Rat stood waiting on the girl and her brother to finish getting ready. Today they were going out for something fun and the poor man had been bullied into tagging along. He pulled on a t-shirt that Wings gave him and one of his three pairs of jeans that he’d acquired at a thrift store. He pulled on his old boots that he used to wear out with his family and decided to comb his hair.
Looking in the mirror he could see how much he’d thinned out since losing his son. But the weight was slowly starting to come back thanks to Wings and Mrs. James. He walked out of his bathroom and threw the shirt he’d worn to bed in the dirty clothes. He wasn’t really confident in showing off his torso and the scar he’d gained in college made it all the more uncomfortable. He hated telling the story.
Walking by the family photo he stopped and stared at his beautiful family.
“I miss you,” he muttered touching the chipped glass. A knock at the door startled him causing him to knock the picture off the wall. He caught it and held on tightly. Soc threw open the door and walked in followed by Wings.
“Hey Ratty, who’s in the pictur-” Soc began to ask but Rat cut her off.
“Do you two have a nail that isn’t bent? The ones in my walls keep letting the frame fall,” Rat didn’t want to answer her. This wasn’t the first time asking but it was hopefully enough to figure out he didn’t want to talk about it.
Wings eyed him for a moment then shook his head yes.
“Of course we do, when we get back you can borrow a hammer and take one of our nails and handle that. Can’t even begin to imagine where you’re gonna hang it though,” Wings chuckled looking at the empty apartment. Rat set the frame down on the counter determined to keep it from breaking.
“Thanks, anyway where are we going?” He wasn’t usually this chatty but it left no room for the questions he didn’t want to answer.
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Walking through the city Wings, Soc, and Rat found themselves distracted by the people around them. They were all off on a mission. Some were just running errands that would seem small but had their entire jobs riding on them and others rushed off to clock in on time. Very few people strolled leisurely through the crowded streets, yet here the three of them were. They caught the eye of a couple guards who were suspicious and started to follow them.
“Billy’s a real cool guy,” Soc said. She looked casually at the guards, realizing they were following but choosing to say nothing about it.
“Yeah, I’m glad he’s a neighbor, else Rat here’d be going broke on his addiction,” Wings chuckled noticing but deciding it didn’t matter. The three of them weren’t doing anything wrong.
Rat was clueless to the guards following, “I don’t smoke that much, honestly you make me sound like a chimney, I only smoke when I get stressed,” he nudged Wings. Soc and Wings laughed and he rolled his eyes.
The guards followed them in the direction of Billy’s convenience store. One eyed the three realizing they were nothing but jobless bums who were no threat to anyone while the other was offset by the group. All the other jobless people search tirelessly for work while these three casually accepted it and were content with it. He figured their ease came from some reassurance that they would be fine. He narrowed down they were out to rob something or someone. The big guy looked like he had it in him to really hurt someone while the little guy looked like the brain of the whole situation. He’d seen plenty of screen shows where the groups used girls to lure men in and two guys would jump him.
A small convenience store on the corner of Chester and High came into view and the guard prepared for the worst. Robbing a convenience store in broad daylight wasn’t the strangest thing he’d seen and if he figured it right, it was the smartest time of the day to do it since most of the guard didn’t work until night fall.
The group passed through the door and walked straight to the counter. The guard decided they were very direct but it didn’t change his view of the three until they walked up and started laughing with the tall bald clerk. The other guard sighed bored and turned to walk away but his partner stared on for a moment bored since being sentenced to Untainted hours of the day. He missed watching the violence and getting a chance to be part of the action but knew the more trusting man next to him was not made for the night shifts anymore.
Inside Rat bought a pack of cigarettes.
“Rat ma man you’re gonna kill yourself with these,” Billy laughed. He was always teasing Rat about his unhealthy habit but Rat didn’t mind.
“Well I have to die somehow,” Rat muttered. Soc smacked him on the arm and Wings chuckled.
“Rat, why don’t you come over later, I got somethin for ya,” Billy asked. Rat looked at the intimidating yet friendly man for a moment then smiled. He’d never seen the inside of Billy’s apartment before.
“Okay, yeah that sounds good, you don’t have to give me anything though,” Rat was overwhelmed by the support his neighbors gave him. He thought back to his old apartment and realized none of the neighbors even said hi to one another in that building yet here they went out of the way for each other. Rat smiled sadly thinking about how his wife would have loved Mrs. James and how her and Ms. Martinez would no doubt get into arguments about cleaning and whose parents were more strict.
Wings watched the thin man go into a daze. He noticed that from time to time Rat would almost step out of reality for a couple minutes but didn’t want to say anything. Soc nudged him but Wings said nothing, not sure if Rat even realized he did this.
Billy cleared his throat and behind them a customer stood tapping his foot impatiently. Wings grabbed Rat’s arm and pulled him out of the way and away from the day dream he was stuck in.
Soc eyed the now awakened man more determined to get the truth out of him.
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