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  “That’s what she was and you know it. You’re just pussy whipped that’s all.”

  “I am not.” Jimmy swung himself around on his stool so that he was now facing Brandon straight on. Seeing him in the dimness of the bar’s low glow only brought the anger in him to come out stronger yet. “You can be such a prick sometimes, you know that?” His voice growled some as his face flushed hot. Why was he getting angry? He had no idea. He just knew that he was and it was enough.

  Brandon laughed at that one. “God, I hope so.” He laughed harder as he shook his head. “You want to know what your problem is Jimmy? You’re too much of a pushover. You never use your balls when you have to. You just sit back and let people run all over you, saying nothing but; just do it again, please mister please.” He turned to the bartender who was now down at the other end of the bar, waiting on another patron of O‘Leary‘s pub. He hated seeing this knowing that it was going to take him that much longer to get another beer. “You have got to take life by the balls and whip them around and throw them if you have to. You have to push back sometimes. You have to learn how to throw a punch. You have to take control of your life my friend, because it will always try to take control of you. There’s no other choice sometimes,” he paused, looked to the bartender and watched her closely. “Can I get some service over here?” he shouted out to the rather young woman, far down from him on his left.

  The woman bartender turned to his voice with a casual grimace. She left her other customer, went back to the cooler behind the bar, and grabbed another beer from one of the many that lined the shelves. Popping the cap, she returned the bottle to the counter in front of the obnoxious young man, said nothing else, and just helped herself to what was left of his money next to his used glass. Done, she returned him his change, left back to her other customer, and to their conversation that suited her more.

  Brandon watched her do it all, laughed, and turned back to Jimmy when she left. “See? Bark and they follow.” He laughed harder.

  The sight caused Jimmy to shrug his shoulders in disgust. You’re being an asshole. He thought about saying, but didn’t. As far as he was concerned about it, what Brandon was doing wasn’t brave, but just plain rude.

  Brandon noticed the shrug. “What man? See,” he paused, took the bottle and refilled his glass. When he finished, he slammed it back down to the bar. It banged loudly enough to cause several other patrons to turn only briefly towards them. Some of them shook their heads, but all of them simply went back to doing what they were doing before the sound shook the bar. “I barked, she obeyed, simple.” He laughed.

  The statement only made Jimmy shrug his shoulders again, and he turned back to the mirror.

  A sight that only made Brandon more determined to make his point. “You have got to take control of yourself buddy. You have got to get your life under control.” He took another solid gulp, and had a heavy low belch follow the beer from his throat. “You spent how many years with that God-awful place, and for what? You had nothing but misery with bad hours, and guilt with the drop of a hat. You spent how many years with that woman, and for what. Nothing but bad sex, if at all, and an argument every night when she didn‘t get her way. You let them both push you all over the place. You let both of them hold you down and crush you.” He gulped again with a second belch following it. “Look at you now.”

  Jimmy listened, staring at himself in the mirror. The person staring back at him suddenly looked like someone he had never seen before. His black hair now looked thin, and looked disheveled and out of place. A double chin started showing at his throat. He looked older. He looked overweight and completely out of shape. He looked tired with his brown eyes hollow on a drawn out face. What in the hell is happening to me? He saw someone else sitting there. It just couldn’t be him.

  Brandon looked into the mirror and could see the look on his face. It told him that what he was saying was trying to force its way into his friend’s mind, so he continued, “Look at you man. You look old. You look tired. You’re not the guy that I remember. You look like shit.”

  “Thanks.” Jimmy swallowed trying hard to focus his thoughts away from what he saw. He had changed a lot, he knew that, but he also knew that he was getting older, hell everyone did. He knew that he gained weight, which usually happens when you live with someone that makes you feel content. He knew that he looked pale. Working inside all day and every day had to be the reason for it. He knew everything, but he also knew that he couldn‘t stop it, so why even try. “I’m not like you. I can’t be like you.” He shook his head. He knew that Brandon acted rash. He also knew that he looked attractive. He sounded assertive. He acted bold. He was none of it.

  “You be yourself, my friend. You are who you are, and the key is, you don’t let anyone else make you be something that you’re not.” He gulped. “When I first knew you, you would never put up with anything. You worked out. You took care of yourself. You stood up to people. You were a fuck of a lot more fun too. You have to find that Jimmy I knew. I liked him. You have to find him again, before you do get older.”

  Jimmy turned from the stranger in the mirror and looked back to Brandon. “So what do I do?” He personally didn’t agree with everything that Brandon said, but even with that said, he did believe in some of it. When he was younger, he was a little brasher. He was a little more of a risk taker. However, now he felt—well—seasoned. He felt more like an adult. He felt like everything was supposed to be as it was. Has he lost a step, as they say? Has he fallen away? The truth was he didn’t know the answer. He had no idea of how to solve it, even if he did believe in any of it.

  Brandon turned to his friend and looked him dead in the eyes. “I don’t know.” He tried to think of something else to say. He had always believed that Jimmy was becoming hopeless to fix, and that he was someone that needed far too much help for him, himself, to fix on his own. Now, here he was asking for it, and his mind suddenly went blank. He really couldn’t think of anything at first, but thankfully, and it didn’t take all that long to happen, he did think of something. “I know, get a job with me. They’re always looking for more help. It’ll be great. The pay sucks, but it will give you a ton of time to think, move around, and find yourself.”

  Jimmy listened and immediately shook his head. “I can’t do what you do.” The thought felt somewhat revolting to him. It all sounded beyond simplistic. He had only one answer for it. “I’m not going to be a security guard.”

  “Why the fuck not?” Brandon felt rather astonished by hearing what he just did. By the sounds of his voice, he sounded like he was mocking him. He hated it when someone did that to him. He loved what he did for a living. His job fit him well. “You think that being a security officer is that fucking lame, huh?” He then gulped his beer. He felt surprisingly ashamed, and again he hated that, but he also hated having to defend himself to anyone. “It’s cool work. You get to be something more than what you are. It gives you time to find yourself.”

  Jimmy heard his friend’s voice crack and immediately began to regret what he said. He could tell that he hurt him in more ways than he thought of at first. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to say it that way.” He felt his face begin to flush from the embarrassment that oozed out of him for what he said. He didn’t mean to do that. It made him feel bad. It made him feel ashamed. He had to correct what he said and fast. “I know that you like doing that, I just meant that it wasn’t for me, that’s all.”

  “It’s cool.” Brandon paused, thinking. After a bit of thought, he noticed something else coming up in his chest, and that something was closer to pity. The pity was for his friend. “See.” He turned back to his glass, shook his head, and let out a huge exhale of air from his chest. He felt beyond disappointed. At times like these, he hated being Jimmy Walls’ friend. “You don’t even have the balls to upset me.” He looked deeply to his friend, and seeing the embarrassment oozing out of him, it began to turn his stomach.

  Jimmy sighed, almost with a moan. “I’m
sorry.” He turned back to the mirror, feeling more embarrassed than he already was.

  “You’re such a pussy, you know that. You really are.” Brandon dashed the rest of his drink down his throat. He proved his point and he had nothing else left to say about it, but, “Let’s get trashed now shall we?” He turned to him and laughed out, grabbing his friend’s shoulder with the cusp of his hand.

  Jimmy laughed some as well, sounding more half-hearted than Brandon’s did. However, he did take everything that he heard deep inside his mind. He knew what Brandon, his only friend, was trying to say, and the feeling it gave him made him feel rather odd. It felt almost like having a light bulb go off inside his mind. It meant something; he just had to find out what that something was. Moreover, he was right. It was time to get drunk. Everything else would come up, when the time was right.

  5

  The knocking sounded so intense that it woke him up instantly. Jimmy turned over, lying on his couch, and looked to the bay window at the front of his apartment. He had trouble seeing it clearly with a bright streak of sunlight coming in and flashing to his eyes with a shot of pain. His bursting head followed, shooting it with a bang that the knocking didn’t help. He responded to all of it with nothing but a shudder that flew through him like a blast of cold wind hitting you in the dead of winter. He closed his eyes, turned back to the back of the sofa, and rolled over. He faced it, and allowed the sun to disappear into its shadow. The knocking also thankfully stopped. With it, his head subsided. He allowed himself to slip off back to sleep, but it didn’t last long. A new set of banging came back again, which made him roll over, but this time, he avoided the window and turned straight to the door, towards the top of his head. He found it hard to do with the pain in his head feeling completely overwhelming. The stiffness of his neck didn’t help. The banging continued, so he sat up.

  “Who is it?” He slowly pulled himself up into a seated position and let his feet slam to the floor. His entire body shuddered while doing it. His eyes saw nothing but a deep haze. He felt very hung-over, that much was certain. The banging on the door only caused the hangover to flow to a point of dread. He slowly came to the understanding that he was going to kill whoever was doing it. If he didn’t stop them soon, they were going to break his skull. If he could find the strength to do it, he would do it to them first.

  “Jimmy? It’s me Brandon.”

  Jimmy’s head wanted to cry out even more. Why is he here? What in the hell does he want?

  “Come on, let me in?”

  “Alright, hold your fucking water.” Jimmy pulled himself up slowly, bringing his wobbly legs beneath him. He wasn’t the drinking type, and that small fact showed its ugly face to him again.

  He stood up, having to use the sofa’s armrest for support and slowly, he made the short distance to the front door. Just as slowly, he reached for the knob and turned it. Painfully, he opened the door.

  “Well, it’s about fucking time.” Brandon pushed his way through the door.

  The action shoved Jimmy back and almost knocked him over. If he weren’t holding the door as firmly as he was, he would have certainly fallen to the floor. His head wasn’t the only thing swimming, and it made his legs feel even worse.

  “Fuck man. Why don’t you just fucking kill me?” He shut the door, and leaned up against it, trying to balance himself some first. It helped, but only a little. “What time is it?” His stomach swam some, making him have to swallow it back down. When he felt steady, he turned back and watched Brandon turn around and face him. Doing so, it took almost everything he had just to keep his head on straight.

  “It’s almost noon, dude.” Brandon went to the sofa, turned, and looked back at Jimmy. He laughed at what he saw. He still looked drunk. He looked like total shit. Seeing him, he had to pause. He had to get himself to focus just to remember what he came there to say in the first place. When he did, he began with it. “I have some great news. I talked with the hiring guy at the office and got you an appointment.” He smiled.

  “What are you talking about?” Jimmy tried to shake his head, but couldn’t. The aftereffects of alcohol made that seem almost impossible to do.

  “An interview, brother, I got you an interview.” Brandon left the sofa and made his way to the bay window, and there he stopped in the middle of the room. There, he turned back. “They were really excited to meet you too.” His smile widened, almost consuming his face.

  Jimmy heard him and instantly grew doubtful. “How?” His thoughts were too ragged and his mind felt so unfocused that it only added to the swimming of his eyes. He could barely keep himself standing, yet a lone trying to figure out what he just heard. He had to keep blinking just to help him focus. That too felt harder to do than it really should have been to do it.

  “I gave them your resume. They loved it.” Brandon couldn’t help but laugh again, looking over his best friend. He noticed that he was still wearing the same clothes that he was wearing the night before at the bar. His balding hairline looked matted and mangled at the back of his head. His eyes looked completely fogged over and the smell of stale beer billowed from his mouth. It all confirmed to him that he was still never able to hold his liquor. He hadn’t changed much. He was still that awkward little kid that he knew back in high school.

  “How did you get my resume?” Jimmy left the front door and made his way past the sofa towards the kitchen at the back of the apartment. He wobbled as he moved. He tried to register what he heard, but nothing made any sense. With it being that, he had to get to his coffee pot, make some coffee, and hope that it would help him to get his head back together again.

  Again, Brandon laughed. “Remember that time, just before you met Sally, when you were looking for another job? You had me make you one on my computer, because yours was broken?” Brandon watched him, and followed him into the kitchen. He stopped at the doorway and stayed there. “Remember?”

  Jimmy took his empty coffee pot to the sink and filled it with fresh water.

  “Yeah, I guess.” He took the full pot and moved it back across the counter to the maker. He poured the water into the back of it, and then set the pot on the burner. He then looked back to Brandon.

  “Well, I used that, and as I said, they loved it. They want you there this afternoon.” Brandon’s smile consumed even more of his face. The two of them were beyond opposites; any fool could have seen it. He not only looked half of Jimmy’s age, but he acted like it too.

  “I don’t know.” Jimmy started the coffee brewing and went to the kitchen table in the center of the room, sat down in one of the two chairs around the table, and rushed his hands to his face. He tried hard to wipe the hangover off him, but it didn’t work. In fact, he almost felt worse. As for what Brandon said, he didn’t know what to say or what to think about that either.

  “Know what? You need to do something, and I think this will be great for you to take some time and get out of your element for a while. You need to take a break from the norm, my friend.”

  “I—still.” He looked to his friend and met his stare. He saw nothing but excitement oozing out of him, and it told him that it obviously meant a lot to him. In fact, it looked like the world to him. He knew him well enough to know that when his mind was set on something, he wouldn’t be able to change it. He couldn’t think of any reason to say no. He did need a job. He did need something to do. He had to get his mind off everything. It made sense, so he decided with a nod, while looking down at his hands. “What time do I have to be there?”

  “Two.” Brandon laughed. He crossed his arms across his chest. Now, he felt excited. He felt proud. He knew that Jimmy was going to love it. Why wouldn’t he?

  Jimmy nodded. There was nothing else left to say, so he didn’t.

  6

  The interview went well. Things moved along just fine. Meeting with Ever-Safe Security lasted only about half-an-hour, and Brandon was right, they loved what he had to offer them. He took the entrance exam, which was easier than any test
he had ever taken before, and passed it with flying colors. Later, he met with the Scheduling Manager of the company and she found him a site that she told him was perfect for him—a place called Ravenswood Labs. The next thing that he needed to do was to go to the labs and meet with their head of security for an appointment and an interview. So, he drove out there right after leaving Ever-Safe. During the drive, he thought of nothing else, with everything happening too fast for any direct thought to register on his mind.

  Ravenswood Laboratory looked like a big place. He found it out in the middle of nowhere, off Route 46 just outside of town. He found it odd that such a big place was even there, nestled within the trees. In fact, he couldn’t ever remember seeing the place before now. Redford Forge wasn’t that big of a town, so he should have known about the place, but didn’t. That alone felt odd. That alone bedazzled his still somewhat hung-over mind.

  Driving down the main access road to the labs, he found a very large and spacious parking lot just at the front of a large two-story building, and drove into the lot. He parked in the visitor’s parking lot and turned off the engine. He stood out of the car calmly, and looked at the building.

  It looked red, and looked like it was made out of bricks. The entire front of the building looked covered with a green colored glass. A long sidewalk ran from the parking lot towards the center of the building. At the end of the sidewalk, right in the center of the bright green glass, he could see a set of double doors that also looked like glass.

  Seeing everything, his mind went blank. He thought of nothing as he made it up the sidewalk, walked to the double glass doors, and walked through them into a large spacious two-storied lobby.

  Inside, everything looked massive. The lobby looked bright. Directly in front of him was a long wooded counter, so he walked to it next before he took the time to think of anything else.