Billy Carter

Chapter 8: St. Jimmy

We all worked on my song in Trent's garage until half-past five o'clock, when everyone split up to go home for dinner. Well, Tony and Cynthia went home to have dinner - I started to head over to Ollie's, but stopped at a train station to get something to eat at a McDonald's. First, I had to get money.
I stepped into the crowd of people waiting for the trains and started to squeeze through, on the lookout for wallets and purses to lift. I went through three separate crowds and came away with a total of five wallets stuffed into my pockets, and I slipped into the public toilet to go through them all. The first two were pretty empty, I barely scraped together ten quid. The third and fourth wallets brought me up to a total of £67.86, but I hit the jackpot with the last one.
"Holy fuck, three hundred pounds?!" I murmured to myself, my eyes widening in surprise. I put it all into my own wallet and packed the five I'd pinched into my school bag before leaving the loo. I went into McDonald's and bought a cheeseburger, then I caught a train to the station closest to Ollie's house. The train was packed, and I noticed the tall guy in front of me had fifty quid poking out of his trouser pocket. I couldn't help myself, so I quickly snatched it up - but unfortunately an old man sitting down saw me.
"Hey! Hey, excuse me, he just picked your pocket!" the old man told Tall Guy, pointing at me and looking angry. People around us shot me nasty looks as the guy I'd robbed turned and looked at me. Tall Guy turned out to be none other than JJ, the guy I served at the grocery store all the time and the guy who had pretty much offered to beat up Dad for me. JJ looked at me, at the fifty in my hand, then back at me. He grinned and gave me a hug.
"Billy! Haven't seen you in a while man, how've you been?" he asked me excitedly. He turned to the old guy and grinned. "Don't worry about it sir, he's my little cousin. It's an inside joke we have - to keep each other on our toes, you know?" he told the old man. "I appreciate your concern though."
"Oh, no problem!" the old man told JJ. "My apologies," he said to me. "But you can never be too careful in this city."
"Too right," I agreed with a smile, giving JJ back his money.
"Where're you headed, cuz?" JJ asked me.
"Richmond, same as you," I answered. "Gonna study with a minted friend."
"Right."
"What're you doing in Richmond?"
"Working."
"What is it that you do again?"
"I'm a removalist."
"That's right."
We spent the rest of the ride chatting about made up relatives and imagined family holidays or get-togethers - it was actually kind of fun. We both got off at the same station and sat down at a bench where we had more privacy and could stop pretending to be related.
"Now, lesson number one in pickpocketing is to make sure you don't get caught, dumbass," JJ told me with a smile.
"I'm sorry about that, if I'd known it was you I wouldn't have-"
"Yeah, I'm sure. At least let me give you some tips and tricks, alright?"
"What do you know about pickpocketing?" I asked curiously.
"I'm a professional. Remember when I said I was a removalist? That's the most accurate legal description I can think of for my real job."
"Oh. So you steal for a living or something?"
"That's half of it."
"Cool."
"It's not cool," he told me, shaking his head. "Stay in school and get a real job, alright?"
"Yessir."
"But if you're going to steal you may as well do it properly..."
We talked about illicit activities for ten or fifteen minutes, and I showed him the money I'd swiped earlier.
"I've got to go now, or I'll be late for an appointment," JJ told me with a sigh, getting to his feet.
"Wait, can I ask you a favour?"
"What is it?"
"Can you take this and buy me a couple packs of cigarettes?" I asked, offering him a one-hundred pound note. He took it and smiled.
"Sure. Meet you back here at nine?"
"Sure."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen next month. How old're you?"
"Nineteen. Alright, I'll see you here at nine."
"Yeah, see ya JJ!"
"Call me Jimmy."
"Ok." We smiled at each other and he headed off to wherever he was going. I checked the time and decided to start walking to Ollie's - it was about twenty minutes past six, and even if Ollie wasn't home yet, Principal Connors would let me in.
I knocked on the door and in a couple of moments the door opened and Ollie let me in.
"Wow, you're earlier than I thought you'd be," he commented.
"What's that s'posed to mean?" I asked.
"I just thought you wouldn't turn up until seven or something," he shrugged innocently. "Come in, we're having dinner."
"You guys eat early," I said as he lead me into the dining room. I put my guitar case and bag down in the corner and sat down next to Ollie at the table. "We don't usually start eating until nine o'clock - at the earliest. Hi Mary, hi Principal Connors."
"Hello Billy," Mrs. Connors smiled at me.
"Here you can call me Luke," Principal Connors said.
"Cool. How've you all been?" I asked.
"Very good thank you."
"Have you eaten?" Ollie asked, giving me a meaningful look. I glanced nervously at his parents.
"Yeah, uh, I met Mum at the train station and she gave me a couple quid. I had a cheeseburger," I told him.
"You still hungry?" Luke asked. "We have plenty of leftovers. We can dish you up a plate?" he offered.
"No thanks, I'm full," I assured him.
"I'm making you a plate, sit down." Mary stood up and started walking to the kitchen, and despite my protests I was bullied into a chair next to Oliver and a plate of roast lamb, mashed potato and steamed vegetables was put in front of me. I scarfed it down pretty quick.
We all chit-chatted until dinner was finished, then me and Ollie went upstairs to his study - where I was kind of hoping we wouldn't end up doing much studying at all.
"Can we just skip to the last item on tonight's agenda?" I asked him. He laughed and shook his head at me.
"You'll fail Year Eleven if you keep shrugging off study and homework to snog," Ollie told me. "That's not exactly one of my turn-ons."
I sighed dramatically and slumped down into a chair at the desk. Ollie sat down across from me and ordered me to get out my copy of King Lear and my English workbook to brainstorm and start on some practice essays. Even with Ollie, it sucked. We did get to snogging before I had to leave to meet up with Jimmy again though.