Customer of the Month

Chapter 5

After his measly "oh, I'm sorry" and Zayn's easy "what happened, happened", Liam's given the rest of the ten minute walk to process his thoughts (what minimal ones he has, given the lack of details) in silence. It's difficult not to let them wander to Andy and how he had been Liam's savior when he came to town as the new kid, single-handedly putting a stop to Liam's bully problem while also scrounging up a few other floater kids to create a small group of their own. Had it not been for university, they'd probably all still be friends.

Sitting on Zayn's couch, Liam's empathetic shock remains. While Zayn stands in front of his bookshelf, running his fingers over the spines of his extensive graphic novel collection, Liam wiggles his sock covered toes and sends the paint stained newspaper underneath them into a crunching mess.

The sound intensifies once Zayn finds what he's looking for and places the open book in almost the exact same place as the last. Not being able to check the title leaves Liam clueless as to what will await them, and that in itself spikes his nerves. Nevertheless, he stands and takes Zayn's hand, using the back and forth motions of the man's thumb to soothe the miniature chaos his mind's just created. The easygoing "ready?" cleans up the last of it.

"Ready."

Before he can finish inhaling a deep breath, Liam blinks and ends up with brand new scenery.

He's standing in front of a mahogany bar, so immaculately polished that the bright sunshine that's coming in from the window on his right gives the wood a glistening effect. There's loud chatter to the rear of him, but he focuses on the two men that are behind the bar, each dressed the same: black suit vests over white button downs. They're both clean shaven, except for wiry mustaches that extend upwards, and have their hair slicked back with a shine similar to the wood Liam's right forearm is leaning against. Each appear to be in their forties, one on either side of the decade. The younger's tending to the cash register that looks more like a typewriter with its tall keys standing out from a metal body and the loud clunking sound that it makes when the man presses down on a few of the numbered buttons, one of which triggers the bottom tray to burst open; he tosses a few coins in. The other man's tending to a patron around the bar's corner whose face Liam can't see due to the worker blocking his view, but what he can see is the barman pulling out a glass bottle from under the counter and slamming it on the edge of the hidden shelf there. While the bottle's emptied into a beer mug, Liam picks out a shotgun hidden in the shelf's shadows. His eyes widen and snap back to the view in front of him so he can return to minding his own business.

On the wall he notices a large "WANTED" poster with several profile photos, the middle of which looks oddly like Louis. Underneath the mugshots are clear instructions: "$100 REWARD - Dead or Alive" and below that, "$50 REWARD if driven out of town".

He's about to lean forward in order to make out the smaller print explaining their offenses when he sees movement in one of the two oval mirrors that are hanging along the wall on either end of the bar. When he cranes his head to get a better look at what caused it, he sees himself reflected in the streaked glass.

Like the workers, he's clean shaven, but different from them, his cheeks are dirty, like he's just got done working in the garden and instead of wiping his hands on his trousers, he's run the backs of them over his face. On top of his head he's got on a flat brimmed, tan hat, so wide that it extends a good ten centimeters away from his ears and when he leans his head down, he can see that its crown is about as tall as a balled fist. His upper half is covered in a double-breasted bib shirt, and with it being a dark black colour, it's impossible to tell if it's as dirty as his face. When he looks down, he sees that he's wearing thick, blue jeans with the ends tucked into a pair of worn out rawhide boots. On the back of their raised heels are golden spurs, but what really gets his attention is the strip of fat, silver bullets that aligns with his leather belt. Right below the crook in his elbow, there's a matching pouch holding a six shooter revolver.