Page 8 of Skin Deep

He laughed. “You want me to bird sit until you come back?”

“No,” I said. “In high school, when I sent you and Declan out for pizza, you came back without the car.”

He smiled even wider. “But we saved the pizza!”

“Asshole,” Newman said.

I thanked Shine and walked off, not wanting Newman to get a wild fucking hair and attack him. He wouldn’t if Lachlan had him, but he’d probably do it to me.

“I’m not taking you out with me anymore if you don’t shut up,” I said, almost feeling insane for talking to a bird. I figured it was better than an earpiece, though.

“He he he.”

He was quiet the rest of the way, which I think had more to do with the air feeling colder than him not wanting to talk. He nuzzled even deeper into the hoodie, sticking closer to me, when another gust of wind blew.

I opened the door to the ratty-ass apartment building a few minutes later. It was even colder inside than it was outside. It seemed to hold the damp air and make it feel even colder. The smell of the place made the hairs on my neck stand up. I couldn’t explain it, but something about it made me feel uneasy. It was like breathing in the scent of struggles and death combined. Mold and something bitter. Something that was hard to overcome.

The piece of shit I came to find was leaning against a wall on Mari’s floor, just a couple of doors down, talking to a woman in a robe. The cheap fabric was almost completely open. Merv, the scum landlord, was drooling as his eyes never roamed to her face.

“How much?” I said to him.

It took him a minute to look at me. “She’s at work.” He waved his hand.

I took him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. His eyes finally left the woman and rose to meet mine. This motherfucker thought he was the king of the rat castle, but he didn’t want to fuck with me. I was taller, wider, and had something worth fighting for.

“How much?” I said through clenched teeth.

“Sixty dollars,” he said, and the smell of decaying teeth and alcohol went straight up my nose.

I let his shirt go, took four twenty dollar bills out of my pocket, and flung them at his face. He hustled to pick them up, moving faster than I’d ever seen him move before.

“Not a word to her,” I said, reminding him. “Understood?”

He tucked the money in his pocket and lifted his hands. “She’s all caught up now. No reason for me to tell her anything.”

Newman started howling like a wolf on my shoulder as I pulled the spare key out of my pocket and opened Mari’s door. I knew she was at work, and I wanted to wash my hands. I wasn’t afraid of germs, but Merv was a Petri dish, and I doubted even antibiotics would work on whatever he carried around.

Mari had given Keely and me a key a while back. The thing about Mari that I struggled with the most—she refused to let anyone help her. She had this thing about kindness. She considered it something that costed, and she refused to owe anyone. I had a feeling a specimen like Merv had caused her to feel this way. So, I made a deal with the asshole. Each month I made up whatever Mari couldn’t pay, and I gave him an extra twenty dollars to keep his mouth shut about it. She had only my family and me. I’d be damned if she lost the only thing she had, even if it made me physically sick to step into the place.

She had one bulb light, a bed with rusty springs about to burst through, a sink, refrigerator, and a bathroom with a shower that looked like it had come from an ancient roadside stop. The nicest thing about the place was the plant she’d bought and set on the windowsill. The pot had a butterfly painted on the side.

I opened the refrigerator. A bottle of water, a half-gallon of milk, and box of cereal. A bowl, cup, spoon, and fork were stored in there, too. It was colder outside than the temperature inside of the fridge.

“Fuck!” I said, jumping about a foot off the ground.

The biggest rat I’d ever seen scuttled across the floor, hitting my boot. I flung the front door open and watched as it ran out and disappeared down the hallway. Merv was back at it with the woman, and neither of them noticed or cared that it ran past.

Newman started meowing and hissing like a cat on my shoulder. Usually, he would’ve flew around, checking things out, but he was smart enough not to risk it.

Mari refused to live with any of us, even if it meant living in these conditions. If I didn’t get her out soon, I was going to lose my fucking mind.

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