Rats in the backyard
The feelings start to rot
One wink at a time
-- MGMT, Little Dark Age
Hwan wasn’t here alone, of course; he just happened to have fallen behind. When Theodore joined him, he caught sight of the others up ahead. They were close enough that the sound of his voice caused them all to turn and greet him. “Hey, guys!”
“Hey!”
“Theo!”
“And the prey escapes!”
V’s comment put a funny look on his face, confused. He cocked his head as she toked on her cigarette. “What do you mean?”
“You’re the talk of the tunnels,” Marquis explained, speaking around a smirk. “We all know about your little ride with the Great White this afternoon. They say you went somewhere private after the subway.”
The group’s attention grew heavier. On the one hand, having the underground take notice of his involvement with Laith was weirdly validating, but on the other, it made his sex life a lot easier to be scrutinized.
“They’re calling you prey now,” V added. The look in her eyes was a lot more malicious than anything Laith had ever done to him.
“Wow, news travels fast.” He could feel sheepishness seep into his tone. “That happened only a few hours ago.”
“Is that why he’s here?” Hwan asked, eyes locked over his shoulder. Theodore didn’t have to look to know Hwan still stared at Laith. “’Cause he doesn’t come here anymore—or he didn’t.”
“Yeah, we were in the neighborhood. He hasn’t been here in a while.”
“You know he sold his soul to the Ponies, right?” Marquis squinted.
Theodore stared at him. “Yeah, he works for them. You know that.”
Everybody knew that; it was the birth of Laith’s notoriety. Marquis must be referring to something else.
“That’s not what I mean; he’s branded. He gave up on the Alvorada.”
Branded… Was that in reference to his tattoo?
“That’s just what he does.” Hwan’s voice was low and bitter. “He doesn’t know loyalty. He’ll switch sides until he drops dead.”
“Is that what branded means?”
“He’s probably gonna be loyal to the Ponies now,” V remarked, practically speaking over him. She addressed Hwan with sharp eyes, fingers flicking ash off her cigarette. “Actually loyal, or he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of getting branded. It’s the first time he does it.”
“He’s only loyal to himself. Yeah, the mob is paying his bills, but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly loyal to them now. He’s only on their side as long as they’re of use to him. It’s just gonna be a much harsher parting when he finally decides to do it.”
“If he can,” Marquis added, “which is unlikely.”
“I didn’t realize that’s what that was,” Theodore spoke absently, engulfed in thought. His mind wrapped around a clear picture of Laith leaning against the door frame on Justin’s farm, showing off the dead pony on his upper arm. “That he was switching sides.”
“Well, the Ponies are different from other factions,” Dylan explained. “We all have access to their goods and services, so they don’t really have a community, just clients. Branded Ponies are the people employed by Burman.”
“That’s why he’s still hanging out with the Alvorada,” Marquis jumped in. “He doesn’t have a new family; he just switched his old one for cold corporate greed. Branded Ponies don’t last long in their old social groups. At least, the ones I’ve heard of.”
“Emily would never give him up.”
That pulled Hwan’s attention, eyes staring at him now. “Who is she? You mentioned her earlier, over the phone.”
“You guys called?” Marquis asked.
“Yeah. Theo wanted to ask me about Laith.”
Just as Theodore opened his mouth to answer, a thought crossed his mind, that Laith might not want him to do it. He remembered their conversation on Justin’s porch, how worried his friendship with Hwan made Laith, afraid he’d expose too much of his personal life. He still had to say something, though, so he turned around to point at Emily; it was the alternative he found not to expose her relationship with Laith.
The circle sitting on the grass watched as Hannah powerlifted Jessie over her head, except for Laith, who stared at Theodore and the others instead. Meeting Laith’s eyes all across the yard felt like being struck by lightning.
“That’s Emily,” he mumbled, unable to move.
“I’ve seen them at the DP together,” Marquis commented. “The two of them and the redhead.”
“Justin,” Hwan added.
That prompted Theodore to turn back around. “You know him?”
“We’ve never talked, but he’s dealt to Qasim and the Hollywood boys. Probably still does.”
“Does Laith know that?”
“What, who he deals to?”
“That he dealt to Qasim.”
Hwan shrugged, eyes locked over Theodore’s shoulder.
“I think I made out with her once.” V’s tone was absent, a thought spoken out loud.
“With Emily?” Marquis asked.
“Yeah. She looks familiar.”
A hand touched Theodore’s arm, but V wasn’t looking at him. “She’s a lesbian, right?”
“Bisexual.”
“Huh.” V’s hand dropped, eyebrows drawn hard together. “So that’s her name.”
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t remember; it was a while ago. A month, at least. She was alone.”
“Yeah, they split up to meet people, like you guys do.”
“Right.”
A long, heavy sigh left Hwan as he turned his face aside, eyebrows furrowed with vexation. Before Theodore could ask what the problem was, somebody came up next to him, towering over the entire group. The rich scent that hung around Laith confirmed his suspicions. Laith stood with his shoulders pushed back and his hands in his pockets, staring fixedly at Hwan first, then glancing around the circle next.
“You guys seem to be having fun.” Laith’s tone was friendly, non-confrontational. “Can I join?”
Still, Hwan refused to look at him.
“We were talking about Emily,” Theodore quickly explained, before anyone else had the chance to. “Apparently, V knows her.”
“I don’t really know her; we just met at the DP once.” V shrugged.
Laith briefly glanced her down. “I wouldn’t be surprised, I mean, if you were more her type, I’d think she thought you up.”
Huh, funny he should say that because, staring at the two of them side-to-side, Theodore noticed just how much they had in common. Besides smoking and dressing the same way, of course; most of the rats did that. No, their similarities ran deeper; they were both tall with sharp light eyes and a tough air about them, intimidating, even if they were really nice people on the inside.
In response to Laith’s comment, V scoffed. “Cute, but I don’t think she needs a wingman.”
“I’ve never been her wingman. I’m just saying I believe you.”
“Did you need something?” Hwan cut in, finally staring at Laith. Actually, he shot daggers at him, while Laith simply shrugged.
“I’m just hanging out, bro.”
“Don’t—” Hwan bit his tongue, head shaking. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Like what? I’ve always talked this way.”
“No, you haven’t.” Dark eyes narrowed under a scowl, sharp with pain. “You didn’t talk like that at all.”
“When I was twelve, you mean?” Laith’s tone was finally harsh, eyebrows furrowed. “Man, you’ve got a good memory, ‘cause I don’t fucking remember what the fuck I sounded like back then.”
“I can tell you you didn’t sound like a shitty impersonation of somebody else. You sounded like you.”
“A twelve-year-old who didn’t even have a personality yet.”
“You still don’t.”
“Hey,” Theodore jumped in, holding out a hand as his heart hammered, “we’re playing truth or dare over there. Why don’t you guys join us?”
“I’ll pass,” Hwan mumbled, no longer looking at Laith.
“How about we have some beers and then meet you guys later?” Marquis suggested. His tone was very obviously trying to be friendly, words spoken around a forced smile.
“That sounds good.” Theodore mirrored his smile. “We’ll be right there, in the circle.”
“You mean the circle that’s coming straight for us?” V asked.
“What?”
She signaled what she meant with a bounce of the brow and a nod, eyes fixed over his shoulder. Before he could turn around, he first heard the girls’ voices, much closer than they should be. Then, he immediately found himself swarmed by a crowd of his own friends, who rushed to Hwan and the others with excited greetings and exaggerated hugs.
They must have noticed his prolonged absence, plus Laith’s, and had decided to come over. Even Justin and Emily were here, despite their lack of connection with these guys. Justin stood next to Laith, not really seeming to know anyone—which made sense, since they weren’t the Alvorada—while Emily stared at V with a slight scowl on her forehead, a look that almost recognized her. V held the stare perfectly straight.
This party was much different than anything Theodore had ever experienced. He’d never been surrounded by so many people he knew, who also knew each other. Laith and Hwan clearly didn’t see eye to eye, but in the middle of a crowd, they didn’t have to exist near each other; Hwan moved to one end of the circle while Laith stayed in the other. It was obvious that neither one of them wanted to make a scene, or they already would have.
The girls came and went in the crowd, moving according to the conversations that went on around them. Jessie was the only one who spent most of her time with Justin and Laith, even if she did go to Hwan and Marquis to ask them if they’d had, in fact, slept with Theodore. They didn’t respond, but glanced at Theodore instead, waiting for his input. Stricken breathless, he couldn’t unscramble his brain for an answer, so his friends both turned back to Jessie and said yes. She—and some of the others around—could barely believe it. They buried the couple in questions, some of which were answered, but most of which weren’t. The fanfare didn’t last long, though; as soon as they noticed their questions were being ignored, they changed the subject.
At one point, Emily approached V. She crossed the circle from the edges, outside of the crowd. Catching sight of her, V left the tumult as well. They spoke near Hwan, so Theodore couldn’t really hear them. Still, he watched her stiff shoulders as she talked; with her back to him, that was all he could really see. V stared at her with much softer eyes than usual, head tilted down, hands in her pockets. She didn’t say much, but the little that she did say managed to relax Emily’s shoulders, bit by bit. Seeing that, part of Theodore wanted to rip the two apart, while another part of him wanted them to kiss.
Jessie, Justin and Laith ended up getting along very well. The synergy between them was strangely nice; they shared the same type of humor and bounced off each other with incredible ease. Theodore had never really seen Laith and Justin hang out by themselves, but assumed that, when Emily and Ryan weren’t making things weird, they got along just fine. Justin had said that Laith didn’t get deep with him, or anybody for that matter, which was evident in his humor and general silliness; he was all jokes and dumb antics. Jessie’s predisposition to have fun helped their conversation flow; she built on Laith’s jokes and kept the laughter coming. Justin was the only one who didn’t make jokes per se, because the stuff he normally said was already humorous; he was funny without even realizing it.
Theodore moved around a lot. Since he knew everyone, it was easy to get roped into on-going conversations that happened with or without him, about him or not. He came and went as his friends called for him, pulling him by the arm for a question or two, tapping him on the shoulder for his opinion on something or other. It was the most included he’d ever felt in absolutely anything.
Emily eventually came back, not to hang out, but to tell them it was time to go. Laith and Justin promptly rebutted that, saying it wasn’t nearly late enough, which Theodore confirmed with a quick glance at his watch—9:30 p.m. Sure, they’d been here for almost five hours, but the night was still young. Plus, Jessie and the others hadn’t been here for nearly as long. Emily brushed that off and announced her departure, because apparently, Ryan wanted to speak to her. That name killed the mood.
Without another word, Laith and Justin turned to bid Jessie goodbye. She clearly didn’t understand what was going on, but decided against arguing it. Despite growing up just two houses away from Ryan, she’d never really met him, too young to be in high school with him. Still, his reputation had been rancid enough that most parents in the neighborhood had used him as a cautionary tale, so the seriousness in everyone’s demeanor when his name came up must not have surprised her.
She gave the three boys parting hugs and threw in a kiss on the cheek for Justin. “You should call me, you know.” She tilted her head, ponytail swinging behind her.
Justin stared at her. “If you’re serious, I will. Like, I’m not kidding.”
She held out her hand. “Then give me your phone.”
As he scrambled to comply, Emily made a quiet exit. If there was any emotion on her face, Theodore couldn’t tell; he just watched her leave the crowd for the side of the house. When he turned back to the others, he saw Jessie hand Justin’s phone back to him.
“If you’re not too busy tonight, maybe we could hang out.” Her voice insinuated a lot more than just that, which promptly set Justin’s face on fire.
Laith clasped a hand on his friend’s shoulder with a big grin on his face. “C’mon, my man. Let’s go.”
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