In the Absence of a Good Life

(3) Pride and Prejudice

The Partner in Crime (A.K.A The Best Mate - Terrance) :

I put my key in the lock and twisted. I shoved my shoulder against the front door to push it open. The damn thing had always been stiff. I'd complained to the landlord but the scummy bastard wanted to charge ME for it!

I walked into the hall and put my keys on the table by the door. I untied by shoelaces, took off my boots and shoved them to the side. Needless to say that I closed the door behind me.

I walked into the main room and dive bombed the couch. It groaned under my weight.

"Man, you have got to stop doing that, 'cause there's no WAY I'm paying for it if it breaks." I heard Jimmy joke from behind me.

I turned to see him sitting at the kitchen table with a half eaten apple in his grasp. I inwardly groaned. I had kinda hoped he wouldn't be home.

"Whatever...hey, I actually wanted to talk to you...about something." I said, unsure of how to begin. Jimmy wasn't one for staying calm. His temper tantrums had cost us a lot of money for the damage they caused.

"Fire away."

I stood up from the couch and went to sit opposite him at the table. I placed both hands on the surface of the table and intertwined my fingers.

"I got called up to Walter's today..." I began.

"Wotcha do this time?" Jimmy asked with a smirk before taking another large bite out of his apple.

"Nothing, he didn't want to talk about anything I'd done, he wanted to talk about you." I pointed at Jimmy while I said this.

"Oh?" He said as the apple had yet another chunk taken out of it.

"Yeah. Look. You're my best mate and...I'd hate to see you thrown out of yet another school. It's got to stop."

"Dunno what you're talking about." He mumbled through his food.

"Jimmy! They're beginning to notice! They'll take you away to some strange boarding school for juvenile delinquents! Come on man! If you're serious about your future you CAN'T act like this!"

"Act like what, exactly?" Jimmy's tone spoke of imminent danger. He was getting angry. Each syllable was spoken with an over the top crispness. He glared up at me.

I returned his gaze and spoke with an equal amount of threat in my voice.

"You may think it's fun, to go around acting like you're the boss of some major mafia corps. You may think that acting like you're high all the time makes you 'hard'. Or that showing complete disrespect to anyone and everyone makes you 'tough'. Well I've got news for you Jimmy: IT DOESN'T. It makes you a little boy playing with his toys who's too scared to grow up and walk in the real fucking world!" I was shouting by the end of my speech.

Jimmy was seething. I could feel the fury rolling off of him in waves. I could see the anger in his blue eyes.

He stood up and glared down at me.

"You think I don't know what the world is like? You think I don't FUCKING KNOW?! Listen to me you little prick! I've had my share of shit and if I wanna ruin what's left of my life then that's MY CHOICE TO MAKE! NOT yours! Get it?! You ain't my fucking mum, so don't fucking act like her!" He shouted.

His fists were shaking as he spoke. It seemed that he couldn't quite explain what he wanted to say to me. The feeling was there but he didn't know quite how to word it. In his rage he picked up his apple and lobbed it at the wall where it exploded into tiny fragments of apple pulp. He then kicked over his chair and stalked out of the room. I heard the door slam but not before I had shouted:

"Where the fuck are you going?!"

I got no reply.

That boy had serious issues.

Considering his previous outbursts, I think he took it rather well...

Another Insight into the World of Jimmy

Many people say they don't care what others think of them. Jimmy's one of those people that actually couldn't give a shit. He doesn't care that if he keeps living the way he does, he'll be the most controversial thing since the Black Veil Brides came about. Except he'll be spending his time locked up in some mental institution while they'll be making millions.

I'm actually not joking when I say that he'll fein mental illness just to get out of a 'sticky situation'. 

He prepares for the day when he has to take that drastic measure by acting the way he does. It's basically so that if he does flip out, instead of people thinking that it's a bit weird for some completely sane person to randomly lose it, they'll think: 'that boy really had it coming, guess it was only a matter of time...'

But underneath it all, when you scrape away all the barriers he puts up, Jimmy's one of the best mates I've ever had. He's always got my back and speaks his mind. Which sometimes starts arguments as the truth is quite often what people DON'T want to hear.

Having said all of that though, there was one thing he refused to tell me about until my front door nearly got kicked down when Jimmy moved in.

When I say that boy's in deep shit, I fucking mean it...