-Making Amends - -

Chapter Three, Mullet's New Hideout

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"Roy Eberhardt," Mullet Fingers interrupted, turning on his heel to look hard at the Montana-loving 'cowgirl'. "I promise you that I'll be back to see you within this week."

Roy felt clammed up, so he just slunk on his windowsill and watched glumly as the back of his 'crush' retreated, the dark of the night swallowing every delicious, caramel-colored inch of him up, much to Roy's disappointment.

Slipping down against his wall, Roy felt depression, loneliness, and frustration sink into the marrow of his bones. Okay, so Mullet Fingers promised him that he would see him within this week? We'll see if he keeps his word on that one.

Darn, Roy thought, for a simpleton, that Mullet Fingers is definitely some enigma.

Roy was caught up in boredom on Wednesday afternoon. He made sure to stay put in his home, just in case Mullet Fingers ever came around like he promised. So far, nothing occurred.

He let his mind take him to the past, where there were better moments and memories of his friends…

He almost leaped out of his sneakers when a voice spoke out from the thicket behind him.

"Don't move!" the voice commanded.

"I wasn't planning to," Roy said. "Honest." ¹

"Take a deep breath," advised the voice behind him.

"I'm trying," Roy said.

"Okay, now step backwards real slow on the count of three."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Roy.

"One…"

"Now wait a second."

"Two…"

"Please!" Roy begged.

"Three."

"I can't!"

"Three," the voice said again.

Roy's legs felt like rubber as he teetered backward. A hand seized his shirt and yanked him into the thicket of pepper trees. As Roy's butt landed in the dirt, a hood came down over his face and his arms were jerked behind his back. Before he could react, a rope was looped twice around his wrists ad secured to the trunk of a tree. Roy could feel the smooth sticky back when he wiggled his fingers.

"What's going on!" he demanded.

"You tell me." The voice had moved in front of him.

"Who are you? Why're you here?"

"My name is Roy Eberhardt. I saw you run by the school bus the other day."

"I don't know what you're talkin' about."

"On two different days, actually," Roy said. "I saw you running and I got curious. You looked kind of… I don't know, wired."

"Wasn't me."

"Yeah, it was." The snake wrangler was using a false husky tone—the voice of a boy trying to sound like a grownup.

Roy said, "Honest, I didn't come out here to hassle you. Take off this hood so we can see each other, okay?"

He could hear the boy's breathing. Then: "You're gonna have to get outta here. Like right now."

"But what about the snakes?"

"They're mine."

"Yeah, but—"

"They won't go far. I'll catch 'em again later."

Roy said, "That's not what I meant."

The boy laughed. "Don't worry, I'll take you out the back way. Just do as I say and you won't get bit."

"What a guy," muttered Roy.

The boy untied him from the Brazilian pepper and boosted him to his feet. "I gotta admit, you did pretty good," the boy said. "Most kids woulda peed their pants."

"Are those cottonmouths?" Roy asked.

"Yep." The boy sounded pleased that Roy knew what kind of snakes they were. ²

Roy felt the same egotistical boost he felt when Mullet Fingers affirmed his guess. He'd never felt so proud over such a small thing as confirmation.

Roy wondered if things would have changed if he had turned to look at the person owning that deep, yet pubescent voice those years back.

It was no use wondering, he knew. What happened had happened. His mind continued on with that day.

Soon they stopped marching, and the kid began to loosen the knots on Roy's wrists. "Don't turn around," he said.

"What's your name?" Roy asked.

"I don't have a name no more."

"Sure you do. Everybody's got a name."

The kid grunted. "I been called Mullet Fingers. And I been called worse."

"You don't really live out here, do you?"

"None a your business. What'f I do?"

"All by yourself? What about your family?" Roy asked.

The boy rapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"You ask too many nosy questions."

"Sorry." Roy noticed his hands were free, but he continued to hold them behind his back.

"Don't turn around until you count to fifty," The kid instructed him. "Otherwise, you're gonna wake up one morning with one of those big ole cottonmouths in your bed. Got it?"

Roy nodded.

"Good. Now start countin'." ³

Roy never remembered such a long, torturous wait he'd ever been put through, compared to that fifty-numbered countdown.

His mind didn't take him to another full memory, but he suddenly got the image of Mullet slyly winking up at him during the Mother Paula's Rebellion. Roy blushed at how scandalous that was. Mullet, winking slyly at him? Hah! He had better chances of kissing an alligator senseless than that!

"You'd want to pucker up to such a wrinkly thing?" Mullet asked with amusement in his voice. He was leaning against Roy's open window frame, and his blue eyes were twinkling mischievously. Roy felt himself redden.

"Erm… I usually don't talk to myself… and I was being sarcastic!" He said defensively, walking over to the window.

"Whatever, man. I won't torment you about whatever kinky thoughts you have," He grinned brightly when Roy growled and flushed further. Roy offered his hand to Mullet, to give him a lift up. Instead, Mullet tugged Roy's hand to him. Roy raised an eyebrow, but acquiesced, jumping down onto the ground outside his bedroom.

"Where're we going?" He asked curiously, and followed Mullet as he began leading Roy in the direction of the wilderness.

"My place," Mullet gave Roy that same sly wink, and Roy nearly tripped over an uprooted tree. Mullet laughed, and Roy shoved him in the side, hiding his embarrassment.

"Nice." Roy whispered, taking in the old shoe factory. Vines and other plants were crawling up the crumbling outer walls of the building, and the building itself was quite large for it to be forgotten.

Mullet ushered Roy inside through an opening in the one wall, and Roy looked around with surprise.

"It's definitely bigger than the last one I saw," He said offhand, trailing off as he walked around the premises. Mullet plopped down in one corner, watching Roy explore with smugness.

"I got lucky when I found this place."

"I'll say," Roy said, fingering some old, rusted machinery in the far right corner. It looked pretty abandoned and put out of use: the model looked like it belonged in the nineteen hundreds era.

"So did you think I would break my promise to you?" Mullet asked a bit too casually, trying to look disinterested and failing as he fiddled with a frayed edge of the sleeping blanket he owned. Roy frowned a bit, turning to the blond. He folded his arms, subconsciously hugging himself.

"I actually wasn't really too sure," He started carefully, and continued. "But I didn't think that you would actually leave me again, like before. I just didn't really think that you'd be at my window by the time it was next Monday was all."

"You know," Mullet said, standing and pacing over to Roy, who instantly became a bit more defensive.

"I told you this before, but I never ignored you on purpose. I actually think you're pretty cool." Roy beamed.

"For a cowgirl," Mullet quickly added, looking off to the side in faint awkwardness. Roy rolled his eyes, still smiling warmly.

"Thanks. You're not too bad yourself. For a nature-boy," He teased, and went back to prodding at the broken shoe-making equipment.

Mullet gazed at Roy's turned back for a few seconds, before coming up next to Roy to see what was so fascinating about such a messy pile of junk. When Mullet voiced his question, Roy shrugged.

"I'm just curious about why the people decided to leave this place. I mean, from what I can tell, this stuff was probably in running condition way back when," Mullet smirked.

"You're strange, cowgirl."

"As strange as they come." He quipped, and smirked back at Mullet, eyes half-lidded.

Mullet couldn't help staring for a moment or two at Roy's upturned lips: they were so full and inviting, and they looked very soft. Mullet was almost tempted to test them out to see if they were as feathery as they looked…

But he quickly snapped himself out of it, and Roy surveyed him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Something wrong, Mullet?" He asked worriedly, unfolding his arms and letting them fall to his sides as he moved closer to Mullet. He looked into glistening crystal-blue eyes, and was suddenly entranced, like a mosquito was to those bug-zapping lamps.

Neither boy knew who moved closer, but within a second, they were nose-to-nose, both looking at each other with dazed expressions.

Their enchantment was broken almost immediately; a small anole that had been hanging onto the ceiling above the boys' heads suddenly plummeted down: straight onto Mullet's golden mop of hair. Roy was startled, but Mullet only raised one eyebrow in amusement, and reached up with a steady hand and snatched the little brown-green lizard out of his locks. The creature looked up at Mullet with widened eyes, and its neck was expanding and contracting with each breath the animal took. Mullet laughed quietly, and carefully put down the anole and watched it quickly make its way through a crack in the wall. Roy was smiling, but looking at Mullet the entire time.

"What?" Mullet asked, uncomfortably aware of the attention he was getting.

"Nothing, it's just… amazing how calm you are with animals. Even when they would have scared the living heck out of other people."

Mullet rolled his eyes upward, and chuckled.

"Did I tell you how weird you were, cowgirl?"

"Probably, but thanks for the reminder." He responded cheekily.

Roy, for some reason or another, felt incredibly reckless, and he subtly flirted with Mullet, and whether the other boy took a notice to it or not, Roy couldn't tell.

It was nearly three in the afternoon by the time Mullet escorted Roy back to his home, and Roy felt disappointed that Mullet was going to be leaving so soon.

As if sensing his dismal attitude, Mullet shoved Roy gently, grinning.

"You up for another lounge by the Molly Bell?"

"Even though it's barely big enough now to support one of us?" Roy quipped, smiling widely. Mullet chuckled.

"If you don't want to…" He began, pausing for Roy to make some protest.

"No, no, no! I didn't mean that I didn't want to hang out with you!" Roy amended, blushing with humiliation. Mullet sniggered.

"Well then. Be out and ready with your swimming trunks tomorrow at seven. It's always nicer out in the water during the morning hours."

Roy grinned with relief, and nodded eagerly.

"See ya then, cowgirl," Mullet said fondly, winking noticeably once more before jogging back into the forest.

Roy couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so elated within the past years.

He couldn't wait for the swimming trip tomorrow, and even though it was hours away, he got his stuff together for it.

References:

¹: page 51

²: pages 54-55

³: pages 56-57

I know people wanted it longer, but I'm keeping it at about seven to eight pages per chapter, sorry. Hah. I hope it's still good! I kind of rushed with this one, and I added a bit of fluff into this one, but I'm holding off on anything big until the next one or two chapters ahead.

The story's coming to a close, and it'll definitely end happily. I'm sorry again that I'm refusing to make it longer than planned, but that's just how I'm planning it out.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll be updating soon!

Sincerely,

Inkyish.