Hood Rats | Sandy Milkovich

Bricks on Bricks

"Mickey doesn't get out for another week," Sandy explained. "Colin is locked up and Terry is out of town, so it's just the idiots with us tonight."

The Milkovich house reeked of cigarette smoke and gunpowder, the smell somehow wafted to the sidewalk. That wasn't surprising, of course, and neither was the loud shouts and the sound of a struggle coming from inside the living room. Rory raised her brows at Sandy for an explanation, but she just shrugged and led them inside.

She had only been inside the house once before. It was maybe a year ago when Sandy had invited her over to 'hang out', but Rory ended up spending most of the time being harassed by Terry Milkovich.

"Hey, assholes!" The door slammed open and the noises halted. 

Two boys were on the floor of the living room, the larger one had his thick arm wrapped around the other's neck. They froze their wrestling to glance up at the girls. "Oh, hey Sandy."

Arms crossed over her chest, Sandy glared down at them. "What are you two fuckheads doing?"

Rory recongnized the smaller man in the headlock to be Iggy Milkovich, one of the many boys in the family that was in and out of highschool and jail and the only other kid in the family she was familiar with. The bigger man released him casually, as if Iggy's face hadn't been turning an alarming shade of purple. "He drank the last of the fucking beer."

That granted him a dramatic eye roll from his little cousin. "I brought a friend." She pointed behind her and Rory crept into their view. "This is Joey. Joey, this is Rory. Where's Mandy and her little boyfriend at?"

Joey looked around like Mandy might pop out of one of the shadowy regions of the house. "I don't know. I think she said something about going to a fight club." At full height, he was actually a lot taller than Rory expected. Both Iggy and his younger brother Mickey were all that taller than she was, but Joey was at least six feet, towering over her. He flickered his gaze to her, almost as an afterthought, and a smile found his large lips. "Nice to meet you."

She didn't exactly expect a warm welcome from the boys, so she was taken aback to say the least. "Uh, you too."

By then, Iggy had finished wheezing on the floor and his face had returned to it's normal ruddy state. He popped up like it was nothing. "Nice to see your pretty face around again."

Both of the girls ignored his wink and Sandy plopped down on the couch. Rory hesitated. "You good?"

It was obvious that the younger girl was lost deep in thought. Her face was contorted into a pained expression, eyes trailed on the dirty carpet. "Uh, yeah. You guys got any booze?"

"In the kitchen," a new voice supplied. It was another Milkovich, or at least he looked enough like Joey and Sandy to pass as one. He emerged from a hallway towards the back of the house and joined the cousins in front of the tv.

Their guest took his word for it. The kitchen was messier than the living room by far. The counters were cluttered with empty cans and the sink piled high with dirty dishes, food stains and cigarette butts took up any of the empty space. All except for the small counter next to the stove, which was littered with different bottles of alcohol at varying levels of emptiness. Rory let her fingers trance over the glasses until it landed on a bottle of Titos. 

She plucked it from the bunch before joining the group on the dusty couch. Sandy eyed her suspiciously. "Y'know, you're not gonna get stabbed here."

Rory pointedly avoided her gaze. "I know." She didn't really, but that wasn't her problem.

Iggy took the place next to her on the cushions. His arm draped around the pillow behind her, just inches from being wrapped around her shoulders. "Maybe she's just nervous to be in a house full of criminals."