Warrior

Chapter 16: VFW

I've been working at the Veterans bar for about two weeks now, and I already knew the regulars. They all spilled their stories out to be drunkenly, and I'm sure I've shared mine a few times, we all kind of understood each other to an extent, and we all had a deep sadness.  Now this bar was open to everyone, but mostly the wandering army men came in and late at night, that's all who remained. The VFW was down the street, so many of them  knew this place from there, so instead of Blood Brothers Brewery, which was the name of the bar, the owner was Irish. Most people just called it the veterans bar.

This was a sad place sometimes, and some of these men had heartbreaking stories, but they all greeted each other as family, except the army brats that came here some nights, flaunting themselves like heroes when they haven't even gone to battle yet, sooner or later they'd co,e back here, scarred and war torn like the rest of us. A man sat in front of the bar, someone I knew as Major Matthew Yaxley, I gave him a little salute, as I always did if their rank was higher than mine, he half smiled at me and I filled his glass with vodka, what he usually got.

"How you feelin, major?" I asked, putting the cap on the bottle and leaning on the bar to look at him.

"You don't gotta call me that" he laughed, "pretty good though, corporal" he added, mocking me a little but we laughed again.

"Just respectin' the rank" he chuckled and nodded, he lost a lot of his men, and he didn't forgive himself for it but he knew that's what happened in the army, and he kind of accepted it, he was one of the happier people here.

I scammed the tables and booths, examining who was here tonight. We were in the presence of Colonel John Winters tonight, he was quiet, kept to himself most of the time. He sat at his booth and read like he usually did when he was here, he was the highest ranked in the room. Then you had the enlisted ranks sitting with each other in little groups, talking amongst themselves, about their wives and kids and their lost brothers, we even had a few warrant officers tonight. Since it was slow, I was the only one tending the bar, I handed out beers to soldiers and officers alike, saluting and smiling when and they did back, but we all had that understanding of why we were here.

I poured myself some whiskey and shot it back, turning to clean some glasses. When I turned back around, there was someone new at the bar, someone I hadn't seen before. I turned to look at him a little more and he took off his hood, revealing his black hat under it.

"Whis- woah" he stopped, and Tommy's storm grey eyes met mine. We stared at each other in shock for a moment but I got him a glass and filled it with our best whiskey. "What are you doin' here?" His lips parted slightly and he pressed the glass to them.

"I work here, what's it look like" I replied sarcastically. He nodded.

"No wonder you were so fuckin drunk last night" Matt laughed a little from his seat not to far down from Tommy and they shared a smile.

"Don't think because I called you when I was drunk last night that I forgive you, I don't know why I did." I spoke coldly and his smile faded. Matt stopped laughing and it felt like it was just me and Tommy in the room. "You still left."

"Well from what I heard so did you, you left when you turned 19" he spoke low and shook his glass, prompting me to refill it. He leaned back a bit, examining me.

"And you haven't even made an effort to contact Brendan he's your brother" my eyes narrowed and I crossed my arms

"He's not brother to me." He cleared his throat "my brother was-"

"Manny, I know" I noticed the marine corps number tattooed on his chest that showed through the white tank top he wore under his sweater, Manny's numbers. I pulled my shirt down and showed him the numbers tattooed over my heart "I have Joel's too, you're not the only one who lost a brother, Tommy" he stared at the numbers for a bit, then back at my face, chewing on his toothpick thoughtfully. "Look around, Tommy look at the people in this room, every one of them lost a fucking brother, old Arthur over there, he lost his son. Tommy looked back at the older soldier and then I pointed to a different soldier, with a dog. "And Ben, he lost his eyes, that dog is his seeing eye dog and he's here every night" Tommy looked back at me, a hardness in his eyes, but he was listening "his eyes were taken from battle and now thats all he can see in his mind anymore, he comes here to forget."

"What the fuck are you trying to do, Naomi?" He growled and I poured a drink for him and myself.

"Don't fucking come in here and act like you're the only one who's hurting" he gripped his glass tightly, and his eyes looked away from mine. "And your family's hurting too Tommy" he shot up from his seat.

"Don't you fuckin start talking about that shit, I'm not here for that so fuck off" he turned on his heel to walk away.

"Don't you fucking walk away from me Tommy" he stopped and turned his head a little towards me, but I couldn't see his face. "You walk away from Brendan and Jade and pop but don't you dare fucking walk away from me like that. Sit the fuck down." He turned to look at me.

"Who do you think you are?" He chuckled, his hands shoved in his pocket. "You come back from war and you think you know everything, huh?" He walked up to the bar and leaned in, his face inches from mine. "You're full of shit" The rest of the bar wasn't really paying attention to us, we were never really the type to intrude each other's business, except for Matt, he always listened, he knew everything that happened around here. "You keep walking around with all your I understand your pain but you don't" he sneered.

"I don't?!" I laughed, and Tommy held his hard gaze. "What don't I understand you losing your mother? I lost mine when I was ten Tommy, you losing Manny? I lost Joel. So don't you fucking tell me that I don't understand, that I haven't seen what you've seen. But that don't mean you go and shut us out, they need you" Tommy sat down, I guess I was getting to him.

"Jade don't need me, Naomi" he drank his drink and pulled off his hat, his hair was matted to his head and his eyes peered up at me, "and I don't wanna fucking see Brendan you know that" I sighed and handed someone a beer, a young private, fresh out out of basic training. "And don't you tell me I have to see him, because he shoulda came with me, ma needed him, I needed him he made his fuckin choice, the girl" he made a sound of disgust and I gave him a beer.

"He married her you know..." Tommy looked at me, then at my hand for some reason then back at my face. "They have two beautiful girls, Tommy you should see em"

"Nah" he shrugged. "I had a brother, it wasn't him"

"How... How's his wife doing?" I asked, remembering a time when Manny told me about her, how beautiful she was how much he loved her and their two kids. Tommy shot me a look, probably wondering how I knew. "I knew him too you know" Tommy gave me a small smile.

"Pilar? She's doin good, kids are good... They just..." He trailed off and I leaned my elbows on the bar, resting my chin in my hands, "I made her and manny a promise, man, I promised I'd send some money they need it the kids..." I frowned a little. "I'm... Doin that Sparta thing, Colt got me in... If I win I'm givin' them the money..." He looked up at me, and I knew there was still some good in Tommy. I smiled at him.

"So that's why you're back at pops... I thought-"

"He means nothing to me, Naomi." His eyes were hard as he talked about his father. "He's just a trainer, I don't train with people I don't know" he looked over at Matt who I poured some more vodka for and then he looked at me, smiling a little bit, I wondered what was running through his mind, his smile widened as he looked at my face, the same smile I remember, it made me realize just how much I missed him.

"W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, wondering if Tommy's sanity had let go.

"What you doin' after this?" He asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Home... Why?" His smile faded a little, he scratched his head and shifted awkwardly, like he used to when we were teenagers.

"I uh..." He paused. "Ahh nevermind" he got up and put some money down on the bar. I smirked at him and he froze when he looked up at me.

"I get off in half an hour, you can come home with me, if that's what you're asking" I smiled, I knew he didn't want to go back to Pop, he shook his head and  he sat back down. He laughed, a real laugh and It made my heart smile, the most happiness I've seen out of him in a while.

"You're still fuckin' crazy" he smiled, and I frowned a little "I like it"