Tuff Boys

1983

"...and that was when I went face to face with george castle." Rus said wiping the counter down with a wet rag. "This close" He raised his hands to show us an inch with his fingers. He shook his head. "It was skin on skin, filthy cheaters brought a knife" He banged his fist on the table.

"That's a lie" I said shaking my head, looking up from the straws I was stuffing into their containers. "Geroges gang don't do things like that" 

Rus let out a grunt and rolled up his sleeve, Reavealing a long scar from his shoulder to right under his elbow. "Hows that for lying. You watch your back kid, George's gang ain't your friends" He was vigoursly wiping the counter now, using his free hand to pull down his sleeve.

"I ain't no kid" I said sneering at him, then screwing the cap back on the straw container. I was 17 but people often called me kid, I'm not a kid. I worked at the diner called "Rosa's diner". Kids don't work there. 

"That wasn't a dig. I wish I was a kid again." Rus had dark blond hair with big brown eyes. Rus was what we liked to call a floater. He liked to float, not even in the flying way. We had gangs in our town. Not the kind with the drugs and the killing, more like a tight group, who liked to have fights and weren't rich. I was a part of the "Tuff" gang. Rus didn't belong to no gang. He went and did what he pleased, i'd probably get him killed one day.

I didn't reply, instead the bell that was hooked to the door rang. Rus tossed the rag in the sink. "Trev!" He exclaimed. Sure enough my brother, the oh so famous founder of tuff boys, Trevor had walked in.

" Sup rus" He nodded in his direction before coming to sit in the seat in front of me. "Kid" He smirked at me. He looked alot like me. He had dark hair and brown eyes. His hair was slightly shorter though and it made him look Tuff. He was really a Tuff boy.  He reached over to ruffle my hair. Trev was the only one I was okay with callin me kid.

"Hey Trev. I thought you left." Trev was 19 and gotten out of school last year. 

"Yeah. We didn't make it far. Me and sal. We got in a fight. Words were said, things were thrown." He rolled his eyes, and it was almost like looin in a mirror. "Anyway. Here." He tossed me a chunk of cash across the counter. 

"What's that for" I asked, shoving the money in my pocket. 

"I might be leaving again soon. I don't want you to fend for yourself." He shurgged. He pulled off a stone face but I felt the emotion behind alone. My mom ran out on us when I was 4 and trev was only six. My dad....well, I didn't know. He wasn't around much. He wasn't every fathery either. He drank and did drugs. I never really knew where he was, he could be dead for all I knew.

"You think he'll come back around soon?" I asked. We didn't really talk about our dad. 

His face was still hard. "Yeah I do." I couldn't tell if he really meant that or not. I took out a glass bottle of coke and slid it across the counter. I always gave trev and the rest of the Tuff boys free cokes. We usually came here even when it wasn't my shift.We'd drink cokes and push fun at each other. We'd pick fights with other gangs. Sometimes even Rus would join in.

I was egar to change the subject. "So you and sally done for good" His face relaxed into a grin, as if the conversation didn't happen.

"If she can stay away" He laughed. "She said I wouldn't get no where in life" He punched me from across the counter. "Guess what I told her"

It was hard not to grin if he was. Trev was a leader. He laughed, you wanted to laugh. He cried, you cried. He didn't do nothin on purpose of course but he did. "What?" 

His grin got huge and his eyes twnkled. "I told her she was confued with trop" He burst out laughing, making a huge ordeal of it. He banged his hand on the counter and leaned forward. I joined him in laughing, although I wasn't laughin as hard as he was. 

 Trop's name was really Christopher, but we call him Christ or trop. He had rusty colored hair and wasn't the smartest. He was real faithful and loyal though. I was glad that Trev hadn't made the joke about me. I wasn't all that smart either, I mean When I was 15 I dropped out of high school so I could work and make money. When I was 15 that was about the time my dad stopped hang around so much. 

The clock blaired, meaning it was it was a new hour. Three. It was a matter of minuets before I heard the screams. "Yeah boy!!" "Tuffer than tough" There was laughing and a series of unideintified screaming. Me and Trev shared a look before the door burst open.  "Hey Trev and Nat" My name was Nathenial but everyone called me Nat. As in the bug. At least it was better than kid. 

In the Tuff boys there were, Trev, me, Trop, Bird, dusty, and sly. There were a total of  6 of us. There were loud and rowdy. They were all 18 year old seniors except for trev who was 19, me who was 17 and dus who was the youngest at 15. 

They're nicknames were those for reason. Bird was named bird because he used to always have this birdy who would talk to everyone and he took him everywhere. Then he died. Dusty or Dus was named because he was the poorest of all and he was often dirty. He was dusty. And sly was named because his real name was skylar and that was a girly name. So we called him sly. It sounded tuff.

Trev was stacking up ciggerets making a little tower. He was in a debate with bird about the Sal. I laughed about them and sat 4 glasses of coke on the counter. We were all fit and we still drank coke like it was the last one we'd have.Dusty jumped across the counter and grabbed a bottle and wrapped an arm around me. Looking around the faces of my friends, I realized that I might not have my dad but I ha the tuff boys. That was all I needed.