On the Street

Cruising downtown Manchester in his (recently repaired) muscle car, Tony Fratelli at length gets bored watching the neon lights pass by through his manufacturer-new windshield. He parks on the street and moves to get out, feeling tiny bits of broken glass grinding under his soles as he does so. He stops a moment and looks back into the car. No matter how much you try to clean it up, it always seems like some debris is overlooked. With a shrug, he closes the door.

Squaring himself, he begins to walk the streets of Manchester, killing time by familiarizing himself.

As he travels, he hears a familiar voice from nearby, quite apparently on the phone. Along with it is the click of heels on cement, the jingle of many dog tags, and the patter of many paws.

"What? No way. No. Way. Seriously? Oh my god. Shut. Up. That is so ridiculous!"

What appears to be a small pack of assorted dogs rounds the corner, followed by Courtney. In one hand, she held the 6 or 7 leashes, and the other held her phone to her ear. Over her shoulder was slung a large gaudy designer purse, with yet another dog inside of it. Oddly enough, the dogs were rather obedient despite their number, and the lack of attention they were getting from their walker. The moment Courtney makes eye contact with Tony, her eyes light up.

"Oh- hey- Can I call you back? Ya. Ahuh. Ok, great, ttyl!"

She quickly shuts her phone off and deftly slips it into her purse beside the dog.

"Tony, hiiii, how are you?" she asks, running up to give him a distant pat/hug on his shoulder. "Listen, I like, didn't get to talk to you after court but I reeeaally wanted to apologize for missing the meeting on Saturday. It's super important to me that you know that I'm like totally into this whole covenant thing though, so like totally let me know ahead of time because I should probably like, get to know you guys and stuff," she says, without pause. The dogs, seem off put by Tony, but some are brave enough to cautiously approach to sniff his shoes.

Tony is briefly dumbfounded, poleaxed by the sudden assault. He regains his composure as the dogs approach and gives them a warning glower to no effect. The approaching dogs seem oblivious to his menace. He looks up to Courtney.

"Hey, it's alright. It was a busy night. We'll be havin' another meetin' next time we gather, so once we settle on a time I'll let you know, alright?"

Almost as though taking the social cue, Courtney gave a light tug on the leashes and made a sharp clicking noise. The dogs ceased their investigation of Tony, and came to sit quietly by her side. The dog in her purse, he noted, was a white pomeranian, and wore a tiny sailor hat. It barked at him, but was quickly shushed.

"You be nice to Mr. Fratelli, now; he's gonna be our new friend," she chided, wagging a finger at it. It made no more noise, but eyed Tony warily with large brown eyes.

"You'll have to excuse Mr. Buttons, he's really very friendly. Aren't you Mr. Buttons? Yes you are, yes you are!" She nuzzles the fluffy dog, and then looks back at Tony as though just now remembering they were talking about something not dog related.

"Seriously busy. And I feel like I'm always super busy and it wicked sucks because I want to be here more to help you know? But, like, if I'm not around and you guys need something you should totally just like call me or whatever," she says as she pulls out a small pink notebook and pen. She quickly writes her number and name down inside the notebook and tears out the page for him. He notes that she has somehow managed to incorporate a heart into her signature.

"Sooo, how're you liking the city?"

Tony gives the signature a dubious look before pocketing it the paper and replying, "It's ah, uh, pretty interetin' city you gots here. Though court looks like a suit'n'tie factory exploded in it most of the time." He tilts his head back and crosses his arms, easing back into his normal angry equilibrium, "But yeah, it's good that you're eager to pitch in, right? S'what it's all about."

Courtney rolls her eyes at the factory explosion comment and shakes her head.

"Oh my god, like, seriously, right? Like, would it kill you wear a color other than black? A pair of jeans, maybe? But whatever, they can have their little gentleman's club. Our party is way better anyways. Right Mr. Buttons?" she said, looking down at the small dog. It looked up and barked once, as if confirming her statement. She cooed, and scratched behind his ear before looking back to Tony.

"But yeah like I'm totally down to help out. It'll be like we're sorority sisters! Except like, the guy and girl version. And if you and your friend or whatever ever want a wardrobe change I would loooove to take you guys shopping! Oh my god that would be so fun! You both would look So. Cute. in Louis Vuitton. Also if you guys really want to party I so know all the best places to go."

Courtney looks up and down the street and checks on the dogs to see if anything had caught their attention. Seeing nothing and sensing nothing, she leans in closer to whisper. "I know where all the bands go after their concerts at the Verizon Wireless center. One time, I snuck backstage at a Josh Groban concert and I stole his set list and sweater," she said with a hushed giggle. Standing back up, she flipped her blonde hair off to the side, jingling one of her large earrings.

"So yeah, if you want in, I can get you in."

Tony nods cautiously, it is not clear if he understood everything that was just said, "I am com-for-ta-ble with my look how it is." he nods again, "Though, all that band stuff... Sheena plays. Not sure if it is, uh, your kinda music though."

"No way! That's so cool. I like, like, all kinds of music. You know, like Kesha and Gaga, Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Pitbull, and even like, classical music like Madonna and Aerosmith and stuff. What music is Sheena into? Are you both like, in a band or something? Because that would be like, super cute," she said excitedly.

Tony's brow furrows in a manner that might suggest he was not 100% on all the names that were just spoken, but ignorance was not something that stopped Tony Fratelli. "Oh, well, I do not play an in-stru-ment like Sheena does. Her music is mostly, uh, 'Punk'. I know she did some stuff in the 70s for sure. Nowadays? Maybe putting together a band." He shrugs noncommittally.

"Punk? Punk can be fun. I totally listened to Good Charlotte, or whatever, when they first came out. Avril Lavine is super fun too. Do you sing, or something? What's Sheena play? I think it's like, so. cool. that she's a girl in a band. I have like 0 music talent. SUCH a shame," she replied, her excitement over the subject didn't seem to correlate well with his casual demeanor.