Page 51 of Fury

“Great.”

By the time I got out of the bathroom, Serena and Tania were talking and spreading the food out on Tania’s made up bed. Tania had gotten us scrambled eggs with cheese and ham on English muffins. We ate and it was so fucking good. Serena looked at my wound and applied disinfectant and gel and wrapped it firmly with a sterile bandage.

“I got you this too.” Tania took out a box from a plastic bag and tossed it on the bed by Serena. Hair dye. Dark brown. “Your red really stands out. I thought you’d want to change it.”

Serena only stared at the box.

I crumpled up the foil from the sandwich. “That’s good, right?”

“I figured you two wanted to stay out of sight,” Tania said. “Or did I get that wrong?” She drained her paper coffee cup.

“You’re right,” Serena said. “Could you help me?”

“Sure,” Tania replied, a grin on her face. The girl liked being useful. “I’ve done it plenty of times with my friends back home.” She cleaned up the food and juice and coffee containers from the bed. “Sorry, I’m blabbing.”

“I like your blabbing. Where are you from, Tania?” asked Serena, her voice steady, her eyes bright. Tania’s friendliness was a good, unusual vibe for her. I leaned back against the headboard as Tania told us about her hometown. Meager, South Dakota.

Meager. Home of the One-Eyed Jacks.

Tania’s eyes skidded over the tattoo of flames that ran down one side of my chest and the other tattoo of a knife over my left hip.

“I went to college in Chicago,” Tania said. “I graduated this past May. I don’t have a job or anything yet. No specific plans, but I know I wanted out of Meager. My best friend just got married to the man of her dreams. Her dreams, certainly not mine.”

I unwrapped the pack of smokes Tania had bought me earlier. “You mind if I smoke in here, Tania?”

“No, go ahead,” she said, shifting herself on the bed, uncrossing her legs yet again. “You’re a member of the Flames, aren’t you? I saw your tattoo.”

“Yeah, I am. You know any Flames?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Keep it that way.”

Her eyes flashed, her brows lifted. “Huh.”

I got the impression, she wanted to say something but swallowed it back down. There was a lull in the conversation, a thick awkwardness hanging between us. I dragged on my smoke, and that tension pulled on my lungs. Shit, I don’t know why I smoked tobacco half the time.

I rubbed a hand over my chest. “What are you going to do in Chicago now?”

Tania refolded her legs the other way. “I just want to get back there. I don’t want to just get any old job, but I will if I have to.” She rolled her eyes, tilting her head. “I’ll figure it out once I get back to the city. Of course, my mother and my sister had a cow over my decision, but I couldn’t sit still in Meager. No way. There’s more to life than...”

Tania continued on in her condemnation of small town life in Nowheresville, South Dakota while I smoked. Serena opened the box of hair dye, taking out the tube of color, another bottle, and the plastic gloves, unfolding the instructions.

The women went into the bathroom and dyed Serena’s hair. I switched channels on the television. Serena came out with a mountain of blackish goo swirled over her head, making faces, and Tania and I laughed. A half an hour later, after a shower, Serena emerged from the bathroom with a brand new look. They’d even cut her hair shorter. She looked sleek. Edgy. Even through the exhaustion and the anxiety she was fucking gorgeous. My dick hardened in my jeans, and I adjusted myself on the bed. Serena stared at me, a sly smile growing on those lips, which only made my cock harder and my pulse race.

“We need to change your bandage,” Tania said gesturing at my arm.

“Huh?” I cleared my throat and sat up. “Oh. Yeah.”

Tania came over with a small plastic bag from a pharmacy and sat down next to me. A whiff of fancy perfume came up between us. She smelled nice. She had nice clothes and used fancy words. I’d never been this up close to anyone like her before. Her big dark eyes concentrated on dabbing antibiotic ointment over my cut, applying new tiny sticky bandages to keep the wound together.

“You got experience with this shit?” I asked.

“I grew up on a farm. You learn to get the basics of life done on your own.”

“What kind of farm? Soy? Wheat?”

“A little bit of those, but mostly sunflowers.”

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