Band Aid Only Covers the Bullet Hole

It was an hour or so later when I got up to leave. I was still a little buzzed, but not too bad. Bill got up as well, and went to open the door for me, like I was a guest or something instead of just someone bringing his drugs. He was honestly a whole different person, when you took the time to talk to him for a bit. Yeah, he was desperate, and in a lot of ways, almost pathetic, but he was smart, and almost kind of charming once you got him talking.

"See you around." I said, walking out of the little apartment.

"Bye." He said, and started to walk away.

"Hey, Snow White." He said, and I tuned back around, raising my eyebrows. He was leaning against the door frame smirking. "What's your name anyway?"

"Oh.. It's Juliette." I said putting my hands in my pockets. Psh, Snow White, isn't that just cute?

He nodded his head a little. "That's pretty."

"Thank you." I said and smiled, and then turned to walk away again.

When I got to the stairs, I almost walked into some guy who was coming up them.

"Whoops!" He said holding a cigarette in his teeth, and drawing his elbow in to keep from bumping into me. His hair was long and dark, that would have fallen over his eyes if they weren't hidden behind a pair of sunglasses that had a sort of pinkish-red tint to them. His outfit made him look like he'd fallen out of the '70s, but he still managed to pull it off looking amazingly well. He was good looking, but almost intimidating in a way.

"Beckett, Beckett, Beckett! All the way on this side of town, staying in someone else's apartment? Wouldn't be tryin' to hide from me, would ya?" I heard him saying.

"Of course not." I heard Bill say. I wondered who the other man was. I highly doubted they were friends. I don't think anyone wearing an leather jacket that looked that expensive would be friends with Bill, as terrible as that sounds.

I didn't it much more thought as I walked down the stairs and back out into the hot sun.

Later that night, we were once again back in the crummy motel bar, since that was where we were spending most of our free time nowadays. Not particularly because we liked it, but because we had nothing better to do. There was no where else to go, and the only channel on the television that would come in now and then was a soap opera that was all in Spanish.

Hannah and Frank were in a conversation that I wasn't involved in, since Frank usually avoided talking to me unless it was necessary. I didn't mind so much, though. I was entertaining myself by scribbling on a napkin.

I heard the door open, and looked up to see that man I'd seen at Bill's - or rather, whoever he was staying with's- apartment building, and he caught sight of the three of us, and sauntered our way.

"Frank Iero." He said standing next to him, and crossing his arms. "Long time no see?"

Frank looked up with an almost bored expression on his face. "Lazzara."

"So Frank." He said, sitting down and getting comfortable in the barstool next to him. "We seem to have a little problem here."

"Yeah? and what might that be?" Frank said, anger rising in his voice.

"Well you see, I saw one of your lackeys here today." He gestured towards Hannah and I -specifically me- and then turned back to Frank. "And I've got reason to believe they had just been doing business, but with one of my customers. Now we can't have that, can we?"

"Yours? Who are you talking about?"

"A scrawny little cokehead by the name of Bill Beckett."

"I don't fucking think so, that kid's been coming to me for over a year." Frank said outraged.

"Look, buddy, all I know, is I'm losing money over this, and I don't like that very much, so you better keep away from where I do my business, got it?"

"Don't call me Buddy, I'm not your fucking buddy."

"Are you going to answer my question, I'd hate for something to happen to you or one of your girls, Iero." He said getting in Frank's face.

Frank drew back his arm, and punched him in the jaw making him fall out of his seat. Frank stood up, throwing his cigarette at the floor.

"Aw, Fuck.." Lazzara said, rubbing his jaw as he stood up, and then started laughing. Like hysterical, psychotic laughing. If there was anyone in there that wasn't already staring since Frank threw the first punch, they were now.

He stood up straightening his shoulders, and was now towering over Frank. "That was, uh, that was a good punch there." He said clapping Frank's shoulder.

For a second I thought he was just going to laugh it off and walk away, but then all of the sudden his expression changed, and he turned and hit Frank back. Frank grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the bar. Lazzara managed to shove him off, and then threw Frank to the ground, smashing his face against the floor. I grabbed Hannah's arm, and pulled her away so she didn't accidentally get hit, and we just watched the two grown men beat the shit out of each other. The bar tender was shouting for them to stop, but you could barely hear him over the loud sounds of them hitting each other and occasional unpleasant crunch when someones fist would hit bone.

There was a deafening bang, and bits of plaster fell from the ceiling, and Frank and Lazzara, stopped their fighting quickly, and looked over. The bar tender had a shot gun out, and had apparently just shot a hole in the ceiling.

"Get the fuck out of here." He said to Lazzara pointing at the door. He wouldn't tell Frank to get out. Frank was probably half of his business alone.

Lazzara wiped the back of his hand across his chin, smearing the blood that was trickling from his split lip.

"Do not fuck with me." He snarled at Frank, revealing his teeth that had blood in the spaces between them, before storming out.

Frank turned back towards us, putting his hand to his face to check if his nose was bleeding, which it was. He also had a cut on his forehead, and his cheekbone looked a little swollen.

"That motherfucker." He said, wiping it on the sleeve of his jacket. He sat back down, and lit up another cigarette, as if nothing had just happened.

I looked at Hannah, and she shrugged, so we just went back to what we'd been doing prior, Mr.Lazzara's little visit.

I had a bad feeling, though, that maybe that was a threat that we should actually be worried about..