The weekend was finally here now, Joe hadn't forgotten what he had told Queenie on Thursday and from the looks of it, she hadn't forgotten either. He could hear her already biting at the wooden blocks in her sleeping cage and jingling the small bells as she hopped around. It felt early, but when he saw the time on his phone he hurried to open the cage's door so she could leave and roamed freely around his place. He let her free roam most of the day since he hated having her caged up unless it was for sleeping. He looked down at her two small dishes, which still had food but her water was full of seeds. He washed out the water bowl and replaced the water.

He would spend the weekend with her. put on his leather jacket with the fringes that Queenie loved to play with. He unclipped the button on the shoulder strap and threaded a colorful wooden hoop for Queenie to bite on as well if she so desired. He picked up his favorite balisong knife just incase he had to cut up pieces of food for Queenie to eat besides the banana chips. He flipped it around a few times for fun He brought some sweet banana chips from the pantry in the pocket and opened the cage that Queenie slept in to let her out in the morning. "Good morning, Queenie. You ready?" He watched her bob her head and lift up a foot to stretch her leg out to him in an attempt to step up from her perch, "Oh, of course, you are."

With Queenie on his shoulder, he walked outside down the street to find the nearest bus stop. It was a few blocks away but a bit of walking never hurt. It had rained over the night and he could still smell it in the air. It was something that he was realizing he had been missing when he smoked. But ever since he got Queenie, he decided to try and quit. If he needed to smoke, he had to do it outside. No smoking in the car, no smoking in the house. Of course, he got anxious and that's when he resorted to As he usually did when he brought Queenie out, he would take the bus instead of driving so he could keep a good eye on her. He leaned against the bus stop sign, not because he wanted to 'look cool' but because the bench was still coated in water droplets.

The large windows let Queenie see much easier as she rode on his shoulder and she would be able to see lots of people as they came in and out of the bus. He scratched under her chin and showed her the window by tapping on it, which she mimicked by tapping on it herself with her beak. He pulled the blue lace whatever rock pendant that the bicycle girly gave him for fixing her bike. It looked handmade by the looks of the wire that caged the crystal point and made a loop for the black leather strap around his neck. She had mentioned that it matched his eyes and he could see what she meant. The light blue coloring was like his eyes in the shadows and the near-white areas of it reminded him of when the sunlight shone in them. This stone alone must have cost more than his gift to her. "Dang, I gotta give her something better the next time I see her."

He rode the bus with Queenie down North Lombard Street. He wanted to visit The Bird for a chicken sandwich but also to see if his friends there were faring well after the incident that happened there not too long ago. He hopped off on Pacific Highway and walked down the street towards North Ainsworth where the eatery was. Grafitti marks were a normal sight in certain areas of town. He sometimes was tasked with painting over tags that surrounded their auto shop's general area. But everyone sort of did that anyway, business owners kept their alley walls clean, no one wanted tagging on their property. Most of the tags stayed up on overpass pillars and in harder to reach areas like high up on buildings. He recognized the King Cobra's tags, for he had drawn a few up himself.

The Bird was a counter-serve hot spot that had a very narrow but incredibly delicious menu. The line for the place extended out the door but it moved fast. The small menu meant that there was little to prevent the cooks from slowing their craft. He ordered his meal and asked for a bit of lettuce for Queenie to munch on while they waited. He noticed a jar by the register with the picture of a woman on it. He dropped his change into it. There were only a few stools available but most people seemed to order to go anyway. He heard his order number be called before he had even gotten comfortable in his seat. "Wait here, Queenie." He told the pink parrot who was busy using her beak to cut the lettuce into long strips to tuck into her feathers.

He pulled out the wrapped sandwich and left the waffle fries in the bag so Queenie couldn't get to them. The sandwich's apple slaw and the berbere spices in the fried chicken were to die for. He took a sip of the beer he had ordered, a locally brewed pale ale by Conquest Brewery. He pulled out some banana chips from his pocket and set them on the counter for Queenie to eat with her lettuce.

While Joe was eating, his friend who worked cleaning up the counters and tables came up to clean up the counter to the right of where Queenie had sat down and fluffed up contently. "Hey dude! I haven't seen ya in a while. How you been?" He put a few trays one on top of another.

"Ah, I've been workin' hard, you know? The usual, Romero." Joe pulled a waffle fry from the bag to much on. "Queenie here's been as cute as always. Loves to whitsle music and scream into measuring cups" He offered a bit of lettuce to the pink cockatoo but it was refused. He looked up at his friend, "What about you, Adam?"

" Ah well, something pretty bad happened outside. A police chase ended in tragedy, it was all over the news too!" Romero shrugged and shook his head as if it would take the image out of his head. "We started a donation jar to help the family. I mean, I don't even want to say what happened to the poor woman.."

"Oh...shit. I had hoped that you hadn't seen that. I did give a bit to the jar. I'll give more some other time." Joe glanced away, "Funeral expenses are well...expensive."

Romero smiled a bit, "Hah...I'll see ya around. I have to get back to work, bro." He nudged Joe's shoulder, "Cards? Billiards? Darts? I gotta get out and help me forget what I saw."

"Maybe we can play some Darts n cards on another day. All-day long!" Joe made a gesture, pretending to throw a dart across the street. "Louis n Vern'll be happy to see you again after so long. They don't usually come around to this area of town." He watched Romero shuffle off to another area to clean. He finished up his food and made sure to put everything in a way that would make it easy for his friend to clean up.

He headed back northwest towards Arbor Lodge Park and as he walked Queenie was talkative as she was when they were both home. He whistled one of her favorite songs and in turn, the pink cockatoo whistled a segment of the same song. Sometimes mid whistle Queenie would stop but he shrugged it off as her being distracted by the sights and sounds. He began to feel uneasy when Queenie had gotten quiet and stopped responding to his whistling. "Hey, baby...what's wrong?" He certainly noticed how Queenie had tilted her head. He knew how birds moved their head to see things and so he looked over his shoulder to see what was so interesting. However, he didn't see anything. Yet he couldn't help but see how her crest was held up and how her feathers had bristled.

He kept walking and in the reflection of a car he noticed a pair of figures following him. He had been in the game long enough to know that this was trouble and before he could get a good look at them, the two figures in the car paint's reflection began to run towards him.

"He's one of those snakes I know it!"

"Get him! For Leon!"

Joe's eyes widened and he whipped around on his heel to see what he would be facing. His quick movement caused Queenie to bring her head down at the closest thing to her to get steady and bite at Joe in fright. His eyes instantly began to water from the pain. Queenie's face was right against his and her feathers were blocking his vision. "Ah, ow fuck!" He resisted swatting the bird with every fiber of his being, he knew better but damn if it didn't hurt like a bitch to get bit on the bridge of the nose. "Queenie! Fly! Get out of here!" He plucked the pink bird off of his shoulder and tossed her into the air toward some trees. He didn't look but he heard the

Joe patted his hands on his jacket, looking for the balisong he had brought. He felt it and pulled it out to quickly flip it open with no fanfare. He flipped the balisong in his hand to have the blade pointing out towards his attackers. He noticed that they didn't seem armed, their hands were empty. Despite being outnumbered by one, he knew he had an advantage.

One of the men came in swinging. Pink feathers from Queenie floated down like petals amidst the beginning of the chaos. He was a redhead and he threw his weight forward to slam Joe with a punch. "This turf is ours! Fuck off!"

Joe managed to block the blow with his forearm. The two of them winced in pain from the impact but Joe took the moment to strike back as the redhead shook the pain out of his hand. "Careful getting close to a snake coz they have fangs!" He swung his arm without a second thought. When it came to defending himself he didn't care what happened as long as he made it out. He felt the vibration of the knife cutting into the shirt's fabric. He didn't know what part of the man he cut into but anywhere was good.

The attacker howled and his friend, a puff vested punk, who saw the stabbing happen stopped his own forward charge. He stumbled as he tried to stop his forward momentum. "Shit, he's got a cutter!"

"Aughh...Fuck him up! Fuck him up!" Zachary the redhead groaned. "Do it for me!" He doubled over with his hands clutched over his gash.

With the encouragement from his friend, The puff vested guy gathered the courage to continue the attack and began to throw kicks. Most of the kicks hit their mark and one even connected to the back of Joe's knee making it buckle.

Joe lost his footing and the grip on his balisong faltered but it didn't fall far away. He scrambled to pick it up as he was kicked in the ribs. His fingers wrapped around the handles of the balisong and he sliced at the back of the vest-wearing kicker's knees. He wanted to cause as much damage as he could to prevent them from chasing him down. He sunk the blade in deep, yanking and twisting as he could.

The puff-vested man quickly fell and struck Joe with one final kick to the face. He watched the greaser get up, beat but not bleeding like they were. "Fuck...We know who he is though. We'll get him next time he steps foot on our turf, Zachary."

"Better watch your back, snake! This is far from over!" Zachary tried to sound tough but doubled over he didn't intimidate Joe.

"Hah, very funny from someone's who's bleeding out. Better get yourself some help." Joe coughed only to cringe in pain. He hoped his ribs were simply bruised and not broken. Hell even fractured would still be okay with him. With Zachary to afraid to attack and with the vest guy's knee sliced into, they wouldn't be able to chase him, at least not quickly. He whistled to Queenie so she would return and decided to run back to the bus instead of the park. He needed to go to Louis' home.