Let It Be Me

Part 9

We finally arrived on Buck's doorstep at dawn, exhausted, covered head to toe in mud and not speaking to each other. Dally's Chevy was still parked out front which meant he had passed out somewhere and would more than likely be hung over and not too happy to see us at six a.m. but by that point neither of us cared. We had spent the night awkwardly huddled together for warmth, purposely trying to avoid talking about what had just happened between us. The few words that we did say to each other ended in an argument so we decided to just not talk at all until we got to Buck's.

"You didn't knock loud enough" I muttered to Johnny as he leaned over to peek through the window by the door. We had been standing outside for five minutes and I was about ready to hotwire Dally's car to get us home.

"Would you stop sayin' that? I knocked plenty loud enough" he said briskly.

"Well, just try the door. Maybe it's unlocked."

"This is Buck's place" he said incredulously.

"So what?"

"So, he'd kill us...With bullets, Cal." I made a face and grabbed for the doorknob. I was in no mood to be threatened. If anything, whoever was inside should have been afraid of me at that point.

The door creaked open and I held my hand out to Johnny as an invitation to go in with an "I told you so" look on my face. He shook his head at me and cautiously stepped inside.

When I saw the room in front of me I immediately thought we were at the wrong place. There was a long bar stretched out in front of us that was fully stocked with bottles of liquor and empty shot glasses. The room reeked of stale smoke and fried food and a Jukebox stood dark and empty in the corner.

"This is a bar" I said pointing to the row of stools in front of me. Johnny patted me on the shoulder.

"Very good, Callie."

"Well, what the hell? I thought this was Buck's place." Johnny went to the cigarette machine against the wall and pulled a few quarters out of his pocket.

"It is" he said jamming the coins into the slot. A fresh pack of Kools dropped behind the door at the bottom and he bent down to pick them up. "Buck lives upstairs."

"And he doesn't lock up his bar at night?"

"If he did you'd still be standin' out on the steps. Quit complainin'."

"I wasn't complaining. I was just pointing out...what a completely dumbass move that is."

"Well, thanks for pointin' it out" he said unwrapping the foil from the pack in his hand. "Most people know not to break in to Buck's place though."

"Right. Bullets" I said looking at the empty room around us meaningfully. He sighed and nodded towards the stairs that stood between the bar and some empty pool tables.

"Come on, let's just get this over with."

Johnny paused to light his cigarette and I moved past him to make my way towards the stairs when he suddenly flipped his zippo shut and grabbed my arm, yanking me back into him.

"Ow" I yelled. "What the hell?"

"Hey Buck" Johnny held a hand up. "It's Johnny. Dal's buddy." I looked up to see a tall scruffy man standing at the top of the stairs holding a rifle on us.

"What are ya doin' in my bar?" he drawled, sounding drunk and angry. Johnny swallowed.

"We're here to see Dally. Sorry to come by so early and all but we're in kind of a bad spot."

"Dally's sleepin'." Johnny paused.

"Yeah...We wouldn't come by unless it was real important, Buck. We just need to see him." He looked us over for a second, his knees swaying side to side a little.