Bastards of Young

I woke up the next day earlier than usual. I could tell from the faint light coming in through the tiny windows near the ceiling of the room that the sun had just barely risen. Reaching down, I grabbed Billie’s wrist from around my waist and looked at his Burger King digital Star Wars watch. It read 7:36.

“Stop,” Billie groaned groggily before turning over and continuing to snore softly.

Sitting up and looking at his mildly frowning, yet serene face and I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Attractive.”

I felt a slight pang of sadness as "physically affectionate and it not mean anything," in his voice ran through my head.

From up stairs came a loud thud and muffled laughter. Knowing sleep was no longer an option; I carefully got up and quietly made my way to my bag in the corner of the room where I pulled out the first aid kit my mother had pressed into my hands before I got on the bus to leave home. Inside was a bottle of Advil that I placed on the pillow where my head had been for Billie when he woke up.

Again there was a thud followed by laughter. Smiling I sauntered up the stairs to see what craziness people were getting into. Cracking the basement door open slightly I saw Tracy and Jeff looking at something with laughter shining all over their faces.

“What’s going on,” I asked coming fully into the room.

“Jean,” they all cried when they realized it was me. A loud “OOF” was forced out of me as what felt like a brick wall slammed into my side. Familiar pale arms had wrapped themselves around me and suddenly I was spinning in the air.

“Hey, Tre,” I greeted nervously. Tre was one of those people you were always slightly terrified of being around. You knew deep down everything was going to be alright, but at the same time you were also completely aware that to him you were nothing more than a pretty rag doll to play with.

“Check out what I found,” he stepped proudly aside as my jaw dropped in complete disbelief. I began to share in the delighted laughter of Tracy and Jeff as I observed the adult black and white pig currently eating left over Indian in our living room.

“Holy God… Tre! Where did you get it,” I asked, still laughing and walking up to the pig. Bending down I carefully started scratching the top of its head.

“I traded this guy some speed for her at a flea market across town,” Tre knelt down beside the pig and gave it an affectionate pat on the side. “Gonna fatten her up and serve her for Christmas breakfast.”

“Tre,” Tracy and I gawked at him in horror as Jeff bent over in laughter.

“Geeze guys, only kiddin’!”

“Where are you going to put it,” I asked as the unpleasant thought of putting up with pig shit in the house passed through my mind.

“In the shed.”

“It needs to run around, Tre,” said Tracy in a nagging mom voice.

Tre snorted haughtily. “I can take her for walks, duh. Let me have my moment, damn it!”

“Well, what’s like its name, dude,” Jeff was leaning over the couch, looking down at the pig as if the kid inside him wanted to explode.

“Mr. Dixie.”

“I thought it was a girl,” Tracy looked cautiously under the pig.

“She is.”

“Right,” I said, accepting Tre’s ironic name as just one more reason as to way I loved the guy. “Who wants to go out for some breakfast?”

“Broke,” said Jeff flatly.

“Dude, I just got home. Me and Mr. Dixie are going to pass out,” Tre pressed his forehead to the pig’s shoulder wearily and I came to the conclusion he really loved that thing too much.

“Tracy?”

“Sure,” she replied way too brightly for this early in the morning, “I’ll buy! Mom slipped me a few bucks last night. Just hang on for a second.” With that she bounded up the stairs, nearly tripping along the way.

“So,” Jeff began after a few seconds of silence. “How’s like Billie doing? He looked gnarly last night, real gnarly.”

Tre’s head shot up. “What happened?”

“He just took a couple of punches to the nose and lip, but he’s okay. He’s down stairs asleep,” I folded my arms and tried to bring my sweatshirt closer to my body as a chilly draft swept in through the fireplace.

“Well, shit man,” Tre’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Is that blood on your neck, Scarlet O’Hara?”

Instinctively I put my hand to my neck. “Oh, yeah, I forgot it was there.”

“Is it Billie’s,” Tre continued his line of questioning, an eyebrow slowly beginning raise.

“Yeah, why?”

“Just wondering why Billie’s face was apparently all up on your neck,” Tre’s signature devilish grin made an appearance. “Did you help the pain go away, Ellie May?”

I was about to tell him to go fuck a duck when Jeff butted in, tucking a blonde dreadlock behind his ear.

“That reminds me! Have you guys fucked yet?”

I could have half killed Jeff as all of the heat in my body seemed to concentrate around my face. I was all too aware of how intently Tre was listening over to my left.

“No,” I cried, slapping my hand to my face.

“Bullshit,” Tre coughed into his fist.

“You know what? Mr. Dixie is a horrible name, Tre,” I attacked only half seriously.

Tre mocked anger and covered Mr. Dixie’s ears. “Leave her out of this!”

“Do you guys ask him this shit all the time too?”

“Mike did at practice yesterday.”

I froze and hesitated slightly before I asked the question I knew would ruin me, but I couldn’t resist. “What did he say?”

Tre had the face of a stoic as he spoke. “Dude, he whipped out his dick and just whacked off right there. It got him that horny just thinking about it.” With that he cracked back into the devilish grin and then into full blown laughter at the look on my face. As Jeff and Tre shared their laughter and exchanged high fives I felt like crawling under the splintered coffee table and dying.

“You ready,” came Tracy’s voice from behind me.

“Very.”

---

“Okay, so the real reason I’m here,” said Tracy as we munched on our McDonald's sausage biscuits. “You know how my sister came by last night?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied with a mouthful of biscuit.

“She has this really nice house with her husband across town, near the beach.”

“Okay.”

“Well, the garage is separate from the house and has an apartment above it and the guy that was renting it out just moved out, so my sister wants me to move in. She even downed the rent and everything.”

“Awesome! I’d do it, girl.”

“That’s what I was hoping,” Tracy’s grin got wider.

“Huh?”

“I want you to move with me. See, the rent was 200 a month, but she dropped it to 150… which is still too much for me to handle on my lowly student worker salary. So, what d’you say? Ya in?”

I thought nervously for a second. “Are you sure you don’t want to ask some one you’ve know for a bit longer? I mean… we met last week. I know it seems longer than that, but…”

“I think we could make it work as long as we went in with the right mind set, you know? Like let’s not expect to be with each other all the time and you know, divide up the responsibilities.”

“Well,” I said breaking into a smile, “Sounds great then.”

“Yes! We can move in tonight then!”

I choked on my orange juice. “Tonight,” I sputtered.

“Sure, why not?”

“I dunno… I just figured it’d take more time than that… I mean we need furniture and stuff, right?”

“Nope, the place already has it. We just need to show up. Rent’s due after I get my paycheck next week.”

“Wow…well….”

“C’mon, Jean, think about it! You could take a real shower tonight!”

My mind began to swim at the prospect.

“And they have cable!”

“Alright,” I said with in a firm and determined tone. “Let’s do it.”

“Just one more thing, though.”

“What?”

“You’ll have to sleep in the dining room.”