The Beauty of Hunger

SIX

          "Netty you won't believe who was waiting for me when I got back to the trailer." I say before anyone else can question Sythe again. "Who?" she asks getting excited.
        "Don't go getting excited, it was just my mom." Toni gasps. "Aunt Anika is here?!"
        "Yup, and she wants blood. She's trying to drag me back to Chicago." I say as I take the bag of fries from Sythe, opening the bag I stuff a handful into my mouth. "You haven't even gone through initiation yet, you can't go back to Chicago!" my cousin whines. I nod my head in agreement. "Besides where would you go Netty?" I ask her.
           "Initiation? What for?" Forsythe asks. I think he knows what for, but he wants someone to tell him it isn't true. "Didn't Duchess tell you Jones, she's joining the Serpents." Sweet Pea grins all smug like. Sythe looks at me. "Don't give me that look Sythe, we'll still be the best of friends." I say, tugging on a piece of hair that fell in his face. He doesn't say anything, just smiles tugging back on my hair.
       "I heard about you wanting to go through initiation, but I didn't believe it." Tallboy says, coming to stand beside me. "Piss off Tallboy." I spit.
      "I ain't come over here for no trouble, I just heard that your mother was back in town, is it true?"
      "Yup." I say stuffing more fries into my mouth. News travels fast I guess. "Wow, haven't seen Anika since. . .Roach"
"Dad." we say together. "Wait, are you guys talking about the Roach?" Sweet Pea asks.
"Yup, died in a raid, it was Keller's bullet that took em down." Tallboy says. The fries in my mouth begin to taste weird, I force them down and set the bag aside. When I was ten, a year before we moved from Riverdale, my dad died in a raid on the Wyrm, everyone says that him and Keller had a special kind of hatred for each other, which is why Keller made sure he was the one who took out my dad.
           "Roach was one of the best. You know he was leading all this before your old man." Tallboy tells Sythe. Forsythe turns to me, giving me a sad smile. When I look around everyone except Tallboy is giving me the sad eyes. I roll my own eyes. "Fuck off with the sad eyes guys. My Dad, may his soul rest, was a legend, the famous Roach. He did a lot for the Serpents, he cared about the Serpents enough to die for them, I plan on doing the same, but I swear if I catch any sympathetic looks directed towards me I'll break your legs."
         "Roach was one of the best, Old man Topaz picked em himself." Tallboy looks at me for a second. "You wanna go through initiation, you'll go through initiation." he finally says.
      Tallboy grabs the glass of beer Toni had set in front of him, he holds it up, "To Roach, and to Lu-"
        "To Roach." I say cutting him off, giving Tall boy a silencing look. He grunts and walks off. "I still can't believe you're related to the Roach." Fangs says. I sigh. "Could you guys stop calling him the Roach? It's weird."
       "Hey how did Uncle Mike get his nickname?" Toni asks me. "Uh I asked Luk- my brother about it once he said he didn't know, no one does." Toni smiles. "Tell us about your dad Duchess." Forsythe says. I don't really want to. I'm tired from everything that's happened today, but it looks like Sythe is enjoying himself, and everyone else wants to hear, so I tell them.
       I tell them about the time he took Toni, Mansa and myself to the state Fair. We had so much fun that day, Dad bought us a bunch of candy, and food and toys. I tell them about how I cried really hard when Dad tried to put me on the swings, and he felt bad so he won me this giant teddy bear.  But when I look at the sad expression on Netty's face I realise I've mixed up Luka and my Dad. Roach could only stay half the day, he got called away on Serpent business.
       I didn't want to get on the swings because he'd left early, Luka tried to do everything he could to make me feel better but nothing worked, until he won the prize for me. I shrug not caring. I'm on my third bottle of beer, and I'm sick of today. Toni tries a couple of times to get me to stop drinking, I can hold my alcohol pretty well but she knows sooner or later it's gonna catch up to me. Hog Eye, one of the main bartenders here serves me as long as I pay.
     I have a bunch of cash left over from Mansa's wallet so I should be fine.
    I drink late into the night. Forsythe stays with me, joining me in a game of pool every now and then. I mostly play Pea and Fangs, I mostly win. By my fourth game the beer and liquor has caught up to me and I have to lean up against a wall.
      It's hard for me to concentrate because of the alcohol that now clouded my vision. I just want to crawl up into a ball and cry my eyes out. Today has been too stressful, first I was shot, my mother's trying to take me away from my home, and no matter what I'm doing everything reminds me of Luka.
          "Hey, let's get outta here." I open my eyes to a Sweet Pea towering over me. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.  I want to lay down somewhere and right now Pea is the only person to offer. Then it occurs to me, what if Pea is just inviting me for sex, I'm really not in the mood right now. "I'll take her, we were gonna head back to my place anyway." I'm thankful when I hear Sythe's voice.
           I glance at him, giving him a smile, hoping my gratefulness is clear in my eyes. "No, Jones, I think I can take her for tonight."
          "I don't doubt you but Duchess and I already had a sleepover and everything planned, wouldn't want to miss out on one of her famous nail care treatments." Forsythe says back bitterly. I can tell by the tone of his voice that he knows there's something going on between Pea and I, I can also tell that he doesn't like it.
         Sweet Pea stands taller than before, getting in Sythe's face. Sythe doesn't back down and I don't think he'd win this fight, but I admire his courage.
     I step between them, placing my hand on Sweet Pea's chest. "Cool it babe, I promised Sythe here a sleepover, and I've never been one to back down from a promise." I say shoving him a little.
         He looks between the two of us, anger clear in his eyes, their milky brown turning into a deep black the color of coal.  I push Forsythe away, turning to follow him out when I'm pulled back. With his arms wrapped around my waist, my hands flat against his chest, Pea whispers into my ear, "I can't wait for you to do that dance because afterwards I'm gonna take you back to my place and I'm gonna listen to you scream my name all night long, I'm gonna make sure you're sore when I'm done with you." I shudder when Pea unwraps his arms from around me, walking away. I'm sure that someone noticed what happened, but right now I don't care.
        I make my way outside scanning the area for Sythe. "So what's up with you and Switch Blade?" Sythe asks coming up behind me.
       I give a small yelp. "Jesus dude, I could've killed you!" I all but yell. "Are you two dating?"
      "No big brother, of course not." I say rolling my eyes. He chuckles. "I'm not trying to pry but I don't fully trust him."
     I run my fingers through my hair, sighing. "I know Sythers, but the Serpents are family and I trust them. But no we're not dating or anything like that, we're not even friends, we can't stand each other." I laugh. Forsythe gives my a skeptical look.
       "Don't start with me Jones, now let's go so I can give you one of my famous nail care treatments."