©2021
n e w b i e
#4
‘Okay….newbie…your turn’
He looked at her – then at the others. Granted, he hadn’t been paying close attention to what was going on , but he had the general gist of it all..
‘Why?’ he asked.
They looked at him – a couple with hard vicious eyes, one of them with a drug-addled nonchalance. But, they all looked at him.
And so did she. And it was easy to tell why they had chosen to follow her….her violet tinged eyes spat with a sparking ferociousness, as they drilled into his limpid browns….
Nobody said a word, for a second or two – but the heat – the heat you could feel popping off her pearly white skin. As she rose, partially from the table, they all quivered with tension.
And mean expectation, like bad breath, wafted off them towards him….he realized, his cool insouciant demeanour had no effect on these ones.
‘Because, it pleases me!. Fucker!’ she hissed…. ‘Besides, it’s time for you to show yourself!’
He nonchalantly fell back against the metal seat rest. His right leg slowly rested on his left – he moved his semi-gloved hands to a grip behind his head.
And he stared straight back at her, and replied, ‘Says who?’ One of them, the Asian girl, sneered, and sort of cackled.
The twins sneered, and gave him the finger.
The rest, sort of ricocheted their glances between him and her.
They, as he did, took in the crackled leather vest , the torn and paint-spattered t-shirt beneath it…they looked at the red tattoo which snuck up from the base of her neck, around under her chin, to emerge at the other side of her face, just below her left ear, in a delicate profusion of orchid like petals. And they, once again, marveled at the ultimate steel of her countenance which was framed by an inky black braid, seemingly stapled to the center of her head, running down her back for at least a foot. And, the polished, glistening skull, which flanked and framed this plait, pulsed as the veins of rage rippled beneath.
A scent of a smile, twitched at the corners of her mouth, as she allowed her glance to slide off to the street noises beyond him. Like an asp, her eyes whipped back to his face, and as she slammed her hand down to the very point of his fingertips, the polished steel spike driven through her palm, quivered and hummed.
In spite of his apparent cool, most could see, he flinched.
And, she spat out at him, ‘Because, I can save not only your ass, but your soul, motherfucker!’
A cold silence shrouded their gathering. The otherwise heat of the morning, shriveled and slunk away. Conviction bristled off her being, as unrelentingly, she tore her eyes into his, waiting.
There was no way out from there.
He shrugged, as nonchalantly as he could.
‘Fine’, he said, looking beyond to the traffic flowing by.
‘Just checking’.
‘Soooo’, she drew it out, a twisted smile pulling at the corners of her thin mouth. ‘We have a winner! Whaddaya think crew?’
The others, hesitatingly at first, then with enthusiasm, as they saw by her smug expression that she endorsed this proclamation, slapped high-fives, whooped and collectively said, ‘YAH!!!!’
He, sat, immobile, staring intently at the radiant gleam in her eyes.
The commotion died down, as they witnessed the ongoing struggle of willpower. Calmly, he regarded her…..viciously, she smirked at him.
‘Now what?’, he asked.
‘well – since you are, the newest one here, it is time to see if you got it, or if you don’t. So, we’ll conduct a little e-x-a-m-i-n-a-t-i-o-n,’, she said, drawing out the word.
‘What sort of examination?’, he asked.
‘We need to convince ourselves that you can handle our, what?’, she asked, looking about her.
‘Our shit’, yelled back one of the Asian girls. ‘NO! Our, standards, eh?’, said one of the guys.
‘Nah! We just gotta know that this dude can do whatever we ask of him’, said the tall gangly one.
She looked at them all – intently, eyeball to eyeball. Some of them wavered and glanced away – some held her fiery stare….
Slowly, she turned back to him. ‘K – here’s the deal…..it’s a contest – a match of skills’, she chortled. As she laughed, the others joined in.
‘Michelle – go inside – get the stuff!’.
One of the girls unfolded herself from the metal table and sauntered off, inside the restaurant.
Every one was silent as they waited her return.
After a few moments, she strolled back to the table and, with a flourish, emptied a paper sack onto the table.
Clattering and bouncing, rolling and then resting, about 2 dozen eyeballs were a sight to see. One kept rolling slowly until it came to a stop directly beneath where he was seated. And in the final second seemed to twitch, the bloodshot spiderweb of burst blood vessels seeming to gaze directly into his face.
‘He he heh,’ she chortled.
‘Learn this mon ami – I have now – and will continue to do so – have my eye on you.’
©michael moore 2017