Disposable Teens

6

Then

"Heya, Harley!" Roland greeted her cheerily the next morning. She smiled half-heartedly at him.

"Hi, Roland." She said with monotone. He remained ignorant of her inner turmoil and sat down next to her at the breakfast table. Harley's eyes strayed to where she had witnessed Bik and Steel the previous night and once again, was attacked with a wave of nausea.

"Ai, Tom?" Roland's Irish accent called out to one of the twins who sat across from us. He looked barely 20 but had his good looks.

"It's Tim." He grunted.

"Same thing." Roland waved him off, pronouncing 'thing' as 'ting', "Ya know where Bik is?" At his name, Harley went pale and felt her heart pound painfully in her throat.

"No," Tim grunted.

"Why's he in here?" Harley asked the both of them. They immediately cut their gazes to Harley.

"Who you lovely ladies talking about?" A foreign accent chimed like bells and suddenly a girl with short bright blue hair sat down next to Tim. The other twin shortly followed and squeezed in next to her, on her other side. She looked like an ice queen with her hair, flanked by marble statues. Harley was in awe of the newcomer, how she held herself like she knew something Harley didn't, and she could destroy you with the flick of her tongue.  She felt Harley staring at her so she looked at the young girl with the missing teeth and ran her tongue over her own.

"Hello there, Maude." Roland smiled brightly at the newcomer. She broke her eye contact with Harley and looked over to Roland instead.

"Hi, Roland." She said with a slight roll of her hazel eyes.

"Hey, Tom." He moved onto the other twin who only made an indecipherable grunting sound before digging into his food.

"I heard you were talking about my good friend Bik," Maude said, bringing the conversation back onto topic. Roland laughed manically while Tim and Tom snorted into their food.  Even Maude had to fight a sly smile off her face.

"What's so funny?" Harley asked Roland. He ignored her and kept laughing.

"Good....friend...Maude! You kill me!" He cackled.

"What's so funny?" Harley asked with more conviction. Once again, she was ignored by the whole group. This undoubtedly made her angry. She grabbed the nearest utensil, which was a plastic knife, and brandished it in Roland's face. When his eyes opened next, they widened and his laughter died down. The twins and Maude watched on with curiosity and hesitation.

"Wanna tell me what's so damn funny?" Harley said sweetly but her eyes conveyed an emotion that was anything but. Roland swallowed nervously.

"You can't do anything with that knife Harley. It's made to be harmless." His eyes flickered all around, his left eye twitching harder than ever.

"Isn't that what they say about children and puppies?" She retorted and Roland frowned in acknowledgement.

"True." He nodded slightly. "How about this? Put the knife down and I'll tell you. Sound like a plan?" He asked.

"Sounds perfect." Harley smiled and lowered the knife, flicking it across her knuckles with expertise. Maude regarded her with evaluating eyes.

"Maude doesn't like Bik. I don't like Bik, neither do the two boulders over there." Roland pointed at the twins who shot him a glare. "Nobody likes Bik." He summed up with a smile.

"And he sits with you because..."

"He's useful." This time, Maude answered her. "He knows his way around, knows how to get in and out of places. Plus, Steel has a soft spot for him."