coffee vs. alcohol

Gordy felt helpless. He couldn't even leave the house in his own shirt. Emily had pulled off Rosco's "don't eat meat" t-shirt off him and tossed it to Gordy. "You need new clothes." She told him. As if the black T would do.

Gordy left feeling the shirt a bit too snug, and it smelled of his little brother (which he wasn't going to dare tell anyone) and of course, the sweet smell of Emily.

Naturally, Floyd was happy to see him, but then Floyd was always doing things to make himself happy. Stoned, with just a little cough, Floyd assured Gordy that he could get him laid.

"I don't want to get laid." This conversation felt old to Gordy. Why was it, this life was taking him in circles. "Just let me drive, will you." One of them had to remain sober.

Instead of going to where Emily suggested, Gordy took a turn to the coffee house. "What in the hell are we doing here?" Floyd asked. It was if Gordy had wrecked his night.

"To get you caffeinated, that why we're here." He hated the thought of smoke and rowdy jerks, where even a game of pool might be lethal.

"Oh," Floyd followed, but he almost stumped his toe just making up the small steps of coffeehouse. "But I thought you wanted to have some fun."

"I'm not up for fun." Gordy blinked.

"You want to get married, don't you?" Floyd said once they found a seat at a booth.

"What?" Gordy was stumped on that question. He ordered them both black coffee, the house special with cream on the side. "No, I'm a long way from ever wanting that. You just don't dive into something like that. You never would."

"I was married once." Floyd nodded.

"You were not."

"Only for a weekend."

"See, yeah, you were being stupid." Gordy looked up then at the waitress. She literally had only one arm. He stopped himself from watching, but he couldn't. Well, maybe there were two limbs, but part of one was gone, but there she was serving, hot coffee.

"Hey, Floyd, how's it going?" She smiled as if they were old friends. She smiled and it was genuine. Gordy could hardly hear himself think nor Floyd.

"Same old crap, Sweetness, you know me." He shrugged, blushing slightly.

"That I do." And with that she left them with their coffee.

"Don't tell me, you did her, too?" Gordy stirred cream in his coffee.

"We went to school together. You remember, Serena, don't you?" Floyd stared at Gordy blankly.

"No." He didn't.

"Yeah, you remember, she was that girl, they adopted when she was like three or so from Russia. She's missing a foot too." Floyd told him.

Gordy caught himself looking back at her. She didn't have a limp.

"Yeah, she'd had a hard life if she hadn't came here." Floyd just said, and a chill came over Gordy. "Now that's what you call determination." He nodded. "I use to live next door to her when I was kid."

"Would you ever go out with her?" Gordy asked while he took a sip of coffee.

"She knows me too well." Floyd smiled.

"Really?"

"No, not like that." Floyd closed his eyes. "My mom use to make me read to her. It was like being her big brother. They just wanted me to talk to her, you know, so she'd learn English. It didn't take her long to forget where she came from."

"But you don't see her anymore?"

"So, not like we're family." Floyd said.

"Are you crying?" Gordy looked at a teary eyed Floyd. "God, you're a damn teddy bear." Gordy bit his bottom lip and shook his head. "If I'd only known."