#romeo 1

[salem-poor-squadron-75]

[herwildwhisper]

when: early November, 2019 – near midnight where: outside the Last Drop who: @desouzas

She’d stepped outside to contemplate smoking – she’d quit the habit, really, but the events of the last week had been trying her patience, from the tension with Sam to the fact that Raine Jones had fucking broken into her house – so. Contemplating. No pack of stale cigarettes in her possession, though her old Zippo lighter was in the pocket of her jeans, the half-heavy weight of it warm against her thigh.

Inside, music and the hum-drum of a full bar was still going strong, the sounds escaping for a moment as someone else stepped outside. She’d never seen him before she’d returned to town for winter, which meant he was new – but just how new, she didn’t know. She'd seen him around; had even seen him walking the same strange trails through the outskirts of town that she did, though they were never headed in the same direction, always passing each other by. It merited a nod of acknowledgement as she stood on one side of the door, and he on the other.

The door burst open.

Out came a two-man band of swinging limbs and drunken yells, all to the beat of onlookers inside shouting something about his WIFE, Johnny! the fuck, man! Spittle and blood flew onto the gravel of the parking lot, the already grimy snow no better for it. She crossed over before anyone else made their way outside, sidling up next to the stranger – close, but not too close.

“My bet’s on the guy with the beard, ‘cause I know the other guy’s Johnny,” she said.

“– How ‘bout you?”