"What happened to your face?" A curly headed boy asked.
Beth exhaled a cloud of smoke. "What happened to yours, you insensitive little fuck?" She hissed.
"Nothing happened to mine." The boy answered.
"Yeah? Well you should find a mirror." Beth told him, leaning back on the bench and taking another drag off of her cigarette.
A few moments of silence passed before the kid spoke again. "My dad's dying."
"So is mine." She let out another puff of smoke. "What's killing yours?"
The boy fiddled with his hands. "Heroin... what's killing yours?"
"The twenty-first century." Beth sighed.
"You mean like, time? How does time kill?" He asked.
Beth chuckled lightly. "With my family, it sort of takes the kitchen sink approach."
The boy chewed the inside of his lower lip. "Don't know that that means."
"You need to study harder in school, kid." The woman told him, taking another drag.
"Dropped out of school." He deadpanned.
"Well why'd you do that?"
"'Cause... fuck it."
The two talked for a bit longer, with the boy ending up on a seat right next to Beth.
They spoke calmly with each other until a nurse came out holding a clipboard, sympathy in her eyes. "You need to come inside."
The boy shifted uncomfortably. "Am I in trouble?"
The nurse shook her head before directing her attention to Beth. "Are you a friend of the family?"
Beth tensed. "I guess I am now."
The nurse then jerked her head and led the unlikely duo inside to the boy's father's room.
He laid motionless and pale with a multitude of wires hooked into both arms.
Beth stood beside the curly headed kid as a doctor began to ramble about brain activity while spewing out a bunch of long words that neither the boy or Beth understood.
When the boy asked what it all meant, the doctor once again began to ramble. But this time, Beth cut him off and was blunt.
"It means he's gone, honey." She told him solemnly. "Can he have some time to say goodbye?"
"Well, there's a protocol-"
"Yeah, no, not today there isn't. Get the fuck out." She hissed.
The man in the white coat began to stammer until she spoke again.
"Get the fuck out so he can say goodbye." She enunciated.
Despite knowing he shouldn't, the man obeyed and exited the room.
Though the boy was hesitant and unsure of what to say, he narrowed it down to a simple 'fuck you' and left with his newfound friend.
*~*~*~*~*
"So who is he?" Thomas Rainwater spoke, watching the angry white man on the screen alongside Mo.
"Name is Chester Spears. Dishonorable discharge from the army in 2006 for conduct unbecoming. Did three years in Rock Springs for robbery, another five years in Red Lodge for aggravated assault. Got arrests for check fraud, wire fraud, and two DUI convictions." Mo let out a puff of air as he finished.
YOU ARE READING
Yellowstone
FanfictionBeing practically raised by the Duttons seems like a dream for some. But Elisabeth had it rough. Her dad was a runaway and her mom was never around. When she turned 12, she found work all the way up in Montana at the Yellowstone Ranch. Not only did...
