, wanna show ya somethin’.”
“You’re gonna love this,” Jimmy snickered, following them down the hall and into her bedroom.
“The hell...” Theo mumbled, stopping just inside the doorway as he came eye to eye with a stuffed squirrel on a shelf.
“Like ‘em? My grandpa stuffs ‘em,” Nicky proudly picked up a cat, probably someone’s pet that had mysteriously gone missing by the look of it, “I help out.”
“What’s a girl like you doin’ pullin’ the insides outta all them critters?” Theo smirked, running a finger over the squirrel. The thought of her with bloody hands and a little corpse on the table made his pants just a little tighter.
“It’s fun,” she shrugged, putting the cat down, “That was the neighbors’.”
Theo licked his lips and stepped a little further into the room. The bed was normal enough. There were even cute little pictures in green frames next to it, but all those dead faces lined the walls. He wished it was his room. “How do ya do it?”
“It’s real easy, just empty ‘em out and fill ‘em up with sawdust and sew ‘em up. Grandpa does the sewin’, though. Jimmy said he was gonna work last summer, but he chickened out, didn’t ya?”
“Did not,” Jimmy huffed, arms crossed over his chest, “Didn’t have time.”
“Theo would help out, wouldn’t ya?”
Papa had said he needed to get a job. Theo nodded, though he knew he’d never really do it. Maybe for a day, then he’d get distracted with something else and stop showing up. “Watcha get paid for somethin’ like this?”
“Few bucks for the little ones.”
Damn, if only someone would pay Theo for everything he’d ever cut open. Little ones weren’t that fun anymore. Come to think of it, Nicky would look awful pretty sittin’ on her bed with those same blank eyes, lookin’ back at all those animals. “You’re one messed up little girl.”
Tryin’ to fuck her with all those faces on him was distracting, but it did help keep the image of her bloody fingers in his head. The threesome thing just wasn’t workin’ out, though, as she kept gettin’ distracted with Jimmy, and sharing had never been one of his strengths. “Better pay attention, girly,” he pulled her face towards him by her hair. Jimmy made an irritated noise but waited his turn.
Long scratches ran down his back, and he slid his hand up to her throat without thinking, cutting off all those pretty little moans. Her nails dug into his sides, but she didn’t try to push him off. The way she just kept bucking her hips and staring up with those wide blue eyes made him push harder, almost enough to cut off her air completely. He was gonna break her and choke all that fiery spirit right out of her. If he timed it right, she would die just before he came and be a nice addition to that collection of hers, left sprawled on the bed for those friends of hers to find in the morning, but Jimmy grabbed his shoulder.
“Come on, man, that’s enough.”
“Shh,” Theo shook him off, but Jimmy wasn’t giving up.
“Stop it.”
“I said hush,” Theo snapped, pausing his thrusts but leaving his hand wrapped around Nicky’s throat.
“Come on, Theo, not this one. I like her.”
“Ugh.” He rolled his eyes and looked down at the slightly disoriented ones beneath him. What a waste. She was awfully weird, though, might make for some fun another time. He lessened the pressure at her throat just enough that she’d stay alive and finished with much less enthusiasm, rolling over to wait for Jimmy to have his turn so they could leave.
“She left her boots on,” T-Bag smiled and shrugged, digging in his pocket for his own cigarettes. Maytag hadn't missed a word as he stared wide eyed from the bunk and snickered. Everything about T-Bag was more interesting than he was.
“Aw, my story sucks now,” Maytag sulked, though he’d pretty much gotten used to T-Bag being better at everything. “Did you ever get to kill her?”
“Nope. Jimmy would’a had me hanged for it, kid got awful attached to her. Only girl ever paid him a lick of attention.” Truth be told, he'd kinda liked havin' her around too, if only because she was utterly bizarre. She was sent off to boarding school for awhile after burning the old church down 'just because' but came back all the more rebellious. He still would've killed her the instant Jimmy said it was ok.
Maytag smiled at the almost sweet gesture, if not killing someone could be considered sweet. He almost brought up the beat up old photo he’d found but caught himself before he said anything. They were cousins, close enough for T-Bag to give up a kill for him, that was a good enough answer to who ‘Jimmy’ was.
“That still wasn’t a girlfriend story,” he reminded.
“You asked ‘bout the prom.”
“So now tell me about a girlfriend.”