Page 71 of Fish in a Barrel

Sean looked smugly at Billy, who rolled his eyes.

“Excuse me while I go put on some shoes,” Jackson said, turning around toward the bedroom. It wasn’t until he got there that he realized his dilemma: he’d only worn his battered oxfords on Friday. He’d been able to slide those on without bothering with the laces. The weekend had been slippers only—and sweats only, which was what he was wearing now.

Bending over to lace up his shoes made everything on his back cry out in sweet revenge.

“Fuck,” he said, before he even thought of controlling his voice.

To his surprise, Billy barged in before Jackson could even think about anybody hearing.

“Sit down,” he ordered gruffly, and Jackson opened his mouth to protest. Billy glared at him and gestured with his chin.

“Don’t give me any shit. I get plenty from Sean, thank you. I blew out my back last year. The guys at the flophouse got really good at tying my shoes for me, so don’t make it a thing. Sit down.”

Bemused, Jackson sat on the chair by the bed since the bed buckled too much under his weight and compensating hurt.

With crisp movements, Billy slid a shoe on each foot and tied them before backing up and waiting patiently for Jackson to stand slowly in his own sweet time.

“Thank you,” Jackson said uncomfortably.

Billy rolled his eyes. “You take care of us all the time,” he said. “Cotton thinks you’re an action hero.”

“I got Cotton into that mess,” Jackson reminded him, talking about another one of the flophouse boys who had recently been on his own adventure.

Billy snorted and was about to turn away when, to Jackson’s surprise, he paused. “Why me?” he asked. “When you called and asked for a nurse to come help Sean. Why me?”

Jackson thought about it. “You’re ready for a way out,” he said after a moment, not sure how he’d sensed this. “You’re still going to school to be an engineer, but you’re…. God, you just seem so alone. Sean had a shitty breakupwhilehe was in the hospital. I thought… I don’t know. Two lonely guys might at least be friends.”

Billy nodded. “Yeah,” he said softly. “We could definitely be friends.”

“More?” Jackson queried.

Billy swallowed. “I’m a whore, Jackson. How’s he ever gonna trust me?”

“You’re a human, and whoring’s an honest business if an honest man is in it. Give him some credit, Billy. His world’s getting bigger all the time.”

“Yeah.” The corner of his mouth lifted a little, like maybe he’d seen some hope. “Thanks. Maybe I needed to hear that now.”

“You tied my shoes,” Jackson said, because perhaps he’d forgotten. “Talking to you like a person is no big thing.”

“For you, maybe,” Billy said, and then took a step, only to catch his foot on Lucifer, who had chosen that moment to zip across the bedroom from under the bed to the closet, the better to hide from the people he didn’t know.

Billy went sprawling on the carpeted floor, and Lucifer let out a yowl and disappeared into the closet.

And then, of all things, Billy Bob leapt from God knows where like an avenging angel to attempt to beat the shit out of Billy, the interloper who’d kicked his baby brother.

“Augh!” cried Billy.

“Billy?” called Sean.

“Werewolf fucking Jesus!” snapped Jackson, reaching carefully down to grab Billy Bob by the scruff of the neck. “He didn’t do it on purpose, No-thumbs. Would you fucking leave him alone?”

He tucked the cat under his arm and tried to calm him down. “Look, you no-thumbs-having motherfucker, we donotjump on top of people in the house unless theybroke into get here!” He pulled heavily on Billy Bob’s ruff, massaging his ears while he did so, feeling every muscle group in the cat’s body relax.

“There,” Jackson cooed as Sean helped Billy up and it looked like the world might not come to an end. “See? Not the devil. It was Lucifer’s fault for tripping him, okay? Go make him feel better. Tell him you no-thumbs people need to avoid the feet, okay? No-thumbs-having motherfuckers got small feets. You don’t understand about the big size twelves. He gots to learn.”

And with that, Jackson took Billy Bob to Ellery’s closet, wincing because it was open enough for the cats to get lots of fur on any low-hanging sets of slacks, and set Billy Bob down in the corner. Billy Bob found Lucifer—which was no easy feat, given he was just a set of green eyes and white teeth—and started licking his ear in solace, and Jackson figured that was about as calm as the sitch was getting. He closed the door enough to block out most of the light but still leave a gap so they’d be able to get out and turned toward where Sean was trying to patch another Billy’s pride up.

“Oh Jesus, Jackson, did I kill your cat?” Billy asked unhappily. “Ilikecats. That’s no good!”