Whiskey for Elephants

15.

I added it back because oh well, who cares if I get laughed at. I'm kinda good at this writing stuff and if writing fanfic gets the juices going, so be it. Also, I have no idea why I kill a sibling in almost every fanfic I write. Dean in my shitty mini spn fanfic, Delilah in Okay, But. I barely got to writing Tone it Down. Now, Danika's brother in this! Also, what the shit is with D names? Danika, Derek, Delilah, Dean (I get this one but still). Shit don't make sense gee.
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Peoria, Illinois
2 days after Derek.
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As promised, we were in my shitty hometown and it WAS shitty. There were parts of it I loved; the art walk, the river front, and the strip malls being a few. Vanna, especially. We stood inside the tacky Chuck E. Cheese and grimaced at each other. Everything, once again, was broke. People were letting their kids run rampant through the pizzeria. An animatronic was broken on the stage.
"When they said, 'Chuck E. Cheese's, where a kid can be a kid!' They didn't mean quit parenting all together, right?" Ronnie says, bitterly. Me? I didn't really care, I wanted to be ANYWHERE else. Derek passed away Thursday, we got here yesterday morning, and today is Saturday. Tomorrow has to be Ronnie and Willows last day. In response, I squeeze their hands apologetically. As much as I hate the stuff Round 1 causes...
"I've got a better idea." I wanted our second to last day to not be as shitty as tomorrow will. With both their last day and Derek's funeral in one- I couldn't deal with a crappy day.
When we entered Northwoods Mall, the Famous Wok's smell hit me with the force of six herds of cattle. I hadn't eaten that poorly in a long, long time. The mall, admittedly, was one of my favorite places to be. It was the one place that's remained relatively unchanged in my life. It always smells the same. Famous Wok, Pretzels, Roasted Peanuts- It was all safe to me. Santa was there every Christmas and The Hot Mess Sale at Hot Topic would always Reign in best title, second only to Bath and Body Works' Buy three get one free sale.
Ronnie must have seen me physically relax into the nostalgia, because he leaned in and kissed my temple before sarcastically saying, "We aren't going into fucking hot topic, know that right now, brat." I looked up at him. His eyes gleamed with hope for the first time since my brother died.
"No, we're not. We're going to the arcade thing." As we walk through the food court, we come to the railing. I point. "That place." I leave out the fact I hate everything about it, but enjoyed the concept. I also leave out the fights and one shooting that occurred there. I only did this because I know how people would react to the tear drop on Ronnie's face-Peoria convicts think one of two things; they either believe the one tear drop is one term served or they believe the myth that he's killed someone. Plus, Ronnie can handle his shit, if something bad happens that is. On top of that, I'm the publicist, if anything happens it'll be outta self defense, ANYWAY.
"What even, oh man. This place is cool!" Ronnie exclaims, pausing to look at the giant pac man game. He marvels at it a second before whipping around asking me where to pay. I take him.
  After we pay, I hover over the isle of claw machines. I was looking over my shoulder for people I knew and fan girls. In his SnapBack, Ronnie looked only a little bit his age. I smile, despite the crappiness of the circumstances, looking at Willow marveling at her dads skills. I can clear a map on a pac man game super fast, but not nearly as fast as Ron can on this thing. I swipe the card and start up the claw machine. Like I expected, I won one of the llamacorns. I tucked it under my arm and moved through the arcade and played games here and there before meeting up with those two. They were playing  Dance Dance Rev and I was highly amused. They'd been to the claw machines too, I noted, eyeing their bags. Willow didn't really get the concept of the game and Ronnie threw his end, but it was still funny to watch.
   We stayed there for a few more hours, bowling and eating along the way. Suffice to say, Willow was pleased. It wasn't until we left that someone I know, who also knew of Ronnie, ran into us. She'd been the one to turn me onto Falling In Reverse, when she dated my brother. She was my age, so it was weird when Derek dated four years younger.. but I was currently a hypocrite for the gross feeling it still gave me. My boyfriend is thirty fucking four, who was I to talk? That didn't change that I didn't want ( I almost made this another D name, Denise to be specific) Mandy to be near me.
   I couldn't tell if she was going to fan girl or cry at the site of us. Ronnie holding Willow in one arm, holding my hand with his free one. I was carrying the bags of souvenirs and left overs.
   Then here she came.
  When I saw her, I didn't recognize her until she got way too close for comfort. She spoke.
"Nik? Is that who I think it is?" She eyes me, then our hands entangled and wags her pierced brows at me. She says this to me as though we still communicate and she didn't cheat on my brother. She's half the reason he took two years off and back packed the world. The other was her toxic behaviors that left residue within him. However, needing to put on a show, I grin.
"Ron, this is Mandy. She's Derek's ex." I say, squeezing his hand. "She's the one who got us Durant siblings into Falling In Reverse." He knew about Mandy, from Derek, not myself. At the introduction, he wasn't amused. Ron rode a funny crooked line on addiction, being a recovering addict. Mandy swears she doesn't know what she does that's bad, because everything she does is normal to her. Physically assaulting people, abusing drugs, and marching against everything good in the world.
"I heard you're kind of a shitty person, Mandy." I grimace. What Ronnie didn't know, is that she dated my brother while I dated her brother. When Mandy says this, my worst nightmare, her brother, comes out of nowhere. All it takes is me looking at him the way I do, and like my unknown internet dude bestie, Ronnie just knows that it's Emory. And from what I can tell, Emory has no doubts who the man standing next me is. "Emoryyyyy.." Ronnie drawls. "It's nice to properly meet you! How've you been for the past two years? Still hitting girls? I hear that runs in the family." Ronnie hands Willow to me, dropping my hand in the process. I watch the Cash siblings react. Mandy's is face full of shock, almost like she didn't know that her brother was doing the same thing to me as she did MY brother. Emory, visibly shaking in his boots, attempts to stand his ground.
"I never hit her, Radke." Ronnie laughs. "Haha, thats not what our instagram DMs say." He pulls them up. He told me once that the only way I'd read them is if the situation where he needed proof that he gave warnings and I guess now was that time. "August 3rd, 2016. Hey, I don't want to assume anything about the situation with your girl, but if I see her with another bruise on her face, I'm going to call the authorities. I can only assume that if someone else didn't hit her, you did. In which case, idk how I'll respond. I don't take kindly to people treating my friends like shit. That was me," Ron says. "August 4th, 2016. A whole day later. Shows how much you cared about her, yeah? You had to wait a day. Anyway, you say, I don't know who hit her. I'll do my best to find out man. I hope you're not threatening me, my dads a sheriff. Which I looked up, you blatantly lied to me. I went along with your little game until September 13th, 2016. Hey, Cash. At this point I'm done trying to be the nice guy. See you in about eight hours. Where I promptly drove to your house and beat your ass. Twice. Remember me leaving and coming back?" Ronnie reads more messages back and forth and I'm watching Emory Cash, the guy who causes me to flinch all the time, crumple into an anxious ball. His sister, who was eyeing Ronnie upset me by just ogling my dude, on top of still standing here.
"Ron," I say, but he doesn't listen to me as he steps into Emory's bubble. "I will fuck you up if you hit him first Ronnie I swear to God." I say through clenched teeth, I clip the words out like a paper shredder. He stops and looks at me. I put willow down. She runs to him. Good.
"Hey Mandy, why you looking at my boyfriend like that?" I say, stepping closer. "Shocked he can he scary?" I pry. She refocuses her gaze on me.
"What the fuck are you talking about? I was watching for my brothers life!"
"Speaking of brothers," I chuckle darkly. "Did you know mine died? I bet you're the one who derailed his train. I could have you arrested, I could beat your ass, I could take my finger nails along your face and catch all of those piercings and yank them out. But I won't, because my Brother, loved your sadistic, methhead ass. Don't come to that funeral tomorrow after you look up the obit, because I know you will. His most recent girlfriend will be there and.." I shrug, "She and I wouldn't mind jail time." Then I turn to Emory. "As for you, I'm not scared of you anymore. The only reason I made him stop, is because of his daughter. Scatter, the both of you, now. Disappear." I say, crossing my arms. "You've got ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, I'm not bluffing guys seriously, I'll ruin you. Five, four three," they run. They run fast.
   Fuck with the Durant-Radke's, get the horns, bitch.