Rosa & Thief

Sister-Friend Secrets

Jesse looked to the right, across the little-enclosed foyer, thinking he saw something in the shape of a tall, lanky boy wearing a cowboy hat run past him, sleeves rolled clumsily to his elbows.

Jesse ran through the kitchen door and hopped onto the counter, grinning as the older man beside him growled.

"Get off the counter boy, made for food to be prepped, not yer dusty ass to sit on."

"Got any spots open San?" Jesse asked, tipping back his hat. "I need some extra spending cash."

"Don't you have that big government job?" The old man growled, going back to his food prep as Jesse watched, still sitting on the counter. "Thought you'd be loaded in cash by now to be livin' overseas and what not."

"It goes into an account cause Reyes says he don't wanna turn me loose with too much." Jesse sighed, "I'm under 18, so that's how they do it, I get so much a month. But I blew it all when we were in LA on a mission, didn't know we'd be coming here. Got some stuff I need."

"Blew your allowance!" The old man cackled, stopping with the food on the table to slap his hand on the counter a few times while Jesse huffed and tipped down his hat. "That Reyes fella got you figured out!"

"Yeah, yeah, gravekeeper!" Jesse huffed, "yuck it up while you can, long as you find me a spot!"

"You're hurtin' for that cash aren't ya boy? What's so important?" The man laughed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Never you mind what's important!" Jesse snapped his cheeks a little pink. "Just find me a job!"

"Can't be drinks, you could sneak that shit for days....can't be food cause I know they're feeding ya--your growin' like a damn weed, let me have a look at ya!" He smacked the table and Jesse hopped off, pulling himself up tall and broad grinning as the older man sized him up. The old man laughed, having to look up at Jesse now, "Your as big a Joel was!" He laughed and shook his head again. "So if it ain't food or drinks then is it pleasure?" He grimaced and took a step back as Jesse snapped.

"I don't pay for women ya old fart!" He smacked the man on the shoulder as he laughed again.

"Then what's so damn important!"

"None ya damn business!"

"Is if your bus boying my tables!"

"Really?" Jesse looked ecstatic, grabbing the man by the arms and smacking them when the dark-haired man nodded. "HAH! THANK YOU SANTANA!" He started to run off when Santana snapped at him, making him wheel on his heels and walk backward.

"So whats so damn important!"

"I wanna take this girl out, proper!" Jesse laughed and clapped his hands as Santana's smile dropped and was replaced with an open mouth stare.

"Well boy! Whats her name!" Santana asked as Jesse disappeared back out the door he came in.

"I DONT KNOW!" Jesse whooped as he ran back the way he had come, passing through the double doors and down the dirt road to the intersection and turning left, heading further up the road away from the church. After a while, he came to a house off to itself, a two-story house that caught Jesse's eye. He stopped and looked it over, he liked everything about it--sure it wasn't a log cabin, but it had a certain charm to it.

It looked to be made of sandstone, built in a Spanish style with reddish tile shingles in a downward slope. The doorways were arched and high along with the windows, up on the second floor there seemed to be a tiny balcony with a metal railing in a dark black color to make it stand out against the white colored outside. Jesse could just make out the wall color in the second window and guessed it must have been a bedroom.