A Month To Live - Extras

The Night of Many Shots (2/4)

‘I’m not wearing that,’ I said, crossing my arms in front of me.

‘Come on, Raegan!’ George whined, tugging on my arm like a spoilt kid. ‘You need to look at least three years older.’

‘George,’ I said calmly. ‘I am not stuffing a freaking fake baby bump underneath my top. No way. And why the hell do you even have one of these?’ I exclaimed.

‘Mom does a lot of improv classes,’ he shrugged, boosting himself up onto the bed of his truck and pulling back the tarp. ‘See, I’ve got a lot of her costumes and props right here. I’m supposed to drop if off at her theatre group later but I thought we could have fun first!’

‘George, I thought you just wanted to buy alcohol. I don’t want to wear any of this crazy shit,’ I sighed, sitting down on the back of his truck and glancing over the box of wigs and hats. I even saw a fake sword and some cheerleading pom poms.

‘Come on, Raegan,’ he complained. ‘Why’re you acting like it’s such a chore to hang out with me?’ he added, picking out a green fedora and dropping it onto his head.

‘You know,’ I said slowly as I eyed him. ‘I think I’m starting to understand why you are the way you are.’

‘How am I?’ he asked, tracing the brim of his hat in a very Michael Jackson-like fashion.

‘Your mom's an actress, Jojo's a bit of a man-whore by the looks of it,’ I said, ticking off his family members on my fingers as he nodded in agreement. ‘What’s your dad?’

‘A somewhat abusive alcoholic,’ George replied after a moment of consideration. He’d spoken in a serious voice I’d never heard from him before. I blinked in surprise and looked up at him, unsure what to say in response. ‘Hey, don’t do that face,’ he said, pointing at me before hopping down and leaning against the truck. ‘Sharing is caring, remember?’

‘I... you wanna talk about it?’ I asked hesitantly.

How did I not ever know about this before? Surely, I should have known this. I felt like such an asshole.

‘There’s not a lot to talk about,’ he shrugged. ‘But, unlike you, I’ll happily share details of my life if you want to know.’

I let out a huff of air and glowered at him for a long moment. He sounded like Bradley when he said that. Only thing was, I was comfortable enough with Bradley to actually share personal details. I liked George, a lot, but now that I thought about it, we’d never really had an actual conversation about ourselves.

‘I can’t take you seriously in that damn hat,’ I growled, snatching it off his head. I turned it over in my fingers a couple of times as I gathered my thoughts. ‘What’s he like?’

‘Not so bad these days,’ George shrugged. ‘Worse when we were kids. He hit me and Jojo a couple of times but our oldest brother knocked his teeth out when he found out. He never hurt mom. Physically.’

I gripped the hat tighter between my fingers as he spoke. I felt pretty bad. I realised that I’d been so wrapped up in my own life and Bradley that I’d never even bothered really getting to know my other friends even though I hung out with them all the time.

Poor George. He was such a happy-go-lucky guy that you’d immediately assume nothing bad had ever happened to him. And here he was smiling still while talking about his abusive alcoholic father.

‘Does he still live with you?’ I asked quietly.

I’d never seen his dad, come to think of it. I’d seen his mom a lot and she was a complete sweetheart. A few comments she’d made seemed to click into place now, though. She was always there when we left to make sure no-one drove home drunk. I’d found it kind of odd how she was so relaxed about us drinking at the house too, but she’d told me once she would rather us drink at home safely, than out on the streets.