The Nature Of The Beast

3: The Family

"Sounds pretty sweet if you ask me."

I TUCK the gun back into the napkin, eyes wide as Moxie attempts to settle my nerves. The other boys at the table eye us slightly but go back to their meal, my eggs sat untouched against the plate ahead of me. What do you really expect from him though? He's Duke's main hitman, the thought of taking another life is just...business to him.

The thought makes me wince.

"Theo," his thick lips soften once he takes in my obvious discomfort, shoveling eggs into his mouth before pausing to squeeze my trembling hands wrapped around the napkin cloaked gun. "your first is always a little scary but you get used to it." He snickers at the innuendo, high fiving a short ginger boy sat across from us. His front tooth is knocked out and the other is too large, giving  him a childlike appearance as he chuckles loudly. The sound slicing through the conversations of over fifty rowdy teen boys.

"How am I supposed to get used to murdering an innocent man?" I question through gritted teeth, keeping my voice low from the eavesdropping boys around us.

Moxie rolls his eyes, knife clattering on the table as he drops it with an alarming force. He twists around on the bench, painfully pushing his fingers into my shoulders and shaking me with such force my teeth rattle. "He's selling drugs, Theo! He isn't innocent!"

"Yet he's more innocent than us? I don't know if you've looked around lately, Elijah, but we're in the middle of a drug house!"

His eyes temporarily widen with the shock of the outburst but slide back into their usual demeanor. "We were here first, Baby, the family was here first and as a family we look out for one another even if it means taking the life of some low down dealer, got it?" He snaps, eyes wide, the yolk darkening within their wading pool of off white and red, the busted vessel even more prominent when he's angry. "Now eat your goddamn eggs, Baby."

His force has me spinning back around, staring at the cold plate ahead of me and the sympathetic eyes of the ginger boy. "I just..." my voice fades before it gets better, metal fork wavering from the shaking of my hands.

He's always been Duke's favorite, the idea of the family is engraved deep within him, and the thought of something happening to it is cause for emotional distress. He slips a small pill into his drink, eyes glassy as he chugs it bottom up and slams it back to the long wooden table. Duke eyeing him from the head of it as he leaves the table seething.

His eyes catch mine, a deep black blending into a light and terrified blue. My eyes avert from his once I see his body rise, muscles tensing on his way up from the seat at the head of the table. The chatter instantly dies down, going down the line as he makes his way towards me.

His chin rests on my dark blonde hair as he strokes the front of my face with a set of leather gloved hands. There's no words, no exchange except this one movement, confusion instantly settling in the moment he walks out. He follows the path towards Moxie's bedroom where there's a muffled opening and close of the door, the silence still thick enough in the dining room to make out every move from down the hall.

The gap toothed ginger, Flower I believe, takes the place of Moxie. His face is still smooth and young, no more than fifteen and still not through the process of aging. The boy's voice is high and quiet, head falling on my shoulder as he holds onto my hand, an odd comfort brought in from the gesture. His thin fingers wrap around the gun in my lap, drawing it away with childlike curiosity. "Who exactly are you supposed to kill?"

"Not really sure." The boy draws in his lips, suppressing a judging giggle.

"Well if I were you, I'd go where everybody goes." He shrugs as if I already know the answer, my blank expression most likely giving me away. "You know," he shifts, digging his fingers into my untouched eggs and bringing a piece to his unnaturally red lips. "you act like you're the shit all the time but you're pretty much just an older version of me. How come?"