Post by thelori24 on Mar 14, 2017 5:50:32 GMT
==Dorado==
The bar was closed for the night, the rickety hole in the wall was doing less well in recent years, crack downs on gang and criminal activity, her connections and ties whittling away with time passing, violence...people who lived this sort of life didn't generally get to be old. She was already older than most, and she felt her age. She felt it so much, in the ache in her back, the stab wounds and gunshots of years past. The rasp in her throat and lung from too many years of smoking and drinking rotgut whiskey. Most days she could push it all aside. Recent years had been easier...except for the year Gray had been in recovery and nearly died more than once...but he'd brought light and purpose into her life she thought she'd never have again.
She'd tried for him, she really had. Private tutors to assure he got a good education. Money spent whenever he asked for things. Keeping him away from those that would hurt him to get to her, often letting him go travel with his father so he could experience the world with a man that she hoped would rub off on him more than she did. Sam, despite all his own issues, was a good man. A strong, honest, loyal man, and if Gray had to turn out like one of them...she'd rather he be like Sam.
It had taken a while but she'd gotten a nicer flat for them, a room of his own, appliances that worked....even a balcony that looked out over the city. She sat there now, feet up on the raining, chair leaning back slightly as she watched the sun come up. She let out a breath, a heavy puff of smoke as she pushed out the cigarette into the overflowing ashtray near her, bottle of nearly empty tequila resting against her knee. She tilted it back up, taking a decent swig with a bit of a cough. She wasn't usually the sort to indulge to this level...but Gray was getting ready to leave for good...he'd earned it adn she was proud of him. But she had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't come back again after he left. And she'd have lost him. That...and what day this was, a day that reminded her of other things she'd also lost in her life...she already hated today, and it had barely started.
The bar was closed for the night, the rickety hole in the wall was doing less well in recent years, crack downs on gang and criminal activity, her connections and ties whittling away with time passing, violence...people who lived this sort of life didn't generally get to be old. She was already older than most, and she felt her age. She felt it so much, in the ache in her back, the stab wounds and gunshots of years past. The rasp in her throat and lung from too many years of smoking and drinking rotgut whiskey. Most days she could push it all aside. Recent years had been easier...except for the year Gray had been in recovery and nearly died more than once...but he'd brought light and purpose into her life she thought she'd never have again.
She'd tried for him, she really had. Private tutors to assure he got a good education. Money spent whenever he asked for things. Keeping him away from those that would hurt him to get to her, often letting him go travel with his father so he could experience the world with a man that she hoped would rub off on him more than she did. Sam, despite all his own issues, was a good man. A strong, honest, loyal man, and if Gray had to turn out like one of them...she'd rather he be like Sam.
It had taken a while but she'd gotten a nicer flat for them, a room of his own, appliances that worked....even a balcony that looked out over the city. She sat there now, feet up on the raining, chair leaning back slightly as she watched the sun come up. She let out a breath, a heavy puff of smoke as she pushed out the cigarette into the overflowing ashtray near her, bottle of nearly empty tequila resting against her knee. She tilted it back up, taking a decent swig with a bit of a cough. She wasn't usually the sort to indulge to this level...but Gray was getting ready to leave for good...he'd earned it adn she was proud of him. But she had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't come back again after he left. And she'd have lost him. That...and what day this was, a day that reminded her of other things she'd also lost in her life...she already hated today, and it had barely started.
