Bad Company

Chapter 25: Happy Birthday

"Oh..." Joe started in a muffled tone from the mouthful of food. He swallowed and glanced at me, seeing the worry in my facial expression, "Tell you that she accidentally broke a cup while she was cleaning...?" Joe winced.

I sighed in relief, "Yeah! Sorry... I just went on a cleaning spree... cup broke, shattered everywhere..."

Billy shrugged, clearly not giving a fuck about a cup. He made his way over to me, holding out one of his hands at me and nodding at the medical supplies. Joe mouthed 'Sorry' behind Billy, apologizing for his lame attempt at thinking of something to tell Billy on the spot. I glanced at Joe for a brief moment before staring up at Billy who was now standing in front of me and handed him the burn ointment and cloth/ some sort of medical bandage. Billy snorted as he sat down on the coffee table in front of me and took hold of my arm, gently.

"You've been busy." Billy stated as he started to apply ointment over the burn on my arm.

I winced as the throbbing pain worsened, "Yeah... had a lot on my mind so I took to cleaning."

Joe gave a faint laugh as he placed his fork in his now empty bowl and stared over at what Billy was doing to my arm, "Ha. That's a fucking understatement."

My head snapped over in Joe's direction, my eyes squinted into a glare burning right through Joe. Joe raised his eyebrows at me, staring at me like I was the one in the wrong. I continued to glare at Joe as he made his way back into the kitchen where he began to wash the bowl and fork he had just used.

"Did you find any photos of Billy with hair while you were cleaning?" Joe asked from the kitchen.

Billy's jaw tightened as he stared over at Joe, "What do ya want?"

Joe chuckled, "Awe come on Billy, don't change the subject. I know you must have a photo of you with hair laying around here somewhere."

"What the fuck do ya want?" Billy asked again, this time sounding annoyed.

Joe scoffed, "What do you mean 'what the fuck do ya want?'. It's September third... why do ya think I'm here?"

I groaned, dreading the fact that summer was now pretty much at an end and winter is just around the corner. I cocked an eyebrow up and stared at Billy, watching as his facial expression hardened, clearly in deep thought about Joe mentioning the date. Billy exhaled a heavy sigh as he began to wrap my the burn on my arm.

"So?" Billy asked, not looking away from what he was doing to my arm.

"So... happy birthday bro. Jesus, hostile much?" Joe chuckled, coming back into the living room.

I gasped, "It's your birthday?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Doesn't matter." Billy replied flatly.

"He's just mad he's old as fuck now." Joe chuckled from where he was now sitting.

"How old are you?" I asked softly, feeling awkward at the fact that I don't even know how old my own boyfriend really is.

"He's 40" Joe answered sarcastically.

"What the fuck did ya do?" Billy asked, tracing his fingers along my now bandaged burn while staring at me.

"Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya, Amber. He's 28 today." Joe added.

"I was getting lasagna out of the oven.. the door was half open so I burnt myself when I went to pull it out." I replied to Billy's question - ignoring Joe who was still laughing and talking amongst himself in the background.

"Pay attention next time." Billy said dully.

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, whatever. Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?" I asked, changing the subject.