[Oh, he is certainly still tense as he loads the pistol and watches everything in range of vision. A car goes by down the street and he eyes it, tries to judge if the person inside is eyeing him back or simply a curious onlooker out late.]
I'm not mad at you. You're not stupid, an' you don't have to apologize.
[He just doesn't want her getting hurt, that's all. That, and the whole situation makes him skittish still. Lights on, so they're easily visible from all sides while anyone lurking in the darkness is far harder to spot? It feels like a trap, and he just has to hope either nobody's actually around right now, or that here in the 80s in El Paso, these guys are worried about some other gang and don't realize or care that he's here.]
If they're around, they've seen us. Back home, doin' this, breakin' into a place in someone else's neighborhood an' stealin' gas or whatever bullshit late at night, it's a real good way to pick a fight. These guys are from just north of us. I wonder if by now we ran 'em out an' some of them fled all the way out here.
[He likes that a lot better than imagining that the Meat Grinders actually hold enough power to spread their influence to other cities, but who knows what's happened over the course of fifteen, maybe twenty years.
He nods to a fence across the street with the same tag.]
See, there's another. I bet the highway's a boundary, so we must be right at the edge of things.
[Another car passes, slow, and Johnnie stares hard at a passenger, a guy just a couple years younger, as he tries to see if they're watching them or if they're being overlooked as ghosts.]
C'mon, I don't care if it's not full. Let's not give these guys a reason to stop an' ask what we're up to.
no subject
I'm not mad at you. You're not stupid, an' you don't have to apologize.
[He just doesn't want her getting hurt, that's all. That, and the whole situation makes him skittish still. Lights on, so they're easily visible from all sides while anyone lurking in the darkness is far harder to spot? It feels like a trap, and he just has to hope either nobody's actually around right now, or that here in the 80s in El Paso, these guys are worried about some other gang and don't realize or care that he's here.]
If they're around, they've seen us. Back home, doin' this, breakin' into a place in someone else's neighborhood an' stealin' gas or whatever bullshit late at night, it's a real good way to pick a fight. These guys are from just north of us. I wonder if by now we ran 'em out an' some of them fled all the way out here.
[He likes that a lot better than imagining that the Meat Grinders actually hold enough power to spread their influence to other cities, but who knows what's happened over the course of fifteen, maybe twenty years.
He nods to a fence across the street with the same tag.]
See, there's another. I bet the highway's a boundary, so we must be right at the edge of things.
[Another car passes, slow, and Johnnie stares hard at a passenger, a guy just a couple years younger, as he tries to see if they're watching them or if they're being overlooked as ghosts.]
C'mon, I don't care if it's not full. Let's not give these guys a reason to stop an' ask what we're up to.