Who We Were & Who We Are Now

Part 13

You're yawning and stretching, letting the smell of coffee wake you up on the early winter morning. The darkness still holding on due to the time of year. Pulling your thick sweater around you tighter, rubbing your hands together, to warm them, you huddle near the stove you've just turned on to get warm.

The back door slams and you turn quickly, hearing Forrest stomp with purpose into the room. "The fucking liquor's gone." he hisses to no one in particular. "HOWARD!" he booms, signaling his brother to wake up.

"Gone?" your voice high pitched in confusion, arms crossed over your chest with wide batting eyes.

"'Bout 200 gallons of it from the storehouse." he spits out, shoulders shifting in a display of anger, his head moving and swiveling like a snake, not meeting your eyes and you're thankful he doesn't. You'd never seen him so mad before. You wanted to rush to him, ask him to calm down because you didn't want him to very literally bust a seam as his neck was still healing.

Howard comes running down the stairs, hat in his hand, buttoning his half-tucked shirt as he bounded forward. "What the hell's going on?" he asks, eyes bloodshot but wild with concern.

"The liquors gone." he says again, voice deep and full of grit.

"Gone?" he mindlessly responds, his usual expression of a heavy brow and pouted lips to show his confusion.

"You heard what I said, Howard." he answers flatly. "That little fuckin' snake in the grass." he growls as he paces the creaking floor, now trying to calm himself down. "My key's missin'. His truck's gone. He's fuckin' took it. I know it. I could see trouble on him last night. I knew he was up to something. Just didn't expect it to be this." his shakes his head in disappointment that can only come from someone you love.

"What do you wanna do now?" Howard asks, his mouth slack and brows high.

"Don't have much of a choice but to wait on his sorry ass. Don't know where the hell he went." his voice lowers in volume but not intensity. You could see the endless scenarios playing behind his eyes are they surveyed the room before him.

You hoped Jack didn't end up getting hurt. This was a bit out of character for him. A much more directly defiant action than the usual teenage rebellion. He'd seemed like he was straightening up but you'd been fooled by a boy before. Your first priority here was Forrest. You couldn't fix the situation but you could try to redirect his anger that currently had no outlet.

"Forrest?" you say as meekly and sweetly as you can manage. He turns to look at you approach him as if he'd forgotten you were there at all.

"Hell, Tawny..." he groans, shaking his head and lowering his eyes. "I didn't mean to act like this in front of ya."

"It's fine. I'd be mad as hell too. But if you can't do nothin' right now maybe it's best if you sit down for a minute?" your voice inflects upwards, not wanting to make him feel inferior in some way with your tone. You just didn't want him to pop open again at the rate his heart must've been pumping.

He huffs air out of his nostrils nosily in response, his jaw tight.

"I'm not tryin' to baby ya or nothin' but it ain't good to get so riled up so soon." you kindly suggest, looking him in the eyes as you approach, hoping it'll disarm him. Luckily you were right. "Sit down and I'll make you breakfast. You can gather your thoughts and it'd ease my mind tremendously if you would." You try to work him in your favor by making it about him helping you out. Something he always said he'd do.

"Yeah." is all he says, face still angry as he moves to the bar and sits down, hunched over like a pouting bear.
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You'd gotten Forrest from boiling to simmering, giving him some hot tea and sitting him out on the porch to literally cool off after putting a big breakfast in him.