The city was hot today, really hot. The kind of heat that turns your legs to lead and the air in your lungs thick and vaporous. We didn't need to go out today, there was enough food for two weeks. Not that Joan was about to let Noah walk on his ankle yet anyway. It was left up to us to find ways of staying entertained in the mid-May heat. I suppose there is a cost to our shenanigans, but it's not entirely my fault, I'm not the one who tried to stand in a twig. If you ask me Noah is playing it up. Every time I sprain my ankle I work through it, not take two days off. No one ever gave me a break, not Roan, not Blind, especially not when I lived at home. Noah, the health conscious man that he is went to Joan rather than deal with it himself, I'm not complaining but i'm not happy either. He isn't allowed off of the top two floors for a whole day yet and the bug of our boredom is starting to bite. The day he sprained his ankle I put him in my room and he decided then that he liked it better than sharing the big room with nineteen other men. My room is on the other end of the hall and because of the distance from the others I've never had to deal with a roommate. Sometimes I have wondered if it is because of my offish nature towards sharing my alone time but for the sake of remaining optimistic decided that it must be the distance. I'm not friendly but I am far from the scariest person here. My room has five beds an equal distance apart and out of all four remaining Noah chose the one next to mine. I did try telling him that while there is a room with twenty beds that is almost always full there are others with ten beds that are more sparsely populated but no, he liked my space. I guess I'll get to know what it's like to live with a little brother or maybe I'll just end up scaring him away to one of the other forty beds in this eerie place. Noah is laying on the bed beside mine as I lay horizontally on my own, staring at the ceiling. "I'm bored." He groans, staring at the same peeling white paper coated plaster. I groan in agreement, not used to feeling trapped at home. I sit up an rub the grogginess from my eyes.
"So what do we do?"
"I don't know, not walk." He laughs and sits up, he whistles to the now much happier and healthier puppy in the corner. Killian ignores his beckon call and returns to nipping at his own shadow. "Here boy, come on, come here." He pats his leg but no response comes from the dog. "Fine be that way."
"He'll only listen to me or Blind." I smile and call the dog, coming when called is the only thing the five pound terror has mastered so far. "Venite." He rises and runs over to me, trying not to trip on his rapidly growing paws. They say an animals paws grow faster than the rest of the body and can indicate how big he will eventually be. Killian has a monstrous set of paws. The dog stops at my side and nuzzles my hand affectionately. Noah stares at the dog, his eyes have narrowed to slits.
"Did you train the dog in Klingon or some shit?!"
"What? No it's Latin, that would be cool too but I don't speak Klingon because you know I have a life..." I trail off into a booming laugh.
"Oh crud I have to learn that don't I?" I nod, not really wishing to do that today. He takes my focus on the dog as a cue that we aren't doing anything today. He begins to chew on his lip as we sift through Ideas and thoughts, looking for anything to entertain us. I blurt out the first thought that comes to my mind.
"Let's get tattoos." I mutter as I examine the ever growing teeth of my puppy. He has taken to chewing on my middle and ring fingers as much as his rubber bone, but I don't mind it. My friend laughs deeply. "I'm serious. Greg does them in an office on the second floor near the other bathrooms."
"No, no way in hell." He says sliding onto the floor, joining me and the dog.
"How can you pass up a free tattoo? He's an amazing artist he did two of my tattoos and all but three of Bullet's." I wait for him to answer but after two full minutes of silence I resume trying to convince him. "He used to work at a real tattoo sho-"
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Shoplifter: E.O.W Series, Book 1
ActionGuns, gangs, thieves, junkyards. This life isn't what Kaius had in mind when he left behind his small town home. He finds himself living in an abandoned factory on the edge of Philadelphia with a gang of lovable yet reclusive miscreants. These trai...
