Of Rage And Love

Two and a half hours later the boys were still none the wiser as to what the Church of Lushotology was, but if this guy was a Reverend then maybe religion wasn't quite as boring as they'd been led to believe. He was nearly twice their age and he drank them under the table. Literally, in some cases.

They were thrown out of the Ruby Room along with the Reverend and the rest of his band and what appeared to be their miniature entourage when it closed at four - three hours after their arrival in the City. It appeared that this was a regular occurrence - that is, if the conversation they heard while they were trying to gather their bearings on the sidewalk was anything to go by.

“You playing again tomorrow night, Twitch?” Trev asked as the man in question half-sauntered, half-stumbled past him out of the club.

“Yessir.” He slurred, looking back at the owner with a drunken grin.

“You sure you’re not going to be too hungover to play?”

The Rev shrugged his shoulders, then broke out into spluttered laughter. “Me too hungover. Good one, man.”

Trev laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Twitch. Behave.”

“Always do, Trev. Always do.” The Reverend shook his head, still laughing, as the other man walked into the club and shut the door behind him. “Right, my fellow ex-Jingletowners,” He had turned to face the four boys. “I’m not gonna find you dead on the streets in the morning because you’re inebriated, have nowhere to stay and get mugged and murdered by some thug, am I?”

It was a moment before anyone spoke - even the others, it seemed, were shocked by how quickly he could switch between barely being able to form a coherent sentence and then being perfectly eloquent.

In this momentary silence Tunny and Christian looked at Jimmy. Then they realised what a stupid idea looking to him for guidance was and turned to Ronnie instead.

“We’ll be fine.” He confirmed, much to their relief. “I know somewhere we can stay.”

“Good.” He looked pleased. “Behave, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and be here again tomorrow night - no wait, tonight, it‘s morning now right? I like you four.” He then turned and started walking in the opposite direction down the street, the rest of the group following him and calling their goodbyes to the boys as they went.

The girl who had brought them their drinks paused as she passed them.

“On the subject of the whole ‘don’t do anything Twitch wouldn’t do’…” She began. “That pretty much leaves you clear to do anything you want over the next twenty-four hours.” She flashed them as smile. “See you around.”

After she followed the rest of her friends the four boys were left standing on the sidewalk. Jimmy, Tunny and Christian turned to look at Ronnie.

“Right, where are we going then?”

“There’s a cheap hotel a half a block away.” He clarified. “I just hope my car is still here when we come back.”

***

The slightly worse for wear group of people finally arrived at their destination with the Rev singing at the top of his voice.

“Oh Mother Mary take my hand
I’ll be your Saint, I’ll be your man
I’ll do most anything, ‘cause I don’t care
Oh Mother Mary take my hand
Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba da-da-da-da
Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba da--”

“Twitch!” He was cut off. A window had opened on the third floor of the building they were standing in front of, and a very irritated looking woman was leaning out of it. “Either shut the fuck up or get in here and go to bed!”

“You ruin all my fun!” He yells back up at her.

“I’m gonna start throwing your stuff out of the window if you’re not in this building by the time I count to ten…” She smirked wickedly.

“Ah fuck, woman, I’m in. I’m in!” He quickly stumbled up the few steps to the front door and into the building.

“And the rest of you.” She added pointedly, her voice less irritated now. “Bed, or the neighbours’ll be on my case again.”

“’Night, Blue.” The rest of the group chorused, some slurring their words, before they too entered the building.

Gloria was sat on the window ledge when her sister entered. She’d watched the display down on the sidewalk with increasing amusement. She’d only been a part of this strange group for a day, but it hadn’t been difficult to begin to understand how things worked around here.

“I thought you all promised Blue you’d keep him under control?” Was the first thing she asked.

“There’s only so much controlling you can do with him.” Maria shrugged. “Were you okay while we were gone?”

“Yeah. I finished sorting my stuff and then Blue and me sat around drinking coffee.” Gloria explained. “She did her best to explain the things you couldn’t about this place.”

“Good, I had a feeling she would.” Maria crossed the room and leant against the window sill that her little sister was sitting on. “You know, we met some kids from Jingletown in the Ruby Room tonight.”

“Really?” Gloria’s interest was piqued.

“Yeah, four boys. Twitch befriended them.” Both of the sisters laughed. Gloria hadn’t known the Rev for very long, but she’d been exposed to him long enough to get an idea for what he was like.

“What’re they like?”

Maria shrugged. “They seem okay. Two of ‘em are my age, one of them yours and one a bit older. Runaways, obviously. Didn’t really talk to them much because the Rev decided to get them drinking.”

Gloria looked at her sister for a moment. “I’ll bet you five dollars that one of them is the guy who wrote all that stuff in the bathroom of the 7/11 that you were telling me about on the train.”

“Perhaps.” Maria smiled. “But I suppose only time will tell, right?” Her little sister nodded, and Maria smirked. “You never know, one of them might be just as idealistic as you are.”

“You mean my night in shiny armour?” Gloria giggled as soon as her endearing rework of the old cliché left her mouth.

“Exactly!” Her sister grinned.

“Maybe you’ll find yours too. I mean, if one of them is the 7/11 scribbler he can’t be too far off from you can he?” Gloria began to tease her big sister.

“I’m not sure there is a knight in shining - sorry, shiny - armour for me.” Maria reached up to ruffle Gloria’s hair.

Gloria smiled, then spoke quietly. “I think there’s someone for everyone.”

“Yep, definitely the idealistic one…”

“Whatever.” Gloria snorted. “You just have to open your eyes a bit, Ria. You do realise that back home there were guys that would have just dropped everything for a chance with you?”

Maria laughed softly. “Did I mention that you’re also the crazy one?”

“It has been said. By you. And that’s a couple of hundred… Thousand… Million times.”

“Exactly.”

“Seriously though, Maria.” Gloria persisted.

“Yeah, I know, Lor.” She sighed a little. “But none of those boys where the right one, you know?”

“See? See?” Gloria laughed again. “I knew you had to have a bit of idealism in you somewhere.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Screw you, I’m going to bed.” But then she moved to kiss her sister’s forehead, silently assuring her that she wasn’t mad. “Sweet dreams, Gloria.”