<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t teach this,\u201d Adio says to the girls that Billy kinda-sorta knew. He does a little soft shoe dance, the girls giggle.\u00a0 His cock-sure smile fades when he catches sight of Gwen across the bar. She\u2019s been circling him all night. Adio\u2019s doing his best not to make eye contact.\u00a0 He hit it <\/em>a few weeks back and then never called.\u00a0 Gwen starts walking towards him, but she\u2019s stopped by big-thick-necked Joey, her ex-boyfriend of just a few days.\u00a0 She tries to brush by him, but Joey\u2019s not having it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to talk,\u201d Joey says, lazy eyed and drunk. He grabs her by the arm and pulls her through the crowd. She doesn\u2019t put up a fight. Gwen looks back to Adio. All she wants is to ask him about the promises he made and why he didn\u2019t deliver. She watches him dance for the girls. He\u2019d danced just like that for her the night they met.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019d you learn to dance like that?\u201d \u00a0the blonde with the tank top and jean skirt asks Adio.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes naturally,\u201d he says looking at his shuffling feet. \u201cYou can\u2019t teach this.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All the rookie cops, right out of training, wait outside for the crowds at closing time. They\u2019ve spent their summer walking these little strips of sand dusted road that connect one seaside bar to another. Some towns are worse than others, but what\u2019s worse is a personal preference. Adio and Billy spend most nights here, in places that smell like Drakkar and date rape. Places that have things called shot wheels, where all the bands play punk versions of popular, but dated songs. On Pinball Way all the arcades turn into discos after dark, and sound judgment is a scarce commodity.\u00a0 The crowds swell, converge, and dissipate – like amoeba life in a Petri dish.\u00a0 The police have already started rounding up the rambunctious types. Reports of drunk and disorderly conduct pour from their radios. People drink too much here. There are problems between total strangers, reasons be damned.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish we got picked for Seaside Heights patrol,\u201d Findell tells his partner Coke. Findell, tall and lean, secures a young man\u2019s hands behind his back with a plastic zip cuff. He is confident and firm, but not punishing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore action down there,\u201d Findell says. \u201cThey got that amusement park with all the rides and there\u2019s that place that sells the deep fried Oreos.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJones says he gets laid down there every weekend,\u201d Coke replies.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s full of shit,\u201d Findell says. \u201cLeast I hope he is, for his sake. The only tail down there is underage B.E.N.NY tail.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd<\/em> he\u2019s got a cruiser. These bikes don\u2019t really turn heads.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Findell shrugs and activates the radio fastened on his shirt. \u201cStation, this is Findell, we need a pick up outside of Leggett\u2019s bar.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCopy that patrol.\u201d The radio buzzes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re spending tonight with us,\u201d Findell says and gives the young man a slap on the shoulder.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll sue you,\u201d the young man warns. \u201cDo you have any idea who my father is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, sir, I don\u2019t believe I have had the pleasure,\u201d Findell says. He could put this guy down, if he wanted to, he knows how to do it. They trained him well. But, he has also been trained to be polite and courteous. He is here to serve and protect.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the story with this fellow?\u201d Grey and stately Officer Carroll pulls up in a cruiser.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gentleman in custody\u2019s name is Joseph Figglia. He urinated in the 7-Eleven and knocked over a display case, caused a little damage. He then proceeded to force his way behind the counter and started eating hot dogs off the roller,\u201d Coke reports.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s happened before. Write a ticket, and send him home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Niner, the gentleman working the register, is pressing charges. Mr. Figglia pushed him over on his way to the hot dog rollers. We\u2019ve got him on assault.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019d you catch him, he looks like every nondescript out here?\u201d Officer Carroll asks. Coke turns the young man around.\u00a0 His tight muscle shirt has a giant silver 69<\/em> stenciled on the back. Coke and Findell smirk at one another. They really want to celebrate and bump fists, but they were specifically told that kind of interaction was forbidden, that it came off like gloating.<\/p>\n It takes Officer Carroll a good ten minutes to get through the crowd drifting across the street. The mass of club goers aren\u2019t concerned with traffic or much else. He thinks of every zombie movie he\u2019s ever seen. Finally, he flips the switch and the lights swirl on, the crowd parts instantly. Moses,<\/em> thinks Officer Carroll. He looks in the back mirror and sees his prisoner slumped over with his eyes closed. Joey\u2019s shaking his head, probably replaying the night, wishing he\u2019d done things differently.<\/p>\n Adio and Billy stop at a convenience store to pick up supplies for the after-hours crowd back at the house. It is well into the AM now, but no one feels like stopping. Adio and Billy were charming tonight, and got the girls to agree to meet them back at the house. They don\u2019t have any cash left, so Adio charges everything.<\/p>\n Back at the house, people are coming in from who knows where. Someone\u2019s already ordered delivery and passed out. The make-out games are under way, smooth voices and bubbly giggles whisper through the walls. One of the guys has become notorious for busting into rooms and taking pictures of couples with his phone. Adio and Billy are out on the porch trying to act civil, which isn\u2019t too hard amongst those that surround them.<\/p>\n No one is sure who actually lives in the house and who has just landed there. Some of them paid for a share in the summer house, others have just wandered in. Gwen is here. She\u2019s sitting at the kitchen table, not totally sure why she decided to wait for Adio. She tried to stay away this weekend, but couldn\u2019t sleep and had to stop by the house. Her timing couldn\u2019t have been worse. She arrived just as Adio was coming back from the beach with the girl he was talking with at the bar.\u00a0 They were laughing and holding hands, sand in their hair, and on their clothes. Gwen cried after they walked by.<\/p>\n Gwen had promised herself no one night stands this summer and doesn\u2019t want Adio to be an exception. Plus, he seems to have everything she\u2019s looking for; he works in Manhattan, drives a great car, and dresses well. Gwen really needs to make him her boyfriend. It doesn\u2019t matter if they only date for a week or two. Even a few dates would make her feel better. They have to be real dates too, him and her out to dinner; not just fucking after the bars close. Gwen knew she couldn\u2019t count on him ever calling. She would have to sit and wait.\u00a0 Maybe this was crazy. Maybe she should just go back to Joey. But going back might just be settling. The darkness lifts and soon she is watching the sun move across the kitchen counter in the rundown beach house.<\/p>\n It is Sunday, and Sunday is the Lord\u2019s Day, many cry out His name on waking. The humidity is thick and with every breath they choke it down. Joey fights back the tears as his father gives him a ration of shit in front of the officers in the bike outfits. Officer Carroll keeps his head down as he exits the precinct; he has traded his uniform for a wet suit, and carries his surfboard under his arm headed for the beach. A jump into the Atlantic Ocean has near magical effects on those bodies that have been dragging. Adio emerges from the water with a little more fight left inside of him. He makes one more stop, at that beach bar down the street. Before it gets too dark, he packs his regrets in bags along with sandy wrinkled clothes. Still buzzed from the afternoon, he leans a little too heavy on the gas and peels out in front of the summer house. He goes back to work, back to honest living. The week is like a trip to the dry cleaners for the soul.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be back, next weekend; confident and ready to make it happen, once again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Places that have things called shot wheels, where all the bands play punk versions of popular, but dated songs. On Pinball Way all the arcades turn into discos after dark, and sound judgment is a scarce commodity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","writer-tim-waldron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13257,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13256\/revisions\/13257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}