Makos Message: Man. I've been wanting to write this chapter for days. Finally gave up two hours of sleep to write it(only took that long because I kept nodding off while writing it.) That and I had to seriously stop and fight the urge to write, "I'm staring down the barrel of a forty-five" XD So yeah. A little more adjusting to life Out of Costume, a little more relationship building, tried to throw some laughs in there. Let me know what you thought of it, what you liked, what you didn't, what you thought worked, what you didn't, and the ever important WHY. Feedback helps me write a better story.
Well, this is the third, maybe fourth time I've had this dream, which makes it a recurring dream and worth mentioning.
It starts with D'Amico beating the crap out of me.
It's even worse than it was when it actually happened. I can't do a thing to him. I'm getting completely curb stomped by the asshole. Then I'm laying there on the floor, staring up into the barrel of a magnum. He's starring down at me, laughing, calling me a child. I can't move. I'm too weak to move. I'm completely helpless.
And then he's there.
And then D'Amico isn't.
Dave is standing over me, holding his hand out, asking if I'm okay.
I take his hand and he pulls me up. I can feel tears running down my face. I can't stop them. I sniff, and say, "Will you hug me? My Daddy just died."
He wraps his arms around me, I bury my face in his chest, and start sobbing. Everything fades to black and all I can feel his him gently rubbing the back of my head.
Weird.
So, I got tired of sitting at home over the weekend and called Dave up. He said he was hanging out with Todd and Marty at this place called Atomic Comics and invited me to come down if I could.
Luckily Marcus was available to drive me down there. He even gave me some money to spend while I was there.
I didn't see him when I walked in, so I ended up just sort of standing there in the doorway looking around like a dork Do you have any idea how bad it is to feel like a dork when surrounded by dorks?
I've been through too much shit to feel self-conscious in a goddamn comic books store.
Telling myself that didn't help.
It took me like a minute before I finally got myself together and went over to the counter and ordered a coffee.
While I was waiting for it Dave came out of the bathroom and I thought, "Either he took a long fucking time in there or he walked in just before I came in."
I gotta admit, I was worried that Katie was going to walk out behind him and I'd be banned eternally from the store for puking all over the place.
He spotted me when he was almost to the table and smiled and waved me over. I pointed to the girl making my coffee and he nodded and sat down.
When I go over to the table he makes room for me to sit next to him and I sit and smile and say, "Hey."
I don't think I sounded as awkward as I felt. I hope I didn't..
One of them says, "So, this is Mindy."
"Dave talks about me?"
"All the time."
"I do not."
Dave actually sounded embarrassed when he said that. It made me smile for real.
"So how did you two start hanging out again?"
Dave pounces on this like a crack head on a hundred dollar bill; "My Dad finaly talked my into going to that grief counseling group, said I'd never mourned properly or some shit. Anyway, I met her and he adoptive father there. When he found out she'd be going to the same school as me he asked me to keep an eye out for her, and that maybe we could help each other."
"Oh. Huh. Well…I…"
"Sorry to hear about that, Mindy."
"It's okay, I'm tougher than I look."
Dave almost chokes from starting to laugh in the middle of taking a drink and coffee got all over the table. On his friends went to go get napkins and the other decided that would be a good time for a refill.
He tells me I need to stop making those inside jokes before I kill him and I remind him that he started it. I tell him that was a pretty slick cover story he came up with and he just says, "Yeah, well, I wasn't nearly as smooth when Katie asked and I wanted to make sure they all got the same story" while dabbing coffee off his shirt.
It's nice knowing he is doing his best to help me.
The rest of the afternoon wasn't particularly eventful. We just sat around talking comics. It was pretty fun really, and Todd and Marty seemed to really enjoy catching me up on the last decade or two of comics. It was fun for me seeing all the new books and art and stories, since the only comics I got to read were my dad's old collection and the ones he drew.
I need to talk Marcus into giving me an allowance.
