Being a Hero

Chapter 13

The song for this chapter is "Bring It On" by Seventh Day Slumber.

"A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory" –Albert Einstein

*Everett's POV*

I turned my glass of Sailor Jerry, watching the way the dark liquor and glass caught the light. I was on my fifth, not that I could really feel it. I couldn't get more than lightly buzzed nowadays unless I felt like letting my powers run out. And considering how much those powers helped with the various aches and pains I'd acquired on the job, that wasn't happening. I wasn't that much of a masochist.

I tossed the last of my rum back and tapped the bar with my glass to get the bartender's attention. The bespectacled man quirked an eyebrow at me, doubtful of my continuing sobriety. I rolled my eyes and stood to stretch my back and demonstrate my total coordination. I didn't stumble; I just caught my foot on the stool!

The barkeep chuckled and got me another glass, only filling it with half the rum the previous glasses had held. Sensing I'd be cut off after this one, I savored it, taking small sips as I glanced around the dimly lit room. It was doing a decent business tonight, though the crowd had started to thin out at midnight when the rain hit. A half dozen people were gathered around the pool table with a game in progress, and a few clusters of customers filled the booths, and one person was messing with the jukebox. Smooth jazz. I raised my glass to the man's taste in music as he returned to his table.

A couple headed for the front door, casting each other enough smoldering and suggestive looks that the guy walked into the doorframe. I huffed a quiet laugh that turned into a cough when the breeze from outside carried cigarette smoke in with it.

I shoved aside memories of smoke and found myself focusing on the couple that had left instead. They reminded me of Connie and I in the early days. I couldn't quite bring myself to miss those days. After what happened earlier, it was beginning to sink in that they had come to an end.

~~Flashback~~

"Hey, Connie," I called, poking my oil smudged face inside our apartment. It had begun to feel more and more like my apartment lately, and it was empty now. I scratched my head and shrugged. She probably had to take a call from work or went to talk to one of the other girls. She wasn't expecting me home for a few more hours anyway, and I'd decided to make the most of the time off. Not every day that one of the rookies backed a truck into an electrical pole. If the power was back on tomorrow it would be a miracle.

I walked further down the hall, intending to fetch the window cleaner from the supply closet. Oil changes on our cars were done, but there was a big nose print and slobber streak on one of my windows, courtesy of Grim.

As I walked past John's apartment, I heard quiet giggling and stopped to listen, catching the telltale squeak of John's box spring. He brought a girl over? It had been a while. Good for him. Grinning as a bit of mischief occurred to me, I zipped back to my room and found the nastiest sock I could. I then placed said sock over John's doorknob. A subtle reminder that it was common courtesy to introduce his company—and warn us when he had someone vanilla on-premise. If my sock also reminded John that he wasn't as sneaky as he thought, well...

I was returning the bottle of window cleaner when I realized it wasn't some random girl. I knew that laugh and that voice. Damn it!

I had half a mind to go drain the oil out of both of their cars or storm in there and demand answers. I barely held myself back from pounding on the door then and there and socking John in a different way. I took several deep breaths and very deliberately walked away, one fuming step at a time. I knew my temper. The longer I gave myself to cool down, the less likely I was to maim someone. I had to do something, though. I paced what had once been our space, looking at the empty spots where Connie had already moved some of her things out on the excuse of setting up her own apartment as a place to work on her painting hobby.