Family Tradition

"So Alina couldn't sleep again last night, huh?" Alexa asked and I sighed, blowing cigarette smoke out of my mouth slowly.

"Nope. Woke up and she was up on the room."

"Yeah, I herd her goin' up there around 1 last night. Thanks for the knock by the way, I would have probably missed work today," Alexa said as she searched her pockets before cursing under her breath.

"Knew you needed it. Need one of these too?" She looked over at me with wide eyes, only to see me offering her my pack of Marlboro Reds and my zippo. I saw her face light up as she reached for the pack.

"You're a life saver. But tell me, why did we take jobs as waitresses?"

"Because we got them," I said, chuckling a bit.

"Why'd we even apply, knowing how stressful it is?"

"Because we needed them. Still do."

"Yeah, good point," She said laughing.

"Well, I gotta get back in there. See you in a few?"

"Yup," She said, inhaling deeply on the cigarette stuck between her lips.

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"Are ye done on th' damn compu'er er wha' Murph?" Connor asked impatiently, looking over to his brother, who was seated at a desk in whichever nameless hotel they were in that day with his back turned to his twin. Connor frowned in spite of himself from his spot in front of the TV when his brother didn't respond. He stood up and approached his brother slowly.

"Ye a'right Murphy?" He asked and noticed Murphy jump a bit, then noticed him try to hide something.

"Aye," Murphy said, trying to sound non-chalant.

"Wha' 'ave ye got there?" Connor asked, peering at his brothers hands.

"Nothin'." Murphy looked up at his brother with an innocent face.

"Come on man, we share everythin', wha' 'ave ye got?" He seized his twins hands and grabbed the small piece of paper he had been trying to hide. When Connor saw what was on it, he nearly dropped it.

"Murph...I thought we decided t' get rid of all a these..." Connor said quietly, gazing at the picture in his hand. It was obviously old and hand been folded and unfolded many times.

"I know...I know, i's jus' tha', I couldn' bring meself t' throw it away. Con, it's me favorite picture, I can't..." Connor traced the faces in the picture silently. He returned to his spot on one of the beds in the room and continued to stare at the picture. It had been one of his favorites also.

In the picture was Connor and Murphy, visibly younger. It had been before they had gotten their message from God; before they had become vigilantees. The two other faces in the picture were the ones that he couldn't stop looking at. One was a girl with long, light blonde hair, grinning wildly at the camera. Two of her front teeth were missing and her eyes were the brightest blue Connor had ever seen. The other girl had shoulder length dark brown hair, and wore a softer smile, so you couldn't tell if she had lost any teeth yet. The girls in the picture couldn't have been older than 6 years old. Connor felt a lump form in his throat as Murphy sat down next to him. He swallowed it and began to speak.

"Remem-" His voice caught and he swallowed the lump again before concentrating on his speech. "Remember how ye two bonded over th' fact tha' ye both had moles?" He said with a sad laugh.

"Aye, even though hers was so much smaller," Murphy responded and as much as Connor wanted to look up at him, he knew he wore the same expression and couldn't bear to see his twin looking like that. Connor bit his lip and nodded before handing the picture back to his brother.

"I'll be back," He said so quietly Murphy barley heard. Though, he was also distracted by what he thought was a tear running down his brothers cheek.