dogfight : reddie

that face

that unmistakeable face. lovers waltz, traffic halts, that face!

they entered the club, a low rent club called 'the nite lite'. the tables were scattered everywhere, and a self-indulgent man wearing very little clothing sung in the spotlight. from the way that he looked at the dates coming in, he was in on the dogfight. a small dance floor was soon filled with marines and their dates.

richie took eddie and headed over to the three bees table. richie sat down with eddie. next to eddie was stanley, who was next to bill, who sat near ben, who had a preposterous woman next to him. eddie cannot read the woman's expression, except that it was not happy. 

"no, no, no--see in bootcamp you line up according to height. but in infantry training, it's different," ben was going on, talking about something to the unreadable woman. richie took bill's drink from across the table and drank half of it, bill punching him over the table. 

"it's random g-guh-groups. and w-wuh-we were together..." bill explained, richie clueing in on what they were talking about. richie ordered another drink from a nearby waitress, and eddie eyed richie with concern.

"got to be pretty tight. they started calling us the three bees, 'cause of richie's dumb nickname, and it stuck. getting inked up later tonight." ben said proudly, eddie nodding along. 

"three fucking bees." bill didn't stutter, drinking the rest of his beer.

"so you got to be friends from standing in line?" stanley asked sarcastically, laughing heartily. snorting a little bit, he looked at his glass, emptied. "oh boy, i'm gonna need another drink." he looked to bill, awaiting him to ask a waiter, but he did nothing. sighing, stanley turned around. 

a little while later, richie was much drunker. eddie was concerned, but not enough to say so. he had drank a little too, but not much. richie tried not to think about what he could've been doing to eddie. he wished he hadn't seen him. 

"you live around here?" ben asked a waitress, one with rather large... mugs of beer in her hands. she scoffed and sighed through her nose.

"you ain't coming over. what do you care?" she walked away and served the mugs to other people, richie sighing in frustration. 

"where's our fuckin' drinks?" richie asked loudly, disturbing eddie a little bit.

"you guys really like to swear, don't you?" eddie asked, shyly perturbed at richie's drunk behaviour. bill laughed.

"no, we like to drink." richie growled.

"no b-buh-big thing, eddie. it's just words. after a wh-whuh-while you don't even hear it. don't mean shit." bill said, looking at drunk richie strangely. he shook his head and sat back in his chair.

"who do you have to fuck to get a drink in this place?" stanley asked loudly this time, bill elbowing him, "hey now." 

"i can't afford to be shy at an open bar." stanley shrugged unapologetically. he turned to eddie and the woman next to ben, "you guys want another drink--what's your name?" he asked the girl.

"greta." she replied, stone faced as always.

"i met this lady over at the terminal. all the way from albuquerque." ben bragged, obviously proud of his catch. eddie smiled sweetly.

"well, i just wanna say how happy i am to have met you. all of you. i'm having a good time. if richie hadn't walked into my diner, i'd be home still, listening to my records alone." eddie interjected, genuinely happy. bill raised an eyebrow.