7

Come As You Are

The water level is finally going down, but the skies feel no sympathy for the people of Seatac as Atticus wakes up to a soft drizzle; at least it’s not looking like another full storm. It’s hard to tell what time of day it is with the skies gray and somber, but based on the rumblings of his stomach, Atticus can guess it’s close to noon. He digs out food from the stash that Dimitri had left him and finds his seat at the window. Atticus watches as a group of guys his age conspicuously deal drugs not far enough into a side alley and others travel to and from different responsibilities. Everyone finding their own ways to survive and persist. He counts the days on his fingers since his first radio cameo on Tuesday night at the Water Hole; it’s been four days, which makes today Saturday, which also means tonight is the night that Noah invited him to see the Glass Oceans at the Flood Lounge.
Atticus pulls out the radio and tunes it to Lenny’s station, increases the frequency, turns it off, and almost doesn’t turn it back on to connect with Dimitri, but finishes the process regardless. “Dimitri? You there?”
The station is giving him nothing but the sounds of static, just another empty frequency, but finally clears up after several seconds as she responds, “Atti! Oh my goodness, you actually reached out to me, I feel so special! I was sad yesterday when I never heard from you.” He can hear the pouty facial expression she’s making with the second statement.
“You know, if you make a face too much it’ll get stuck that way. You got any intel on Noah’s and Dakota’s show tonight? I don’t know if I’m ready for another night like Thursday quite yet…”
“Can you see me rolling my eyes, too? Regardless, those are your people, Atti, we should definitely go. It’s mostly lowlives that hate Jackson just as much as you do, and a much smaller crowd.”
“That’s that grungy venue right outside of Century City, right? Still part of the low end? I think I visited a couple of years ago.”
“That’s the one! Not too far inland at all!”
“So safe enough for me to bring Sunny instead of you. Great, I’ll go with him, I’m sure he’s desperate to get out.”
“Yeah! Wait.” She catches her own excitement, turning to surprise. “Are you uninviting me?”
“Yep, you’ve gotten me into enough trouble lately and I owe it to Sunny after abandoning the family. What? You jealous?” Atticus’s voice hardly changes tone as he mocks her.
“You’re lucky I know Sunny is desperate to get out, but do remember that it’s because of me that you were even invited.” The static returns as she promptly disconnects, clearly bothered by his decision.
Atticus stews over her statement about Sunny for a moment, something about it bothering him. He clears his head and lazily re-tunes the radio back to Lenny’s frequency.
“-Hope everyone’s days are going well, despite the light rains, but these are nothing new for any of us here in Seatac!” Lenny’s voice crackles through the radio, “What you just heard, which I’m sure you all recognized and don’t need me to clarify, were a couple of Mr. Mondo’s hits that we didn’t get to stream live two nights ago. Next up will be a throwback, however, to early last century. Here’s the album ‘Frank,’ by Amy Winehouse. A tragic story there, as I’ve heard, but I won’t get into it, instead let’s get into this music.” Lenny’s voice is replaced by the smooth jazz vocalist that inspired Ms. Jenny Holland herself, as stated in an interview Lenny did several months ago.
Atticus lets the music play as he cleans himself up and gets his pack together to go out. He goes to a ceramic jar in his cabinet and digs out the remaining cash notes he’s stashed inside from the past few weeks of comedy shows, but there’s not much. He sighs and pockets it.
Heading out the door, Atticus decides to take the long way to the market before heading to Sunny’s greenhouse, which is situated maybe 20 blocks further up the coast from his apartment. He strolls through narrow side streets and alleys, having to hop across gaps in the less-maintained docks. He makes it to one of the sewage canals, situated lower than the primary canals to avoid contamination from run-off. It reeks, the smell bouncing off the water with the splashes of the raindrops softly falling from the sky. Atticus often takes this route to avoid the crowds of the main streets and because sometimes, if he’s lucky, food and miscellaneous items of value wash down into this canal. As he hops across the planks with confidence, knowing which ones are the sturdiest, he keeps an eye out for anything worth stopping for in the water. He spots a half-eaten, rotting apple floating downstream as well as several other remains of thrown-out produce, but nothing safe to fish out of the water. He may often be desperate, but will still only take water-tight and washable goods. On a good day, he’s found sealed jars of dry beans or rice and once even found a bottle of pills that he was able to trade with an addict for a week’s worth of food. Atticus feels a slight pang of guilt as he remembers back to that week, but it was early on when he had moved out several years ago and he was struggling to get by.
Unsuccessful in his search, Atticus decides that he’s killed enough time and heads back in the direction of the market. Back on the main docks, most vendors are busy selling fresh resources to everyone who had used up everything they had while locked up in their homes. He peruses for a bit, spending half his cash on goat cheese, a dense loaf of bread, and a new toothbrush. Grateful for the amount of food Dimitri left in his apartment, he caves and buys a half pack of spliffs as well; he’ll give most of them to Steve the next time he sees him.
Atticus hands over his payment for the smokes and is about to move on to the greenhouse when he spots George several vendors away with another older teen. He recognizes George’s friend; a tall, curly haired blond kid, but can’t remember his name. George makes eye contact and rolls his eyes, turning to go in the other direction. Feeling it to be his obligation, Atticus quickly changes course. “Hey punk! You’re not that cool, don’t ignore me!” He jogs over to playfully shove George in the shoulder.
“Whatever, you better not be coming over to the house, Mom is pissed at you for the other night, after she heard you on the radio. Besides, Sunny isn’t even home yet, so don’t waste your time raising Mom’s blood pressure.” George turns to rejoin his friend who had taken a few steps ahead and is waiting for him.
“Damn alright, still don’t get why you’ve got a stick up your ass, but it doesn’t matter, I’ll respect your space. Just let Sienna know that I’m bringing Sunny to a show tonight, I don’t have the balls to confront her after lying the other day anyway. And don’t worry, it won’t be in Century City, it’ll be closer, and I’ll make sure he gets home safe.”
“I wish I could say he’s logical enough not to go but I know he will. I know there’s also no convincing you not to bring him, so I’ll just trust you to keep your word. Later, bro.” George and his friend melt back into the crowd in the direction of his home.
Atticus may as well be talking to himself as they walk away, “I may not be as good a person as Sunny, but you know I’ll always keep my promises.” He runs his hands through his hair, feeling almost guilty, but shakes off the feeling and turns down a side street towards the greenhouse.
Atticus travels north to the high rise in which Sunny’s greenhouse is located. It takes about half an hour to make it to the building, and he doesn’t see nearly as many people out on these streets as he did at the market, but there are still a handful of others wandering the docks. Some of these include small groups that Atticus can recognize as gang members, likely looking for trouble, so he steers clear.
Upon arriving at the high rise, maybe 25 stories high, Atticus is conscious of a group of two men and a woman loitering about halfway up the fire escape stairs on the exterior of the building. He sighs and begins making his way up the flight of stairs. Every time he makes this trek, he can’t help but feel bad for Sunny having to do this on his crutches; he knows that it takes twice as long.
The party of three are all passing around a cigarette as Atticus approaches and the woman speaks, “Ohh look what we have here, you lost, kid?”
“Not lost, I have business here that doesn’t regard any of you.” He arrives at their platform and doesn’t stop as he tries to push past without making eye contact with any of them, “I’ll be on my way, if you don’t mind.”
The shorter of the men speaks up after taking a draw of the cig and passing it on, “Well now I feel like we’re not being respected here, this is our turf, you know.” The others nod in agreement.
“Well then, I’ll be quick, I’m simply meeting a friend.”
The taller of the men responds this time, “It’s alright guys, we’ll let him pass for now. Decide if he’s crossed any boundaries when he comes back, I’m sure he owes the mob some taxes anyway, which we can retrieve on his way back down.” He smirks and steps aside to let Atticus through.
Atticus walks through, the man making sure to give only enough space for him to have to turn his body to squeeze between him and the wall. Once out of earshot, Atticus mutters a “fuck” and starts churning over how he and Sunny are going to avoid the gang members on their way down. He remembers there being an interior staircase and makes a note to take that as far down as they can once he’s retrieved Sunny.
The rain has stopped by the time Atticus reaches the top floor, but he’s sufficiently wet as he steps inside and traverses to one more staircase down the hall that will lead up to the rooftop. He lets out a breath of relief when he tries the door to the greenhouse and it’s locked, but proceeds to obnoxiously knock, making different rhythms while yelling through the closed door, “Sunny boy! It’s me, Atti! Let me innnnn!”
After several seconds of pounding, he can hear the door unlock and stops his fist as it opens outward, Sunny’s boss and the owner of the greenhouse is on the other side, looking highly unamused. She’s a small woman, maybe a year or two older than Atticus, with light brown hair pulled up in two space buns and a broken pair of glasses barely staying on her nose. Freckles spread across her face and bare arms like stars on a clear night.
“Hello Atticus, so glad you could come visit, Sunny is in the back.” She sounds tired as she greets him, but makes space for him to walk through and then locks the door once again behind him.
“You don’t have to sound so disappointed at my arrival, Nikki, but I’m glad to see you’re well. Thanks for letting me in.” Atticus smiles awkwardly and makes his way to the back.
The greenhouse is situated on the rooftop, but is still enclosed by semi-translucent glass on all sides. Several of the ceiling panels have been opened to allow for the rain to pour in, watering rows of raised plant beds. Nikki moves to close them now that the rain has stopped and the evening air is beginning to cool off. Before he gets through to the back, Nikki hollers from atop a ladder, “Atti, since you’re here actually, could I get you to close some of these windows? You’re much taller than me and obviously Sunny isn’t much help on a ladder.”
Atticus smiles more naturally this time as he agrees and turns to help her, climbing to the top step and fiddling with a latch that holds the window open until he can swing it shut, locking it in place. He repeats the process on half a dozen more windows, working his way through the greenhouse. Most of the plant beds are doing fairly well, growing a plethora of vegetables and small fruits. Tomatoes, leafy greens, and root vegetables dominate the room but there’s also a row of maize along one wall and some smaller beds of different berries, which Atticus swipes from as he strolls through, eating a strawberry before Nikki can stop him. He savors the berry as he walks, the sweetest thing he’s eaten in a couple of weeks.
Finally making it to the other end of the greenhouse, Atticus spots Sunny, seated at a table and finishing up re-potting seedlings into larger containers. He can see Sunny’s brows are furrowed and his single leg anxiously bounces, but Sunny forces himself to relax and grins as Atticus approaches, “Hey! You haven’t been all the way out here in a while! What’s up?” When he turns to face Atticus, there’s a bruise around one eye.
“Yoooo Sunny, I’m going to a friend’s concert tonight, figured I’d drag you along.” He avoids bringing up Sunny’s clear anxiety and the bruise for the moment, he can make an assumption on what it’s about. “I’ve already told Georgie, so you don’t need to worry about telling Si- Mom.”
His smile fades a bit, “Wh-where is it? You’re making a bit of a wave right now and spending a lot of time inland, I don’t know if I can push my luck up there.”
“I know I know, but it’s at the Flood Lounge, the Glass Oceans are playing. It’s not in Century City, don’t worry, and I’ll get us a gondo ride. Noah and Dakota are super friendly too, I think you’ll really like them.” He hesitates before continuing, “And be honest, do you think it’s any less safe than going home alone even down here? Did it happen this morning?” He nods to Sunny’s black eye.
Sunny shifts uncomfortably in his seat, looking away a bit in an attempt to hide it. “Last night, they like to wait for me to get off work, too lazy to get up early just for me.”
Atticus grinds his teeth but otherwise tries to hide his frustration, “How long have they been making a hobby of this? And you haven’t mentioned it?”
Nikki cuts in, having been eavesdropping from nearby, “Alec! You told me you fucking fell last night! Why didn’t you mention it was those assholes?” She marches over, standing next to Atticus, and continues before Sunny can defend himself, “I’ve told you to stay in my apartment downstairs when they’re out there, I’d rather you be safe and make your mother worry for a night than for me to have to tell her that I found your body on the docks!”
Sunny has his head in his hands for a moment, not speaking, before taking a deep breath and reaching for his crutches, pushing himself up to stand in front of his brother and friend. “I’m an adult, just like you two, I need independence too. No need to use the government name, Nikki, you’re not my mother, and even she hardly uses it.” He smiles sadly and continues, “You’re both right, I need to be honest about this shit, but you have lives as well that don’t involve babysitting me. Anyways, I would love the distraction of going to a show with you, Atti, just let me clean up?”
“Don’t worry about it, Sunny, I’ll clean up, you go have a good time.” Nikki shakes her head and starts shuffling things around to finish for the night and Sunny nods, heading to another corner of the room to grab his bag.
Atticus doesn’t follow, staying by Nikki and handing her a small planter when she points it out, “Thanks for looking out for him, Nikki, really. I don’t think I could live knowing he didn’t have someone like you here for him. Don’t be afraid to pressure him to stick around more, though, steal his crutches if you have to.” They both laugh a bit as Sunny returns.
“You ready to go?” Atticus asks as he returns and Sunny responds with a nod and a smile. They both thank Nikki and wish her well as they make their way back to the greenhouse exit. Atticus holds the door open for Sunny but stops him when he starts to head towards the door for the exterior stairway, “There’s a staircase inside, right? Let’s take that down to the docks.”
“Those tend to be kind of moldy and harder for me to get down… The gang members were out there, weren’t they?”
“Yep, I’ll help you down these stairs if they’re that bad.” Atticus leads them down the hall to the interior stairs. Upon opening the door, the smell is the first thing that hits him. This stairway is clearly used as a smoke lounge for the building residents and the plumbing in the walls has burst on several occasions, leaving the concrete steps slick with water and mold. “I think I understand why you avoid this staircase.”
“Yeah, be careful when we get down to the fifth floor, someone uses that platform to shoot up and their needles are all over the place, if they’re not also passed out on the floor.”
“Damn, alright, still better than getting in a fight I suppose.”
They slowly make their way down the building, Atticus often supporting Sunny when one of his crutches slips. They pause on the fifth floor to carefully step over a man unconscious and curled up in the small space. Sunny almost bumps him with a crutch before Atticus catches him, giving him a hand to circumvent the man on the floor. They make it down to the third floor before needing to transition to the outside fire escape, the lowest floor being submerged in water and the docks being built about halfway up the second level of the building.
As they open the door to exit the building, the skies are still notably cloudy, leaving it to be not much darker than when Atticus arrived at the building, but they can just see the sun beginning to drop below the clouds, perfectly between buildings to the west. The view is soured, however, by three people waiting along the docks just below them.
“You didn’t think you could avoid us that easily, did you?” The taller man speaks on behalf of his group. “I was afraid you would try something like this, but to think you would be the cripple’s escort? I guess we scored big tonight.”
“The fuck did you just say?” Atticus looks at the man below him dead in the eyes, between the grates under his feet. “Stay up here, Sunny.”
“Please don’t, Atti, let’s just give them what they want and move on, neither of us needs to get hurt.” He’s leaning into his right leg and crutch to place a hand on Atticus’s shoulder.
“No, I’m ending this tonight.” Atticus slides out from under Sunny’s hand, nearly running down the final flight of stairs and using the rail at the bottom to launch over the last couple of steps and throw his body at the man who spoke.
The three gang members are surprised as their leader gets a kick to the chest and hits the ground. Atticus stays on top of him and shifts his position to drive his fists down onto the man’s face. It doesn’t take long before blood is spraying out from the impacts, but the two others quickly recover from their surprise and jump in to drag Atticus off and attempt to hold him prone. The man on the ground slowly finds his feet as Atticus tries to scramble out of the arms of the others. The first kick finds its target in Atticus’s stomach and the air is knocked out of him, leaving him disoriented as the three begin to wail on him. Kicks and punches rain down on Atticus until he can find his feet and land his own punches on occasion. One solid kick manages to find its home and launch the smaller man into the water behind him. Another hit in the jaw from the woman leaves Atticus backed against the wall when a crutch drops from above, along with several heavier raindrops beginning to pour down from the skies. The crutch isn’t heavy, but lands on top of the woman’s head hard enough to make her take a step back and Atticus is quick to retrieve it. The wood of the docks is becoming slick as the rain picks up, but he uses it to his advantage and swings the crutch up under the chin of the leader, followed by another kick to the man’s knee, the pop ringing out as he drops to the ground. Atticus doesn’t hesitate as he charges the woman, shoving her into the water as well before she can try anything. He then turns and lands several more good kicks into the face and stomach of their leader, who’s still on the ground. Atticus adds several extra hits after the man has clearly fallen unconscious. The other two are floundering in the water, struggling to grab onto the slick docks, so Atticus uses the crutch to smash their fingers as they search for a hold, sending them back under.
Atticus spits a mouthful of blood into the face of the unconscious man on the docks and then speaks to the two in the water, “If I hear of anyone that even looks like any of you down here again, I’ll make sure you all end up in the ocean. Weak ass fuckers can’t even handle a 3v1.” He looks up at Sunny above him and tosses the bloodied crutch up to him. He’s wide-eyed as he barely catches it and hobbles down to the dock next to Atticus. “Let’s get out of here before they get a second wind or I collapse.” He coughs up some more blood as they move as quickly as they can across the wet docks.
They make it back to one of the main canals and Atticus waves down the first gondolier they see, quickly collapsing into the boat after helping Sunny in. “Take us to the Flood Lounge, please.”
The gondolier looks at the two boys, concerned, “You’ve got payment, right?”
Sunny pulls out a small wad of cash before Atticus has the chance to dig into his own pockets and hands it to the gondo before speaking to Atticus, “We really don’t have to go to the party after that…”
“No no, that was nothing, I feel great. If anything–” Atticus leans over and throws up into the canal, a back tooth coming out with it, “Oh I guess that solves my toothache.” Atticus turns to Sunny and forces a smile, blood between his teeth, “If anything, I think now is as good a time as any to distract ourselves with a party.”
The gondolier pushes off the dock and grimaces as he avoids the stream of bile in the canal and heads inland, “I assume y’all got jumped…?”
Sunny responds, “I think it’d be more accurate to say he jumped them. The quicker we can get away from here, the better, if you don’t mind?”
He raises his eyebrows and nods, paddling a bit faster and forcing them upstream. Atticus slumps down and falls asleep as they glide through the water, rain continuing to spit down from the skies.
*****
Thirty minutes later, Sunny gently shakes Atticus awake and they clumsily make their way out of the boat and onto the dock, Atticus giving the gondolier some more cash. They’re a couple of miles away from the upper blocks that would be considered Century City. The water levels here are just high enough to bring the boat, but much further and they would have to walk the docks. The Flood Lounge is the upper floor of a somewhat large, two-story building that was once a restaurant and bar. Atticus and Sunny take several wooden steps up to a balcony platform from which they can enter the building.
Atticus holds the door open for Sunny and they make their way into the venue. A crowd of no more than 100 people sit at tables or wander around, sharing joints and passing around questionable alcohol in small metal flasks. Despite the open windows, the smell of smoke and strong moonshine lingers in the air. The speakers are currently hooked up to a radio, streaming Lenny’s station as the audience waits for live music to play. Without back rooms to hide equipment, it’s easy for Atticus to identify a large generator in one corner, the wall cut out to allow for it to be outside the building as well, likely attached to a hydro turbine in the canal. He spots Noah and Dakota not far from the generator with three others. Noah and another taller guy with buzzed brown hair and sandy skin are setting up their guitars while Dakota moves a speaker toward the edge of the low stage. The drummer, a guy with deep brown skin broken up with light patches of vitiligo across his face and arms is sitting at his drum set, talking to another ebony skinned woman standing next to him.
Atticus stiffly leads Sunny to the group, the two of them getting several looks as they walk through the room. Atticus calls out to Noah and Dakota as they approach and all five people on stage turn to look their way.
“Woah! Hey, Atti!” Dakota speaks up first, “We honestly weren’t sure if you’d actually show up! Glad to have ya, come meet the rest of…” She trails off as the two get closer and enter the more direct light on the stage. “Oh shit are you guys okay? What the hell happened?”
The drummer notices as well and exclaims, “Ha! Man, look at these two, couple o’ bruised peaches rolling up. The fuck did you do on the way here?”
Atticus forces a toothy grin that looks more like a grimace, “Oh yeah, had to fight off some sharks in the canals, ya know? You think I look bad, you should see how we left them. This is my brother, Sunny, by the way.” He sticks a thumb towards Sunny, standing next to him.
The drummer speaks up again, “You two look nothing alike, but aight. I’m Eli and this is my partner, Anita. She’s a med student, you should let her check you out, make sure you don’t have any permanent damage. Doubt she can fix your face though.” He chuckles and dramatically drums a short rhythm. Next to him, Anita tries not to laugh as she shoves his shoulder a bit and walks over. Atticus and Sunny both laugh with Eli as the others shake their heads.
Anita approaches, the others following suit so that the group isn’t yelling across the stage anymore. “Hey boys, I’m Anita, as Elijah said already. He means well, I promise, but he also wasn’t lying about me being a med student, so I’d be glad to help out any friend of my friends.” Anita is taller than Atticus and Sunny, her hair tied into rows of loose box braids and dark freckles can be barely seen, spread across her nose and cheeks.
Sunny responds, “I’m fine, really, I wasn’t touched thanks to Atti, but knock him out if you have to to make sure he’s okay, I know he’s about to greatly minimize how badly he got the shit beat outta him.”
“Bro, show a little gratitude at least, no need to out me like that, I’ll steal your fuckin’ crutches.” Atticus rolls his eyes before turning back to Anita, “If you could grow a leg back, I think he’d be the priority, but I suppose I could probably use some medical care right about now.” He opens his mouth to show the empty pocket where a molar once set, but is now filled with blood. “Also, my tummy hurts.”
Dakota looks away in disgust and proceeds to get on stage and use the microphone to address the rest of the crowd, “Good evening, loves, thanks for your patience. We’ll start playing soon, but we’ve got some friends that need our assistance for the moment, so just hold tight.”
Noah mutters something to the taller guy next to him, who nods and quietly steps away, and then turns back to talk to the group, “Callum is going to pull up some chairs for you guys, and then do you mind if we finish setting up while Anita works her magic?”
“No worries. I really don’t need an audience for this.” Atticus takes a seat as the final band member, Callum, returns with two chairs.
Noah and Callum join Dakota on stage to prepare for their show while Eli stays behind. He turns to speak to Sunny as he uses the support of his crutches to lower into the second chair, “Sunny, right? You look like a Sunny, I like it. How’d you lose the leg?”
Anita is pulling supplies out of a bag she had set nearby when she yells over her shoulder, “Eli! Don’t just ask that so casually, it’s probably not your business.”
Sunny laughs before responding, “That’s okay! I actually haven’t even been asked in ages, I guess most everyone I see on the lower end already knows.”
“Can I tell the story?” Atticus interrupts, but both Sunny and Anita respond with a “no” in unison.
Anita holds out a thick piece of gauze, “You’re going to bite down on this to pack that hole, and not speak.”
Atticus curls his lip in a snarl, somewhat off-put at the quick response, but complies. Anita pulls out a stethoscope and softly guides Atticus through simple breathing instructions so that Sunny can speak.
“I should knock his teeth out more often if that’s what it takes to shut him up,” Sunny chuckles before continuing, “He wasn’t even there when I lost the leg. It was an accident with one of the big water wheels downstream, I was a clumsy kid, wrong place at the wrong time.”
Atticus forces muffled words through his mouthful of gauze, “I would’ve come up with something better, like-” he’s cut off by Anita pressing on an injured rib a little harder than necessary.
Eli laughs, getting a dirty look from Anita, but responds, “I’m not laughing at you, I promise, I’m just surprised you survived at all. Let me guess, leg was broken in a few places and torn up a bit, but your ‘rents couldn’t afford proper treatment, so the best bet was amputation?”
Sunny shifts in his chair and doesn’t respond, giving Anita a chance to cut in. She tells Atticus, “You’ve got a couple of broken ribs and plenty of deep bruising, but otherwise nothing else is broken and I can’t find any signs of internal bleeding. You’ll survive.”
“I hope you’re honest when you say you left the other guys worse off.” Eli is serious when he speaks this time, looking directly at Atticus, who returns the hard gaze.
Atticus digs out a blood-saturated ball of cloth from the back of his mouth to be clear as he replies, “With luck, they’re still trying not to drown in a shit-filled canal.” He returns the gauze and clenches down on it firmly.
They all sit in silence for a moment until Sunny breaks it, “Anita, how did you become a med student? I’m really grateful you happened to be here, by the way. We’ll find a way to repay you, I promise.”
“Oh don’t worry about it, you’re just lucky I keep supplies with me. I do it to help people, not for monetary reward. I actually traveled to Seatac from up north. Your city happens to be the closest we have to a tropical climate anymore, so the medical school on the inland side of the city has access to decent medicinal plants and a good reputation. I heard about it through word of mouth, decided to come down several years ago.”
“You’re not a local?” Sunny perks up in surprise.
“Nope! I’m from the city of Calgary, up in what used to be Canada. Seems like you all don’t get much news from outside this city though, feels a bit like a prison with your sus mob boss.”
“Tell me about it,” Sunny sighs. “What was the trip like? How’s the rest of the world?”
“Oh don’t worry, it’s not actually much better off than Seatac, although no other city I’ve been to has relied so heavily on entertainment… There’s a lot of different people out there, and everyone is surviving in their own ways.”
Finally, Dakota comes over to tap Eli on the shoulder and wave him up to start their set. He nods at her before turning back to Sunny and Atticus, “We gotta perform before the audience gets impatient, but we should hang again sometime under better circumstances.” He smiles genuinely and joins the band on stage as Anita helps move the seats they’ve been using to a more convenient place in the audience. The three of them sit together as Dakota introduces the band and they finally begin their performance. Eli counts them off as Callum sets a beat on bass, Noah following on guitar and Dakota waiting for her cue to sing, which turns out to be just as much screaming as actual singing.
Atticus digs out the box of spliffs he’d bought earlier in the day and lights one, taking a drag through the cotton in his mouth.
“You know you really shouldn’t smoke with a mouth wound.” Anita squints her eyes at Atticus, disappointed as she speaks.
“I promise you that is the least of my concerns right now.” He continues to smoke, feeling himself dissolve into the music around him.