Trailer Park Girl | A Novella| Completed

RJ stands in...

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Mishka

RJ stands in front of my suitcase of clothes, a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

He squints as he strikes the match. No fire forms. He tries again, and it lights. He drops it on my suitcase of clothes, and we watch it burn, crackling against the evening glow.

"You don't need her. You don't need these either. Burn them...yeah?"

I nod, and he puts his arm around my neck. "You'll be okay." He presses his lips to my head.

RJ and JR says I can stay with them. JR looks too happy. Maybe even more than his brother.

While RJ goes to get some clean sheets, JR smiles and says:

"Sometimes I worry about my brother..." He leans against the door sill. "When you're around, I feel more relaxed. Like we can cope, you know?"

I nod, understanding what he means completely.

"He's lucky. I don't know where he found you..."

I smile. "Nowhere fancy. Just at the trailer park down the road."

He chuckles, lifting his chin. "Always love your optimism."

I smile wider and cross my arms.

"You know, he sleeps on my sister's sheets 'cause it makes him feel close to her. He feels like he wouldn't be able to fall asleep if he doesn't...you understand?"

"I do. My dad died of lung cancer some years ago. My mom used to smell his shirt every day. One day...I washed his clothes. She particularly loved this really neat jumper he'd work in. He was a welder..."

JR nods.

"And I washed it. And she was so mad. I felt like since then, things changed...she started smoking, having multiple partners..." I smile. "Sometimes I feel like, it's silly, but I feel like I somehow...took away her cope mechanism, you know?"

JR nods again.

"So, she had to find another...and the things she's found, they aren't the right way..."

I mean it for them too. What they're doing, the way they're covering their scars, isn't the right way at all.

"You can't just slap a bandaid and expect to heal..." I say quietly.

JR nods. "That's true..." He smiles stiffly.

"Lay off my girl." RJ says as he enters the room again with the folded sheets. "Get your own girl."

JR laughs and shakes his head. "Thanks for staying, Mishka."

"I don't really have a choice." I say as I help RJ unravel the sheets. RJ looks up with sympathy.

"Well, I shouldn't be happy, but I'm glad you're here. I can relax now."

RJ and I both look at him when he says that.

He steps out of the room, taps the sill, and walks away. "Come down for food when you're ready!"

"Yeah!" RJ answers, and then he sits and I plop myself next to him. "JR is excited. He cooked a whole five-star meal. For a family of ten."

I smile. "That's nice. I'm kind of hungry..."

He chuckles. "Then let's go down for food."

•

The bed wracks and hits the wall, each time RJ drives inside of me. He isn't going as hard as the first time we did it, but he isn't going as slowly as the second time either.