Disclaimer** I own Jane, but that's about it.
"Pour me another one," I asked Joey, waving my empty beer glass at him. Kevin and I had slept in late and by the time we had woken up it was already noon. It seemed Jimmy had perfect timing because as soon as I stepped out of the shower he called telling Kevin to meet up with him at the Firecracker. I had no school today so I decided to tag along.
"Maxwell's all paid up." Tommy said slamming a wad of bills on the bar counter. I looked up from my drink studying Tommy; he looked stressed, more than usual.
"Loook at youuu!" Jimmy said grinning at the money.
"I want a cut."
"No problem."
"Half." Tommy demanded staring Jimmy down.
"OHHH, Tommy got a taste huh?" Jimmy said with a small laugh.
I watched the exchange between the two of them like they were sumo wrestlers jumping around on ice that wasn't fully frozen. I smiled when Jimmy simply counted out the money and gave it to Tommy, another Donnelly fight was avoided. I smiled into my drink as I took another sip of my cold beer.
"Yo what's the deal with that jerk?" Whitey slurred already drunk from the couple of beers we had, lightweight. "Why are we letting him get away with this?" he turned to Kevin and said, "You let him get away with this?"
I looked over his shoulder at Jimmy and watched him take a sip of his beer than raise his mug over Whitey's head and slam it down. My jaw dropped as Whitey fell to the floor cursing, then Kevin got up and slammed his glass down on the ground beside Whitey's head. Not be left out I drained my glass then threw it at his feet.
"Atta girl!" Jimmy said smiling at me. "Joey pour me another beer! And get Whitey a towel, he's bleeding all over my floors."
I looked back at where Whitey was sitting on the ground blood on his hands and a confused look on his face. I figured I should probably clue him in on who 'that jerk' was before he got more things thrown at him.
"Jane can you clean up the bar?" Jimmy asked me while he pulled on his jacket.
"What?" I asked in disbelief, I wasn't his maid.
"Look Kevin and Whitey are going to collect some money, and me and Joey are getting supplies. What are you doing?"
"Nothing." I muttered quietly.
"No, your cleaning up my bar." Jimmy said smiling. Asshole. I kissed Kevin good-bye and went to clean the bar.
"Jane what the hell the place is still dirty!" Jimmy yelled at me.
"Fuck you Jimmy, how am I supposed to clean this shithole all by myself?" I yelled back. I had cleaned out behind the bar which took way longer than I had expected, I don't think anyone had ever used a broom let alone a mop in this place.
"With a mop?" Joey said, I punched his arm and told him to shut up.
"Jesus Jane, look at the bathroom." Jimmy said pointing to the filthy room he called a bathroom.
"No way in hell am I cleaning that bathroom, I like being disease free." I crossed my arms and leaned against the bar.
"Joey why don't you help Jane finish cleaning up the place." Jimmy delegated.
"What? Where will you be?" Joey asked.
"I got to bring in the supplies and set it all up." Jimmy said leaving us to do the real work.
I made Joey sweep and mop the floors- since that was my least favourite thing to do. While he was doing that I cleaned off the tables and wiped down the walls since Jimmy wanted to repaint the place.
"Ew, this is the colour you chose?" I asked him looking at the dark green colour.
"What's wrong with it?" Jimmy asked looking at the paint.
"Jimmy you can't paint a small area with a dark colour, it'll make the place look even smaller and depressing. You need a lighter green." I told them.
"How do you know?" Jimmy folded his arms across his chest, challenging me.
"I used to watch a lot of TLC." I admitted, Jimmy laughed. "Look I'll just take it back and get a different colour."
"No way, you'lll pick out some sissy colour."
"Fine, then come with me!" I told him.
By the time we got back to the bar with a lighter shade of green (which in my opinion still wasn't light enough) Kevin and Whitey were sitting at the bar glaring at each other, you couldn't even breath properly there was so much tension in the room. It seemed that as soon as we put the paint cans down, the room exploded.
"I told you this couldn't happen Jimmy!" Whitey yelled.
"Jimmy, I'm going to get the money!" Kevin yelled with confidence.
Soon Jimmy was arguing with Joey, and Kevin and Whitey were going at it as well. It was quite entertaining to watch though. They only stopped when Jimmy told them all the shut up, why Jimmy was the one everyone listened to I had no clue.
"Okay, how much do we owe Bob?" Jimmy asked Whitey.
"Same as Newton, ten thousand." Whitey said glaring at Kevin.
"What do we have from the week's collection?" Jimmy asked, which I had to admit it was smart of him to think of that.
"About five thousand, but it's not enough!"
"Look Kevin do you know Newton or not?" Kevin nodded his head, "Then go collect the money!"
"I will!" Kevin promised.
"By noon? 'Cause that's when my uncle is expecting his money."
"He said he'd get it," Jimmy said, not seeing the problem.
"Jimmy, can I have a word outside?" Whitey asked pointing to the door. I watched with amusement as they left.
"Jane why don't you get off your ass and help out?" Jimmy asked as him and Whitey walked past me.
I sighed and got up to help Joey with laying down the white cloth sheets on the hardwood floor. You think it was a simple task but doing things with Joey were never simple, he kept on getting the sheets twisted somehow. I finally told him to go because he was just pissing me off.
"Jane can I talk to you?" Kevin asked sitting on the pool table behind me.
"Yeah of course," I said sitting down next to him.
"There is no Newton."
"What? Then who owes the ten grand?" I forced him to look at me, and then I realized it was him. "Jeez Kevin, why?"
"I thought it was a sure thing, the odds were perfect."
"Kevin there's no such thing as a sure thing, and if something seems perfect stay away from it." I warned him.
"I know and I know I shouldn't have made the bet."
"What are you going to do?" I asked him.
"I'll figure something out," Kevin stood up from the pool table and hurriedly left the bar.
I sighed and went back to painting the Fire Cracker with Joey. I was bent down beside Joey opening the paint cans when Whitey said, "I know he is your brother, but for a second you should forget about that and look at him for the whack job he is!"
"Excuse me?" I said standing up.
"Just saying what needs to be said." Whitey shrugged.
"What needs to be said is that you should shut your god damn mouth and get the hell outta here before I slap you in the face." I waved my paint brush at him splattering green paint on the floor.
"Damn it Jane, you got paint on my floor!" Jimmy yelled.
"Why don't you just go talk to your uncle before I stab you with this paint brush." I threatened Whitey. Whitey walked out of the bar with his hands raised in surrender.
"You got anger problems, you know that?" Jimmy said painting the wall.
"You're one to talk." I retorted smiling.
When I woke up this morning spending the entire day with Joey in the Fire Cracker, which smelt like paint fumes and mold, was not what I pictured myself doing. It took my twenty excruciatingly long minutes to explain why we had to prime the walls, once Joey finally understood or claimed that he did he offered to go and pick us up a late lunch from the deli. By the time he got back I had primed all the walls, not only had he gotten brought back the wrong sandwich but it was also cold.
I nearly rejoiced when Jimmy walked in the bar, picked up a paint brush and started to help paint. I tried multiple times to get Joey to use a roller, but it was 'too heavy', the wimp. I was about to complain about Jimmy forcing us to work in unhealthy conditions, I hadn't even had a break, when Sean walked in. I took this as an excuse to stop painting and grab everyone a beer.
I secretly listened into Sean and Jimmy's conversation while pretending to clean the bar. I rolled my eyes at Sean as he talked about moving out; he would be completely lost without his mom, she still did all his laundry. Although Jimmy didn't offer Sean a job in his gambling business, which I was a bit proud of, he did offer him to be the beverage manager. It wasn't bad but I agreed with Ms. Donnelly Sean needed to go back to school and graduate. I didn't voice my opinion because I knew it would just be ignored anyways.
"You're late!" Jimmy said to Kevin and Tommy as the entered the bar. "Where's my money?"
"Newton wasn't around." Tommy said. I stood up from wear I was painting and made my way over to where Kevin was sitting on the pool table.
"Kevin you promised me you would get that money." Jimmy waved his paint brush around theatrically.
Kevin wrapped his arm around me and gave my waist a squeeze. "That might have been a mistake."
"Okay... so no Newton, where's the rest of it?"
"Jimmy, I can't lie to you. We did collect thirty-five hundred of it, but we put it on a horse and Tommy picked the horse so I think he should get to keep the money." Kevin said with finality.
"Let me get this straight, you collected thirty-five hundred of my money, you bet it all on a horse the horse won and now you're telling me you want to keep it all?"
"I told you this morning Jimmy, I need the money. I'm keeping it." The more Tommy spoke the angry Jimmy got.
"Fine, I just hope you know that the money isn't mine, it's Bob the Mouths."
I didn't know who Bob the Mouth was but from the look on Tommy's face I knew it wasn't a good thing. I made a mental note to ask who Bob the Mouth was at a less tense moment. Before I could zone back into the conversation Tommy was exiting the Fire Cracker, we all turned to watch him leave. I didn't know why Tommy wanted to keep the money, but I knew it was most be important, I also knew I wanted to hurt Jimmy because Tommy turned around looking defeated and placed the money on the bar counter.
"You're such an ass, Jimmy." I said, throwing my paint brush on the ground.
"What are you mad about now?" Jimmy asked in disbelief.
"You know Tommy never needs money, whatever he needed it for was probably very important."
"It's my money, Janey. Not his."
"He's your brother, you're supposed to treat him better than that." I grabbed Kevin's hand and pulled him out of the Fire Cracker and away from Jimmy.