The world is ugly

Six

I walked with killjoy the mile and a half to my bar, Alex was sitting on a stool, chatting up Jack as he tended the bar. The pair of them waved to me as I passed them and went to the stairs, strictly off limits to the customers.

I rounded the corner and opened the door to a dusty apartment. It felt empty, even off the majority of my things were still here.

"We are going to grow old here Alice." Mike said, he dumped a box onto the floor and grinned at the glorious mess that was our new apartment.

"Mm hm. Whatever you say baby." I called, I brought up the sheets and blankets for the bed.

"I mean it! We'll have kids here, get a dog, maybe a cat." Mike came up behind me and hugged me, latching on to me as I folded the blankets.

"I don't like cats." I said, Mike kissed the base of my neck.

"I know, I know. But I like cats."

A fine layer of dust had settled over the mess left before Mike and my own last deployment. I knew the fridge was empty, we always emptied it out before we left.

Killjoy sniffed the couch, before turning and licking my hand.

"I know buddy," I said, scratching his head, "it's like a ghost town." I didn't have any real reason to come here, I was drawn to it by the promise of quiet. I'd forgotten the absolute feeling of loneliness that came with an abandoned home.

After I un-leashed killjoy, I grabbed the nearest pile of papers and sat down. They were mostly bills that had been paid years before, but I found myself tracing the messy scribble that was Mike's hand writing.

"My hand writing sucks, what the hell do you want your tattoo written in my script for?" Mike asked, we sat at a tattoo parlor, and I was trying to convince him to write a phrase down for me.

"I love your hand writing." I said, circled my fingers around the scull and crossbones on his upper arm. "It's how your voice looks written down."

I started marking out piles, paid, and needs attention. There were hardly any bills that needed paying, but the ones that needed to be paid were nowhere near cheap.

"Mike, we can't afford this-" I said motioning to the apartment.

"Yes, we can." Mike said, I rolled my eyes and looked back down at he paper in front of me.

Mike always had a thing about thinking big. I left the papers on the table, cleaned up an in The appropriate piles, and went in search of a broom. Mike liked to say I brought color into his life, that before him he was blue, and I was red.

I found the broom under the sink amidst a pile of random cleaning supplies. I began in the kitchen and started to sweep outwards. Mike was always the cleaner, versus me, who only ever cleaned when I couldn't walk through the mess, that is, unless he wasn't home.

"I can't stand you!" I yelled, Mike rolled his eyes and tried to pull me closer. I pushed against his chest and smacked his shoulder as hard as I could. He released me with a growl. "Do you even know why I'm angry?" he gave me a look that clearly said he hadn't the smallest idea.

"Pig." I muttered, stepping over him.

"That hurts Doll Face that really hurts." Mike took a step forward and promptly tripped over his own feet.  I watched as he tried to get back up, only resulting in sending the papers on the table flying. The room was already a mess, and I was sure if I went looking, I'd find a late night partner somewhere hiding from all the noise we were making.

"How would you know what hurts Mike?" I muttered, I kicked the papers in my path and headed toward the back rooms. I planned on grabbing some of my clothing and heading over to Honey's house for the night, I'd let him come to me in the morning and apologize like he always did. Mike made a noise in the kitchen and I ignored him.

"Aliiiiiccceeeeeeeee." I didn't answer, I just started shoving clothing into the bag.  When I came out of the back room he had managed to sit at the kitchen table, his head cradled in his hands.

"Were the fuck do you think you're going?" he asked, his palms were directly over his eyes, but I assumed he could hear me, I wasn't exactly being quiet.

"None of your damn business." I said, I opened the front door and slammed it behind me.

I didn't return to the house after the fight, I'd just met up with him at the Airport, along with honey and the boys. He'd apologized away from them all, even if they already knew that I'd left the apartment and left him stranded on his own for three days.

It irritated me to think he's never cleaned up the carnage of our fight, then again, I have no idea what he did in the days that he was alone. We'd never had a normal relationship, when I first met him, all I wanted to do was get him in trouble, and it nearly got me discharged now that I look back on it.  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I turned off my phone.

I put the broom down, and walked past the mess that was the living room to the back room. Our room. Killjoy lay sprawled out on the bed, breathing in and out of his nose heavily as he sniffed the blankets and pillows.

"You enjoying yourself?" I asked, I opened up the closet, and leafed through the clothing that still smelled like Mike. "Because, I'm sure as hell not."

"Not everything in life will be like this." Honey said, he held my hair back while I threw up in the toilet at his house, admittedly I was drunk. We were both done up to the nines, and I was pretty sure that he was going home with someone that wasn't me tonight. "I think you and Perry will get together some day, and I ship it sooo hard." The thought of being with Corporal Perry made me feel sick, bringing on a whole new wave of nauseous-ness.

"Don't even Joke about that." I gasped, Honey laughed and helped me stand. One of my heels was broken and I felt a little like a two bit whore that got left after a hook up.

"Doll, you look like shit!" he laughed, I burped, and left the stall. Honey followed me as I turned on the water and rinsed out my mouth. "You want a breath mint?"

The front door to the apartment opened, and I was taken back to a moment when I'd been waiting for Mike to come home. Killjoy laughed himself off the bed and went to investigate the door.

"You in here Doll?" Honey called. Killjoy barked, and when I came out of the back room, he was laying on him back on the floor, while honey rubbed his gut. There were flat boxes on the floor, presumably were he'd put them so he could pet Killjoy.

"Unfortunately." I said as I leaned against the door frame. "So what, are you moving?" I said, motioning to the boxes on the floor.

"No, but I came in for work and-" he stood, and dusted off his pants, "Jack said you came up were earlier, and hand come down yet. So I splurged on some boxes."

"Hm, and what are we going to do? Hide a body?" I said, killjoy was sitting up now, trying to shake Honey's hand, but only succeeding in scratching Honey's leg with his front paw.

"No, I figured you'd want to send some of Mike's stuff to his family, or to charity, or ya know. Just pack it up." He picked up the boxes and put them on the table. "I also figured you'd want to get this ready for actual use again."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that." I muttered.

"Quinn said you guys got into an argument." Honey said, he was still standing awkwardly by the door, he was usually better at these things, but the boys had come to realize it wasn't polite to just walk in on myself or Mike. Or I guess, just me now.

"Yeah, we did." I strode towards him, and picked up a box, "I'll tell you about it, help me pack up the table?" Honey grinned and took a role of duct tape off his arm.

"I was hoping you wouldn't kick me out!"

----

Hope this brightens your day, I'm glad I finally got this published. :)