"Dammit!" James shouted as he pounded his fist on the counter. He gave Chuck, the bartender, a five-dollar bill, and took a sip of beer. He proceeded to pick up the pool cue and threw it down onto the pool table along with a twenty-dollar bill.

"There's your money Johnny," he said with a smug look. "I won't go easy on you next time." He then put his beer bottle to his lips and finished off the ale. He chugged half of the bottle as if he was at a party. James Kolten could put back beer like nobody's business. He knew how to hold his alcohol. After finishing his beer and slamming the bottle down on the counter, James proceeded to storm out of the bar in a rage. He climbed onto his Harley and took off into the night.

James Kolten had been staying with our family for the last several months. Ever since he had gotten kicked outta school and his mom was worried he might turn into a hoodlum and get sent away or something. She was right of course, James was the hoodlum of all hoodlums, well at least in this dinky town he was. He was my cousin, and three years my elder. I looked up to the guy like he had invented sliced bread or something like that.

Until James came to live with us, it was just me, my folks, and my kid brother Charlie. My name is Thomas, Thomas Thorn, or TT for short, that's what James called me.

"Yo, TT!" James shouted as he came into the house. He wasn't worried about waking my parents or anything. Not that he even cared at all, but my mom worked night shifts as a nurse and my old man was out of town for the week. He worked as a truck driver and was often gone for weeks at a time.

"Hey, Kolten, how much money did you lose tonight?" I asked while stumbling into the kitchen half drunk off Bush light and vodka.

James was a bad gambler who still couldn't quit the habit. He spent most of his days working on motorcycles for money and then gambling it away at the neighborhood bar. I don't really blame him though, being a seventeen-year-old high school drop out with no job and hardly any money, there ain't much else to do for kicks in this dumb ol' town.

'Wo their kiddo," James said as he caught me from falling to the ground and helped me hobble over to the kitchen table. He swiped the bottle of vodka from my hands, took a swig, and then dumped it down the drain.

"Don't you know that clear alcohol is for rich white women?" He scolded me, with a smirk on his face. That was his way of saying, "You can't hold your alcohol kid."

"So how much money did you lose!" I demanded.

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"Nothin', but I didn't win nothin' either. Here's your split kid." He shelled out ten dollars and handed it to me. I often would give him some of my own money to gamble, but hey can you blame me. I was a fourteen-year-old chum with no job and a lousy allowance of two dollars a month or every time I mowed the lawn.

"Yy-you goin' back out tomorrow night?" I stammered with a drunken slur.

"Nah, I haven't had much luck playin' pool lately and I ain't no good at cards."

"We should hit up the movies then!" I declared loudly

"Shut up kid!" You're gonna wake up Charlie. "Geeze! I hate being the only grown-up 'round here, feelin' like I gotta babysit ya lil' rugrats."

"Sorry," I mumbled. "What do you think though? Can you pick Charlie and I up after school tomorrow and take us to the movies, Jack might be with us too." Jack has been my best friend since second grade. He was the kind of kid that was bat shit crazy and always tryin' things that would get us in trouble. Deep down though, he was a good kid. My parents actually even enjoyed having him around, as long as they kept the liquor cabinet locked that is.

"Listen, ya know I'd do anything for ya kid, but I actually have a date tomorrow night."

"Really!" I exclaimed.

"Keep it down."

"Sorry. With who?" I asked.

"That girl from the supermarket the other day. You remember, when we went to pick up pizza and I asked for her digits?"

"Oh yea, she was the cashier."

"Yea! Chelsey is her name and boy is she hot."

She was hot too. Kolten wasn't exaggerating. Of course, he never went after girls who weren't extremely hot and completely edgy as hell. She had short black hair and a nose ring if I recall correctly. She was moderately tall and had one hell of a nice ass.

"Where ya taken her?" I asked.

"Just for a drink at the bar and then maybe a ride on my motorcycle up to the ridge."

The ridge was near the edge of town up on a hill and heavily wooded. The place where teenagers went to drink and party. Also, it's where Kolten took all his dates when he wanted to get some.

"How old is she?" I asked.

"I don't know like twenty-two I think."

"Does she know you're only seventeen?"

No! Besides who cares, I got my fake and can get us beer. That's all girls care about anyways."

James was a cool guy, but he was often very shallow and petty when it came to girls and anyone that wasn't one of his own. His own meaning, Charlie, myself, and the bartender Chuck who he was pretty tight with ever since the two of them had gotten in a fight at school just before James dropped out and Chuck got expelled. The two of them had been drooling over this chick and after James had asked her out, Chuck swooped in and stole her. They fought over it, but afterward were impressed with each other's fighting ability, and ever since they started running around town together getting into all sorts of trouble.

Weird how that makes two people become best buds, but it did. Although neither of them would ever admit to being best friends, they were. In public, they still pretended to hate each other.

"Could you at least give us a ride home tomorrow?" I asked.

"Sure kid, whatever, but for now you best be getting to bed and sleeping that shit off before your mom gets home and finds you drunk off your ass."

Kolten helped me over to my room and shoved me down onto the bed. He laughed as I tumbled over onto the mattress. "Sleep well, kid." He said with a smirk and half a chuckle.