He didn’t. Neither did I.
“You better get it done,” Tony said, attempting to sound stern. He sucked at it. It was his fault. He tried so fucking hard to be everyone’s friend it was impossible to take him seriously as some sort of authority figure.
Tony glanced between the two of us, then sighed before stomping off.
I glanced over at the kid. “Jinx. Owe me a coke.”
His light blue eyes swung to my face. His forehead scrunched in confusion.
“It’s a game,” I explained. “You know. Two people say the same thing at the same time…”
It was clear he had no idea what I was talking about.
“Wedidn’tsay anything,” I drawled. “At the same time.”
He continued to stare as though I’d lost my mind.
I chuckled and turned my attention back to the television. “No worries, Jinx. It’s all good.”
From that day onward, I called him Jinx. If he didn’t like it, he could tell me. Otherwise…
As for the kid having to fight to survive, I wasn’t wrong. Proven by the shit he was enduring at the moment.
I took a final drag on the cigarette and flicked it across the street before pulling out another one. As soon as I lit it, the verbal exchange in the parking lot got heated. I guess, technically, there was noexchangeunless you considered the mouth vomit spewing from both bullies since Jinx was … well, he was being Jinx. All quiet and shit.
One of the assholes stepped up to Jinx, chest-bumping him. From where I was, I couldn’t hear what the asshole was saying, but his mouth was moving, and an endless spew of bullshit was coming out.
Of course, Jinx didn’t do anything. He never did.
“Come on, kid,” I muttered. “Make a fist and punch that asshole in the face.”
Jinx’s arms remained at his side, his eyes on the bully.
I sighed. If only he would stand up for himself, people wouldn’t fuck with him. He was no longer the scrawny kid who’d landed on Purgatory’s doorstep two years ago. He’d come into his own, sprouting up to nearly six feet not too long ago. He was taller than the bully, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he backed away slowly.
I stared, waiting for the moment when Jinx would finally turn and leave. It usually happened right about …
As though on cue, Jinx turned away and started walking.
I grinned, proud the kid hadn’t instigated a fight. He couldn’t throw a punch for shit, so it usually resulted in—
My attention was on Jinx, so I didn’t notice the kid coming up behind him until he nailed Jinx in the back of the head with what looked to be a metal pipe. Before Jinx’s limp body hit the ground, I flicked the cigarette away and started running toward them.
“You’re such a pussy, your momma didn’t even want you,” the fucker shouted, whacking Jinx in the back while his friend delivered a boot to Jinx’s ribs.
The cocksuckers were going to pay for that.
My feet ate up the asphalt even as my lungs tightened from exertion. Stupid fucking cigarettes.
The kid who’d hit him was laughing, banging Jinx’s shoulder with the pipe. “Get up, motherfucker. Be a man, not a fucking pussy.”
Jinx’s limp body shook from the impact of their blows. He didn’t even move to block them, his head completely unprotected from the next whack with the pipe.
“Son of a bitch,” I growled, anger surging in my bloodstream.
Jinx’s eyes were closed, and blood was pooling under his head.
As soon as I saw it, a red haze clouded my vision. I didn’t stop running. Not until I plowed right into the fucker with the pipe, taking him to the ground. The impact knocked him back. We skidded when I landed on him. The pipe fell to the concrete with a clang, rolling out of reach. I was aware of the air being knocked from the fucker’s lungs, but I didn’t give him a chance to breathe before I started wailing on him. He never saw it coming, but the same couldn’t be said for his friend. That fucker grabbed the pipe and swung it like a Louisville slugger, hitting me square in the jaw and knocking me for a loop before I realized what had happened.
