Chapter 5 #2
“Do it yourself if ya want it done, Chaser.” Red lights a cigarette, cupping a hand around it as he does so, the tattooed lettering on his fingers reading F-U-C-K in vulgar bold. He blows out the smoke and goes over to the grill asking Marlin about the timing for the meat to be done.
“Is it bad that I forgot about him?” Minnie whispers the words in Gage’s ear. He snorts with amusement.
“You know what? Some days,” Gage whispers back to her. “I wish I could forget I know him, too.”
They share a conspiratorial smile. It brings her relief to know that the awful man isn’t a close friend of his. That would somehow make it worse if he were. Chase and Marlin make sense, but Red? Not at all.
Mercifully, Red remains by Marlin, helping with the plates and such for the meat, leaving Minnie to converse with Gage and Chase. Despite Red not engaging with her, she can still feel a certain tension, a certain dislike just oozing from him in her direction.
She knows people from Harrow’s Row often hold immense dislike for those from Uptown Gold, but this is obnoxious. Red is an absolute turd in her esteemed opinion. Grow up, jerkface, she finds herself thinking.
When dinner is served, Marlin gestures to the steaming hot chicken on Minnie’s plate, asking, “How is it? Best chicken you ever had? Don’t be shy now, girlie.”
It is quite possibly some of the best chicken she’s had. Grinning, Minnie politely finishes chewing before she answers, dabbing her mouth with a napkin. “It’s really good, Marlin. I’m glad you invited me over; this is lovely.” He smiles, quietly soaking in her praise.
“I like her. She’s sweet,” Chase says offhand to Gage. “It’s like she craps sunshine out every end.”
Gage makes a face, talking around his full mouth. “Nice image, man.”
There’s only one person who doesn’t seem onboard with being friendly at the dinner table.
Red’s pale eyes narrow briefly as he continues to stare at her in an unnerving way.
It’s almost like he’s trying to see something, just out of reach.
A piece of knowledge that he can’t grasp.
“Ya know, there’s something about you that’s fucking familiar, now that I’m looking at you in the sunlight.
I can’t place it. Why are you familiar?”
Minnie’s stomach drops. Gage looks up sharply from his plate. His reaction is so sudden that Minnie doesn’t understand it.
“…Red.” Gage’s tone is underscored with warning.
Chase tilts his head to the side, trying to focus through his alcohol gaze. “How do you mean? What’s familiar, Red? She look like some girl you jizz to on the porn hub?”
Red seems intent on ignoring whatever either man is dishing. He points a finger at her face, squinting. “Naw, seriously, I’ve fucking seen her before, and I don’t mean in this house. I just can’t picture where-”
Oh, please, no, Minnie finds herself thinking miserably. Don’t say it, you big hateful jerk.
“Red,” Gage snaps, voice dipping into a malicious growl that makes the hair stand up on the nape of Minnie’s neck. He knows she hates it when people bring up the hostage scenario. “Shut your trap before someone does it for you.”
“There’s a lot of blonde girls out there, Red.” Chase rolls his eyes, not catching on to Gage’s growing aggression. Marlin sees it, though, his expression becoming contemplative as he looks at Minnie.
Here it comes, Minnie thinks remorsefully.
Red snaps his fingers and sneers victoriously, disregarding Gage entirely.
“That’s it. I know what it is. Those big doe eyes and glasses.
You’re Minerva Fray.” His sneer grows wider, malice glittering in his pale blue gaze.
“The Abducted Girl.” He looks at her, as if he can see a scared, crying fifteen-year-old sitting in front of him.
She’d been in the news plenty, after all. After a pause, he laughs.
Hearing those words spit from his hateful mouth makes Minnie wither inside. She’ll never escape that moniker, will she? It’s an awful title that will follow her like a bad joke her entire life. She’ll never be anyone else.
Chase seems to pale under his alcohol flush, eyes darting back to Minnie.
An empty beer can thunks off Red’s head, effectively silencing his crude cackling. “Hey!”
Gage scowls meaningfully, having thrown the projectile. “Fuckin’ leave her alone, man. Can’t you see she doesn’t like talkin’ about it?”
“She doesn’t? Oops. I thought a girl like her might like a little fame.
” He doesn’t sound apologetic in the least. An ugly, mocking look brews in Red’s eyes as he stares at Gage.
He appraises him, as if trying to unlock some odd puzzle.
“You’re something else, G. You are really, and I mean really, are one sick puppy-”
Minnie frowns in confusion and hurt, not following the conversation anymore. What is he talking about?
The air fills with tension, as if a storm is about to strike. “I will knock you the fuck out with the next bottle I find,” Gage interrupts, color crawling up his tattooed neck. Minnie isn’t sure she’s seen him look so furious, and she can’t seem to figure out why.
Chase gathers himself together and pipes up in his laissez-faire manner, saying, “Gee, Red. What a super sleuth you are. Is that your conclusion after staring at her for the past two hours? A girl from the news?”
The other man makes a face, gesturing with one hand, red hair glinting in the dying sun. “You’re telling me you don’t see it?”
Chase shrugs unconvincingly and looks at Minnie, alcohol tilting his gaze. “I mean. Now that you say it…”
Gage groans and runs a hand down his face.
Slapping a hand down on the table, Red crows, “See? I’m fucking right. You just needed someone to point it out. You’ve never been very observant, though, have you?”
“No, that’s what we have you for,” Chase grumbles. “Whatever though. So, she has a famous name in town. Who cares? Stop trying to start trouble. We all know you’ll lose if Gage decides he wants to break your face. I, for one, don’t want to listen to your crying when he does.”
“Neither do I,” Marlin drawls darkly, eyes flickering with warning. “Remember how crack pipes snap, bub.”
Red looks between the men with a disgusted look on his face, scoffing in disbelief. “All of you fucking suck the big one. I’m just playing with her. She needs a backbone.” His voice turns snide. “Sorry, Gage.”
Gage drinks his beer with his eyes pinned on the other man, but says nothing in reply. There’s a muscle ticking in his jaw, so Minnie leans against him, trying to let him know she’s fine, she’s just a bit rattled. She wasn’t expecting that part of her life to come up today.
What did you expect? She thinks darkly. It always comes up eventually. Someone always figures it out; it just depends on how long it takes them.
Wanting to be strong, Minnie decides to harden the backbone that Red thinks she needs to grow.
She refuses to be a wet noodle; she’s a new Minerva Fray.
“What’s the grey blob on your arm?” Minnie asks boldly as she looks at one of his tattoos, wanting to knife him somehow.
He’s been rude ever since he first met her, the night Gage brought her over some months ago.
She might as well insult his poorly done body art.
Red looks down at the inside of his wrist, at the weird-looking monster there. “It’s a ghoul, obviously. Aren’t you stupid?”
“I’m not; your art is just atrocious.” She blinks slowly, stunned, but not for the reason he thinks.
A ghoul. She’s not heard anyone say that word in a long time.
The tattoo is poorly done, nowhere near as horrifying as the Ghoul mask.
But, the spirit of it is the same. “But now that you mention it. I was…one of the men who abducted me had a Ghoul mask on. It didn’t look like that. ”
“God, really?” Red drawls with something like mocking, pale blue eyes on her face. “How fucking weird. What a creepy coincidence. What other masks were there? Do you remember?”
Minnie’s stomach turns, her face feeling icy. She remembers every mask in clear detail.
Marlin pushes the plate of teriyaki steaks closer to the other man, grumbling, “Eat something, Red. You can’t talk if your mouth is full.”
“We all prefer when you don’t speak,” Gage says waspishly.
Instead of grabbing more food, Red stands up from the table, aggressively lighting yet another cigarette. “Whatever, chodes. I’m done with this cute family sesh.” With that, he turns, yanks open the darn screechy screen door, and vanishes.
“Good riddance,” Minnie blurts out, making the other men chuckle. “What a turd.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Marlin concludes.
Seeing Red retreat with a certain swagger, Minnie contemplates asking the others what his problem is with her. It’s not in her nature to be confrontational, but she might make an exception if she builds enough courage.
He’s a rude troglodyte, and she shouldn’t take his crap.
Later, she decides to ask Gage as they retire to his bedroom. “What’s his problem with me? Red’s?” A part of her is glad to escape the group environment. The other part of her is embarrassed, because they all know what she does with Gage when they’re alone.
Gage shakes his head and smiles stiffly at her, slinging an arm around her waist, pulling her flush with his body as he speaks his words against her throat. “He’s just a shithead. Ignore him. He can’t stand people from Uptown Gold. He’s green with envy.”
She would ignore Red, but it’s hard to ignore someone who hates you so much.
…and he hates her for a reason she cannot quite see.
Why did he call Gage sick, she wonders as she lies in his bed, watching him lock the door. What does me being the Bank Hostage have to do with him at all?