Chapter One-Hundred and Fifteen
Frank slowly walked into the part of the shop that John was in, looking around for the teen. "John?" He stepped back as John tensed, not missing the ring on his index finger that had bitten him with John's last punch.
John lifted his gaze, and Frank could see the way his eyes darkened to pitch-black.
Frank didn't miss the way John's muscles tightened, the ridges and lines in his skin becoming more noticeable with the oil and grease that had gathered in the valleys where his muscles dipped under his flesh. "I… I wanted to talk to you… about that night when I stole your notebook." He shrunk back as John stood to his full height, seeing that even with his bad leg and scrawny build he was a big kid. His shoulders were thick and broad, his chest had obviously been damaged fairly recently, and his thin hips and long arms would make him a formidable opponent if he was actually expecting a fight. "Leon put me up to it. He's crooked… I got busted on a drug deal gone wrong back when Julia first got pregnant, and he told me he'd help me out if I did a few chores for him." He took a step toward John, easing his way over to the kid in hopes he didn't earn himself another hit. "The only reason I did that was because he paid me to get the book. He thought you had some lists of dealers or some shit in it and he also wanted to make sure it wasn't like a diary or anything like a tally list of the notches in your bedpost."
John nodded, keeping quiet as he leaned back over the vehicle he was working on. "I don't have a notch in my bedpost." He stated, swallowing as his throat protested. "I have an arrow in my heart."
Frank chuckled, watching as John ripped a wire bundle from the cars engine and tossed it oved his shoulder before he started messing with things that Frank never would have guessed was in the old junker. "She the one who gave you that earring?"
John nodded, placing his hipbones on the radiator of the truck and balancing himself so that his feet lifted off of the ground and he could reach the back of the engine. "I'm gonna put it in her ring when I propose next summer on her birthday."
Frank smiled, wishing that he could afford even a wedding license for he and Julia. "You're lucky to be able to afford a wedding."
John looked up at the man, pointing to a set of tools on the work bench. "So, you're gonna be a dad?"
Frank gave a sad smile, knowing that he could barely make ends meet for he and Julia. "Yeah… I'm not sure if I can be a good one though…"
John cursed, pulling his hand out of the engine to show that his knuckles were bloody and cut up. "Fuck…" He wiped the blood from his hand, lifting his dark eyes to look at Frank. "Bet you'll be a hell of a lot better than my old man was."
Frank's gaze drifted to the scars on John's arms, noticing that some were burns, and others had obviously been cuts, there was even one spot where it looked like the skin had been taken clean off like an animal's hide when it was prepared for butcher. "He did that?"
John nodded, knowing that he had to give his voice a break for a while. He touched his throat, trying to tell him that he couldn't speak anymore.
Frank seemed to get the idea and went back to his project of changing some poor lady's flat tire. "He must've been one sick man to do that."
John placed the headphones to Andy's Walkman on his ears, cranking the music up as loud as it would go as he pulled a few ruined parts from the engine block and walked over to one of the machines to try and fix them. "Sicker than a snake."