The Second Shot

Chapter Two

Eacker clutched his glass of wine so tightly he was suprised he hadn't cracked the glass.

The tension between him and Hamilton was so strong and obvious that Lafayette could already tell that calling Hamilton over was a mistake.

"Yes, it would be your fault." Hamilton said "If you hadn't shot me then perhaps we would have stayed in touch."

"Eacker shot you?" Lafayette asked Hamilton. He looked to Eacker as if Eacker would tell him it was a joke, and he hadn't actually shot Lafayette's cousin.

Eacker sighed. "How long has it been? Two years?" He asked.

"Almost, just a month short of it." Hamilton said, twirling his cane in what Eacker could tell was a habit Hamilton didn't even realize he was doing.

Eacker nodded and clutches his wine glass even harder.

Lafayette looked confused and alarmed.

"Well, what have you been doing since I last saw you?" Eacker asked "Still picking petty fights that could get you killed?"

Hamilton narrowed his eyes slightly. "No, I believe my encounter with you scared me out of it." He said it good naturedly enough, but Eacker heard the hostile undertones.

Eacker nodded. "You are rather easy to scare." He said. Hamilton tightened his grip on his cane.

"Well, I think being shot is a perfectly good reason to be scared of something." Hamilton replied.

"Please, both your father and yourself are quite easy to frighten." Eacker said.

"Excuse me?" Hamilton asked.

"Your father's a scoundrel and so it seems you." Eacker said, repeating the line he had said to Hamilton two years ago.

"Isn't that line that got us into this mess?" Hamilton asked, clearly angry about what Eacker had said.

"I believe it was." Eacker replied, just before his grip on the wine glass got to hard and it smashed in his hand.