Greasers of Today

Ricky

I set Dean down under the old trophy case that turned into a memorial type of thing for the original greasers that went to this school, one of them had my first name, but no sort of relation what-so-ever. His name was Ricky Chance, he led the group-or gang, as everyone called it- Fire Hill, they started here in Belmont, and died here in Belmont, all but one of them at least, my Dad, or as everyone, including my mom knew him, Danny. When I was younger, my dad would tell me about his life with them, with Ricky, he said Ricky went Mental when his younger brother and little sister were killed by the worst and meanest pig of the BPD (Belmont Police Department) at the time. Officer Connor Williams O'Donnell. Ricky was the last to go, Darryl and Willy were both drafted into Vietnam Senior year, and both were killed on a mission in Laos, David, Ricky's Brother was shot and killed by O'Donnell for something Ricky did, and his little sister, Barbara Chance, was still a little girl in grade school when she was shot and killed. Anyways, all I know is that my dad's friend Ricky, went Mental, killed 15 cops to get to Officer O'Donnell, he stabbed O'Donnell 37 times, shattered his jaw, smashed his head in with a metallic baseball bat, and took out his other eye, they say he even Castrated O'Donnell's dead body. For those of you not in the know, Castrating is when you chop someone's testicles off, however, he fully castrated him, Dick and all.

When the Coroner came, all that told you who he was, was gone. But everyone knew. Ricky ran to my dad's apartment, covered in blood, but Ricky went out like Dallas Winston did. My dad, and a few of his greaser buddies witnessed everything, and from what I hear, my mom, who was the love of Ricky's life, and my mom-this was before I even came along mind you-almost OD'd from what I've heard after he died.

Poor guy had gone completely mad. The only one of us that's got any connection to him besides my fuck-up of a dad is Eric, but I guess that's because he lives in Ricky's old home. In all honesty, Eric reminds me of him, even my pops, when he was sober, said that Eric reminds him of nobody but Ricky. Dad said he'd hoped I'd be like Ricky, unfortunately for him, I'm nothing like him, naw, that's more Eric's department. Just like Ricky, he could turn his back on the world for his friends. I feel like we're talking about me, my name's Ricky, and yet, we're talking about my dad's best friend from his childhood to his young adult life. He sounded like a good ol' guy, until all his friends began dying. My dad once told me that the last time he saw Ricky before that night, Ricky had said to him 'We grew up not as friends, but as brothers, as family, and we... we all knew that eventually, life would catch up with us *Sigh* as well as death. Darryl and Willy died serving a purpose greater than themselves, something we thought they would never understand, but, I think, they understood it better than we did. They were our brothers, our chosen family, and the world feels even more darker without them.'

'If something were to ever happen to me,' Ricky had continued, his final words to my father before he was shot like a dog. 'I want you to promise that you'll take care of Catherine, no matter what, don't go out like we all know we will, we'll all go out Greasers, and hoods, but you Danny, you have a better chance than the rest of us stand, and if you don't, then you'd best make sure you have kids to keep your promises, or I'll come back from the dead to kick your sorry ass.'

My father always made him out to be a hero or something of the sorts, if you want the truth, I don't really find any interest in my dad's high school friend, I mean, it's not that he doesn't sound like a cool guy, it's just, I don't find any similarities between him and me, naw, that's more Eric than me. If there's anybody that's practically an exact copy of Ricky, it's Eric. My dad, on the rare occasions he wasn't drunk or trying to kill me or somebody else, would always talk about the good ol' days with Ricky, David, Willie, Darryl, and the other greasers. 

I heard Dean give a slight groan, his eyes opened slowly and he started looking around, "Are we in the closed off section of the school?"

"Yeah," I said, sitting down beside him and putting my arm around him giving him a slight shake. "Now hush." James and Frankie came running towards us, James stopped dead in his tracks with an excited, happy, but concerned look on his face. "Where's Eric?"

"Once the fuzz showed up," James was gasping between breaths. "He told me to hightail it outta there."

"That doesn't answer my fucking question." I said sharply.

"Where the fuck do you think he is?!" Frankie snapped at me.

I smacked him on the back of the head pretty hard once I was up, "Don't badmouth me."

"He's probably been put in the fucking cooler by now!" James yelled at me.

"You let him get arrested?!" I shouted.

"I didn't have a damn choice!"

"You could have grabbed him and dragged him here!"

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" Dean exploded. I looked at him, his face, no longer filled with pain, now showed nothing but annoyance and anger. Only Eric knows that I don't want Dean to be like the rest of us, and Eric feels exactly the same way, the only thing is, Eric's the one who taught Dean to survive the brutality and savageness of life, I may be older than all of them, but Eric didn't live a sheltered life. Don't get me wrong, his mom loved him, more than anybody, but when Eric's sister was born, it took a toll on her, I can't believe everyone had the balls to tell him she died in a car accident. Car accident my ass! She fucking OD'd! People always say I'm terrifying, but if Eric's pissed, or something him the wrong way, you'd better hope it isn't your damn fault.

"Where are you going?" Frankie asked. I noticed as well that Dean had gotten up and was walking away.

"The nurse, then I'm leaving to go home and grabbing my emergency money to bail him out." Dean snapped.

"Dean," I said. "Come back."

"Fuck off." He said.

"Damn," James smiled. "He's getting as mouthy as Eric when he's told what to do."

"Shut the hell up James." Frankie laughed.

I hope Eric's okay, I don't think Dean could stand it if something were to happen to him. I care deeply about Dean, but to Dean, Eric's practically his only family. They've always been brotherly like that.