1.20 Pity Party (FRWL)

Gage found himself wandering the streets of Devils Port in Simcago. He wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to accomplish. He just needed to escape the provincial world of Riverview and its glorious rolling green hills and picturesque sidewalks lined with autumn-gold and maroon trees, where every person in town knew his name. After his humiliating break-up with that witch, he needed to get lost in the streets of a city with a different rhythm, where taxi drivers didn’t eye him suspiciously, and bartenders didn’t know his story, and the little old ladies didn’t sit on the curb and gossip about his life.

“He’s the one who was Kody’s kid,” Lucille Spenster had said as he had marched past the elderly sisters outside Flying V’s.

Great! he balled his fists. His breakup with Heather had been too public. 

“Who?” Nellie replied to her sister, as if she hadn’t heard.

“Kody? You know Dakota Burroughs?” Lucille said, glancing up from under her hat to get a better look at the “boy.”

“Yes, well… tsk… tsk…” Nellie clucked. “He’s just like his father that one. Womanizing.” 

That one stung.

“I heard his mom was a maid for the family or something,” Lucky Perkins, sipping an iced tea at a nearby table, piped up.

“I heard she was a hooker,” Nellie hooted.

“Oh right, he’s that kid related to that criminal family,” Lucille said, crossing and re-crossing her legs as she leaned back to include Lucky in the conversation. “The Bagleys.” 

“Didn’t you hear Sam Bagley Sr. was exonerated of his crimes?” Lucky added.  

“Ha! Sure. But that Ma Bagley’s never been caught, but everyone knows she’s crooked,” Nellie laughed. “And that Rhoda too.” 

“Yeah, he’s related to that family,” Lucille confirmed. 

“The bastard son of Ma’s brother,” Lucky said beneath his breath.

It was all he could take. He hopped the next bus to Simcago, and began pacing the streets. He didn’t particularly want to go by his cousin’s apartment. Ruby was home early for the holidays since her dad, Flat fell off a ladder while hanging paper turkeys for Thankful Day at the Riverview Grocer. He had broken his leg, and needed help around the house since Flo was taking computer night classes and Skip still needed to get to school. Ruby was staying with Sam for a few days before heading down to Riverview, and taking her final exams from a distance. Gage didn’t want to interrupt the happy “reuniting” couple, and frankly, he didn’t want to be around the Bagleys right now.

He remembered the streets, the bitter cold winters, the frosty footprints and the snow eating through his shoes, and the chilled winds from the Devil’s Port Harbor. He was young when he lived here, before his years in Sunset Valley, before his days became more than skipping school, darting between cars on busy streets, collecting coins that had fallen down gutter grates, and banging vending machines in hopes of getting a free meal. What he didn’t want to remember was how his foster dad made him get hit by a car once so they could get insurance money, and the time that his arm had gotten stuck in a grate for hours until a kind police officer on horseback offered to help him, and his head being slammed over and over again into the soda machine by those older teen boys who thought it was hilarious. It’s a wonder he didn’t have brain damage. His entire life was a cautionary tale of what not to do – the screw-up, the failure, the unwanted, the abandoned, the forgotten, the bullied…

He grit his teeth. The bastard son of Dakota Burroughs. Gage smacked himself across the face. Snap out of it, and stop feeling sorry for yourself. No one else is attending your pity party. 

Frankly there was only one way to end a pity party.

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Author Note: Another Gage Briody chapter for you, and this time with some more back story. Finally updating From Riverview, With Love. Devils Port is an awesome world created by GaladrielH and available for download from The Sims 3 Catalog. I found it to be perfectly fitting for my Simworld “Simcago” a.k.a. Chicago, the Windy City. I thought about including screenshots from the Spenster sisters dialogue, but found it to be interesting to write it in flashback (and I was lazy and already in the Devils Port world when I thought of the idea). I liked how the “cautionary tale” line matched up with the yellow stop light in the City (see above). I enjoy paying attention to imagery. Ruby’s dad, Flat Broke does work at EverFresh Delights Supermarket, and I thought it was fitting that Flo Broke be taking “computer” classes based on her bio – “She clips coupons and gets herself to work in the morning, but will she ever figure out how to use the computer?” Ruby, the ever dutiful daughter, has returned home from Legacy Isle a.k.a. Bay City. For the record, she is one year ahead of Kass (and Gage and Sam) in school. Hope you enjoyed. 

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