Chapter 3

Sean's two brothers and Frank were singing, "For he's a jolly good felll-oooooow, which nobody can deny! Yaayyy!"

As the song finished, Sean was forcing down a big gulp of beer, trying not to make a face at the sour taste of it. He could hear Béla talking in his mind.

'It's similar to learning to like coffee, or beer, ' he could hear her saying, as his mind replayed the scene. He hated beer, and doubted he would ever learn to like it.

He anxiously looked over toward the blue door with the flashing red light over it. More men were going in through the door where Béla was. A woman's scream was cut off just as the door to the soundproofed room closed. He jumped up and headed toward the Target Room door. Pat, his oldest brother, grabbed him.

"Hey, where're you goin', li'l buddy?" he asked, slurring his words. He and Mike had consumed at least two pitchers of beer while waiting on their little brother to lose his virginity.

"She's hurt!" Sean exclaimed. "Somebody's hurting her!"

He tried to pull free and go rescue Béla.

"It's okay, li'l buddy," Pat said, holding on tight, "it's what she does. Right, Mike?"

Mike nodded agreement.

"But she's in there alone! With all those men..." Sean cried, then suddenly stopped, realizing his brothers were right.

'It's what she does... '

He wondered if the fascinating, fragile woman he'd met and talked to and made love to for the last hour or so was real, or just an illusion. She actually looked younger that he was. How could she be so much more knowledgeable in certain areas than anyone he'd ever met before? How could she be so caring and fragile, and still be able to do that with ten or twenty men at a time? He'd heard his brothers talk about her before. Was this the same 'hot babe' they bragged about making 'airtight' last week, whatever that meant?

"Uh-oh," Pat said, noticing the strange look on Sean's face as he tried to grasp the reality of things. "Li'l buddy's in love..."

"What? You mean with Béla?" Mike asked. He pulled his kid brother close and gave him a hug. His breath smelled like stale beer. "It's alright, kid. We all love Béla." He held onto his little brother, nearly crushing Sean's shoulders in his brotherly embrace.

"And she loves all of us!" Mike shouted, raising his mug in the air, splashing beer everywhere.

"You're all sick!" Sean cried, furiously breaking free of Mike's grasp.

Sean backed away from his brothers, spitting his words at them. "You jack asses can't see what's right in front of you!" he screamed. "To you, she's just a whore! Something to stick your filthy dicks into! She's not..."

Sean stopped, running out of words to express himself.

"She's a person," he whimpered. "Can't you see that? She loves and cares about people just like you do..."

He stopped, and heaved his guts all over the floor. Pat and Mike looked at each other, both shrugging their shoulders.

"Li'l buddy can't hold his beer," Pat said, handing the bartender a twenty. "Keep t' change, bartender. Sorry about the mess."

They each took one of Sean's arms and, half walking and half carrying him, led him out the door. As they left, Frank brought out a mop and began cleaning up the mess on the floor.