THEA POV
After a long silence due to the fact Joe was somehow eating the food, I remembered our project.
"About the report..."
"I know, I know," he snapped slightly. "You want to actually do the fucking work. But there's no way in hell I am. Okay, maybe I will meet up with you, but we can't because I am so not going to the Jenemys to 'do work.' We hate them so goddamn much, you have no idea. The faggot John is such a poor excuse-"
"We hate them? Who's-you know what, I don't even want to know. So now where are we going to meet? We can't do everything in school," I looked at Joe and he grinned, portraying straight, white teeth.
"The town park..." I gave him a 'no-way' look. Joe continued. "Okay...well, I guess we could try my place. It's not really my place, and we'll have only a certain amount of time where you can be there-"
"Yeah, okay. I guess we'll have to do that. What times?" I went back to playing with my lunch.
"I don't know yet, but for today...school ends at two..."
"No, three," I was positive. Joe chuckled in return.
"Yeah, well, I skip 8th period on Fridays."
"Really?" I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Why don't you just cut lunch, too, instead of eating this shit?" I added glumly. He hesitated.
"See you at 6? Is that a good time?"
"Um...okay. See ya then," Why didn't Joe answer my question? Weird.
The rest of the school day was easy, and my last class was Spanish. Even though some of the information was new, I quickly caught on, too.
But that was the rest of my school day. I still had to meet Joe at his place across the street. How convenient. I tentatively opened the front door. John was snoring on the couch and Katherine was at work. Alright, I figured that as long as I stayed in my room, John would leave me alone. I quietly walked upstairs to start my homework.
For two fucking hours. It was near the end of the school year-how the hell did we have so much work? Between Spanish, Math, Social Studies and Science, I was busy. As five finally rolled around, I decided to take out my guitar; it was an already used, black electric guitar that had no amp because I couldn't pay for it, which was fine by me. My father had me start with the guitar at around 7 years old, and I was doing lessons up until he died when I was 10. Since then, I had just been teaching myself. The song that I had written in my notes was something I had made up to go with my guitar. Glad that it had been returned to my room, I tried to think of more lyrics.
I glanced at the clock. 6:10. I had fallen asleep, but 10 minutes late wasn't that bad. Besides, at least Joe hadn't come looking for me.
"John, I mean Mr-" I stopped myself, realizing John was still sleeping, if that was even possible, so I left a note explaining I went to the...library. Hopefully, he wouldn't check.
Arriving at Joe's door, I lightly tapped it, nervously clutching my English stuff.
"Come in," I heard him say from inside. I opened the door and gasped. Oh my god. What was that?
"Oh, shit!" He jumped off the couch as I saw the powder and lines he was trying to put together, along with some weed he was cutting up with scissors. Then, with one arm he pushed all the beer cans from the small 'coffee' table. Next, he gently grabbed the drugs, lines and all, and stashed them in a shoebox, hiding it under the couch.
"Sorry; I didn't know it was you."
"I'm going to go now..." I spun around, but Joe tightly grabbed my arm. I bit my lip to control myself from doing something back.
"Listen...just forget about that. You came here to do the report. Bring your stuff over to my room, over there," he pointed, closed the door, and locked it. I had no choice, so I slowly walked into his very, very small room that looked king-sized-bed size, and laid out my stuff.
"Well, first we have to figure out what to write about. Any ideas?" I asked as Joe sat next to me.
"We can write about how teachers are annoying bitches."
I slightly smiled. "As good a grade that might get us...I have to say no."
"Okay, okay. Well, what's somethin' you can always talk about? Don't hide nothing-it can be anything."
I pondered Joe's surprisingly good point, then smiled humorlessly as foster homes' pictures flashed through my head. "You have no idea, Joe. Alright, I shouldn't think about that now. It'll probably scare you off, and then what do I do?" Most likely dumbstruck from my small outburst, he stayed silent. I continued, "Movies. Music. Uh..."
"Violent movies. Hard metal."
"Hard metal? Why?"
"The...hardness of it can be interesting."
I couldn't stop myself. I doubled over, laughing so hard. God, it felt so good to laugh; I hadn't truly in a long time. Too long. "The hardness of hard metal? Interesting?" Joe then began laughing too, though it was more of a light laugh. However, before I knew it we were both doubled over, laughing hysterically at each other's faces.
That was, until we heard the sound of keys, a "Fuck!", and then the door burst open. Joe's smile disappeared immediately as he said, "Oh shit. He's not supposed to be here..."
"Who? Isn't this your place?" I frowned and stood up with him.
"Joey-boy, we finished early. Get your fucking ass in here; I hope you finished the shit or...fuck! What the hell is this? Why are you wasting our dope?! Stuffing it in a shoebox?! Get out here!"
Why did the voice sound so familiar?
"Thea, I'm really sorry. Please just stay here," Joe whispered and ran out of the room. There was no way I was gonna listen to him, so I followed Joe.
"What the..." I then realized why the voice was so familiar; it was Billy. "Why the hell is she here?" he shouted angrily.
"We had to do something for school-" Joe tried to explain.
"So? Since when do you care about school? Do you have any fucking idea in that tiny head of yours, what will be the consequences if Bones ain't gettin' his money? Huh?" Billy kept shouting, "Well, maybe you'd like to find out, hmm? Why don't you pay him a little visit?" There was a silence, almost as if Joe was waiting it out.
"Wait...you guys are related?" I said unbelievably.
"Brothers. It's actually Billy's place-" Joe started.
"Whatever, I'm leaving," I said quietly, but then my voice returned, now angry. "Sorry to interrupt...whatever you needed to do...Joe." I finished coldly. All of the stress was really making the room seem smaller...
"No, wait," he put his arm out in front of me to block my way and then added to Billy, "I finished it all-that was for extra. Second draw to the left, bottom one."
Billy said nothing; he just stared at me. "Fine. Be done by seven thirty. We're going out again," he snapped, really mad.
"But you said we were done-"
"For now, dumbass. Get back to your schoolwork," Billy then sat heavily on the couch and flicked on the TV. I angrily pushed past Joe and almost ran to the door. Once again, he grabbed me, by both my arms and began pulling me to his room.
"Let...me...fucking...go!" I snarled. "Don't touch me!" With one last pull, I yanked my hands out of his grasp and we both stood in the middle of the room with Billy, breathing heavily. Billy looked at us both, now watching. Joe looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Fine," I stormed into his room where we continued our 'work' until 7, when we started just joking around.
"I gotta take a leak, stay here," Joe left. For about 5 seconds, silence filled the apartment.
"Joe's friend, get in here for a sec," I heard Billy call me.
"I have a name; it's Thea," I stayed where I was.
"Whatever. Thea, come in here," he tried again. I walked in. "C'mere," Billy slurred, obviously drunk, and waggled a finger. My throat went dry. Muscles froze. He said it again, and I felt as if I had no choice.
"What?" I whispered and sat next to him.
"So..."
"Thea."
"Thea." Billy tried out the name. He liked the way it rolled on his tongue. "Where you from?"
"Nowhere. I move foster homes a lot, I guess."
"Parents leave ya?"
I frowned and shifted away from Billy. "No." When he said nothing, I continued, "My mom...died giving birth and my dad was killed in a car crash when I was...10," I swallowed, not planning on showing Billy any weaknesses, and turned so I was looking at him head-on. "You?"
He laughed, "I ain't telling you shit."
I bit my lip. "How come you're not in school? How old are you, 17?" I purposely guessed low to irritate him.
"18," he snapped as I smiled to myself. Mission accomplished. "You know, getting out of finishing senior year in high school isn't hard. The system was easy for-I know people," he cut himself off. I laughed.
"Alright...sure...but see, here's what I already know about you, so don't feel so temped to hide shit. You're 18, didn't finish high school because you somehow cheated the system. A simple hack-into-a-computer or something, maybe. I don't know. Your name- Billy Darley, obviously. Father- Bones...Darley...?...and..." I laughed again, "You got your own 'gang' of drug dealers. Cigarette smoker. Underage drinker. You have one younger, 16 year old sibling Joe Darley," I leaned back, finished. "That's all, really."
"What a nice fucking surprise. A future cop in my apartment."
"Ah, no...a detective," I corrected Billy. I then briefly put my face in front of Billy's, inches away. "And yet there's a lot you don't know about me and wouldn't expect," and stood up.
"You leaving?" Joe came out of the bathroom. Damn, he could shit.
"Yeah, I have to work."
"Four Roses?"
"Yes," I sighed, collecting my books.
"We'll sssseeeyoouu therrre," Billy slurred, already drunk again.
"I hope not," I muttered to myself.
