Walking Contradictions

"Alright man, I'm headin out." Thomas called out as he grabbed his bag and clocked out.

"Have fun, man." Sam said, not looking up from the paper work he was doing.

"Get you some, baby!" Sarah yelled from the back.

Thomas smirked and headed out the front door and waited out in the parking lot for Kenny to show up. She was 15 minutes late when her Camaro came rumbling into the lot. "Took ya long enough."

"Yeah well when you have to sneak out a window." She shrugged. "School called and told them I skipped out and Daddy didn't take it too well."

"So glad mine isn't around." Thomas smirked as they took off down the road.

"When did he leave?"

"When I was like eight. Beat the shit outta me and my brother and sister, cussed mom out, drank, and then one day I had had enough and changed the locks. Then he showed up late that night drunk and when I told him to leave he punched me in the eye, left, and we haven't heard from him since."

"Damn. You were a tough kid."

"Well when you grow up on South Street-"

"You grew up on South Street?" Kenny gasped in amazement. South Street was infamous for murders, drugs, and car jackings. "Whoa."

"Yeah really. So who are we going to see?"

"My friend's band, Bright Lights. They're pretty good but I'm mainly just going to show support."

"That's cool." The rest of the ride was spent getting to know eachother. They had similar taste in music, both smoked weed, and hated the same people. The show was fun as well. Really loud and fast and the band members had some really good energy and a pretty good question everything, take names and kick ass message and attitude about them.

"Never let anyone make you their bitch! And if they try to, you got fists for a reason!" The lead singer yelled and everyone cheered. "You guys have been fuckin amazing, thanks a lot, we'll be back next Friday!"

"You wanna top the night off with a bang?" Thomas grinned as the pair walked down the sidewalk away from the club and hoards of teenagers ridden with angst, hands shoved in jacket pockets. He spotted the bass player from Bright Lights across the street. "Hey man, great show!"

"Thank ya, brother!" The bass player smiled, loading his amp into the awaiting van.

"Yeah sure that sounds cool. Not in a rush to go home." Kenny hung her head and fished her car keys out of her pocket. "You know how to get there better than I do."

"Damn," Thomas smirked, taking the keys, "aren't you a trusting one." He took her to the best place to smoke weed: The Rocks. It was a pretty chill place in the middle of the woods right by the creek, about a mile from the nearest road. Cops never went out there. So the pair sat by the creek smoking weed and talking for several hours, looking up at the stars and full moon overhead and the cold stream rushed by at their feet.

"Why didn't you ever talk to me in class?" Kenny asked.

"Eh, I hated that class enough as it was. I just wanted to get the fuck outta there and get home."

"People told you I was fake, didn't they?"

Thomas let out a cloud of smoke and coughed. "Yeah, but I like to form my own opinion about people."

"So you got a girlfriend?" Kenny asked, fighting her lighter.

"Nah, what about you?"

"No, I'm straight." She giggled.

"Ha ha ha, you're so funny." He said dryly, rolling his eyes and smiling. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah yeah I know what you mean. And no, I'm not with anyone. Last guy I dated was a lot like your Dad."

"Maybe it was him."

"Oh, so you're older than your own father. That's convenient." The pair fell silent, looked at eachother, and laughed.

"You're pretty cool, Kenny."

"You're pretty awesome yourself, Tommy boy. We should do this more often."

"Yeah really."

There was a silence again and Kenny sighed. "Man I don't wanna go home. That fat bastard already flipped one shit on me. If he finds out I went to the show-"

"Do you maybe wanna stay at my place tonight?" Thomas offered.

"Your mom wouldn't mind?"

"Nah, she works the graveyard shift at the hospital anyway. Plus the only one at the house would be Mike. He's a goodie two shoes, but I'll bribe him to keep his mouth shut."

"Where's your sister?"

"Got knocked up and moved out with her boyfriend two months ago. It's kinda nice having her out of my room finally."

The pair sat there awhile longer before going back to Thomas's 'rat shack of a house', as he so lovingly refereed to it. The small house was dark aside from the glow of the TV in the living room. "Fucker left it on again." He mumbled as they went up to the front door. He fumbled with his keys a minute and then pushed the door open.

Kenny looked around at the rundown living room with it's old sagging couch, coffee table with a duct taped leg, and an old TV set with bunny ears. And a sleeping kid on the floor.

"Hey, psssst, Mike, wake up." Thomas whispered, shaking his younger brother awake.

"Wha-" Mike groaned, rolling over and rubbing his eyes."Who's that? You're not suppose to have people over when Mom's not here." This kid was still doe eyed and couldn't be more than 12.

"Never mind that. You fell asleep again. Go to your room, man." Thomas waited for his bedroom door to close before clicking the TV off. "Don't mind him, he's still young and stupid. C'mon, you can have my bed." He opened a door off of the living room and flicked the yellowing light on.

The room wasn't impressive in the least. A large dresser with a radio on top of it, a full size bed that looked like hell, cloths on the floor, a guitar and amp in the corner of the room, and posters for The Kinks, The Clash, The Beatles and other bands lined the walls.

"It's not much but it's better than that ratty ass couch." Thomas commented from the doorway. "You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah but where will you sleep?"

Thomas laughed. "Mom's not here so I'll crash in her room for the night."

Kenny felt stupid for asking. "Well, thanks for letting me stay here again." She smiled.

"I'll see you in the morning, Kenny." Thomas smiled before pushing off of the door frame and going to his mother's room.

It took awhile but Kenny finally worked up the courage to turn out the light and crawl into the bed. She could feel every spring against her back and the pillow wasn't much of an improvement, but it was better than sleeping in the backseat of the Camaro. After staring at the Davies brothers for thirty minutes she started to drift off until she felt a prick on her arm. "The hell?" She mumbled, opening her eyes and looking down. As her eyes adjusted, she let a scream that would have awoke Satan himself.

She jumped up and threw the door open and ran straight into a shirtless Thomas. "What's wrong?" He panicked, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the light of the living room.

"Rat!" She screamed in terror. She fucking hated rats!

Thomas's grip tightened and he growled before he let go and stormed off. A door was flung open, and light turned on, and Mike got hit. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you to lock that damn rat up?!"

"God, I'm sorry!" Mike stammered, being torn from his bed and thrown to the floor.

"Well go get the damn thing!" Thomas yelled, shoving him out the door. "And I swear to shit, if I see that damn rat free one more time Mike, I'll kill it myself!"

Mike was on his hands and knees looking for his pet rat as this comment stung him in the heart. "I hate you!" He yelled back. "I wish you would leave like Dad!"

"And who's gonna take care of your stupid ass? Mom? Ha! She can't even take care of herself! If it weren't for me sticking around, you and her would be on the street!"

"Shut up!" Mike said, on the verge of tears as he walked back to his room with his fat ass, spoiled pet in hand. The door slammed again and Thomas let out a breath.

"Sorry you had to see that."

"I've heard worse, believe me. You should hear me and my Dad go at it. Or my parents." Kenny tried to laugh it off but couldn't.

"We can switch beds if you want." Thomas offered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Mom's is a bit better. And there are no rats in there."

"I don't think I can sleep now." She said quietly.

"Hungry? We don't have a lot but I can scrounger up something." Thomas smiled and went into the tiny kitchen towards the back of the small house. "Let's see here." Bang! "Ow! Fuck. Um...do you like cold cheese pizza?"

So Thomas stayed up with Kenny, eating cold pizza and watching whatever TV station he could get the TV to pick up until his mother came stumbling in at 7 in the morning.

"We have to kill the rat." Was the first thing Thomas said without looking up.

"He let it loose again?" His mother replied, closing the door. "I brought home some more aspirin for you. Oh and I got an advance on my pay check." She went digging through her brown leather handbag and handed her son her paycheck. "Give me what's left."

"Yeah yeah I know. Mom this is Kenny. Kenny, mom."

"Hello." Kenny smiled sweetly.

"Hey baby doll." Mrs. Anderson smiled back. "Are you his girlfriend or somethin?"

"What? Oh, no we're just friends."

"Ok, that's cool. Well, help yourself to whatever and stay as long as you like, sweetie." And with that she disappeared to go catch up on sleep.

"She seems nice."

"Yeah, mom's pretty cool. Really lazui fair though. But cool none the less. So do you need to be home any time soon?"

"Not really, why?"

"Just wonderin. But yeah, feel free to stay as long as you want. We got room and we got food and you are welcome to it."

"You guys are really awesome." Kenny yawned, leaning back and closing her eyes.

"Comfy?" Thomas asked.

"Kinda cold." She muttered.

She felt Thomas get up and then sit back down and stretch out. "Come here."

Kenny opened her tired eyes and crawled to the other end of the couch and curled up beside Thomas, who put his arm around her and a blanket over the two of them. "Anyone ever told you how cute you are?" He asked.

"Nope."

"We'll you're adorable."

"You're pretty hot yourself." She mumbled, closing her eyes and drifting off.

Thomas smiled and brushed some loose hair out of Kenny's face as she slept. She was awesome and adorable! The smile remained on his lips as he drifted off to sleep as well.