The League Of Extraordinary Teenagers : I Am Expendable

Two

I Am Expendable 2

“I’m good.” Dad replied

“Yeah, me too.” I said. There was lots of murmurings of the word ‘baby’ between Tool and the girl, then she walked away and he slapped her ass on her way to the industrial elevator up to Tool’s apartment.

“Got a crush on me.” He laughed to himself

“Like the last fifty.” Dad said with a roll of the eyes

“She was a senior in high school two years ago.” I said, no one paid me any attention.

“Hey brother who’s countin’?” Tool laughed in his deep croak of a voice.

The two friends embraced, and prepared for another session of tattooing. My dad took off his shirt and sat over a motorbike and Tool got the ink and needle. I took a seat on a stool. “Let’s finish this bird up.” Dad said.

Dad’s back piece was a work in progress, he was being a chicken with the lettering and the raven perched on top of the skull. I blew out breath after breath of smoke. I stared at the phone, I had a bad feeling someone was going to call and I wasn’t in the mood to associate with people me own age, but for now the screen of the iPhone was blank and it lay silently on the side table. “Well lets do it bro, it’s taken you a couple of years to do a couple of letters” Tool said

I coughed out “Pussy.” Under my breath, and dad shot me a dark look and I smirked and shook my haid, end of my ponytail tickling my back, maybe it was time for a haircut, my best friend Audrey would’ve said. I’d been best friends with Audrey since kindergarten, I loved her like a sister. She was a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe and she knew it, and she liked it. She dressed fresh out of vintage fifties and sixties, from her grandma who apparently knew Marilyn herself, but how true it was I didn’t know. As well as being my sister, she was also like the mother I never had, she told me what to do and she did all but brush my teeth.

“We got to get rid of Gunnar.” Dad said

“Well he went crackinstein on your ass you gotta cut him loose.” Tool sympathised. I didn’t know how I felt about the whole Gunnar thing, I mean he’d been my intensely crazy genius uncle for a long time, he was family but everyone was right, if he was using we couldn’t trust him, and in our line of work, not trusting your team could cost you your life.

“Yeah, you wanna fill in Tool?” I asked

“Now let me tell you somethin’, kid.” I rolled my eyes, he was going to let me in on another little nugget of Tool life knowledge, which if I ever actually followed, I’d be dead or in jail by now.

“When we were out the last time, where were we, ass deep in mud and blood…?” He asked dad, his memory isn’t what it used to be, “Nigeria.” Dad said

“Yeah, your daddy’s hand was all shot to shit, he was bleeding all over the place, I was bleeding all over the place, I promised myself, I didn’t want to die all alone full of holes in the mud and blood, I wanted to die with something that counts, I wanted to die with someone who cares about me. I don’t want to die for a woman, I want to die layin next to one.” Dad nodded in agreement.

I wondered how dad felt about that, maybe he’d been in the same boat once, my mom was a lot younger than him, but it wasn’t like Tool and the whore upstairs, it was love. He’d been away on a job when she’d done it. No note, nothing. Just slit her wrists in the bath while I was alone in the house. I was a quiet kid, I was alone for two days until my dad got home and found me hiding in her closet. His woman died without him.

“Oh, hey Christmas time.” Tool said as a familiar engine sounded

“I know, I can smell him.” Dad said, as the engine came closer and the garage door opened automatically too let Lee in.