Chapter 4.
That night ended up with the four back at their dingy apartment and Shalimar wetting a washcloth to clean up all the blood that amazingly enough was not Brennan's. During the fight that had ultimately ensued once they had left the Waffle House, Jesse for some reason had stepped between Shalimar and Brennan just as Shal's boot came up to kick the offender in the face. Jesse's lip had busted open and bled all down his shirt so now Shalimar was feeling guilty enough to clean up the mess while the other two attempted to pack everything they had acquired over the past few months in the boxes they had picked up at a local U-haul.
Luckily the girls didn't have to work until the day after thanks to some manipulating of their schedules with some of the other waitresses. That way they would be able to unpack and kind of settle in a bit at the house that Brennan had found for them.
None of them got any sleep that night but when the sun came up the next day they had managed to get everything packed into the boxes and then they had crammed those into the back of the truck. The fun part was cramming the four of them into the cab, however, after they had explained to their slum landlord that they were leaving. They could still hear him ranting and raving about the inconvenience of having to find a new set of tenants without any kind of notice as they walked out in the parking lot towards the truck.
The truck was only meant to seat the driver and the passenger and possibly a very skinny person or a three-year old in between. But with Jesse driving and Brennan the passenger both Shalimar and Lexa ended up sitting on the dark-haired man's lap. All during the long trip to the house off the work site Jesse kept giving the other man dark looks every time the truck hit a pothole and Lexa had to grab onto his shoulder in order to keep from flying up into the roof of the truck's cab.
It took forever in Jesse's mind but twenty minutes later they found themselves leaning on the side of the truck staring at the house that was now to be their home. In Shalimar and Lexa's minds it had been longer than forever in that truck and all they wanted to do was sit down and relax but by the looks of things that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.
This place is a dump. Lexa thought as she took in the patched roof, broken shutters, and mainly dirt yard. He must be joking.
Shalimar's eyes swept over the house and dirt driveway and then back over to Brennan. I'm gonna kill him.
Jesse stood back and watched the expressions on the girls' faces flicker from shock to amusement and then to a strange mixture of disbelief and loathing. This is gonna be fun. I am no longer in any possible way going to be blamed for anything anymore. Everything I could possibly do wrong will pale in comparison to this. He stood still waiting for the inevitable shouting to start but when he saw Shalimar's muscles begin to tense he realized he'd better intervene or he would have to explain why Brennan was unable to work for the following week. And the excuse of 'our female roommate beat him up' probably wasn't going to go over well.
"So, um how 'bout we get this truck unloaded?" He asked casually as he walked around the truck, deliberately between his friend and the two girls, who were obviously plotting the dark-haired man's demise, to undo the tail gate. "I mean Brennan and I only have a few hours left before we have to be at the site."
The girls glanced at him and nodded before finally tearing themselves away from their need to kill Brennan and coming over to help drag the boxes and few bits of furniture inside the house, that in their opinion looked like it was about to fall down up on them the moment they yanked the front door open.
The four worked in silence for a little over an hour until Jesse made an innocent remark that turned into a horrid mistake.
"Hey Lexa, would you mind finding the toaster and making some toast or Pop-Tarts? I'm going to die of hunger here." He said as he and Brennan carried in the last of the mattresses and started to head up the stairs toward one of the bedrooms
Lexa laughed, "sure Jess, where's the box with the kitchen appliances? In the kitchen?"
"No, nothing's been moved from the living room yet. It started to look like rain a little while ago so we've just been putting everything into the living room so it wouldn't get soaked outside. We'll move it all to its respective rooms before we have to leave. Hopefully." the blonde shouted from the top of the stairs.
Lexa tried not to smile in response while she checked the piles of boxes for the ones marked 'kitchen'. Shalimar came in carrying the cd-player and hooked it up to the first outlet she found.
"You know where I managed to finally find the radio Lexa?" she remarked casually as she searched for a decent station to leave it set on.
"No, where?" the brunette asked as she finally spotted the box she needed at the bottom of the pile. Shalimar finally settled on an alternative/rock station that was playing Ozzy Osborne's Crazy Train and spun around to help Lexa move all the boxes so she could get to the one she needed.
"It was actually wedged underneath the driver's seat in the cab. The only reason I even managed to spot it was because its brass red coloring was being reflected on the boy's tools that were loose in the back of the cab."
Lexa glanced up sharply. "You're joking! It was stuffed under the seat! You know if it was something that belonged to one of them they would have wrapped it in bubble wrap and marked it fragile and we would have had to treat it like it was a priceless statue or something."
Shalimar laughed, "oh please Lexa, did you see how many priceless statues that Brennan broke in that museum fight last year?"
Lexa laughed as she pulled out the toaster and got up from her knees to go to the kitchen. "Hey Shal, could you grab the Pop-Tarts from that clothes basket by the door?"
The blonde was still laughing as she shifted through the contents of the basket until she found the box of breakfast. She had just turned towards the hall that led to the kitchen when she heard a startled gasp and the sound of metal clattering against a linoleum floor. She ran to where the brunette had disappeared.
"What's the matter?" she asked as she slid to a stop directly behind the other woman.
"It's missing." Lexa said in disbelief as she stepped aside so the blonde could see the kitchen.
"What? What's missing?" the blonde asked slightly out of breath.
Lexa closed her eyes as if in pain. "The floor Shal. The floor is missing. The counters are also missing."
Shalimar's brow furrowed as she looked around the room and took in the large gaping holes in the floor and the cabinets that had no counter top and no doors. The window was cracked and missing the screen. The fridge and freezer combo was the color of guacamole. The stove and dishwasher were missing. In there place there was instead a big hole with rotted wood at the bottom. Her hands fisted at her sides and she opened her mouth as she closed her eyes, "BRENNAN!"
Continued in Chapter 5.