Unshaken

Valentine Blues

"Arthur. Y'all alive? Arthur. Liam." His head was pounding at every word that came out of Lenny's mouth. "Shut up." Arthur muttered. "I wanna die." Liam replied with a horrible hangover. He looked around. They were in a cell. He and Arthur were in one and Lenny was sitting awake in the other one. "Where are we? What did we do?" Arthur asked. "I don't know." Lenny replied. "Me neither". Arthur said rubbing his face. "Must've been something stupid." Liam said sitting on the cold floor. Arthur cursed holding his head in pain.

"You trio of degenerates... there's a fine for drunken violence in this town. You're just lucky no one was killed." The deputy said in a condescending tone. "Hey, we didn't start a thing!" Arthur argued. "Yes you did." The deputy laughed. "Well... I don't remember." Arthur said sitting back down. "Any of you fools got any money? It's fifteen dollars and you're free to walk." The deputy told them. "Sure." Lenny said as he pulled the bills out of his pocket. The deputy stood up and took the money from Lenny as he opened their cells. "Now, get out of here. Don't wanna see any of you fools around here no more." The lawman said as he guided them out of the sheriff's office.

Lenny ran to the edge of the porch and vomited profusely. "Oh, Jesus" Arthur said to himself as he and Liam turned away. Lenny threw his head back up, his mouth covered in vomit. "So. That was a quiet drink?" He asked Arthur. "Well, the first one was quiet." Arthur said again rubbing his face. "Yeah, the first one was pretty quiet." Lenny said as the three laughed. "At least it took your mind off of Goddamn Micah." Arthur said in disgust as the name came out of his mouth. "Well that's certainly true." Lenny agreed. "Who the hell is that guy-" Liam asked before he was cut off by almost vomiting himself, but managing to hold it in.

"I gotta get outta here." Lenny said as he walked to his horse. "I'm just gonna... have a little sit-down and feel sorry for myself." Arthur grunted as he sat. "I'm gonna head out too. Don't die, Arthur." Liam laughed as he struggled to hoist himself onto Colter's back. "Can't make any promises, kid." Arthur sighed as Liam rode off.