Diamond in the Rough

Breakfast time in the Coughlin house had always consisted of cereal and toast, exactly how Miriam Coughlin had fed her two kids and almost son, Doug.
Krista is sitting at the kitchen table nursing another bad hangover while Shyne gazes at the television, a cartoon of some kind. She feels like hell and she blames the guy in the bar who had bought her tequila, knowing that it didn't agree with her, she still drank it. Somehow, she had ended up in the back-seat of his car with one-hundred and fifty dollars pushed into her bra, the earnings for the next few hits.

She takes a drink of orange juice, trying to rid herself of the taste of the putrid drink she had consumed like water the night before. It's not working how she wanted it to.
Krista had been surprised when Jem hadn't turned up at the bar and had talked to Gloansy about whatever she felt like rambling on about. She had even offered herself to the almost married man and he threw it back in her face. The rejection from Gloansy only upset, knowing men found her irresistible, but she couldn't keep Doug in her bed. Of course she forgot to take into consideration that the men she always seemed to sleep with, paid her.

The sound of movement from Jem's room down the hallway snaps her out of her day dream and like the perfect mother she is, she tries to force feed Shyne some soggy cereal.
Krista discreetly watches as Jem and some bimbo sneaks out of his room, her view perfect to see the hallway and front door. He kisses the woman on the lips and locks the door behind her. He then makes his way into the kitchen.

Jem pours himself a glass of juice and glances at the television.

"Who was she?" Krista demands.

"None of your fuckin' business" he replies with as much energy as he can muster.

"You bring some slut home and I'm supposed to be okay with that? Fuck that, Jem!"

"How about all the limp-dicks you bring back here every night of the fuckin' week. You ain't my keeper"

Krista stares at him.

"What the fuck has it got to do with you anyway, huh?"

"It's got everything to do with me when I hear your damn screwing!" She yells at him.

He shakes his head. He doesn't need her yelling in his ear right now. There's things he needs to do and her nagging at him is just making him want to slap her into next week. He swore he would do everything he could for her, but she seriously knew how to push his buttons.

"If you don't like it then fuckin' move out. I don't need your shit" Jem snaps.

"And where are we supposed to go? Are we supposed to live in a cardboard box?"

"Right now I don't give two fucks where you as long as it's away from me" Jem replies, angry.

"And what about Shyne? She's a fucking baby"

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you whored yourself for a fucking fix. This is bullshit, Kris, fuckin' bullshit." He yells at her which disturbs Shyne, who cries loudly.

Krista shakes her head and a few tears escape her eyes.

"I'm a lot of things, Jem. I know that. But Shyne is the best thing that ever happened to me. She's given me a reason to live. I'm so fucking sorry that we inconvenienced you."

****

Breathing heavily and sweating, Doug walks into the living room of the shared house with a purpose. Jem is on the sofa watching the TV.

"I'm asking for your help. I can't tell you why, you can never ask me about it after and I need to hurt some people"

Jem ponders it over for a few seconds.

"Whose car we gonna take?"

They cruise through the Mishaum project, wary of the people who are standing around their cars listening to rap music and drinking 40oz's.

"Like little reddish hair? Reddish brown? Puerto rican kid?" Jem asks as he cruises down another street, his eyes locked on the rear-view.

"Yeah" Doug answers.

"Yup. Agarid Colazzo, Alex they call him. Hangs around with this fat kid who thinks he's shit"

They stop in front of one particular block, a unit building of apartments that are run down, but liveable.
Doug and Jem pull on balaclavas and grab the sledgehammer from the trunk. They take the stairs two at a time until they are at the correct apartment.

"Alex!" Doug shouts through the door, banging it hard with his fist.

"Alex!"

"What?" A voice calls out from the inside. The puerto rican looks through the peep-hole and see's nothing, the safety chain on the door.

Jem slams the sledgehammer into the reinforced door with all his strength, Alex falls onto his back in a state of shock.
Doug and Jem rush the two men, one being Alex and completely disable them from making any contact with hidden weapons. Jem smashes an expandable baton (police issue) into Alex's face as his friend tries to help, but Doug disarm's him. The two men reign punches and vicious kicks into the two Puerto rican's. Down, bloody and bruised, Doug and Jem stop their attack.

Jem opens a bag of white powder that he finds next to a set of scales and throws a handful over Alex Colazzo, the rest being dumped on the floor.

"Another deal gone sour for you's two" Jem says behind his disguise.

"Let's go" Doug says, finished with what needed to be done. He just doesn't get the same kick out of violence that Jem does.
Not knowing what the hell is going on between Doug and Alex, Jem goes down to the bruised man's eye level.

"What did you do?" He asks.

Alex doesn't answer, a stream of blood trickling from his mouth and his battered face has closed one of his eyes.

"Hurt my friend? This is my brother right here. I would die for this motherfucker right here. You hurt him?"

Alex still doesn't answer him.

Jem removes his gun from the waistband of his pants and points it at Alex.

"I didn't do nothing" he chokes on his blood and spit.

"Yeah you did"

"Chill" Alex says, his hands up in surrender.

"Don't tell me to fuckin' chill!" Jem shouts in his face, aiming the gun at the shaved skull.

"Easy" Doug intervenes

"What did you do?" Jem asks again.

"Nothin!" The man replies again.

Jem pulls the trigger and a bullet rips into his right thigh. Alex Colazzo screams in agony.

"There goes college soccer" Jem says and puts another two bullets in the left thigh.

"Let's go now!" Doug says.

"What did you do?" Jem raises the gun to Alex's head and is grabbed by Doug, but he shakes him off. Jem has a point to make and by hook or by crook he will make it.

Jem slides up the mask and shows the beaten and now shot kid his face.

"You know who I am? Go tell the fuckin cops 'cause I know who you are too"

In the safety of the car they drive in silence. If anyone had heard the gunshots they would assume with the drugs lying everywhere it was a drug deal gone wrong. If Jem had thought about it at the time he would have pocketed a few baggies.

"I don't need to be up there killing people" Doug says evenly. Always the responsible, clear-headed one.

"You fuckin came to me, remember?"