*Author's Note*

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I Ain't Sulkin'

Misty POV:

Frantic knockin' on my door woke me up. With a tired sigh, I opened up my eyes. I didn't want to get up, but I knew that I had to. Gently, I sat up and wiggled out from underneath the arm that was draped over me. Carefully, I got out of bed so that I wouldn't wake up Brock. I bent down, picked up my shift, and pulled it on before rushin' over to the door. Quickly, I took my robe off of the door hook and put it on before opening my door.

Standing right in front of me was my best friend, Jessa. I was shocked at why she'd be at my door so early in the morning for. Actually, why she was at my room in general. Quickly, I stepped into the hall and closed the door 'hind me while askin', "What're ya doin' here for, Jessa?"

"Tolbert's been drinking on my sofa for hours now and I need you to talk some sense into him so he'll go home."

"Why can't you or Shaw talk some sense into him?"

"Shaw's on the sofa drinkin' with him. You know how he is; he has to drink and wallow with his best friend." Jessa scoffed in a low, sarcastic sigh. Letting out a long huff, she propped her hands on her hips and told me, "I did try to talk some sense into him, but it didn't work. That's why I'm here asking you to help him since I'm positive he'll listen to you considering you're the reason he's drinking his sorrows away on my damn sofa."

Lookin' over my shoulder and then back at Jessa, I informed hesitantly sighed, "I got my beau sleepin' in the room, I don't want to leave him alone in there just cause ya think I can talk some sense into Bert."

One of Jessa's dark brows arch high up to her brow. "Bert? Oh, I wasn't aware that he lets you call him that."

"Slip of the tongue, but yes he lets me call him that when he's here as my regular." I explained, inwardly cringin' at my slip up since Tolbert told me he didn't want to be called Bert unless we were alone in my room.

"Well, since he let you nickname him, I know he'll listen to you and go home to sober up." She firmly remarked in a sure tone.

Chewin' on my lip, I nodded and relented with a sigh of, "Fine, I'll try to talk some sense into him." Before Jessa could say a word, I told her, "Just let me slip on my shoes and dress; then I'll go over to talk to him."

"Okay, I'll jut wait out here for you." Jessa nodded, causin' me to quickly step back into my room.

I took off my robe and hung it back onto the door hook before grabbing my dress off the floor and pulling it on. Quickly, I put on my boots and laced them up before scribbling a quick note (explaining where I went) and placin' it onto my pillow so that if Brock woke up, he wouldn't be startled.

Hastily, I made my way over to my door and stepped out into the hall, where Jessa was waitin' for me. With a tight smile, I told her, "I'm ready to go help Tolbert."

I followed Jessa into her apartment only to see both Shaw and Tolbert slumped on the sofa, guzzlin' down bottles of shine. They were loudly mutterin' and slurrin' nonsense. Tolbert looked like a ragged mess with his shirt wrinkled and stained by booze while his bright red hair went every which way. Shaw didn't look so bad, just a bit drunk with bloodshot eyes. Jessa just shook her head and pointed towards the sofa. "See, he's drinkin' himself silly; is draggin' my husband down with him too."

"I'll talk to him." I assured her 'fore walkin' by her and over to Tolbert. Bendin' down so we'd be eye level, I snatched the shine bottle from Tolbert and firmly told him, "You need to stop drinkin' here. Go on home, Tolbert."

"Hey, Tolbert, look, your special lady friend's here to boot ya outta my house." Shaw chuckled in a drunken slur, tippin' his bottle at me right as Jessa appeared at his side.

"Shaw, let's give them some time to talk." Jessa tightly told her husband while grabbin' his arm and pullin' him up off of the sofa.

"Ooo, ain't we eager and feisty." Shaw waggled his brows at his dark-haired wife.

"You're such a blunt jackass when you're drunk." Jessa shook her head, draggin' Shaw away and into the small nearby kitchen.

"Aww…honey, we can't do nothin' in here. The bedroom'd be better." Shaw loudly pouted while Tolbert attempted to snatch back the shine from me, only to have me play keep away with it.

"You've had 'nough to drink, Tolbert. It's time for ya to go on home and sleep it off." I firmly told the moody redhead as I kept his bottle far out of his reach.

Tolbert narrowed his stormy blues at me and spat, "Don't tell me I've had 'nough t'drink an' don't tell me t'go home an' sleep it off either. Ya got no right since yer my whore not my woman."

"Thank god I'm not your woman. I don't think I could handle you actin' so childish and a fool over nothin'." I remarked in a slight scoff, rollin' my eyes at his tantrum like antics.

"It ain't ov'r nothin'. It's ov'r ya acceptin' that Brooksdale bastard's pursuit." Tolbert sneered bitterly as he successfully managed to snatch the large, but half empty shine bottle from my hand.

"Oh my god, you're jealous of Brock." I gasped, slightly shocked, as soon as the meanin' of Tolbert's remark sunk into my head.

"I ain't jealous of that rich prick." Tolbert gruffly denied. Takin' a swig from the bottle, he muttered, "Just hate him's all."

"There's no reason to hate him, Bert." I softly told him, earnin' me a dramatic eye roll.

"Yes, there is. He's hoggin' ya up when I'm yer regular; should be wit'cha instead."

"I'm not a piece of fried chicken, I can't be hogged up." I spat bitterly. Shakin' my head, I stood up and bit out, "I'm goin' home, you should do the same."

"Too bad I can't go home wit'cha." Tolbert slurred drunkenly, causin' me to sigh and walk over to the door.

"I tried, Jessa, but he ain't listenin' to me." I called out to my friend from ov'r my shoulder before exitin' her apartment.

Quickly, I walked down the road towards the whorehouse. Once I reached my home, I went inside and rushed upstairs. Much to my relief, Brock was still sound asleep whenever I entered my room. Decidin' that he didn't need to know that I was out, I quickly took off my dress and shoes and returned to bed.

I spent the entire weekend with Brock. We talked 'bout everythin' and nothin', only to learn the smallest things 'bout each other. We also did the trick a few times, as was expected since we seemed to have a magnetic pull to each other. I even introduced him to Ginger only to learn that Brock loved dogs; that he actually had a pointer-mix named Armistead when he was growin' up. I actually had a nice time with Brock this weekend; was a bit disappointed when he had to leave. He did promise to be back soon, so I'm holdin' onto that.

Since I'm off til next Monday (due to the large amount of money I got from Brock) there wasn't much for me to do, other then read in my room and take strolls around town; do some window shoppin'. So, for the third day in a row I was leisurely strollin' up the street wit' Ginger right by my side. Right as I reached the antique shop, the door flung open and Lissa, Jim McCoy's girl, came walkin' out wit' Mary hot on her toes.

The dark-haired women looked me over in disgust. Lissa just walked by me as if I didn't exist, but Mary didn't do that. Instead, the tall young woman whose dark hair was pulled back into a lose braid stopped right in front of me and slapped me hard 'cross the face. "You man stealin' whore of a bitch. Ya just had to take what didn't belong to you." She cried, her face falterin', 'fore runnin' off down the street.

Lissa turned on her heel and gave me a hard look. "You oughtta be ashamed of yourself, Misty, for what you've done."

"I just did my job, nothin' to be ashamed of in that." I countered Lissa before walkin' down the street, leavin' her speechless and seethin'.

I felt eyes borin' into me and I just knew that I was bein' judged and gawked at by the town's folk. God, I could hear the high and mighty church gossipin' bitties slanderin' me as I walked by.

"Oh, that girl's fallen so far from grace. It's such a shame." Mrs. Jones told Mrs. Whitmore and Mrs. Thomas as they stood together on the sidewalk by the post office.

Mrs. Whitmore nodded. "Yes, such a shame considerin' how nice she once was."

Mrs. Thomas leaned in only to tell the others in a low, scandalized tone, "You know that she's the reason Tolbert McCoy and Mary Baker broke up."

"Oh, yes, I heard he broke things off with Mary cause he would not stop seein' Misty." Mrs. Jones announced, makin' sure that it was known she was still the know-it-all when it came to Pike County's juicy gossip.

"Hmm…" Mrs. Whitmore hummed before scoffin', "He lost a good woman over white-trash if ya ask me."

I just bit my tongue and held my head up high as I continued to walk down the road. Even tho some of their words hurt me, I wasn't goin' to let them see that they did. By god, it was my week off and I wasn't goin' to let anythin' bother me or get me down. Not even the old gossipin' church bitties that thought they were holier than thou an' untouchable by sin. Well, wouldn't those old hags be mortified if they knew that their husbands, sons, nephews, cousins, and male friends were all patrons of the whorehouse. Hell, if truth be told I've serviced some of their kin myself. But, I wasn't gonna tell them that. Not like they'd believe me anyways.

Tolbert POV:

I haven't seen Misty in days an' it was drivin' me crazy. First, I couldn't see her cause she was wit' that rich prick Brock an' now it's cause she's got time off from whorin' an' wants to spend her days off 'lone. Weren't fair t'me since I'm her regular. What in the world possessed her to take time off from whorin' all the way til next Monday? Is she purposely tryin' t'give me a bad case of blue balls?

Anyways, since I couldn't spend any time wit' Misty til Monday I was stuck at home. To keep myself busy an' outta the house I was makin' more batches of shine then I usually did. I had the same amount of customers tho, so that left the extra shine for me. I didn't mind, I actually liked drinkin' shine when I felt angry or emotional in any way. Shine always made me numb, made me forget howI was feelin'.

Wit' bein' cold shouldered by Misty, let's just say I was drinkin' my weight in shine so I wouldn't have t'deal wit' how bein' rejected felt.

I was sittin' on a cot, drinkin' while waitin' for the corn mash t'simmer an' boil up, whenever I heard a twig snap. I looked up towards the noise only t'see my fat ass brother, Pharmer. He was munchin' on an apple as he came up to the awnin' my still was settled under.

"What're ya doin' out 'ere?" I asked, my brows furrowed curiously, as he came to a stop right by my cot.

"Checkin' up on ya, Tolbert." Pharmer answered while takin' a large, crunchy bite outta his red apple.

"Mama sent ya." I stated not asked 'fore takin' a pull from my shine bottle.

"Yea." My brother nodded. He took a seat next to me on the cot and tossed his apple core into the distance 'head while tellin' me, "She's worried 'bout ya bein' out here all day an' nite for the last few days."

Pushin' myself up off the cot an' makin' my way ov'r to my cookpot, I gruffly retorted, "Hell, tell her she don't gotta worry 'bout me none cause I'm a grown man that can take care of myself."

"Yer mama's fav'rite, Tolbert. She's gonna keep worryin' 'bout ya." Pharmer pointed out as I stirred the simmerin' mash to keep it from burnin'.

I just rolled my eyes and let out a huff. "She should be worryin' 'bout the lil ones, not me. Fav'rite or not, I'm grown an' can take care o'myself."

"Um, do ya want me to tell her that?" Pharmer hesitantly asked while watchin' me stir the boilin' corn mash.

"Sure." I shrugged, knowin' that Pharmer would relay my message.

"Yer sulkin' cause Misty don't want ya no mores, ain't 'cha?" Pharmer asked me as I took the heavy cast iron pot off of the fire and brought it over to my still.

"I ain't sulkin'." I denied. Pourin' the mash into the still, I informed my rother that, "Misty still wants me too, she's just off this week's all."

"Oh…" Pharmer trailed off. He chewed on his lip as I brought the pot over to where I had a jug of water and some rags set up. "But I thought she was acceptin' Brock's pursuit?"

Lookin' ov'r my shoulder, I narrowed my eyes and snapped, "Where'd ya hear that at, fat ass?"

"From you last Friday afternoon." He quickly answered as I cleaned out the cook pot.

"Oh, I forgot I told ya that." I admitted, my ears an' cheeks turnin' red in embarrassment, as I set the newly cleaned pot back onto the tripod that hung 'bove the fire.

"Yea, well, ya were drunk when ya told me so…" Pharmer sighed as I took a seat next to him on the cot. Turnin' to me, he said, "I don't think ya should be gettin' drunk ov'r not bein' able to see Misty tho. I mean she's a whore; not like she's got a steady schedule."

"Pharmer, shut up." I ordered in a low bark, one that held an underlyin' warnin' to it.

Pharmer didn't say a word, just nodded. He looked a bit worried 'bout pissin' me off, but I can't say that I blame him. He was my closest brother an' knew just how bad my temper could get if provoked. Pharmer stood up and left me alone. He didn't say goodbye, just waved leerily at me 'fore walkin' off into the direction our house was at. No doubt he's gonna tell mama that I'm drinkin' an' workin' my still all at the same time. Just hope he tells her not to worry 'bout me.

AN:

So Tolbert's jealous and sulking. Poor guy. Next up Tolbert gets into a bad scuffle over a card game and Misty has to patch him up.