Chapter 1: Kelly's Wonderful World For Your Entertainment!
Chapter Text
The Flipside Chronicles of Jecka Peterson
Chapter 1 Kelly’s Wonderful World For Your Entertainment
You’d think that after graduating, life would get better…
Your friends would start to grow as human beings…
Your sociopathic best friend would start becoming a better person…
Maybe the benzosexual would stop having a desire to punch a woman or a deaf person every 5 seconds…
A wise man once said…
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”
“UNFUCKING BELIEVABLE!! YOU CAN’T EVEN SATISFY ME AT 3 AM, YOU FUCKING WHORE!!!”
“It’s too late for this… please…”
“AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU??? IS RAOUL YOUR BEST FUCKING BET AS USUAL???”
“Oh my God… Stop that… I mean it…”
smack………
“ YOU ARE A FUCKING WHORE!!! THAT DESERVES EVERY SHE GETS COMING TO YOU!!!”
The sound of a plate crashes against the floor.
“I hate you… I’m so glad this divorce is happening… You need…”
The sound of violence continued to the point where I just wanted to drown all of it out with my headphones. I didn’t care about my family anymore. The tears my mom shed. The success I had achieved in school.
It seemed wherever success tried to catch up with me, depression was faster. Faster than fucking Sonic.
This isn’t the story of a great person. It's hard to say if I was born that way, or was just placed in the right place at the right time and decided to do the right thing. I suppose you could be the judge of that.
I’m just an ordinary girl that wants to get the fuck out of here….
I want to go to Virginia Tech and get away from my family.
But at the same time…..
I wish I was a good person, too….
=========================================================
Time: 9 a.m.
June 6th, 2009
Location: My House/Living Room
As I was looking for jobs on my computer and in the newspaper, my mom was nowhere to be seen. Normally, she is cooking something for us, but “gee, I wonder what happened.”
So I decided to look for a job. I’m going to work my ass, get an apartment in secret, and get the fuck out of this house. For the past hour on the living room couch, I’ve just been applying to places on Linkedin, Indeed, and even….
“Hello, my wonderful daughter. How are you feeling today?”
Fuck….
“Great. I’m great, Dad.” I stared at the newspaper and started to slowly circle jobs to gaze my eyes away from him.
“Ohhhhh, someone has been super productive this morning. Not even a few days after graduation, and you’re up and atom on finding a job. That’s some wonderful initiative you’re taking.”
“I... just figured I could find something to do before college starts.”
“That’s my girl!” Dad sat beside me looking at my computer wallpaper. “That’s a lot of friends you have there.”
“It’s just a class photo of some shitty friends I had.”
“Well, these girls seem to take a liking to you.” Dad pointed at the screen to the girls that were on there.
Standing beside me all agitated and annoyed was Nicole Sanderson. She’s my best friend… sort of. After her falling out with Ari, we stopped talking for a while… she felt bad, secretly, and decided to… actually study. Those words scare me. The girl beside her on her left was Ari Robinson herself, a cute redhead that doesn’t know when the fuck to stop smoking weed or gawking at women. She’s working at Domino’s right now so I don’t know what’s up with her. The blonde girl taking the picture was Kelly Johnson, professional dick sucker and FYE manager. Whenever she isn’t giving head to guys, she’s not that bad of a person. Then there’s the person who is least likely to get laid, Karen Rhodes, in the back. The sad part is, with her black, puffy hair and glasses, she’s actually really fucking cute. That being said… she was my former best friend. But she was into Harry Potter, and I was into cigarettes… so I left her out to dry. Speaking of dry, the girl beside her was Megan Welch, a self-absorbed bitch. She's gotten worse ever since the break up with Hunter, but honestly Hunter was boring as shit and tried too hard to be cool. If anything, Megan should be happy, even if Hunter left Ari as well. Hopefully, she will lighten up. Then there’s the worst one of the bunch, Emily Mendez. The fact she graduated and is still in MS-13 is a mystery to this day. All she does now is work at our local diner.
“It’s not a big deal. Kelly just wanted to take some dumb pictures at graduation.”
“Well, you look wonderful. Especially Karen and Nicole.” Dad had smiled at the wallpaper. “You should bring them over sometime. Catch up and see how they are doing.”
I immediately closed my laptop. “Maybe another time. Where’s mom?”
“Well honey, I figured now is the best time to tell you that she is a worthless prick of a human being. So she decided to leave the house.”
“Dad, please don’t call her that.”
“Honey, she was cheating on me, so I figured it was best for her to leave for the time being to understand what she’s done.”
“But even if she did cheat, why not change? Why not become a better person yourself instead of just lashing out from anger? Why not overcome that evil with good?”
What the fuck am I saying…?
“Even if I did, that still doesn’t change the fact that your mom is a worthless money pit whore. Now… I want you to find a job OR YOU WILL END UP JUST LIKE HER!!”
“Please not now….”
“DON’T GIVE ME THAT “NOT NOW” SHIT! Either you find a job and start doing more shit around the house or I will BEND YOUR FUCKING KNEES!!!”
I started to run upstairs away from him. “THAT’S RIGHT! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER SOON OR YOU WILL BE SLEEPING ON THE FUCKING STREETS, YOU FUCKING BITCH!”
When I made it to my room, I locked the door behind me. I couldn’t hold my tears back anymore. I couldn’t wait for the fucking month long process of waiting for jobs to call me back and being unemployed so bad my dad beats it out of me to come to an end. I want to get away from him…
My friends…
Kelly and Emily both work… I wonder if they can help me out?
Lying on my bed, I decided to call Emily first. She immediately picked up. “The fuck you want? I’m busy-”
“Emily, do you have any openings at your job?”
“YES, THANK GOD! We are understaffed as fuck. I had like three guys trying to hit on me earlier. I need someone to share this load.”
“I thought it was a fucking diner, not a strip club.”
“This isn’t the bad part of town, Jecka. Look, just get over here. Shit.” Emily hung up.
I tried calling Kelly next, but then I got a call from Nicole.
“Fucking Hawt Bitch. Yeah, Nicole?”
“Alright, if you tell anyone this, I’ll suplex you.”
“Why the FUCK do you watch wrestling, Nicole?” I screamed into my phone.
“Shut up, Bitch! Look, my mom is making me get a job.”
“Okay, and?”
“It’s the same place Ari works.”
“NO WAY!” I jumped out of my bed.
“Yeah, it’s either that or get kicked out.”
“Oh no.” I say with sarcastic shock. “You have to get a job instead of lying in your bed all day. How terrible.”
“Bitch, you lay in your bed thinking about Emily’s Addy’s and Xanax with your Jeffrey-drawn sized boobs.”
“First off, fuck him, and second, instead of Addy’s, I got a job too. I’m trying to hit up Kelly next so I can work two jobs.”
“Why?”
“Just to prepare for college.”
“Whatever, fuck college. God, it’s gonna be so awkward working with fucking Ari.”
“Dude, just be nice and get along with her.”
“Why are you so defensive?”
“Why are you so offensive?”
“We’re really doing this aren’t we?” Nicole sighed.
“Hey, you can do this, okay? I believe in you.”
“Are you going to say I love you, too?”
“No, you whore. We established we weren’t fit for each other anyways.”
“Um… when?”
“When we… you know?”
There was a long silence on Nicole’s end for a moment. “Right… that.”
“Nicole, hey, can we?”
“I’m just going to go to work.” Nicole hung up.
Whatever. She’ll come around I guess.
Now, I needed to call Kelly, and after a bit of waiting, she eventually picked up her phone. “Hey Jecka! What’s up?”
“Do you have any job openings?”
“Yeah! If you want, you can come by tomorrow. I just got clocked out!”
“Are you in a good mood right now because of that one time we made out?”
“You made out with someone multiple times.” Kelly whispered to herself.
“Excuse me, bitch?”
“Nothing, just stop by tomorrow. We can talk about your new position as a Sales Associate. Be safe!!” Kelly then hung up.
“Alright, Jecka, you got this.” I put on my Surf and Co. shirt and some blue jeans. “Apartment, here I come.”
=====================================================================
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: Diner
“Thank God, you got here just in time.” Emily handed me an apron with a pouch and a notepad. “You got the job.”
“No interviews?” I wrapped my apron around my waist.
“When I told the manager that you have blonde hair and are my height, you just instantly got it.”
“But I’m 5’6.”
“Yeah, and he’s 5’4 and apparently he finds that hot, so you’re hired.” Emily didn’t sound too happy about that part. “Basically you just have to go up to tables and write down what they want. Then come back up to the kitchen, get their order when it’s done, then serve them. If things get overwhelming, which it’s about to be, hit me up, I guess. Alright, good luck.” Emily then left to go serve some random old couple.
Well, if you want to learn to swim, you gotta get thrown in. First day, yeah, it was a nightmare. Too many fucking appetizers, too many drinks I had to carry without spilling them, too many fucking crying children. Why the fuck did I ever want to have children with Ryan Sheckler. There were a few nice people telling me “I’m pretty”, but they were just trying to get me to decrease the price of one menu item:
Fucking french fries.
I was like ‘Bitch, this is my first day.’
No, I didn’t actually say that.
I just told them I would try to, but that this was my first day and I couldn’t guarantee anything. They seemed to understand, and they still enjoyed the food regardless. Overall, for my first day, I held my own. I feel drained, but I did get a 20 dollar tip.
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Outside the diner
“Not bad, Jecka. You kept up and it was just you and some other chick.” Emily huffed on a cigarette.
“So how much time do I have left for this shift?” I was chugging down on a Coca Cola.
“30 more minutes. Are you okay with being part time for the moment?”
“I got another job, so it works for me.”
“You work at a strip club?”
“I’m too pretty just to work in fucking general. And no, I got this one job with Kelly at FYE.” I finished drinking my Coca Cola.
“That’s easy money. Nothing happens over there.”
“I hope so. Everything seems to happen here.”
Emily finished her cigarette and threw it in the garbage. “Yeah, but you acted like nothing happened. That was actually fucking cool. And your little ‘I’ll see what I can do for you guys.’ was actually adorable.”
“I just want to get paid. How much am I getting paid anyways besides tips.”
“7 an hour.”
“Wait, I thought by law we have to be making 7.25 an hour.”
“Apparently the quarter was out of his budget.”
“For a fucking diner?”
“I don’t know. He likes to stare at us during work. Moving around helps me not focus on him.”
“You have to take Adderall to stop at fucking stop signs.”
“Says the bitch with a Xanax problem.”
“Well, I’m trying to stop.”
“Yeah, cause it went so well at the last party.”
“Kelly wanted to make out with me.”
“I wasn’t talking about Kelly.” Emily stared at me.
“Okay, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, I heard that you-”
“Emily.” I clenched my Coca-Cola bottle. “Well, the job pays, so there’s that. Sorry I snapped by the way.”
“Nah, it’s cool. You are just stressed from work.”
“Well, here’s hoping FYE will be less stressful.”
====================================================================
Date: June 7th
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Location: FYE at Burke Mall
“Welcome to the job! It’s gonna be great working with you. It’ll be just like school.”
“Except Coach Colby and other people won’t be trying to stare down our shirts?” I was now in a uniform similar to Kelly’s: an FYE shirt and black pants.
“I mean, I’ve had that happen a couple of times, but it’s cool.”
“Dude, you’re cool, not those perverted shit heads.”
“Did you just give me a compliment?” Kelly looked a bit confused.
“Are you still gonna be a whore?”
“Are you going to be like Nicole?”
“Okay, I get it, you don’t bring her up all the time. So what do I need to do at this job?”
“Just help customers find what they need, stock up DVDs and VHS tapes, and clean up around the store. Any questions so far?”
“How much is the pay for now and what’s my schedule?”
“For now, it's 10 per hour and you will be working on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday mornings. Sometimes you’ll have to work evenings to help me close. I rearranged your schedule to line up with mine so we can hang out more!”
“Yeah, because I really enjoy your ass.”
“You did at the one party.”
“Bitch, we were drunk!”
“I just want to start over with you after graduation! Please? Can you give it a shot?”
“Ugh, fine.”
“Alrighty! Oh, here comes our first customer!”
“Sup’ Bitches.” Kylar walked up to us in his dumb ‘McCain is the Tits’ T-shirt.
“Of course you’d come up to us with that shirt on.” I commented.
“Yeah, my dad gave it to me after graduation. He was depressed and shit after the election, so I wanted to wear his shirt to make him feel better about himself. Now THAT’s what I call honor, man.”
“That’s so sweet of you! How can I help you today?” Kelly shouted in an excited manner.
“You got any Crank Yankers DVDs or Dumb and Dumber anywhere?”
“Uh, I don’t know about Crank Yankers, but I’m sure Dumb and Dumber is in the Comedy section of the store. I can take a look in our computer system and see if we have Crank Yankers or if another location has it.”
“Nah, you’re good, I can look around for it. Maybe pick up some bitches on the side. Speaking of which, are you free this weekend? There’s a motocross rally later on this week.”
“Why the fuck would she want to go with you? You’re like Tony Hawk, but super fucking gay.”
“Fuck her. So wanna go with me?”
“Uh… I’m at work right now so let’s find that DVD.” Kelly spoke in a frightened manner.
“I hope you get drugged and kidnapped, you fucking bitch,” Kylar said walking away.
Finally
“I hope you get buttfucked in your sleep, you lacrosse loving, Cinnamon Toast Crunch fucking, PSP porn looking bitch.”
“Jecka! Don’t say that to the customer.” Kelly whispered in my ear.
“Yeah, because I’m supposed to ‘love’ them, but I love doing that kind of shit even more. Besides, he was being a bitch anyway.”
“Okay, I get it, but it’s retail! You are gonna get a few bad apples. It happens. Here comes another set of customers. Megan and… Karen?”
Karen was in a black security guard outfit while Megan was beside her in a long sleeve black T-shirt with some light blue jeans.
“Wait a minute, Karen, why are you in that outfit?” I was a bit shocked that Karen was wearing something like that. Even though she looked really skinny, she looked kind of cute.
“Are you and Megan rehearsing a “special scene”?” Kelly joked around snickering.
“No we aren’t, dipfuck.” Megan exclaimed. “She’s working here as a security guard for the summer, and I asked her about this store here. She’s giving me a quick tour.”
“Yeah, I know it seems out of place for me, but I wanted to try doing something that would get me out of my shell.” Karen smiled at Megan. “So do you have any more questions?”
“No, but thank you, Karen. I’ll see you out.” Megan sighed.
“Just let me know if you need any help, okay?” Karen walked off.
“How long has she been working as a security guard?” I was actually a bit interested in Karen wanting to be a security guard.
“Oh… about a couple of weeks now?” Megan shifted her gaze onto me. “She’s been working with that weird mall cop for a while, but she’s smart. She can handle anything.”
“So, how can I help you?” Jecka asked.
“Can you help me find a movie or two? Kissing Jessica Stein and Loving Annabelle?”
“Oh… um, those are in the Romance section.” Megan immediately walked over to the Romance section and not even a minute afterwards she was already checking out. I rang her up and she just gave me a weak smile.
“Thanks guys. I’ll see you around…” Megan left the store.
“Huh… that was weird?” Kelly stated.
“Yeah, she’s normally like ‘Hey guys, I did this thing, and this thing…’ or something like that…” I commented back.
“No, I mean she’s normally all snooty and preppy, yet here she is acting all depressed and getting lesbian movies.”
“How do you know those were lesbian movies?” Kelly asked me in a concerned tone.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Should I worry about… you know who?”
“I don’t care about her.”
“Alright, if you say so. You did well, so just keep up the good work!” Kelly smiled at me.
(Music:
Blue Fields (Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec Final Fantasy VIII
)
The next few days have been back and forth recently. Working at the local diner, then going straight to FYE depending on the day. I got a lot better working as a waitress with some of the stuff I learned from FYE. Yeah, never thought the training videos would actually fucking help me. Trust me, dealing with FYE and shitty customers was way better than dealing with my fucking family.
At the diner, I started getting more tips by just being nice to people and I applied that to working at FYE. I started getting more familiar with the FYE layout, handed a lot more drinks, and spoke a bit more to people. Emily was stoked as fuck about it, but the other co-workers at the diner didn’t fucking seem too happy for me. Fuck them, I know I was supposed to get along with everyone, but my survival is more important.
Kelly was supportive throughout my training process while she was pretty much dealing with an entire store by herself almost. She mentioned there was this other manager, but she never showed up for some weird reason. I organized a lot of tapes, dealt with weirdos like this one guy who loves Master of Disguise. Sometimes, I’d even show up early just to help Kelly out with the odd rush of nerds who want to watch Star Trek for their weird ass marathons. Kelly just gave me some smiles every time I was around her and she’d always wave at me.
Just putting on a face seems to work wonders for you.
And it’s only been four days.
And I still have an entire summer to go…
Date: June 10th
Location: My House
Time: 10 p.m.
“Fuck, I’m so tired.” I just entered my house into the dark living room. Then the light immediately turned on.
“Jessica, where on earth were you?” My dad sounded agitated as he came out of the kitchen
“Please don’t hit me tonight…”
“Where the hell have you been these past few nights? Have you been so busy that you’re not concerned about ANY of the bills?”
“Because none of them are due yet and I haven’t even gotten my first paychecks yet?”
“Don’t you fucking start tonight, young lady.”
“I just finished work so I’m too tired for this.”
“JECKA, I’LL BREAK YOUR BACK IF YOU DON’T FUCKING TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW!”
“Ugh, it’s literally 10 o’ clock. I just want to sleep before tomorrow.”
“And what’s tomorrow, huh?? Another day of you being a FUCKING WHORE LIKE YOUR MOTHER??” My dad yanked on my arm.
“Dad, stop. All I’m doing is working two jobs.”
“Oh.” My dad immediately let go of my arm. “That's a wonderful thing you are doing, sweetie. How is that coming along?”
“Nice, I guess. It’s only been a week, but I’ve been doing great. Busy, but great. Getting ready for Virginia Tech.”
“I bet you are excited along with your other friends, right? Even that one girl got into UCLA.”
“I don’t want to talk about her.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t, dad.”
“Well, if you feel like talking to me, I’m always here for you. And remember, don’t be like the horrible human being that should have been disposed of at 30 that is your mother.”
“Jesus Christ, I’m going upstairs.”
“One more thing. Congrats on your double jobs, but if I catch you slacking off, I won’t hesitate to THROW YOUR ASS OUT! YOUR CLOTHES! THE FOOD! EVERYTHING YOU OWN!!”
I just continued to walk back upstairs as he just yelled more and more at me. “REMEMBER THAT OR YOU WILL END UP A WHORE LIKE YOUR MOTHER!!!!”
I hate him.
He’s worse than any guy I’ve ever met. Worse than Kylar, Hunter, Cripsin, Kyle.
Even fucking Jeffrey.
All of them have some form of limits because you know…
They are kids like me technically.
But my dad…?
He is literally the 40 Year Old Virgin except if Steve Carell was someone who actually wanted to beat his own mother and child until they passed out.
Date: June 11th
Location: FYE
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Yeah, I know it's Thursday, but one person on Kelly’s morning shift flaked out. So Kelly called me and we got things arranged to where I could do extra hours on my payday. So it was nice to go ahead and work so I can get a bigger paycheck next week.
“So if your mom is single, you know who to let know? You know what I’m sayin’?” Coach Colby tried to sound badass to me and Kelly.
“Uhhh, today is their anniversary.” Kelly sounded uncomfortable.
“Perfect. As a gift, your dad can ‘observe’ the way I treat your mom so he can take notes on being a good husband to her!”
“Why the fuck would she let you do that?” I crossed my arms in disgust.
“I just thought it would be… fuck it, I’m out of here.” Coach Colby awkwardly left FYE and into the halls of the mall.
“A few bad apples, huh?” I sat an elbow on the checkout counter and rested my body forward while no one was around.
“To be fair, you’ve been adapting really well.” Kelly took a sip of her bottled water. “I appreciate you being here for me. It’s really sweet of you to do.”
“Dude, I just want to get my fucking paycheck and go. So like where is it?”
“Yeah, um…. I tried contacting regional about our systems being down, and then corporate, and then I tried calling the…”
“Why are the systems down?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t get paid unless regional is up and running.”
“Can’t we call the other FYE and see what’s up? You mentioned there are other locations, so maybe they might know.”
“That’s a great idea, Jecka!” Kelly then pulled out her cell phone and dialed the other FYE. “Hey there…Yeah, we just want to know…Why the fuck do I need to put you on speakerphone…? Alright, fine…whatever.”
“Hello girls.” It was the counselor’s creepy ass voice. “How are my former favorite students?”
“Glad to be away from your UN-15 loving ass. How are we even your favorites? We showed up like twice.” Kelly picked up the phone and yelled into it.
“Well, some people have to get the good shit for the industry. Just the mild stuff is not good enough for adults like ourselves these days. We have to increase our libidos somehow.”
“We have fucking Pornhub and Redtube now. Why are you even at FYE anyways??” I screamed into the phone as well. “I just want to know why the hell we aren’t getting paid??”
“Don’t worry, Corporate is looking into it right now. Hopefully, we can get the checks printed as soon as possible. From what I gathered, it’s just a glitch in the system. So, everyone is going to have to sadly play the waiting game. Now, I’m off to interact with the new teenage employee!” The counselor hung up.
“Unfucking believable.” I gave Kelly a look.
“Yeah, school’s over and he’s still trying to lurk on kids.” Kelly looked at her phone in an appalled manner. “Like doesn’t he have a wife or something?”
“I bet she’s 14. But anyway, do we seriously have to wait until our paycheck comes?”
“Jecka, I’m just as unhappy about this as you are, but there’s nothing we can do about it. So let’s just kick back, relax, and–”
A loud gunshot noise spread out within the store and echoed into the mall, causing a good amount of people to scream and run in panic. Kelly and I stared at the man holding a gun in his right hand, and wearing a black hoodie, black face mask and some sweatpants… in fucking June. “WHERE IS MY STASH?? I was promised it at the last FYE I was at. GIVE ME MY SHIT!!!” I dragged Kelly down to the floor when the man started shooting at the display DVDs.
All of them were being shot at as pieces of each DVD, VHS tape, merchandise and some snacks fell onto the floor like debris from a collapsing building. The man pushed over a small DVD stand trying to make his way straight for us, but me and Kelly crawled to a different spot a few meters away from him at the Cash Register. We managed to reach the Romance section unseen, but Kelly was breathing so loudly to where I had to cover her mouth.
“Kelly, SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I whispered in her ear. Kelly looked at me with fear stricken eyes. She stared at me for a moment and closed her eyes while slowly breathing.
“Okay… I’m sorry.” Kelly whispered. “We need to get out of here and call the police.” Kelly tried to grab her phone out of her pocket, but she couldn’t find it. “FUCK!”
The man picked up Kelly’s phone from the debris-covered floor and tried to call me, but a static noise can be heard from across the FYE store. “Hello? Hello? Hello? This is the Burke Police Department? You called from—---The Burke… Mall?” The burglar picked up the walkie talkie, but had no idea how to use it. “Hello? Police reinforcements will be there in 5 minutes to check on… the situati-” The burglar then threw the walkie talkie on the floor and shot it.
As the gunshot went off, the glass doors leading out of the FYE were shut, causing the burglar to point his gun at the doors. “Is… is someone there???”
Just then, someone seated themselves beside us.
As we turned over to our right…
Karen sat beside us, spooking us in her security guard outfit, but we didn’t say a word. “Shhhhh. Jecka, Kelly. I have a plan and I’m going to need you guy’s help. We are going to capture him.”
“ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE??” Kelly nearly screamed, but it turned into a whisper.
“Look,” Karen pulled out an oddly shaped hammer. It was yellow and had this weird triangle with blue and yellow colors on the head of the star shaped hammer. “I found this on the ground earlier. I don’t know where it came from, but I figured we could use it. I know it’s crazy, but we have no other choice.”
“Karen, this is bonkers. How are we even supposed to do this?” I whispered to Karen.
“It’s simple, you’ll go around and we will make noise to distract him. He’ll go after us while you go behind him and then knock him out. We don’t have a lot of time. Let’s go before others get hurt.” Not having any other options, I grabbed the weird hammer and went along with the plan. I moved towards the cash register away from Karen and Kelly, while they started to just make some noise with some DVDs, causing the burglar to start shooting at some shelves. Luckily, no one was shot, but I don’t want to wait around and give him another chance to fire.
Once the man’s back was turned, I jumped out from behind a shelf and smacked him with the hammer with a strong, right swing causing him to fall on the floor and drop the gun. He was trying to scurry across the floor towards his gun, but a random shelf full of DVDs and VHS tapes fell on top of him as he screamed in pain. Karen and Kelly had their arms out in shock as the man was covered with VHS and DVD tapes.
“QUICK, GET ON THE PILE SO HE CAN’T MOVE!” Kelly hopped on the back of the shelf over the pile along with me and Karen just sitting there. The man was trying to say something to us, but at this point, we didn’t care.
“Did… did we just do that…?” I asked.
“Yeah… we just stopped a robbery. The store is a mess, but still.” Karen had a big smile on her face. Kelly then gave a peck on mine and Karen’s cheeks as she let out a joyish squeal.
“You girls saved my life! Oh my God, I always thought Karen was cool, but you were a total badass just now!”
“Uh… Kelly, you've bullied me ever since I moved to Burke.”
“Eh, potato, patato. Life moves on, and I owe you two my life!!” Kelly then just wrapped her arms around our necks retrospectively.
The Burke Police Department then burst through the doors with their guns at the ready looking around the new crime scene. We raised up our hands just to be safe. Kelly still had a big smirk on her face though.
===================================================================
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: Outside Burke Mall
There were a ton of police cars at the entrance of the mall as the burglar was being escorted out of the building with a bunch of bruises and bumps on his face. “I JUST WANTED THE GOOD SHIT!!!” He yelled this out as he was getting in the car. “I JUST WANT WHAT I WAS FUCKING OWED!!!!”
Karen, Kelly, and I were sitting by an ambulance with white blankets on our backs just looking at the chaos in front of us. Then a medium-sized cop showed up to us with his older looking partner. “Well, girls, I hope you are okay after that incident. We are going to search this establishment as this is the THIRD FYE that was robbed for the ‘good shit’. Thankfully, you girls are okay now. It will take a couple of days for the FYE to be cleaned up and back open again. We spoke to the head of the FYE company and they said that they’ll make a statement about it today. You girls are free to go.” The cops gave us a smile and then headed back to their car.
“Karen, I don’t know what just happened, but you’re really fucking cool now.” I glanced over at Karen. “I mean… you’ve always been, to be honest.”
“Yeah, well… I just wanted to try and help out. It’s kind of my job after all.”
“We should meet up later!” Kelly took off the white blanket and she stood up from the end of the ambulance. “I’m down for some pizza. Is that okay with you girls?”
“Yeah, totally.” I smiled.
“I’d love to join you.” Karen added.
Kelly then walked off to her car leaving me and Karen just to sit there. Karen decided to break the silence and ask me something. “Hey… I know we haven't really talked in a while, but…”
“But what?”
Karen pulled out a couple of tickets with the words,
Burke County fair
, in jagged letters with balloons around the letters. “I really want to spend time with you sometime. Kylar… Well, he asked me to go with him to this fair this weekend here in town. I turned him down, but he still gave me the tickets anyway.”
“Why would he give you the tickets if you rejected him?”
“Yeah, that part was weird. He said I was ‘lucky that I was a cute, four-eyed monocle loving bitch’ as he was leaving.”
“I mean you aren’t a bitch, but the rest of that just screams you.” I smiled at her.
Karen gave me a friendly bump to my shoulder. “Do you just wanna go with me?”
“After that Die Hard shit you just did, I’d love to hang out with you.” I moved my body a bit closer to Karen’s.
“Great. I’m so excited for this weekend now. I’ve never been to a fair, if you can believe that.”
“Oh, it’s fun as shit, they never card you for anything.”
“Why would they card you at the fair?”
“Because people like to get wasted on the ferris wheel.”
“Ewww, gross.”
“Could be worse. I know a couple that actually had sex on the ferris wheel once.”
“Was it Kelly?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
=====================================================================
Time: 2:15 p.m.
Location: Nicole’s House
“...So from the bottom of my heart, I apologize for the intrusions that have been conducted under the company’s nose. These incidents have NOT been linked to my knowledge whatsoever on the basis of employees under the FYE Adult branch to be happening. Due to this, we will be shutting down the Adult FYE facilities across the country.” As the CEO of FYE exclaimed her statement at the conference, a murmur of reporters and camera flashes erupted within the live broadcasting. “As for our normal FYE branches, we will continue to work with FULL notice and more security at each facility. In addition to that, the employees will now….”
Emily turned off the TV as she was eating her Domino’s pizza. “Who would’ve known FYE was interested in children’s films like that.”
“Yeah, I had no idea that’s what the guy meant when he was screaming about the ‘GOOD SHIT’.” Karen took a bite of her breadstick.
“Why the fuck are all of you in my house?!” Nicole angrily asked in her Domino’s uniform.
“Because Kelly asked us to meet her, your last delivery was three orders of pizza placed by your mom, Kelly, Karen and Jecka, your best friend, almost died, and you asked me to take you home.”
“No one likes you Ari.”
“Jecka and Kelly asked me to be here you bitch.”
“Fuck it, fine you win. Just feed me a slice, please.” Ari begrudgingly fed Nicole a hot slice causing Nicole to cough. “Fucking asshole.”
“Are you two fucking or something?” I asked them.
“Yes.” Nicole shrugged.
“No.” Ari said at the same time of Nicole’s answer, giving Nicole a shocked look. “So… Karen, I heard you did something badass?”
“Y-yeah, but I only did everything because Jecka and Kelly had my back. If anything, Jecka was the courageous one. All Kelly and I did was distract him while Jecka did the heavy lifting. I had just wanted to check on Jecka and Kelly during my rounds around the mall.”
“Speaking of heavy lifting, do you still have that weird hammer with you Jecka?” Kelly asked.
“Actually, no. I think I lost it after the police escorted us out of the store.”
“Never thought I’d see you lose something. As of now, you are the smartest person here.” Karen smiled at me.
“Wait, how? Didn’t you make it to the top of the class?” Megan grabbed another slice of pizza, but still had a depressed tone.
“Jecka is the Valedictorian remember?” Karen pointed out.
“Oh yeah, congrats.”
“Well, Nicole made the top of the class, too. She was number 10 out of 500 students.” I smiled at Nicole, who just looked away from me.
“Whatever. Are any of you losers going to Kylar’s dumb ass party this weekend?” Nicole tried to change the subject.
“I thought about it. What about you guys?” Kelly asked.
“I… actually thought about going. What about you, Nicole?” Megan said.
“I might go as long as Kylar isn’t there.” Nicole closed the empty pizza box.
“It’s his house though…?” Emily seemed completely confused.
“Yeah, and I don’t want him there. If he isn’t, REALLY debating on taking his shit. I don’t want to be there and have Kylar hit on me or worse, have him try to get me to fucking sleep with him or do some percs with him.”
“You look like Amy Lee’s rejected sister. No way you’re going to get laid.” Nicole rolled her eyes at me while Megan just awkwardly stared at me and then looked away when I caught her.
“Good afternoon, girls!” Nicole’s mom came in with a bunch of drinks for everyone. Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and sweet tea were all on this small platter she sat for us on the living room table. Everyone got their respective drinks and all of us thanked Nicole’s mom except for Nicole herself. “How are you feeling, sweetie?”
“I’m fine.”
“Did you have a good day at work?”
“Yeah, it was fine.”
“Anything special happen? Did you encounter any crazy people, honey?”
“Why the fuck do you care?”
“You’re going to UCLA soon and spending time with your friends is an excellent way to make amends. You will be missed because of how far away from home you’ll be.”
“Mom, no one is going to fucking miss me.”
“I’ll miss you, Nicole.” Megan gave her an intense stare. Nicole seemed shocked at Megan’s response.
“…No one important, I mean.” Nicole just stared at me as Megan just looked like she was about to die from that comment.
Before Nicole’s mom could speak about Nicole’s behavior, Kelly coughed and jumped in the conversation. “Hey, Ms. Sanderson, did you fall from heaven? Cause you are so fucking ho- I mean you are extremely pretty!”
“Um, thank you?”
“I’d like to thank you for how great you look. That outfit with the holes in your arms reveals your sexy, I MEAN, your bodacious, I MEAN… You look great!”
“Kelly, I’m currently seeing someone. More importantly, you just turned 18 and I’m over 30.”
“FUCK!!! It feels like I’m being cut off by the fucking counselor.”
“I’m going back to the kitchen.” Nicole’s mom went back as Kelly had a face that looked like a puppy was about to cry.
“Damn it. I was close.”
Emily, Ari, Kelly, Karen and Megan all laughed at her. I just couldn’t help, but smile at the fun we were having. “Yeah, close to getting a restraining order. Why the fuck are you hitting on Nicole’s mom anyways?” Emily shouted out.
“She’s cute!”
“Oh my gosh, you guys are like the fucking Mean Girls except none of you have fucking standards.” Nicole bolted up stairs to her room slamming the door hard. As of now, a dark silence just spread through the house. Everyone just looked at each other as if they did something wrong…
Including me….
“Jecka, may I talk to you in the kitchen really quick?” Nicole’s mom gestured to me to come into the kitchen. I walked up to her near the kitchen stove.
“Everything okay, Ms. Sanderson?”
“I guess…” Nicole’s mom sighed. “I just want to be a better mom.” On a small cabinet upon one of her countertops behind her, there were books stacked up. They had titles like “Your Daughter and You”, “Chicken Soup for Your Daughter”, and the best one by far, “So your Daughter hates You, Time To Figure Out Why?”
“Ever since Graduation, you and Nicole have been really distant because of… you know…”
“Why does everyone keep talking about it?”
“I mean… Jecka, I don’t know how to put this…”
“Put what?”
“She misses you.”
“Um, from what?” I couldn’t help, but to just think of that party. “Okay, so…” I just sighed and accepted everything. “Alright, I’ll talk to her.”
=====================================================================
Time: 2:35 p.m.
Location: Nicole’s Room
I knocked on her door and hoped for some sort of response. “N-Nicole?”
Everything went quiet. No noise, No music, no keyboard typing, nothing. I slowly creaked the door open to just find Nicole staring at her mirror. “Jecka, get the fuck out.”
“Nicole, my mom wants me to talk to you.”
“In that case,” Nicole turned around to see me. “Please go fuck yourself. Die. Get the fuck out of my house.”
“Nicole… we have to talk about this one way or the other. Even what you said to Megan was out of line.” I slowly walked behind Nicole.
“Why do you or Megan even remotely give a fuck about me?”
“Because of what happened that night…”
“Jecka…” I wrapped my arms around Nicole’s waist. “We aren’t friends after all of that. You know it.”
“At the party… You and I talked to each other. We spun around… We laughed…” I kissed her neck to give her somewhat of a relaxed shock. “You smiled.”
“Jecka…” Nicole put her hand on the right side of my hair. Then she calmly brushed it. “That was one night…”
“One night…” I whispered in her ear. “One night where… we finally…”
Nicole immediately pushed me off. “That’s enough.” She had this angry face cast while staring at herself in the mirror. “I know what you are doing… It’s not going to fucking work.”
For some reason, I decided to blurt out something random. “Karen and I are hanging out at the fair this weekend.”
“What…?” Nicole turned towards me.
“Karen asked me to hang out with her. So I said yes.”
“Like… a date…”
“Yeah… like a date.” I lied.
There was a long pause for a moment and then Nicole just looked back at the mirror with her back facing me. “Get out.”
“Seriously, because I’m…”
“GET OUT!!” Nicole screamed echoing through her room. She still stared at the mirror as she yelled at me. I just stared at her and I rushed out of the house. I didn’t even say goodbye to everyone, or Nicole’s mom. I just wanted to get away from Nicole. In the driver’s seat of my car, I couldn’t help but to just scream.
Nicole’s a fucking bitch.
I pulled out my phone and texted Karen.
“I’ll pick you up for the fair on Saturday.”
Chapter 2: Chapter 2 My Fair Karen
Summary:
Jecka takes Karen out for a simple day at the Fair. Finally, a day to breathe and relax....For the most part....
While Jecka's depression is delayed, things start to get really weird.
Notes:
Sorry for the month long wait x. x Yeah things got extremely busy and I focused a lot on this chapter and prepping for future activities. I'll explain more at the ending!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 2: My Fair, Karen
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Location: My House
Date: June 12th, 2009
“Yes Ma’am. For this address specifically.” I said to the woman on the phone. “Awesome. Thank you so much for your help.” I closed my phone and set it on the living room table with my piles of paid bills. Then, I looked at my bank account to see my bank balance of $250. After paying off the water bill, every bill for this month has been paid. Electric, phone, utilities, the fucking Food Network. All that was left were groceries. That could be done later this weekend cause my fat fuck of a father…
“Hey there, honey.”
“Don’t hit me….” I immediately flinched, causing me to stand up.
“There’s no reason for me to hit you today! You paid off ALL of the bills this month. And just from your first paycheck. I’m so proud of you.” My dad exclaimed. “You even took care of the Food Network for me.”
“Yeah, I just went ahead and took care of it. What’s that saying again… two birds kill one stone or whatever.”
“Well, you did amazing by going ahead and paying it off. You are finally showing initiative like I always hoped you would.” My dad then walked a bit closer to me. “Although, you aren’t going to be lazy this weekend if that’s what you are planning on doing.”
“Actually, I was going to hang out with a friend of mine today at the Fair.”
“Ohhhh, the one in Manassas, right? The Prince William County Fair? I heard there’s going to be an eating contest today.”
“Yeah, just shout out the exposition like a Veggietales character.”
“Honey, I told you, none of that religious propaganda in this household. More importantly, who is this friend you are hanging out with?”
“Some old friend of mine. They are… wait a minute, what religious propaganda? You are the one who thinks Mr. White is correct about his ‘beliefs’.”
“Well, he’s certainly not wrong.”
“Dad, he wants to create an ethnostate for almost every minority. Also, I paid off everything so it should be fine for what I do.”
“Are you hanging out with a guy…?”
“No, it’s a w-”
“Answer my question, young lady! If you are hanging out with a fucking boy I will CUT OFF BOTH OF YOUR GENETIALIAS!”
“How the FUCK would that even work?”
“Don’t you FUCKING TALK BACK TO ME! Just because you paid off everything DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO SLACK OFF AND DO WHATEVER!!” My Dad then yelled louder and louder. “YOU THINK I GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR FREE TIME?? As long as you are in this household, you will be VERY mindful about who you hang out with!”
“Y-yes…” The doorbell then rang and Dad walked up to the door.
“If there is a guy behind this door, I’m going to beat him with my fire poker.” My Dad whispered and opened the door. “Oh, well, hello there! You must be Jecka’s friend! I forgot how lovely you looked.”
“Ummm… thank you, sir. I’m here to meet up with Jecka since we’re going to the fair together.” Karen came inside of the house and walked towards me. She had the book cover for Twilight on her shirt and she had brown shorts on. “How are you feeling, Jecka? I’m so excited to hang out with you again.”
“It’s so nice that Jecka has a female friend to keep her company.” My Dad mentioned. Yeah, if it was a guy it would have been a different story.
“I’ll try not to be out too long…” Karen was cut off by my Dad.
“No, it’s okay! You two girls can stay out as long as you want. Just be back before midnight, or I’ll have to give you a lecture, Karen.” My Dad chuckled as I nervously laughed back.
“Yes sir, we will be careful.” Karen immediately grabbed my hand and we left the house. “We’ll be back soon!”
“Have fun girls!” My Dad yelled as she closed the door. For some reason, Karen pulling me was literally the best thing about today so far. It was like an angel was dragging me out of the house. It’s a strange comparison, but I’d rather be pulled around by Karen all day instead of my Dad yelling and abusing the fuck out of me. It’s been six days and I haven’t heard from Mom at all.
As we both buckled the seatbelts, Karen put her hand on my shoulder before I started up the car. “Hey… can I ask something?”
“Yeah… what’s up?”
“I hate to ask this, but can we pick up Kelly from her mansion?”
“You’ve been to her house before?”
“Yeah, she needed some help studying for Biology II once. Since then she’s been learning about nature on her own.”
“She threatened to dunk your head in the toilet back in our sophomore year. Why would you want to help her?”
“She paid me forty bucks. I couldn’t turn that down.”
“Free money for you basically. If I was smart as fuck, I’d make people pay me, too.”
=================================================================
11:40 a.m.
Location: Kelly’s House
We stopped in Kelly’s driveway waiting for her to come out while we looked at her giant acre of grassy fields with the wind blowing ever so softly. She had small gardens outside with tomatoes growing, a few of them nearly ripe. Karen looked at how wide her house was and gave me the estimation that it’s 11,000 square feet wide with its two floors stretching out. On the side of her house, she had a vast south-facing terrace, ideal for al fresco dining and enjoying the peaceful surroundings. The landscaped rear gardens provide complete privacy with mature trees, shrubs, and bushes, as well as a beautiful vista over distant fields. We saw Kelly come out the front door, kissing her father on his cheek and rushing to us in our car. Kelly was wearing this white T-shirt that said Valley Girl and some black shorts that came up to her knees. She hopped in the back seat with Karen and I pulled out of her driveway and started heading to the Prince William County Fair.
“Jecka, I have some great news!” She shouted from the back seat, shaking my seat.
“Holy Fuck! We aren’t even out of town yet! What is it?”
“You know how you got your paycheck after the FBI got involved?”
“What about it?”
“The speech we saw on TV the other day included YOU! It probably happened after we shut off Nicole’s TV.”
“Wait… the CEO mentioned Jecka?” Karen stared back at Kelly, causing me to glance at Kelly.
“She talked about how you were such a role model or whatever, and they want to promote you to ASSISTANT MANAGER when you get your next paycheck!!” Kelly squealed, rubbing her wrists together. “You two girls are literally my heroes!!”
“Wow, congrats Jecka. You deserved it for sure.” Karen smiled back at me before her expression shifted to one of shock. “RED LIGHT!” I immediately slammed on my breaks, screeching against the road pavement as we stopped at the four way intersection as a group of cars were driving from south to east. Knowing we were all safe, I huffed in relief. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. So you and I are good in the company’s eyes, but what about Karen?” My eyes were laser focused on the road now.
“Actually, I got a raise as well. I couldn’t have done it without you guys and especially that weird hammer. If I hadn’t found it, we would have died together.”
“Damn, I forgot my IPod at home. Are you two okay with me turning on the radio?” I asked Kelly and Karen.
“Yeah, it’s all good.” Kelly stated.
“Absolutely, go ahead Jecka.” Karen added.
I turned on the radio to immediately get blared at by some news report. “Local 3 WTKR News here with a reminder to keep an eye out for any MS-13 members. Recently, there have been more members going about on foot as a lot of their vehicles have been reported going missing. Some have already been taken into custody due to their odd looking marks. We now go with Chief Hammerton of the Norfolk Police Department.”
Karen and Kelly stared at the radio as I was leaving the city of Burke. “Recently we’ve had a lot of warrants for some of those MS-13 members we’ve arrested, but a lot of those who we interrogate mention that their car mysteriously vanished just after they turn around, some even leaving behind debris. We don’t know if it has something to do with Civil War within the group, so civilians are advised to keep a lookout for any MS-13 members, young or old. Many have been getting more aggressive at night, with gunshots reported by neighborhoods…” I then turned it off.
“Gee… that’s pretty crazy. I forgot we had a few MS-13 members in Virginia.” Karen adjusted herself in the passenger seat.
“Wasn’t Braxton in MS-13 for a week before he bailed?” Kelly added.
“I think? I remember my cousin was part of MS-13. That was in another state though.” I said.
“You guys mind if I take a small nap? I’ve been up since 6 am.” Kelly asked.
“Why were you up at 6 am?”
“I needed to tend to my garden.”
“Why the… just go to sleep.” I sighed.
“Thanks girls!” She immediately laid down in both of the back seats with her body upright.
“She’ll be okay without a seatbelt on, right?” Karen seemed a bit concerned.
“Let’s find out.” I smiled as I slammed my brakes, causing Kelly to roll over on the floorboards.
“What the fuck, Jecka!” Kelly yelled out causing Karen to giggle.
“This is why we wear seatbelts.” I snickered while driving again.
“Oh, so we can be safe. Nice, Dora reference.” Karen added.
“Fuck Dora. She makes me feel stupid like Kylar.”
“Karen isn’t safe though.” Kelly smiled at Karen.
“Why…?” Karen frowned in fear.
“Because your cheeks are exposed.” Kelly then started wrapping her arms around Karen’s face pinching her cheek bones.
“What the hell?! Jecka, help!”
“Why? I mean, you already have a regular seatbelt, and now you’ve got a Kelly seatbelt. Besides, it's better than Kelly trying to throw you in the toilet again.” I grinned at Kelly.
“It was one time I swear!” Kelly exclaimed.
=====================================================================
Time: Noon
Location: Near Buckhall VFD/Yates Ford Road (10 minutes away from the Fair)
Kelly was snoring in the back seat while Karen had her earphones on blaring an SR-71 song. I was staring at the road and I noticed a woman walking by. She had light blonde hair, a black t-shirt, ripped blue jeans… with a bear shooting themselves…
“HOLY SHIT!” I screamed out, slamming the brakes and stopping the car right beside Emily. The screeching noise instantly woke up Kelly in the back.
Karen rolled down the window and stuck her head out. “Emily!”
“Oh shit, Karen.” Emily walked up to the window of my car. “And Kelly and Preppy Girl are here too.”
“‘Preppy Girl’ is offering you a ride. Get the fuck in the back.” Emily answered my request by making Kelly move over as she entered the back seat. With Emily in the car, we can now get moving again.
“Dude, thanks for the lift. My boyfriend and I had an argument, so he dropped me off outside of town.”
“IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?” Kelly exclaimed.
“He thinks he’s hot shit just because he’s a big part of MS-13 now. ‘I have my hood now, so I own these streets.’ Like fuck you, you don’t own me, bitch.” Emily huffed and crossed her arms.
“Weird, we just heard a news report about MS-13 on the radio.” I glanced at Emily slightly while driving on the highway. “Something about their vehicles disappearing.”
“Oh yeah, I heard about something like that happening. This one guy I knew had gotten a new Saturn, they went to the bathroom at a gas station, and five minutes later… Nothing but scrap metal debris.”
“That’s crazy.” Kelly gave off a worried expression. “I hope we don’t run into any members at the fair.”
“I doubt it. They only do stuff at night anyways. If they do anything during the day, then it’ll be suspicious as fuck.” Emily added. “MS-13 are fucking ruthless, not stupid.”
“Even then, I don’t want to deal with them. They seem scary. I heard that one time, they kidnapped thirteen people during a robbery and cut one of them up into thirteen pieces.” Karen explained to all of us.
“They are trying way too hard to scare people. Just wave a fucking knife around. Anyone nearby will run away.” I added.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Like, I don’t even want to deal with one of their driveby shootings.” Emily grunted.
“You want to choke me out, but you don’t want to take part in a driveby shooting?” Kelly slightly punched Emily’s arm.
“What the fuck ever.”
“So, where are you going?” I asked.
“Uh, to the Fair. I was gonna go with my boyfriend, but then we had that argument and you know what happened afterwards.”
“Holy fuck, just stick with us.”
“Yeah, I can pay for your way in too. I just got a raise at my job.” Karen smiled.
“We can pay for you too, Emily. Right, Jecka?” Kelly touched my shoulder.
“Just rope me in, why don’t you?” I sighed. “Fine, we’re almost there anyway.”
“Dude thanks, I really appreciate the help. I’ll pay you back when I get paid at the diner.”
“Which is…?”
“Three weeks from now?”
“Goddamn it.”
====================================================================================================
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Prince William County Fair, Manassas, VA
We arrived at the parking lot to see it was nearly full except for this empty spot further away from the entrance. As we got out of the car, we saw a ton of attractions in view just from where we were standing. A monster truck rally with a giant green and black one were riding around in a dirt pit with a bunch of people whooping and hollering, a carousel with parents and their kids on the ride, random bands playing in the distance, a giant slide right beside the monster truck rally for families to slide down on, a gigantic tent with a petting zoo inside, and overseeing everything in the center of the fair was a 40 foot tall ferris wheel.
We had to go past this red ticket booth to pay and get into the fair. Instead of tickets, we were given these purple wristbands to wear so that we could go in and out. As we walked past the banner held above us saying ‘ Welcome to the Prince William County Fair!’, we saw there were a lot more happening inside: food trucks, game stations, the band was a lot more audible, people wandering past us ever so slowly in perfect sunlight, and a better view of the ferris wheel, though it was still a bit further off from where we were.
“Wow, this actually looks really cool.” Karen stepped a bit forward.
“Yeah, I never knew fairs were this exciting.” Kelly added
“Just wait for the next person to throw up and for someone to piss on it.” Emily begrudgingly said.
“As much as I am not interested in this kiddy stuff, this doesn’t seem all that bad.” I wanted to get the most out of it.
“See? Don’t you want to get away from… from all of it?” Karen walked up beside me.
“Karen, are you okay? You’ve been acting a little weird lately.”
“Oh, I’m fine. Just happy to finally…”
“Emily’s gone already.” Kelly brought up. Both of us noticed that Emily completely disappeared.
“Fuck, where did she go?” I asked.
“Are we really going to worry about her?”
“I mean Emily is just… yeah, nevermind, she’ll be fine.” Kelly shrugged her shoulders.
“Does Emily even like any form of carnival games…?” Karen asked.
“Not really. Why?”
“Because she’s hanging out with Jeffrey right now.” Karen pointed at Emily watching Jeffery badly fail at this shooting gallery station. Jeffery was using this lever action BB gun at this western themed booth where he’s supposed to hit the cowboys, but keeps hitting the women. He got agitated and slammed down the BB gun.
“Ugh, this is rigged as hell. If this was my Judgement Call shooter game, things would be a lot different.”
“Well, sonny. Better luck next time!” The man at the station wearing a red vest yelled out. “Who’s next?”
“Jeff, you are doing it wrong. Your posture is like pure ass.” Emily stated.
“Emily, what are you doing here?” Jeffery said as Kelly, Karen and I walked up behind Emily.
“Not being you right now, that’s for sure. For someone who owns a gun collection, you fucking suck at using one. The fact you can’t treat a gun properly speaks so many levels on how you treat women.”
“I know how to use one. I just haven’t had the opportunity to use one.” Jeffery got annoyed. “What the hell is your problem anyway? Are you on drugs again?”
“No, but I can name one instance where you would use one, you school shooter wannabe bitch.” Emily got angrier.
Jeffery growled at me while the man behind the counter became concerned. “Excuse me ma'am, I appreciate your concern for my props, but are you going to play, or just bully this young man? Depending on how well you do, you’ll get a prize.”
Emily slammed five dollars on the counter and grabbed the BB gun. “Ready.” The guy started up the shooting gallery with this funky cowboy music. Emily loaded the lever action rifle extremely quickly with 6 pellets then got in a stance, moving her right foot back and setting the butt of the rifle against her shoulder, aimed at each cowboy. Within seconds, she was able to snipe out five cowboys. She even made a few bullets bounce off and hit other things, like these two eagles that you could get for bonus points. Jeffery looked completely flabbergasted from how quickly and effortlessly Emily took those shots. The man behind the counter slowly moved down so he wouldn’t get shot.
In less than 60 seconds, she turned the shooting gallery station into a cheese grater. Almost everything IN the shooting gallery was shot, except for the prizes above and below the shooting gallery, and the women and children props. Emily set the gun down on the counter and turned to the man, who was shaking in fear. “Can I have that giant panda that’s right beside you?” The man quickly grabbed the big stuffed panda as Emily smiled while taking it. “Maybe if you knew how to treat certain things, you could actually get a girlfriend.” She told Jeffery while walking back towards us; the three of us just stared at Emily after witnessing what she did.
“What’s with that look? I won a giant plush. Isn’t it cute?”
“How the FUCK did you do that?” I was extremely shocked Emily would take interest in that.
“Beats the fuck out of me. I just had a strong urge to play that game.”
“You made that look easy. I’ve never seen you take an interest in guns like… ever. I had no idea you were that skilled with one.” Kelly added.
“You know, I kind of wanna stay here longer now and hang out with you guys.” I kind of agreed with Emily because she fucked something up for… sort of a good cause?
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… maybe Kylar was right about-” Karen was about to continue talking until I softly grabbed her hand.
“Please do not finish that sentence.” I slowly walked with Karen as Kelly and Emily followed behind me.
(Music: Spring Yard Zone - SiivaGunner )
Emily started to move towards another game station where you throw darts at balloons hung up at a wall and a small prize comes out. Emily aced this one as well; she got ten balloons that randomly had different dollar bills inside; ones, fives, tens, you name it. She got a hundred dollars from it, but she split half of it with Karen for some reason.
So, Kelly and I tried to challenge them in tag team mini golf at this Jurassic Park themed golf course, but… well…
After the 3rd hole, Emily got frustrated and attacked a dinosaur that had a windmill blocking the hole. It took all three of us to pull Emily from literally playing whack-a-dino as two security guards ran after us. Once the four of us saw the guards, we ran to another attraction.
Karen wanted to go to the Mirror Maze, and thankfully no mirrors were broken. Karen scared Kelly with her reflection in a mirror, leading to all three of us chasing after Kelly.
We then exited the maze and hopped on this ride called “The Scrambler”, where we were seated in small carriages clustered together and connected by beams at the top to a central point. The four of us got into one carriage and it began spinning in one direction while the ride itself started spinning in the opposite direction. Even though we were going so fast, all of us raised our arms up screaming for joy and laughing.
Finally, Karen wanted to go to the petting zoo tent since she REALLY wanted to pet a llama. She was extremely scared at first, but then two llamas beside her started to eat her tickets. This got her angry and she crumpled up the pamphlet she got from this nearby map booth, tossing at the llamas. The animals followed the crumpled ball to their corner as we left with a defeated Karen.
After walking around for an hour, we decided to get a bucket of fries that was 15 dollars and sat down at a small picnic table with a giant, fancy umbrella. Thankfully the monster truck rally was over, so it was nice and quiet besides the loud murmurs of people walking and talking. A lot of people were gathering for the 20th Annual Prince William Eating Contest that was about to start in 15 minutes. To them, we probably looked like four kids waiting for our parents…
“Why the fuck did I have to pay 15 dollars for this KFC-sized bucket of fries?” Kelly said as she took one.
“Why are they even 15 dollars?” Karen took another one. “Not to mention how ridiculous it was that we had to wait that long for one.”
“Yeah, people really want their deep fried oreos.” Emily tried to feed her giant panda plush. “Seriously, it's weird.”
“What about the deep fried turkey?” Kelly took another one.
“Why would you deep fry a turkey?” Karen looked surprised.
“My brother likes deep fried butter.” Emily shook in fear with Karen and Kelly.
“It’s literally dairy cooked in oil, that’s disgusting. What do you think, Jecka?” Karen was talking to me, but I was just staring at the sky. Everything seemed so peaceful even though thousands were literally lining up to watch 20 fat fucks stuff their faces with hot dogs.
I’m shocked my dad isn’t blowing up my phone. It’s been almost a week since I saw my mom. She really did just leave me to dry. She didn’t say ‘good-bye’ or even ‘I love you.’ Probably ran off with Raul or whatever…
“Jecka!” Karen exclaimed.
“I’m sorry, please don’t…”
“Hey, Jecka, it’s okay. You just spaced out for a minute.”
“Yeah, you feeling okay?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just… enjoying my time with you girls.”
“Honestly, today has been weird as shit.” Emily leaned in on the table. “I got really interested in that shooting game for some reason and was sick as hell at it. We freaked out Karen and Kelly in that mirror maze, so that was cool. Man, fuck my boyfriend, seriously…”
“He’s missing out on a wonderful woman.” Karen smiled.
“Yeah… I just had a lot of fun with you guys today. It felt relaxing to be honest.” Emily grunted after her statement. “I kind of wanna punch Kylar now though. Never thought he’d be right for once.”
“Honestly, I was expecting today to be a lot less fun, so this was a pleasant surprise. It’s been really refreshing compared to what we normally do in school.” I added.
“Speaking of school, are Nicole and Ari dating again…?” Kelly asked.
“No, why?”
“Oh, okay. They must be just hanging out then.”
“Uh… why the FUCK would Nicole want to go to a fair, especially with Ari?”
“I think the better question is… why the fuck is Ari feeding Nicole fries…?” Emily gave a disgusted look in our right direction. I turned over to see… Ari and Nicole together at a picnic table. Ari was feeding Nicole some fries and Nicole was giving her a sip of some kind of milkshake. And… wait…
(Music: “The Vaike never forgets! I just don’t always remember” - Fire Emblem Awakening )
WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY LAUGHING TOGETHER?
“Awwww, it’s kind of cute actually.” I immediately got up after Kelly said that and began walking over to their picnic table. “Um… Jecka…?” Kelly, Emily, and Karen followed a bit after I got to Ari and Nicole’s table. Ari looked up and started coughing from drinking the milkshake extremely fast by accident.
“Oh, um… hi Jecka.” Ari fixed her hair back. She was wearing her white, sleeveless shirt with a rainbow on it and some green shorts and Nicole smirked at me while wearing her “DIE!” black T-shirt and some blue jean shorts.
“Well hello, Jecka. What a coincidence that we would find you here.” Nicole crossed her legs like the evil bitch she is.
“Yeah, hi Nicole, Ari. Never thought I’d see you two here. Together. Feeding each other.”
“Absolutely.” Nicole gave a relaxed smile. “I just thought that after a long and busy week working at Domino’s, I’d ask her out to get some real food.”
“Yeah, nothing screams healthy food like eating fries at the place where people fuck on the ferris wheel.” Emily sighed.
“Also, I thought you two broke up.” Kelly chimed in.
“Well, normally we do things with each other during our lunch time.” Nicole turned her gaze to Ari.
“Yeah… yeah. We normally go in the back and check for supplies.” Ari gulped.
“Excuse me?” There is no way they actually…
“Ari caught me trying to steal some supplies so, you know… she had to check me out.” Nicole winked at me.
“You didn’t actually…”
“I’ll just leave it to your imagination, Jecka.” She started to drink from her empty styrofoam cup, making that damn annoying slurp noise.
No fucking way…
=====================================================================
“ Trying to take some of the shit again, Nicole? I told you, if you keep doing this, I’m going to have to punish you.” Ari had her hands around Nicole’s neck softly.
“Oh no, you caught me trying to steal shit. Are you going to take money from my paycheck?” Nicole dug her hands into Ari’s beautiful red hair.
“I’m about to take more than your paycheck, Nicole.” Ari whispered in her ear.
=====================================================================
“SHIT FUCKING CRACKERS, NICOLE!” I screamed out.
“What’s wrong, Jecka? I thought you were busy going on your little date with Karen here?”
“Uh, what?” Ari blurted out.
“Shut the fuck up.” Nicole whispered to Ari.
“I’ll fucking end you, Nicole.” Ari whispered back.
“Karen, is that what you meant by meeting up with someone?” Kelly asked.
“Damn Karen, good job on pulling Jecka.” Emily added.
“She’s a diamond in the rough, you know?” Karen walked up beside me. “Here we are, childhood friends turned lovers.”
“Then kiss.” Nicole demanded. “You’re on a date, so you should kiss each other or do whatever else couples do on dates.”
“Um… you kiss each other then. That’s a weird ass request, even coming from you, Nicole.” I gave her a glance.
“Dude, I’m not asking you to pretend to be the counselor. Just give her a small peck on the cheek. I dated Ari for a few weeks, so we made out plenty of times. Of course, I had to tell her to shut the fuck up when we had to pick her shows.”
“Um, no, I was the one who told you to shut the fuck up so much because you talked during Girls Gone Wild and Mythbusters.”
“Oh my gosh, just do it. There is NO way Karen would want to remotely do stuff with you. She’s like the most innocent person out of everyone here.”
“Uh… did you give Karen a…?” Before I could even finish, Karen softly touched my face and slowly pulled me in with her lips against mine. Everyone was beyond astonished from seeing Karen, with her eyes fully closed, enjoying her kiss. Emily and Kelly looked like they saw a ghost while Nicole just dropped her drink as Karen finished kissing me.
“What… the fuck was that…?” Nicole asked.
“Just showing my love towards Jecka.” Karen, there is no way you care about me like that.
“Yeah, I have to ask…” Ari needed to fix her posture after seeing… whatever that was. “Did you and Megan make out during that night you two saw those movies?”
“No, but there were a lot of kissing scenes between those two movies.”
“Karen, your mind scares me, and Emily is standing behind you.”
“I know she’s behind me.”
“Fuck it, nevermind Karen.”
“I Just thought I’d give Jecka my thanks for taking me out.” Karen smiled.
“HEY!!! TRY EATING A DICK INSTEAD TRYING TO EAT THAT WOMAN’S FACE!” A heavy-sized woman a few meters away from us.
“NO! YOU EAT A DICK!” Karen then picked up a public trash can and threw it at the woman, causing her to fall backwards face first. She was on the ground lifeless from the hit. The bystanders just stood and then continued walking. “What? She was being a douche!”
All of us murmured in agreement except Nicole, who was extremely shocked. “Is no one going to question what the fuck Karen just did?”
“Yeah, I never expected Karen to be so bold.” Kelly responded.
“I meant with the trash can- UGH! Fine, you two are going out. Now, can you leave us alone? I just want to spend time with Ari.” Now those are words I never thought I’d hear from Nicole… ever.
“Awwww, thank you snookums.” Me and Nicole stared at each other, acknowledging how much we both wanted to throw up.
“Okay, maybe don’t call me that, please.” Nicole asked nicely.
The crowd behind us was getting louder and louder for the hot dog eating contest as the speakers blared across the fair telling everyone it was almost time. “Holy fuck, why are people are getting excited for this? It’s really fucking weird.” Emily stated. “Wait a minute…” She moved a bit past the table where Ari and Nicole were sitting. “Megan is a vegan, right?”
“Yeah, she always eats salads. Why…?” Karen walked beside Emily.
“Because she’s about to turn from herbivore into a carnivore.” Emily pointed out to Megan on the far left side of the long table set on the stage.
“Why the fuck is Megan doing this? I thought she hated hot dogs?” I asked. All of us decided to push through the crowd to try and get closer to Megan on the stage to try and figure out why she is doing this. A minute later, we got close enough to the small stage to where Megan would be able to hear us. “Megan! Hey! Are you okay? Since when do you like doing stuff like this?”
“Yeah, do you really want to be a fat fuck of a person?” Nicole yelled out.
“Not helping.”
“Go talk to your girlfriend.”
“Bitch, go actually kiss your girlfriend. I can at least do that.” I glared at Nicole.
“Yo, sup bitches!” Wait, that voice… no way… Nicole’s Brother was sitting right beside Megan, lacing a bib around his neckbeard of a face. “Can’t wait to get some free food AND $500 dollars.”
“Megan, you’re doing this for 500 dollars?!” Kelly screamed out.
“So this is why no one talks about Nicole’s brother…” Ari looked disgusted. “Megan, are you like… okay…?” Megan just kept staring at her giant leaning blue plate of hot dogs. She gave a giant glare towards the hot dogs as if they just committed a crime. The fact she was wearing her yellow smiley hoodie in this heat just added to the mean look she was giving. “Guys… is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s completely unresponsive.” Karen added. “Should we call the police?”
“For my brother? Absolutely. I’d love to pay 500 bucks to have someone shoot him.” Nicole angrily stared at her giant brother.
“Shit, I’ll do that for free.” Emily added.
“Yo, you are cute as shit. What are you doing later?” Oh God, Nicole’s brother is actually trying to hit on Megan… “I absolutely love that, um… hair of yours.” Megan just kept staring at her hot dogs. “You know, I used to go to De Vry? Cool ass place.” Megan just kept ignoring him. All of us just grew absolutely silent while Megan kept staring. She was too focused on this giant plate of food and I was starting to get worried.
“Megan! Hey!” I yelled out. “It’s okay. If you’re feeling like shit, we can talk about it. You don’t have to do anything…” A small gun shot was fired by the male judge, signaling the start of the eating contest.
(Music:
Gourmet Race - Kirby Super Star
)
While everyone was trying to slowly stuff these hot dogs in their mouths as fast as they could, Megan just started chomping on a hot dog, and within two bites that hot dog was gone. Then she did it with another one. And another one. And another. She was chomping each one down like that yellow circle thing in the video game with the colored ghosts… I’m not racist I swear.
“Holy shit… look at Megan go…” Nicole just stared at how quick Megan was eating.
“Yeah… it hasn’t even been a minute and she’s already eaten 20…” Karen fixed her glasses.
“Why the hell are you keeping track???” I yelled.
“Because it's insane! Normally her jaw would be sore from all those bites, but holy crap…”
Megan kept going and started to stand up grabbing the hot dogs at the top of the pile. A few of the competitors noticed just how fast Megan was eating the hot dogs and took off their bibs, walking off the stage in shame. Some still tried to keep up, but two of them started to choke. Megan didn’t seem to care though, paying no attention to anyone or anything except the food in front of her. She was as hungry as a fucking wolf, having already eaten half of her pile. At this point, she might as well be a fucking Looney Tune character.
“Go Megan! You got this!” Karen yelled.
“Come on, Megan! Keep going!” Kelly chimed in.
“Finish it, Megan!” Ari yelled out causing Emily, Nicole, and I to stare at her. “Fuck off, if she wants to do this, I don’t see why not. Bad for her stomach, but good for her mentality… I guess?”
“I hope your stomach explodes!” Emily needed an elbow to her arm, so that’s what I gave her. “Fine… go Megan… wait a minute… holy shit, she’s almost done.”
“She went from having a stack of 100 hot dogs to just 25 left…” Karen looked at Megan devouring the hot dogs using the method she used earlier.
“Fuck it… GO MEGAN!!” I yelled out. Everyone of us started to cheer for Megan except Nicole. I looked at her briefly, causing her to eye roll at me, so she let out a soft “woo.” She then turned to look at her brother struggling to eat any more.
“Fuck… I don’t feel so good.” Nicole’s brother fell out of his chair from exhaustion while Megan started eating the last of her hot dogs and tilting her plate to get the last couple of hot dogs… except…
She took a large bite of her plate and just stared at the crowd awkwardly. The metal plate just fell on the table with a large clang as it sat there half eaten. For a moment, there was nothing but a large sea of silence. Megan then looked incredibly sad, as if she did something wrong.
I guess people really do need help once in a while…
“WAY TO GO, MEGAN! You did it!!” I yelled out. All of us cheered for Megan for… I guess her victory, since she did eat all of the hot dogs… and the plate. Nicole just gave off a weak smile, to which Megan just gave us a small smile back while the crowd looked like we were all fucking high.
“Um…” The male judge spoke into the megaphone, then walked up to Megan. “The winner is…!”
“Hold it right there!” Two police officers walked up on the stage next to Megan and the judge. “We have a dirty bastard to take in.”
“I swear I was just hungry and I didn’t mean to take fine China to a whole new level!” Megan yelled out as she raised both her hands up. I don’t know why the comment made me and Karen laugh.
“We aren’t here because you want to indulge in fine china. No, we’re here for that tub of lard!”
Nicole’s brother then stood up regaining consciousness. “Ugh… how many did I eat…?” The police officers started to lock him up in handcuffs. “What the fuck did I do??”
“We are here because of your 10GB stash of child pornography!!” Everyone in the crowds started to murmur and gasp in fear over this.
“What are you talking about?! Those are all videos of 18 year old midgets!” All of us were shocked by this. Well, all of us except Nicole.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!” Nicole’s mom walked up onto the stage beside Megan. “I found ALL OF THAT on your computer in the basement, so I had no choice but to call the police! I had always wondered what you were doing down in the basement while sitting on your ass!”
“What the hell, mom?! You never got onto Nicole for her smoking habits!”
“I fucking grounded her and she became a better person thanks to her friends while you were busy jerking off to THE BIG COMFY COUCH SHOW!” After Nicole’s mom said that, Nicole covered her eyes in embarrassment.
“It’s a great fucking show! Give me a break…”
Megan then screamed with a high pitch scream and then clinged onto Nicole’s mom. “Oh, I’m so glad you are here! Your brother is the person who has been calling me ever since I was 14 years old trying to hit on me!” Everyone in the crowd gasped again and one person screamed in horror. “He was threatening to kill me if I told anyone about how he wanted my body… I couldn’t deal with it anymore and not tell anyone.” Megan started to make sobbing noises on Nicole’s mom's shoulders.
“Oh, Megan…” Nicole’s mom wrapped her arms around Megan.
“I NEVER SAID THAT!”
“What the fuck you are talking about?” Nicole screamed out. “You literally told me that you’d send bomb threats to my friend's house once before because I found out that you were trying to get, and I quote, “18 year old Canadian ass!”. Like what the fuck is wrong with you??”
“Nicole, you fucking snitch!!” The brother yelled out.
“That’s it! I can’t wait for your jailmates to beat you to death!” The police officers started to haul Nicole’s ugly brother away as people applauded and cheered.
“It was an 18 year old midget!!!” He screamed while getting in the police car. All of us walked up to Megan and Nicole’s mom walking off the stage.
“Megan… are you okay??” Karen asked.
“Mom, are you okay? How long ago did you find out about this…?” Nicole grew concerned.
“It was just earlier today when your brother took my car to get ‘free food’. So I took a cab after I called you.”
“I was wondering why you asked how I got here.”
“So when I looked down in the basement and found that drive on his computer, I IMMEDIATELY called the police.”
“Poor Megan… I never knew you were treated like that.” Kelly said.
“Yeah… I hated you at first because you were always acting like a bitch, but now it makes sense.” Emily stated. “I never knew that fat fuck wanted to…”
Megan lifted her head up and stopped clinging onto Nicole’s mom. “Actually, that was just something I made up so I could help Nicole’s mom out.” Everyone just grew silent for a moment while the crowd was talking and leaving the eating contest.
“So… you made all of that up?” I asked.
“I mean, the whole threatening thing wasn’t wrong since it involved us.” Did Nicole just stand up for Megan…?
“Well… I think this all cancels out since I wanted to gut your brother like a Thanksgiving turkey.” Emily added.
“Yeah… I don’t like your brother, Nicole.” Ari shivered from the sight of Nicole’s brother.
“So… Megan…” Nicole spoke.
“Look, I’m sorry. I went overboard. I just wanted to help your mom so it didn’t seem so awkward.”
“That was fucking badass.” Nicole smiled.
“Excuse me?” I exclaimed.
“Dude, that was fucking hilarious how you made up a story like that to make him a seem like an even bigger bitch. I guess those acting classes really paid off for you, Megan.”
Megan brushed her hair to the sides. “Yeah, I just hated his guts from the moment I saw him. I wanted to make him really feel embarrassed for talking to me.”
“Yeah, totally. I’d love to see how he’s going to play Call of Duty in jail without his…”
“Wait, Megan… shouldn’t you be going to the hospital…? You like… crunched down on a plate.” I interrupted their conversation.
“Actually… I feel completely fine. I thought it would hurt, but my body isn’t hurting at all and I don’t feel any pain.”
“So… you ate that plate with no setbacks…?” Kelly grew concerned.
“Pretty much…?”
“Are you sure you are okay?” Ari chimed in.
“Well, I am still kind of hungry.”
“You just ate an entire MOUNTAIN of hot dogs! How the fuck are you still hungry, Megan?” I yelled out.
“I… just used some techniques I learned online.”
“Please don’t teach me those.”
“Okay girls. Megan, I think I know how to help you out. Do you want to join me and Nicole at this one food truck? The one with too much meat or whatever…?” Nicole’s mom was trying to think.
“Jim Bros Burritos?” Megan smiled.
“Yes, they are new here, so I wanted to check it out.”
“I heard you can really taste the Alpaca meat.”
“Aren’t you worried you will get sick? Like from eating too much?” Ari asked.
“I mean if anything, it makes me want to work out now.”
“Um… okay, let’s just go eat.” Nicole started walking with her mom.
“Jim. Bros. Burritos. Jim. Bros. Burritos. Jim. Bros. Burritos.” Megan chanted.
“What the fuck, Nicole? What about me?” Ari ran up to Nicole.
“I kind of wanna try one now actually.” Kelly decided to go too.
“Do I really want to see them eat more fucking meat?” Emily walked along with them as well. Nicole came back up to me and Karen, but only for a moment. She had her arms crossed gazing at me.
“Yeah, you two gonna come along, or are you still busy with your ‘date’?”
“As a matter of fact, we’re gonna go and ride the ferris wheel.”
“Actually, I’d love that, Jecka.” Karen smiled, while me and Nicole stared at her for a moment.
====================================================================================================
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Prince William County Fair Ferris Wheel
(Music: Waltz for the Moon - FF8 )
Karen and I were now at the heart of the Prince William County Fairgrounds, where the gigantic ferris wheel was. From the top of the slow moving wheel, the people in the carts at the top are probably thinking we look like ants. Twenty colorful carts lit up the now darkened sky, which is odd because it normally gets dark at a much later time in the summer. Maybe Al Gore was right about Global Warming. After a few minutes of waiting in line in an awkward silence, the two of us got on the double seated cart as the maintenance person working the ride latched us down, made sure we buckled our seat belts, and closed the metal door on us. It felt like we were in a yellow cage made from Spongebob. As the door closed and he pulled the lever, I started hearing a ringing in my head. I suddenly got this weird feeling in the back of my mind, like I’ve been locked away before…
“Jecka, are you okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. My ears were just ringing from the sound of the door closing.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Are you…?”
“I mean, I’m in the cart of a ferris wheel with a beautiful girl, so yes.”
I rubbed the back of my head in awkwardness. “This isn’t weird to you at all?”
“Why would it be?”
“You kissed me earlier before I even said anything about this being a date. Why did you help me out like that?”
Karen placed her hand on mine as I clinged on to the metal bar with black styrofoam as we stopped briefly at the one-quarter mark. “I guess you could say I can read minds.”
“Then what am I thinking about right now?”
She looks like a nerdy version of Nicole with the glasses. Only cuter.
“That I look like a nerdy version of Nicole with the glasses.” She smiled at me. “Only cuter.”
“Wait, what the-?!”
“I’m just kidding. I could tell that you wanted me to do something to try and annoy Nicole, am I correct?”
“Karen, I’m sorry… I just got angry at Nicole and…”
“Just be honest with her, Jecka. She misses you.”
“No, she doesn’t. Not after what happened at the party.”
“Her going out to the fair with Ari is literally her trying to poke at you. Think about it.”
That is true… Nicole was really angry when I mentioned Karen was my date a while ago. “How would you even know that?”
“She’s going out of her way to go on a date with her ex just to annoy you. When we kissed, she was the most shocked out of everyone.”
“It’s more of you kissing me that I’m curious about. Why did you do that?” We were now high up as the ride stopped, giving a giant overlook of the fair as we heard a roller coaster in the distance and saw a couple of balloons fly up past us. I looked down, which I immediately regretted, to see Megan, Ari, and Nicole below us in line. “Shit we are so high up.”
“I did it because… well, you mean the world to me; all of you girls do actually. I had so much fun with everyone today. Ever since you guys came into my life, it really feels like the sky’s the limit. We took down a robber looking for some X-rated Veggietales stuff, and it’s literally only been two weeks since graduation. So if I’m going to leave Virginia forever and never come back, I’m going try and do everything I can for you girls while I’m still here. Especially you.”
“I… I really mean that much to you?”
“Well… I don’t know how to put this. All of you girls are beautiful?”
“Have you been watching lesbian movies with Megan?”
“A few, and they weren’t that bad actually.”
“Karen… do you like girls now?”
“Well… I’d be lying if I said you and the girls weren’t the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen.”
(Music: Love Theme - Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo (Flutes, Strings, and Accordion only) )
I didn’t know Karen felt this way about… well… anyone. “What on earth do you see in me? In any of us? We’re all jerks to you. I was a douche to you. I screwed up in that sense.” I sighed. “Karen, I sold you out for cigarettes. If I was a decent enough human being, it could have been you, me, and Nicole as best friends. None of this shit would be happening.”
“It can still be the three of us, just with Kelly, Ari, Megan and even Emily, too. You have your looks, Nicole isn’t afraid to say whatever she wants, Emily isn’t afraid to throw the first punch, Kelly can be a leader… when she isn’t kissing guys… you could probably do that too actually. Ari can be really caring, Megan has her leadership skills, and I have my brains. We could literally be the best of friends…”
“But I lied to you, I told Nicole we were on a date just to piss her off.”
Karen held both of my hands and leaned closer into my face. “I have something that changes everything.” Karen pressed her lips against mine again, only this time it was more passionate and soft. I kept my eyes open again, but then a thought crossed my mind… if she’s willing to give her all for me, then it's time for me to give my all for her…
By closing my eyes…
She placed her soft hand into my hand holding it ever so softly. Karen stopped for a moment and opened her eyes slowly, before we both closed our eyes again and kissed each other one more time. She disconnected our kiss by receding her head. “I’m always going to be here for you. Whether it be as a lover or as your best friend…” The cage door then suddenly opened to Megan and Ari in shock, while Nicole stood there mildly annoyed. “Oh, hi, Nicole. We were just talking about you.” Karen winked at me. We both got out of the ride and I immediately grabbed Nicole’s hand while exiting. Ari and Megan looked confused as I left, while Karen smiled at me.
I saw a nearby photo booth and crammed Nicole into it so we could be alone. “Jecka, this BETTER be fucking good.”
“I just want to talk to you, okay. I want to know why you went out with Ari today?”
“Why the fuck did you go out with Karen?”
“If I tell you, will you please listen to me and answer my question?”
“Maybe.” Nicole’s eyes changed to a more serious tone.
“It was to make you jealous.”
“So… you wanted to make me jealous…?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry, Nicole.”
“For being a bitch to me?”
“Yes. I should have just told you from the start.”
“Good.”
“So then… was that whole thing between you and Ari real?”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Whatever. None of that happened.”
“None of it?”
“What am I, a fucking record player stuck on loop?”
“Nicole…”
“So… those kisses between you and Karen mean nothing?”
“Well, she did just tell me she likes girls now thanks to you, me, Ari, Emily, Kelly and Megan being in her life.”
“Never thought I’d be an inspiration to a nerd. Wait a second… why should I even believe you? You’ve given me no reason to trust-” I immediately cut her off with a kiss of my own. Nicole was extremely surprised by the quick peck I gave her, staring at me intensely. So I went ahead and kissed her slowly. I kissed her neck softly while it was just us. Nicole pushed closer to me as I slowly filled her lips with words I wanted to whisper in her ear for a long time. “Nicole… I miss you…”
A couple of picture shudder noises went off, with a small ticket of Nicole and I kissing being printed out by the photo booth, which I quickly grabbed.
“Are you sure about that…?” Nicole slightly pushed me out of the photo booth after seeing I had the photo in my hand. I wanted to go back in and check on her…
But I think after today she needed some space.
====================================================================================================
Time: 8:45 p.m.
Location: My House
It took a while to get back to my house because I had to drop off Kelly, Emily, and Karen at their respective houses, so I got back a bit later than I imagined. As I entered my home, it was kind of dark inside, but I could still see a couple of lights on in the kitchen. It was fun just seeing everyone, minus Nicole, smile at least once.
Then again, we kissed, so there’s that. Now that I think about it… she didn’t reject me this time… so does that mean…? Eh, who cares? All that matters is that tonight was fucking amazing.
“Where on earth were you? It's almost 9 o'clock. What happened to you?” My dad exclaimed throughout the living room.
And now that feeling of joy was about to be ruined.
“I was hanging out with my friends, remember? Karen was here?”
“Yeah, I remember. I remembered so well that I called you six times just to get nothing in response.”
“Shit, sorry. We were so busy having fun that I didn’t really notice.”
“You better not be out whoring out with some fucking guys just because you got straight A’s on your report card.”
Then I had an idea. “Actually, my friends asked me if I could help them do some extracurricular activities and study to retake their SATs tomorrow.” I just wanted an excuse to get out tomorrow.
“That’s wonderful, honey. You're setting a great example by helping out the minorities in the area. Regardless, you still need to uphold responsibility in this household, young lady.”
“I just paid off all my bills! Hell, I even paid off the Food Network; what other things was I supposed to take care of?”
“The groceries?”
“I thought that was the 2nd week?”
“Well, there was a small setback when it came to providing the liquor for my guests, so Daddy had to save up on a few things.”
“And how is this setback my fault? I stopped smoking and drinking six months ago, so you can’t blame this on me this time.”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU SPOILED BRAT!”
“Holy shit, Dad! I’m getting punished for no fucking reason!”
“I am your father, and I expect more from you. If you don’t do as you’re told, I WILL throw you out just like I did your mom!!!”
“Where is mom?” I was starting to get really scared.
“She doesn’t live here anymore. Not after cheating on me. And I expect you to bear more responsibility! If you don’t even REMOTELY cook tomorrow, I’ll make sure to BREAK YOUR FUCKING KNEES SO THAT YOU CAN’T WALK ANYMORE.”
“Fuck Dad, come on.”
“NO ‘Come on’ TONIGHT! I don’t care if you are the cleanest bitch in the city, if you don’t learn to respect me in this household prior to you leaving for college, YOU ARE OUT OF THIS HOME!!!” My Dad bolted up the stairs, stomping on the ground. I immediately went into the kitchen and sighed, looking at every item I could see.
“Kitchen knives that I could use to stab dad, pots and pans, a fridge with little to no food. And I’m in charge of it all because of his stupid alcohol problem. Alright, let me think… what the fuck would Hugh Hefner’s left degraded testicle want to eat?” I took a moment to think, but my mind came up blank. “Shit, I barely paid attention to what he eats because he was always arguing with mom… Maybe I can get someone to help me…” I opened my phone contacts. “Okay… Nicole can’t even make a sandwich, Kelly would probably fuck the sandwich, Emily would put pills in the sandwich, Ari already works making pizzas, so she’d already be worn out from food, and Karen already helped me out today. Fuck it, I guess I don’t have a choice.” I then dialed the only friend I had left in my contacts.
“Hey, what’s up, Jecka?”
“Um… hi Megan… this is probably gonna sound weird but… I need your help…”
“Absolutely, what do you need?”
“Really? You’re gonna help me without sounding entitled?”
“Not after what happened today.”
“Megan, that’s wonderful…”
“Although… do you think you could help me out with something in return?”
“Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to ask that. So what’s up?”
“Well, what’s the favor you're asking of me?”
“I need help cooking for my dad tomorrow. I’m guessing he’s gonna be at work so-”
Megan jumped in mid sentence, cutting me off. “I’ll be over first thing in the morning.” Megan then immediately hung up.
“What a hungry bitch…” I said, staring at my phone.
Notes:
Two girls down, Four more to go! Next up is Megan, and I'm EXTREMELY excited to work on the next couple of chapters as they are HUGE chapters. I am still currently working on the Life and Times as well. As that one will be a bit of a smaller chapter, but this weekend I'll have some special plans made out for me..
I am actually going to be getting married this weekend....Yeah insane but still lol. So, I'll be on my honeymoon so I'll still try to write here and there. Thank you guys for sticking around this far. I'm excited to work on everything a bit harder. Life is going to be harder, but I'm not going to give up on this story.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3 Take Me On, You Meganlomaniac
Summary:
Megan comes over to help Jecka with her problem, but with Kelly's party coming up, Megan will have to ask something in return. Jecka may not like it at the end of the night.
Notes:
It's been so long, but finally I'm back writing this! With a lot of stuff going on, I'm extremely excited to have this back up. This is probably the LONGEST chapter I've ever written so I apologize for that. Especially considering I was planning on making this the story with shorter word length. Hopefully the fact I'm at the Climax of the story makes up for it.
I *tried depending on Ao3* to insert images and a map to help with Kelly's house (Yes, I am aware that this is the Farnham in the UK, but for some reason when I researched some stuff, it gave me results in Farnham in VIRGINIA, so I was under the impression this was in Virginia and not the UK. So sorry about that issue. I just wanted to emphasize how gigantic Kelly's house was.
While this was the longest chapter I've ever written, I had an absolute blast with this one. I really wanted to try and be creative in this even if it seemed super silly especially with how the next few chapters in this story are going to go down. So I really hope you enjoy this story!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 3 Take Me On, You Meganlomaniac
Time: 8 a.m.
Location: My House
Date: June 13th, 2009
With my Dad gone in the morning to his job, it was nice to finally have a moment full of peace and bliss. I didn’t turn on the TV, no newspaper, no video games, no radio, nothing….Just me on the couch. Folgers Coffee mixed with caramel…what a combo….
“ This is true. ” I muttered to myself. Nicole would probably say that. This is gonna sound really stupid, but I kind of wanna check on her after yesterday. I opened my phone and speed dialed her and just made my right leg bounce waiting for her to pick up. “This is such a fucking dumb idea. She’s gonna be like ‘ This is just another guy calling me. Fuck off and die’ or whatever.”
“Hey, um….Good morning, Jecka.” Nicole seemed to be just waking up, too. Wait…she told me Good Morning…
“Um, yeah…um, how are you?”
“I’m fine, I guess. What do you want?”
“I just…wanted to check on you.”
“Umm…I’m literally about to go to work, but like…I can spare….like 5 minutes….”
“Are you in your Domino’s outfit?”
“No, I’m in my pajamas. Yes, I’m in my fucking work outfit.”
“Says the Bitch who wanted to get choked out by her ex.”
“Dude, I told you. That was all made up like shit. It sounds like you are the jealous bitch now. Or worse, a manwhore.”
“I’m not a manwhore!”
“Says the girl who made out with two girls yesterday.”
“Karen liked it, so it wasn’t a total loss.”
Nicole laid out a long sigh. “Jecka, I’m guessing you are in your pajamas?” I looked down at my pink pajama pants and zebra-striped T-shirt.
“Why are you even asking…?”
“If you want….I can swing by and sneak some pizza over to you…? Just say that I got lost and the customer got a free pizza. Ari’s the manager so she’s been chill since I’m actually doing decent.”
“Uh….are you sure you won’t get in trouble…? I really don’t have the funds to pay because I gotta buy groceries.” I took a sip from my coffee.
“We can figure out something for payment…” After Nicole said that, I choked on my coffee. “Um…are you okay?”
“Yeah….” I set my coffee down and started twirling my hair. “Nicole….are you asking me for something…? In exchange….?”
“Uh, not really? Just wanted to just say hello.”
“Can you throw something in there, too?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
So, yeah….I have no idea what came over me when I said this… “Sociopath sauce…?”
“What the fuck is that…Oh….” Nicole realized what everything meant.
“Yeah….Okay, that was really stupid.”
“I mean it was, but…it was kind of cute, I guess?”
“So...shit….”
“Jecka…I…”
“I’M HERE!!!” Megan burst through the front door with a ton of ruffled bags with logos like Walmart, Giant Food and Safeway.
“HOLY FUCK, MEGAN!” I immediately got startled, causing me to jump from my couch.
“Megan???” Nicole shouted on the phone before I accidentally closed the phone.
“SHIT, NO!!”
“What’s the matter?” Megan said, hauling all of these items and setting them on my kitchen counter.
“Nothing….Just…nothing. So, why did you bring all of these groceries? Meat, eggs, flour, you bought stuff for the whole kitchen practically.”
“Well, I figured that I could help you out since I’m gonna cook a great meal for a fucking pi-, I mean for your family. Might as well put a smile on your face.”
“Uh, don’t you mean, my dad’s face? That’s the reason why I asked for help.”
“Anyways, when is he coming back?”
“Supposedly, later tonight, I have no idea. I just know I told him, I’d be skipping out to go to that party.”
“At Kelly’s?”
“No, Kylar’s, I just want to get away from….” I had to think of something. “Just get out of the house, you know? Wait….Kelly, is throwing a party?”
“Uhhhh, surprise…”
“What do you mean?”
“Kelly decided to throw a party because her parents said she can throw ONE party before she leaves for school in a couple of months.”
“Holy shit, her parents can let her do that kind of shit?”
“Well, since they are out of town, I guess?”
“Dude, screw Kylar’s. I can go to a party without being worried about getting groped.”
“Yeah, she invited all of us, too. You, Nicole, Karen…”
“Is it just us?”
“Oh no, she’s gonna invite a lot of people from school.”
“That’s gonna be really fucking cool. So, that’s why you are helping me? So we can get ready for the party after we cook?”
Megan clasped her hands together. “Okay, so technically…there’s another reason I want to help out?”
“Um….why?” I got a bit nervous for a moment.
“Okay…so I was going to ask….” Megan swallowed and started to sweat for a moment.
“Ask what?”
“…I want to ask Nicole out to the party.”
“Uh….why?”
“She’s really cute and everything. She’s never afraid to speak her mind. She’s courageous. Daring.” Megan started to play with her hair. “Funny, cute, charming, she has those gorgeous blue eyes….Just…one date and we can…”
“Okay, Oxford Dictionary, slow down there before you wet my carpet and my dad gets pissy.”
“Yeah, I wouldn't want that.”
“When did you like Nicole? I thought you were dating Hunter?”
“He broke up with me for Ari? And Ari broke up with him? Also, there was the time where Nicole pranked Hunter by hanging him up from his leg.”
“Fuck, I forgot how funny that was.” I smiled.
“….I just wanted to make sure you were okay with me wanting to ask her out since…You two used to be close?”
“We were never that close.”
“Jecka….Never mind, so….can you please help me? She may not even say yes.”
“I thought you wanted to go out with Nicole?”
“Yeah, but I’m not going to force her and I just want one date with her.”
“You are asking me like you need my blessing to ask her out.”
“Kind of because she hates me. If I just show up to her house, she’ll tell me to kill myself. But if YOU show up with me, she will act chill. Then I just tell her how I feel.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Jecka….I don’t know how to say this…” Megan rubbed the back of her head. “I really like her.”
My heart just kind of stopped for a moment. Or at least it felt like it. Megan and Nicole, a thing? That would never happen. This has to be a prank. Right..? “You’re joking.”
“I don’t want to say I love her unless I really mean it.” Holy fuck when she says it, it’s scary. “So….can you help me? I’d love to help you cook, but this whole date means the WORLD to me. Be my wingwoman?”
“I thought you being an actor meant the whole world to you?” Megan just growled and glared at me. “Alright, fuck, don’t roar at me like you’re a lion. Just give me a minute to think.” I walked over to the kitchen sink and just got me a glass of water. I already kissed Nicole twice already, tried to talk to her at her place and she’s already expecting me to come over. There’s no way she said yes to going out with Nicole. She doesn’t even know about the party.
Right?
Like think about it. Nicole hates parties. She hates being around people. Especially Megan. There’s no way she’d fall for..
I’m being selfish. I’m being prideful like my Dad always tells me.
I wanted Nicole to myself. Nicole doesn’t even want to talk about what happened at the party and I don’t think she ever will. Nicole didn’t even like Ari, so what chance do I have with her? We met one time sure, but if Nicole hates me bringing it up, then how is it memorable? If I love her, and if Nicole doesn’t love me….why am I trying?
If you really love someone…. “Hey, Megan. You should ask Nicole out. She might say yes.” Then you should let them go.
Megan’s eyes widened and she started to hop slightly. “Okay! Okay.” She started to breathe in and out followed by a high pitched squeal.
“Holy fuck, calm down. You are meeting Nicole. Not Vin Diesel.”
“Yeah, but she’s the closest thing from those girls in Jennifer’s Body.”
“I’m sorry, both of them?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Nothing. So are you going to help me or what?”
“Absolutely!!” Megan grabbed two giant skillets from under the wooden countertop tables, two large sized pots, two rectangular baking pans and a giant crockpot. Then she grabbed a colorful cookbook from one of her grocery bags. “Alright, so I’m going to need your help with these recipes I’m making for your family.”
“Uh…how much are you going to fix?”
“Well….” Megan turned a few pages with some recipes already laid out. Then she pointed to the first couple of recipes. “First, for an appetizer we can fix some Potluck Macaroni and Cheese mixed with extra cheese and a hint of whipping cream.” She moved her finger down a bit to the next recipe. “Then do a side of Fried Fish and do a Meatloaf with Rice entree. Men have to get their meat fix somehow. If they want to get fat like Nicole’s brother, they might as well make sure they get plenty of protein with a healthy side.” Megan turned the page with another recipe where it was covered in herbs, celery, carrots, and some form of ribs with some baguette bread on the side. “And for the main course, a Country Ribs Dinner with slow cooked ribs, celery, carrots, onions, and potatoes, doesn’t matter what kind of potatoes, but in my opinion.” She grabbed a bag full of Russet potatoes from a random Wal-mart bag. “These are the best and cheapest form of potatoes. So, I’m ready whenever you are.” Megan smiled.
“Megan, when the FUCK did you take an interest in food? I’ve NEVER seen you or ANYONE be interested in food this much.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you dated Hunter, who ALWAYS wanted to go to Applebee’s, you always whine about going there.”
“Yeah, because he acts like it was the only damn restaurant in town.”
“Even then, you hated meat, you always wanted salads to watch your figure and nothing else.” I put my hand on my hip. “Then you randomly decided that you just ate a mountain full of hot dogs. And now you are at my house helping me cook so you can get jiggy with a sociopath. What is up with you?”
“Okay, look, I didn’t want to cook because I like Nicole. I just….love food. I love how it’s made. I love how it tastes. How its’ created. How people can use it. How it helps people. How it forms people. How it…”
“Hold on. Slow WAY the fuck down. What are you talking about?” I gave Megan a confused look.
“Jecka, think LONG and hard about it. What was the FIRST sin ever committed? Adam and Eve eating the Apple in the Garden of Eden. Whenever Karen gets sad, what does she do? She eats Chiptole. I don’t mean like a SHIT ton, but like get a killer burrito. Whenever Kylar gets pissy, he sits down and eats a Peanut Butter Jelly sandwich. Hell, Nicole would go out of her way to get cheesy biscuits from Red Lobster. She even broke into a McDonald's right before graduation!”
“I forgot she was eating McDonald’s fries during my Valedictorian speech.”
“EXACTLY! We need food as a way to fight, to survive, to make friends, meet new people, to help us become healthier.”
“Yeah, but look at that fat fuck of a brother Nicole used to have. He had like what? Twenty pizzas a day?”
“Well, he ate too fucking many. He decided to turn it into a Thanksgiving Turkey instead of a whole steak. He’s using food as a means of escapism and not learning!” Megan said excitedly. “Like there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to eat like you, Ari, Emily, or even Nicole, but if we don’t do anything TO eat, we’ll be dead for the vultures.”
“Megan, what the fuck are you talking about? You sound like my Grandfather trying to give a speech like he just fought in Vietnam. What are you trying to even say?”
“Because here’s the thing….we’re human. We eat to live. So we simply live to eat.” Megan smiled. “Let me show you what I mean.” She then slowly walked up to my face.
“Uh…Megan….what are you doing? You….you aren’t going to eat me, right….? Look, I know I kissed like two girls, but I’m done, okay?” I stared at Megan’s brown eyes for a moment then looked at her long curly hair. “Well, honestly, your eyes are pretty and your hair is really nice. Wait, fuck, don’t get the wrong idea.
Megan pointed her finger at my mouth for a moment. “Consider the human mouth being classified as the ‘pie hole’.” Then she pointed to my family’s couch. “Human beings are literally being called ‘The Couch Potato.” She grabbed my Phone out of my pocket.
“What the fuck, Megan?” I scowled.
“We use our device to literally summon food.” Megan pulled me over to the front door opening and pressed the door buzzer with a light, appealing noise. “This is one of the many voices of food, and that over there..” Megan made me look over across my yard to a guy being delivered to Pizza Hut by a female Pizza hut employee. “Is a portal to which food is being passed on.”
The Pizza Hut employee then hopped on her red moped driving out of their driveway. “That, is one of the many food transportation vehicles to where we take the food….” Then a giant sixteen wheeled truck with a Burger King advertisement passed by our house. “They ship the food. Sometimes, they DRIVE the food.” Megan pointed out an ice cream truck passing by our house with two guys wearing ice cream as part of the decal of the vehicle. “Hell, some have to WEAR the food to advertise it.”
We then heard some kids and parents having a party next door with the father in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts grilling while the mother was passing out extremely cold drinks to the kids. “That keeps the food hot, while that keeps the food cold! While that….Uh…” Megan was looking at a pinata that literally looked like my head. Hair, eyes, detail, you name it, just everything was made out of paper mache. “Okay, yeah, I can’t explain it….”
Then a kid got a baseball bat smashing the Jecka pinata open. “WHY THE FUCK IS THERE A PINATA HEAD OF ME????”
“Hey, look, FOOD!” Megan screamed out while the candy fell out. She dragged me back in the house while using a remote to turn on my TV. On the TV screen, there were multiple people biting on some white circle things then drinking some kind of purple juice. “Here is where they WORSHIP food…Okay, but not really.” Megan changed to a channel where a bunch of guys were doing weights. “That is where they get rid of the guilt where they eat too much food!” Megan pulled on my shirt slowly. “THE WORLD IS MADE OF ABSOLUTE FOOD THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE!”
“Holy fucking shit, calm down, already!” I screamed. “Okay, I get it. The world is made of food, and shit.”
“Sorry, I just got really excited.”
“I never thought you’d get excited about cooking…You know what? Maybe after this, we can eat some of this food. My Dad will think I got some food from here anyways.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’d be weird for you to leave right after you make a big meal with a lot of planned recipes. So…you can stay and…”
Megan held both of my hands a bit tighter in joy. “Let’s do this! I’m so pumped to cook these dishes for you!” Megan smiled.
“Do you have to hold my hands so tight?” I stared at Megan’s hands still holding onto mine.
=====================================================================
Time: 9:15 a.m.
Megan had drained the elbow macaroni in the kitchen sink and set it back into the crockpot, but she mixed together a bunch of Velveeta cheese cubes, Mexican cheese blends, and milk before setting the top to my crockpot covering gooey macaroni and cheese. Then she bolted over to the stove to check on her fish being deep fried in vegetable oil checking on them to make sure they didn't explode. She opened the oven to check on the meatloaf still cooking while giving off a delicious smell while sizzling. “It needs a few more minutes.” Megan slowly closed the oven and immediately looked at the rice in my rice cooker.
No, seriously, its’ mine. One time I bought it just so Nicole could make ‘Rice Balls.’ Yeah, it went well as you expect. Yours truly was really struggling with trying to cut down the onion because it made my eyes watery. It was mainly to add with the Country Ribs Dinner while the cut up pork ribs mixed with cream of mushroom was cooking in a pot by itself. “Hey, Jecka, let me help you out.” She grabbed the sharpest knife along with a peeled carrot, a peeled potato, a garlic clove and set it all out on a brown cutting board. “Something like this.” She firmly grasped one end of the potato with her left hand while cutting the potato at extreme speeds with her right. The potato, carrot, and garlic clove were now completely diced up ready for the soup. “Here’s a trick for the onion.” Megan turned on the cold tap water from the sink and washed the onion. Continuing the recipe, she slapped the onion back on the cutting board and diced up the onion. After cutting everything up, she combined all of the cut food and slid it into the soup before putting the lid back on. “If you water your onions, especially before peeling, the smell won’t be that strong.”
“Megan, it’s amazing you like…know how to cook like this?”
“My Dad kind of inspired me to cook like this. He told me that one day I’ll have to do something like this.”
“Uh…he didn’t mean it in a sexist way, right?”
“No, it’s more of how the guy is gonna be a lazy piece of shit, but I’ll be the badass of the relationship.”
“That doesn’t sound as bad?”
“Oh, I love my dad. He’s super cool. What about yours?”
SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, YOU DUMB WHORE! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR SHITTY BRACES!
“He’s great, yeah. Hey, I’m just gonna get me a drink, okay? Like some water.” I went over by the kitchen sink and turned on the faucet to get me some water in a glass with no ice. While I was drinking it, I noticed it was cooler than normal. Maybe I set it too high. Might as well get another one just to be safe. So the next one was colder than the last. So one more should do the trick.
“Uh….Jecka?” Megan was staring at me with my fourth glass in hand. I quickly gulped down the cool, delicious, appetizing tap water that started to make my body feel cold in pure amazement. It felt like Christmas had come early this year. Please don’t take that out of context. So I decided to take one more drink of the coldest tap water I've ever had. When I finished, I exhaled as if my body just had the best, ice cold Dr. Pepper in the world.
“Megan, you NEED to try this shit.”
“Uh…it’s just tap water.” Megan looked at the ribs cooking in the pot. “We could use that water for this to cook faster. Can you bring it over?”
“Yeah, absolutely. It might even….” I somehow tripped and dropped the glass of water shattering against the tile floor. I tilted my head up to look at my mess and….
LOOK WHAT THE FUCK YOU DID!
I PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THAT SHIT. I DON’T WANT YOUR LAZY CLUMSY ASS BREAKING EVERYTHING BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU ARE YOUNG AND PRETTY!
Please….Just no…..
CLEAN YOUR SHIT UP BEFORE I SLAM YOU INTO THE TILE WALL LIKE I DID YOUR MOTHER! I DON’T GIVE A FUCK IF IT BREAKS! YOU ARE A HORRIBLE CHILD AND YOU ARE THE CAUSE FOR A LOT OF SHIT AROUND HERE!
No…..Please. I’ll clean it up. I’ll clean it up. I’ll clean it up. I’ll clean it up.
NO, NOTHING BITCH. IF YOU DON’T FIX YOUR ACT I’LL KICK YOUR FUCKING TEETH IN!!
No! I’ve been getting my teeth cleaned for months…Please, don’t do that! I don’t even smoke anymore. I’ll be a good girl….
“JECKA!” Megan was holding my hands trying to make me look at her. I was curled up in a corner in front of two cabinets. The glass was still shattered into pieces across the kitchen floor while Megan stared at me like I just came back to life.
“Wha….What happened?”
“You dropped your water and started spouting a bunch of crazy shit trying to pick up the water telling yourself: “
You’re worthless”
. Then you went to this corner and started crying.” Megan wiped some tears away from my ears incredibly slowly.
“Megan….look, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Just please don’t pick up the glass. It’s not safe.” Megan put her hand on my cheek. “You mean the world to me. I’m lucky to have a friend like you in this world. You have much more purpose than you think you do.”
“Uh…..Okay….” Megan then helped me up off the floor.
“Once I take out the meatloaf, you can set the bread in the oven if you want? That way you can help me out even more than you’ve already done today.”
“.....okay.”
=================================================================================================
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Location: Living Room
It was an extremely quiet two hours with Megan smiling at me every so often. We eventually finished cooking to where we sat everything on the kitchen table. Eventually, Megan washed dishes and I helped her put them up so we could finally eat since I didn’t have any breakfast. The toasted bread, the Country Ribs, the Mac and Cheese, the fried fish, and the meatloaf and rice were all emitting every kind of satiable smell that appealed to the human senses. Megan smiled at every ounce of food she made. She told me, ‘You helped out a lot.’ But it just didn’t feel like it.
We got ourselves a plate to reward ourselves at the table and Megan let me taste a bite of the country ribs, which looked like stew, but….
It felt like I was having something Gordon Ramsey made. I thought I was actually going to have a heart attack from how amazing the food was. Out of EVERYTHING I've ever tasted, Megan Welch has given me the perfect dish. The rice, the bread, the mac and cheese, the fried fish; all of it was cooked/made to perfection. I don’t even like fried stuff at all. “Like holy shit Megan…I can’t believe how amazing this is.”
“It really reassures me that you say that.” She took a bite of some of her rice.
“No, I’m serious. Holy fuck, I can’t believe Hunter left you. I’d seriously date you just for your food.”
“Want me to just ask you out instead?” Megan joked. “I’d have an easier chance with you than Nicole.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“The fact I cooked a meal for you.”
“Wanna marry me then?”
“I might as well since I took you out to dinner. You may have to break up with Karen though.” Megan smiled.
“Okay, to be fair, she caught me off guard. I didn’t expect her to just…kiss me like that?”
“Yeah, Karen has really outgrown her shell.”
“No, I mean like…she says she liked ALL of us.”
“Seriously, that’s crazy even for Karen.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna ask this. Did you two make out when you both watched those Lesbian movies?”
“They aren’t lesbian movies!” Megan got slightly insulted. “They are great coming of age stories!”
“Yeah, two women that eventually end up together, but somehow break up at the end. Really engaging story.”
“Like you and Nicole?”
“Dude, that’s cold. Even for you.”
“I’m really sorry. I was just trying to have fun with you.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, too. You’ve been a big help and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“About earlier….are you okay?”
“….Yeah, why?”
“You just broke down. I have never seen anyone like that. Like you messed up a line in a play and just collapsed.”
“I just got a lot going on.” I wasn’t wrong. “A little anxious about the future.”
“I am, too.” Megan stopped eating for a moment. “I was such a jerk in the past, I’m so focused on right now. Helping you. Hanging out with everyone. My desire to date Nicole.”
“I’m still trying hard to get used to that.”
“If you have a problem with me liking Nicole, tell me.”
“Is that a threat?” I kind of scowled at her.
“No, no! Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. If you still have feelings for her, then you should ask her out. Not me.”
Jecka, you still care a bit for her, don’t you? Maybe if you did ask Nicole out, things can change? Maybe she’ll change, but even then. She needs some space. You’ve been clingy. You’ve been spiteful. You’ve hurt Nicole just like she hurt you. Just see what she says to Megan.
“Megan, I’m okay with you dating Nicole if she says yes.”
Megan’s smile returned to her. “I don’t know how to thank you. Well, I mean technically I did, but you’ve been a big help. I can see why Karen doesn’t stop talking about you.”
“Wait, she doesn’t?”
“So, when does Nicole get off?”
“She might be getting off soon. Ari is gonna drop her off at her place.”
“Can we go over after this?”
“Yeah, absolutely. Take your time with your food.”
=====================================================================
Time: Noon
Location: Nicole’s House
Megan and I went over to Nicole’s and I just went ahead and knocked on her door. “Hey, Nicole. It’s me. I brought someone over who wants to see you.”
The door immediately opened to Nicole’s mom at the door. “Oh, it’s you two. Welcome back.” I love her button up blouses, I don’t know why. “Are you two here to see Nicole?”
“Yes, ma’am. I just want to ask her a quick question.” Megan spoke out.
“Sure, she just got home from work. Let me get her. You two want to come inside or?”
“Actually, I can ask her right here if that’s okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right back.” Nicole’s mom softly closed the door as we were waiting on her doorsteps now.
“You think she’ll show?” Megan got a little nervous.
“She should.” I was actually hoping not. “She’ll probably tell us to get us off her lawn. So that’s a good start.”
“How is that good?”
“You want to ask her out don’t you? Take every opportunity you can get with this bitch.”
“Forgot you were so experienced in Nicoleism.”
“Eww, don’t say that.” I frowned even more when Nicole showed up opening the door.
“Hey, you wanted to talk to me?” Fuck, she showed up. Even in uniform.
“Actually, Nicole….” I looked over at Megan. “She wants to talk to you.”
“Megan wants to talk to me?”
“Yes, I really want to talk to you, Nicole.”
“Great, you are probably gonna rub it in my face about how you are more socially adept than me.”
“Nicole, you got top ten in the class and you’re going to UCLA. That’s like going to Harvard, but in fucking New Jersey.”
“Did you just call UCLA a school for the Jersey Shore lovers?” I asked in a confused tone.
“I hate to say it, she does have a point.” Nicole was somewhat impressed. Fuck…. “Look, what do you want? I just got home.”
“Um….are you free tonight?”
“I’m going to relax I’m not going to Kylar’s fucking party besides you and your washed up bum fucks. Not to mention, I don’t want you giving me a lecture on how I’m supposed to act at a party.”
“I know. I’m not doing that. Not anymore.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Nicole, I was a jerk. I was very mean spirited when I wanted to get what I want, when I was dating Hunter, and when I was Class President. When in reality, I should have just paid more attention to everyone in general. Maybe not Jeffery, but, more importantly, you…Nicole.”
“Uhhhh, thanks?”
“You just have a lot of redeeming qualities about yourself.”
“I robbed the McDonalds and kicked Jeffery in the balls for arguing with me about how the Chicken Biscuit is the worst thing on the menu. What the fuck is redeeming about me?”
Megan took a deep breath. “You aren’t afraid to speak anything on your mind, you clearly just do it instead of thinking about it, which I think is a very powerful tool of yours, and when you do think about it, it’s really passionate, Nicole. I’d be lying if I said I wish I didn’t want to know you more. That’s why I want to ask you something.”
“What…are you going to ask me?” Please say no….
“There’s a party at Kelly’s and…I was going to ask you out on a date tonight.” Nicole’s eyes and mine both widened after she actually asked her out. “I’ve been a total bitch to you, and I haven’t taken grasp of the fact you’re beyond bewilderment in beauty. I….actually like you, Nicole Sanderson, and I want to take you out on ONE date. And if it doesn’t go well, I’ll never ask you for anything ever again.”
Nicole took a moment to take in what she just said. “This is a prank isn’t it, Jecka? You set me the fuck up didn’t you?” Nicole turned to me.
“No….this is real.” I said in disappointment.
“No pranks, No jokes, and no one is involved. One night, I just want to be your girlfriend.”
“Wait, you’re asking me, so aren’t you asking me to be YOUR girlfriend, Megan?”
“Can’t it be both…?” Holy fuck, she is actually in on this. “So, just one night. I promise.”
Nicole actually looked at me for a moment still in shock. “You know what…Alright.” Nicole raised her arms up slightly believing her. “I’ll be your date tonight. See how this shit fest goes.”
Megan looked at me ecstatic from looking at me. “Wait…really?”
“Yes, now let me go inside before I change my mind.” Nicole turned around to us before she went inside. “So…what time are you getting me?”
“Uh…closer to 8? Just wear whatever you want, okay?” Megan was trying hard not to stutter.
“Yeah…Okay, I’ll see you at 8.” Nicole slammed the door.
“HOLY FUCK! SHE SAID YES!!!” Megan started hoping for joy around the grass and even started to twirl me randomly.
“Holy shit, Megan! Let go of me!”
“She finally said yes! I was so scared shitless like she was gonna shoot me, but she is giving me a chance!!!!”
“Yeah….that’s great….” I slightly groaned.
“Can you help me tonight?”
“What else do you want?” I exclaimed.
“I just don’t want to mess it up, and you know her best. Let’s talk about it on the way to Kelly’s!!!” Megan started to slightly pull on me to my own car.
“WHY ARE WE GOING TO KELLY’S?????”
=====================================================================
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: Kelly’s House (Farnham, VA)
For whatever reason, Megan was now dragging me to her house, yet I fucking drove. Although, the major plus is that Kelly’s mansion is freaking huge. Indoor and outdoor gardens look like they were made by Mother Nature herself. Then we went inside the Living Room, which looked like I was in one of those spy movies.
While the wallpaper was so white that it looked like heaven, it was a pure white tile floor that looked like it was just waxed as I could see our reflections. There was a decently sized ceiling window on our left as we walked in that revealed the beautiful, blue skies. In this small little window, she had this white porcelain figure crossing its legs for display along with some type of plant beside Megan and myself. Followed by two plants in white porcelain bowls holding some type of giant yellow flowers. Beside the stairs in front of us, there was a giant brown piano with its top board hinge up showing its strings. Kelly walked down the stairs in front of us beside one of her plants while holding Karen’s right hand, who looked a bit confused as I was. Kelly was dressed up in her short white sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans with a shit ton of holes in them while Karen was in her long sleeve grey shirt and blue jeans, yet I’m shocked she’s wearing a sweatshirt in the Summer.
“Kelly, THIS is your house???” Megan yelled out echoing. “It’s freaking HUGE!!!”
“Yeah, this is the biggest house I’ve ever seen. Like it's one of those Spy movies.” Karen smiled at me.
“Karen, are you reading my mind or something?” I stared at Karen.
“Should I?”
“Alright, I appreciate it, but you girls are probably wondering why you are all over at my house. Well, Megan and Karen were invited over so I could do something special to them.”
“Are you going to make out with them, too?”
“Whatever. If you can make out with Karen, Nicole and myself. I have a right to make out with anyone I want.”
“Bitch, you had the whole school up inside of you.” Karen scoffed. “Jecka’s at least hunting for some fresh meat. You went after that Best Buy worker once and he mentioned he was married with three kids.”
“FUCK OFF! I went after two guys this school year.”
“Wait, are you going to ask to kiss me?” Megan interrupted.
“NO! Ugh, look, I figured you didn’t want to go back home and wait like Karen suggested. So I just figured you could crash with me until time for the party. You work two jobs now and you could probably use the rest.” Kelly turned her attention to Megan and Karen now. “As for you two, I want to do something with you.” Megan walked over to her brown couch and grabbed a giant bag full of makeup as she pulled out two poofy brushes.
“I’m confused.” Karen said. “I only said that because….” She looked at me and freaked out for a moment. “Uh…I just wanted her to reconnect with you….Yeah, that’s it!”
“But I see her at work all the time. I’m giving you two a make over for the party!”
“Why them and not me?” I jumped in.
“You’re already pretty enough. These two are gonna be my spa guinea pigs.”
“Uh….Spa Guinea Pigs?” Megan grew increasingly concerned.
“Yeah, I’m going to give you girls the ultimate spa retreat. Are you girls allergic to plants?”
“I’m allergic to Poison Ivy….why?” Karen responded.
“I’m allergic to Zithromax.” Megan answered.
“I hope you never get Chlamydia then….” I spoke out.
“Well, I decided to use some extremely healthy alternatives for this process, so Jecka is going to assist me with making you girls shine like stars.”
“Uhhhhh, assist you with what?” Kelly immediately grabbed my hand as we headed over to the next room on our left. She turned on some light to where there were two black recliner chairs that looked comfortable even with a ton of black leather. At the bottom of the recliners, it had these tiny wheels to make them rollable. “Can you help me move these? You grab one and I grab another?”
“Sure….?”
(Music: The Cleaner )
“They're ready for major modifications!” Kelly smiled while quickly moving her recliner out of the room. Kelly and I moved the recliners towards Karen and Megan as Kelly just scooped Karen up in the chair spooking Karen. I just moved to Megan, who sat in the chair I pushed in and moved towards Kelly into a room with the indoor pool. We set the girls beside each other as Kelly raised the chairs upward directly looking at the pool. Both of the girls looked confused for a moment as Kelly had a table with all kinds of makeup and perfumes. On this medium sized table that were the most eye-catching were four plants almost ready to sprout. Kelly grabbed these plants and set two on each side of the recliners. She softly touched each of the girls hands before grabbing Karen’s glasses and setting them on my face. “They look cuter on you.” Kelly winked at me while she walked back to the table full of items grabbing a perfume bottle.
“So…how long are you going to give them a makeover?”
Kelly turned to me and said, “You can’t rush art” , before she sprayed a giant purple cloud of perfume into the girls’ faces. Megan and Karen started to cough uncontrollably before stopping briefly and laying back into their seats. Peacefully, they drifted into a deep sleep with their bodies completely relaxed.
“KELLY, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO THEM??” I screamed out.
“I just put them to sleep. With a hint of Lavender and Chamomile mixed together into a liquid, it creates a relaxant for their muscles. Even with a nice side effect of the most relaxed sleep ever! Now they are having the dreams of their lives!”
“Okay, now WAKE THEM THE FUCK UP!” I looked over at the girls completely relaxed in the recliner chairs.
“Not yet, we still need to do some finishing touches. There are two giant towels folded up under the table with the make up. Can you be a dear and grab them?”
“What are you, my Grandma? Kelly…these are still warm…and a little wet?”
(Music: The Cleaner )
“It’s to make it more relaxed, just trust me!” Kelly grabbed a towel from me as we now set both of the towels on their bodies emitting a calming, sizzle noise. “Don’t worry, that’s normal.”
So now my job was to just start handing her some tools from the table. For starters, she used scissors to clip their hair a bit, taking care of their split ends, and put on this weird brand of makeup called Pacifica lip balm: Dream lit Glow for Karen and Fluffy Blushy for Megan. She continued by putting blush on the girls and giving the girls a Mani-pedi followed by black nail polish for Karen and yellow nail polish for Megan, respectively. Kelly massaged random parts of their body, like their throats, arms, and even knees, to create this cracking but very relaxing noise as she did it. She then pressed a button behind the recliners to have these little backwash units come out like little pop-ups you see in children’s books. “Come over to Megan’s seat and follow my lead.” I went behind Megan’s seat as we tilted their chairs back a bit to where they were fully lying backwards. As they were tilted back with their faces looking up at the ceiling lights, Kelly had two water bottles by her shoes filled with warm water. She picked them up and poured them into the medium-sized units, followed by squeezing some shampoo in Kelly's and my own hands. Both of us slowly grabbed their hair soaking it in the shampoo and rinsing it within the warm water. After we finished, Kelly tossed me another towel as she wrapped Karen’s wet hair in the towel giving me the signal to do the same with Megan.
Kelly moved her recliner over by this extremely small pool away from the big indoor pool. I followed her to the small pool as she took over both recliners now. She slowly tipped the girls into the small pool causing a small plop as the girls landed perfectly standing up in the pool. Both girls woke up shocked with a towel on their heads and now they are both in one piece swimsuits. Megan was in a yellow suit while Karen was in a black one. All of us were shocked except Kelly, giving off a calm, relaxed expression. “There you go, girls. Now to finish off the treatment with a special bath.”
“Wait, won’t the makeup get off of them?” I asked Kelly.
“Nope, this makeup won’t wash off even if they somehow take a dive in this.”
“Hold on, Why are we in this pool?? Why am I in a one piece suit?” Megan shouted looking down in her outfit.
“Why is Jecka wearing my glasses?” Karen looked at me. “Although, she does look really pretty in them.”
“Come to think of it, Jecka does look really cute in the glasses.” Megan looked at me as well. “Seriously, where are our clothes?”
“Jecka took them off.” Kelly lied through her fucking teeth.
“Jecka!!” Megan screamed out.
“Oh wow….Jecka, I never knew I had it in you.” Karen blushed for a moment.
“I didn’t do it, you fucking dipshits! I didn’t even know she was doing this.”
“Nah, it’s okay, I did it!” Kelly hopped with a little bit of joy.
“Oh god, it’s even worse.” Megan groaned. “I should feel disgusted, but….” She moved back a bit towards the wall in the pool. “It feels really amazing. Holy cow.”
“Judging from the smell, you used a form of chamomile and lavender on us, right? So….what are we in right now, Kelly?” Karen asked.
“Balneotherapy! You girls are bathing in the jacuzzi with minerals and salts. Specifically, Epsom Salt. So you girls should be experiencing a pure relief in muscle pain.”
“You two should join us.” Karen smiled. “It’ll probably be more relaxing if we all have a good time.”
“Uh…it doesn’t look like more people will fit in here.” Megan looked at the size of the pool again.
“Okay, fair. Besides you girls have less than a minute to get out anyways.”
“But it’s so nice here!” While Karen spoke out, I looked over at the recliners Megan and Karen were in. Now, the barely grown plants had turned into plants with small vines and dandelions sprouting out of the plant. Their clothes were not fully torn at all as they laid beside the plants like the girls took off the clothes themselves.
“And done!” Kelly shouted out. “Alright, girls! Time to get out of the pool and dry off!” Megan and Karen climbed out of the pool with the built-in ladder and grabbed the towels handed by Kelly. They started to dry off, but Kelly shouted at them to stop. “Nope! You two girls are going somewhere special. Kelly then pointed…..
“Why are we going to the Plant Room…?” Karen stared at the screen door marked
Plant Room
.
“Kelly, photosynthesis isn’t going to keep me dry.” Megan gave Kelly a look while holding her towel. Kelly placed her hands on Megan and Karen with an interesting smile.
“Who said I was using photosynthesis as a means to keep you dry?” The screen door opened by itself slowly as Kelly started to push the girls in the fully floral room. The screen door slammed shut then followed by a silver metal door sliding down behind the screen door catching me off guard. Then I heard three more metal thuds behind the door.
“KELLY! GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!!!” Megan said, smacking the door multiple times.
“Yeah, I wanted to see more of the flowers you had in this room!” Karen muffled out. “There was this REALLY pretty Venus Fly Trap you had and…”
Kelly pressed a red button beside the door with a loud air noise behind the door. The girls behind the door were screaming extremely loud, but Karen’s then grew into a laugh.
“Kelly, what’s going on?!?!” I pulled on Kelly’s arm.
“So, not only is this a plant area, but it's also a drying area!” Kelly excitedly shouted.
“What the fuck are you using to dry them with? 300 air conditioners??”
“Close, but no. Solar powered wind turbines that were installed before we moved in.”
“WHAT??”
“Kelly, this is amazing, I’m floating and I can spin around with Megan!” Karen muffled again.
“OH GOD! NO, KAREN, DON’T DO THAT!” Megan quickly screamed. “TURN IT OFF, I’M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!”
“Alright!” Kelly pressed the button again to hear a loud thud on her floor. She grabbed a giggling Karen and a Megan flat on her face in the Plant Room. “See? Was that so bad?”
“Ugh! I want to choke you!” Megan yelled.
“Maybe choke me after I do something for you girls.” Kelly went to a nearby closet and picked up two bags from JCPenny’s then opened the door. “This is for you, Karen. And this is for you, Megan.”
After a few minutes, it was just nothing, but silence. We knew they were still alive, but I was just worried about their reaction. Then, both girls came out of the door looking like completely different people. Karen’s hair was a bit longer, but had a bit of curls in hers while Megan’s hair felt like Rapunzel with how flowy it was going down her back. Karen had on this blue jean jacket with a white T-shirt
Summer’s In
! logo with blue lettering and some clean blue jeans topping it black dress shoes. Megan had white long sleeve, white blouse, black dress pants, and some black high heels.
“Dude, can you guys just say something?” Megan rubbed her arm feeling a bit embarrassed.
“Well….you two look really hot.” I awkwardly said.
“Thank you.” Megan smiled. “That honestly makes me feel better…”
“Yeah, I love how we all look right now. Although, I wish I was taking someone out.” Karen stared at me….Okay, this is weird now.
“Okay, okay. If you two are going to be like this, get a room. I’ll see you two back tonight, of course.” Kelly spoke out.
“Can you pick me up tonight? I can’t take my driver’s test until next Monday.” Karen suggested.
“Yeah, of course! We’ll have to make a few stops since I’m bringing the food. As for you Jecka, Karen told me you’ve been busy and up and atom since this morning.” I…don’t remember telling Kelly or Karen that at all. “I figured you could rest in one of the guest bedrooms until time for the party.”
“Does it matter which one I choose?”
“Not really, I’ll just wake you up before it's time for the party.”
=====================================================================
Location: Bedroom #8 (Yeah, she actually called it that)
A queen sized bed with a view of her outside garden, a small vanity, with a small chandelier above me, and tiny pink seats made it all worthwhile compared to my own home. It was really relaxing when I plopped in the bed with a loud Floof . “God, this is nice.”
I looked in front of me to see Karen walk through the door. “How are you feeling? I just wanted to check on you before I left.”
“I’m fine, I guess. You seemed to have fun being blown away by a whole jet engine.”
“It was actually fun. Just floating in the air felt like I was skydiving.”
“Karen, I thought you like floating or some shit?”
“I was! Megan’s reaction made it even better.”
“You're so weird.” Karen laid down with me after what I said.
“You’re really weird, too. That’s why…”
“You look up to me and the other girls. I get it.” I tried to mock her.
“That’s why you’re beautiful.” Karen was now looking into the eyes of my soul with her joyful, cute smile. “We don’t have to go to the party, we can hang out and catch up.”
“I thought we already did that?”
“Well, you asked me out on a fake date.” Karen softly put her hand into mine. “I want to try and ask you out on a real date.”
“I’m sorry…?”
“Or…at least take things slow?”
I was extremely caught off by Karen’s question. I really don’t understand what she sees in me. I hurt her in the past, and she looks up to me. “Karen, I’m a horrible person for you.”
“No, you're not. You are so kind, smart, passionate, daring and endearing. The world would be a horrible place without you. That black jacket and those glasses really suits you so much…”
“Karen….I don’t know. Maybe we can dance together tonight or something.” I was still caught off guard.
“Just think about it. If not, that’s okay, too. I promise.” Karen looked down at my outfit for a moment. “Can I say something to you?”
“Sure…?”
Karen tried to whisper something in my ear, but instead she kissed my cheek to where we were now looking at each other for a few seconds. She then held both of my hands for a moment as I was stunned in Kelly’s bed….staring at a beautiful woman. Karen leaned in on my face, but she had a different look and pulled away. Releasing her hands and everything, Karen got up taking her glasses back off of my face before bolting to the door. She stared at me one more time, and then closed the door behind her. “Does every hot woman just like to walk up and leave after doing that shit?” I groaned and then tried to take a nap.
====================================================================================================
Time: Night time?
Location: Bed Room 8
Loud music and cheering echoed through my room as I had to wake up from the noise. I stood up to see light from the outside pool in Kelly’s backyard with tons of people laughing, cheering, and splashing in the water. After I opened the door, there were even more people downstairs as I got a view of maybe fifty or sixty people above the sturdy, wooden railings I leaned against.
(Music: Prince - 1999 (Edit) )
The party was absolutely crowded with music blaring at a decent pace. Some people were drinking while some were eating snacks from the kitchen chilling on the couch. Some people were singing the song playing in a shitty voice or even playing pool near the room with the indoor swimming pool. Kylar was near the entrance trying to flex for a group of women getting bored and walking away. People danced around the living room where I could see Karen dancing, having the time of her life. I walked down the stairs where a boy and girl were sitting at the edge of the stairs. As I was caught off by a crowd of people wooing and cheering, I saw Megan and Nicole….hand in hand together as they walked through the front door. Megan was nervous like she shot someone in church, while Nicole just looked around at the abnormally large house while noticing I was looking at them both.
It felt weird that Nicole and Megan were together. They were happy, so that means I should be happy. I’m going to walk up to them and show them my support. “Hey, guys, you guys are somehow together.” WAIT, NO! “I mean you guys made it….”
“Thanks, it's’ really nice seeing you here, too.” Megan brushed her hair.
“Nicole.”
“Oh, hey.” Nicole snapped back to reality from looking at all of the lights placed everywhere. “It’s just huge and loud here.”
“If you want, can we go somewhere more private?” Megan wrapped her arm around Nicole softly.
“Nah, I’m good. This is just the first time I've been at Kelly’s.”
“You weren’t with us at that one indoor pool party she had?” I asked Nicole.
“No, I just didn’t feel like it because Kylar was there.”
“Speaking of which, I saw him earlier literally at this spot before you two showed up.”
“FUCK!” Megan yelled out. “I thought he wasn’t going to show up.”
“It’s okay. Let’s move somewhere else. You wanna tag along, Jecka?” Nicole asked me while still holding Megan’s hand. She looked relaxed for someone who just asked her out. Normally, she hates Megan.
“Yeah, let’s go find, Kelly. She’s probably wondering where I’m at anyways.”
“Let’s check the Cinema room. She might be putting on a movie for everyone.” Megan added.
“When the FUCK does she have a Cinema room?” Nicole blurted out.
“Apparently it’s like at the heart of the house. Come on, I’ll show you.” Megan slowly walked with Nicole hand in hand, so I just followed them like a weird third wheel….Fuck, I am the third wheel. It feels like I’m about to be tortured, but it beats being at my Dad’s…
“She blew that one guy during the High School Musical 3 showing, but she won’t do it in her own movie theater? That bitch is literally the meaning of burning your money.” Nicole blurted out. While we walked to the Cinema room, I noticed Nicole had these weird…orange earplugs in her ears. They weren’t even sticking out; like they were jammed in there. Did Megan make her do that?
After a couple of minutes, we entered the Cinema room with only a couple of people setting up a game console and two females just chilling. The Cinema room had a giant, plasma screen TV hanging up on the wall with three gray couches laid out across the room. Orange and blue small pillows scattered on the couches and above them were pictures with random posters on them. The biggest thing that stood out to us was that Braxton and Trody were hanging out with Kelly having some kind of radio on one of her shelves away from the couches. Kelly looked kind of buzzed, so we all tried to check up on her.
“Nahhhhh, we don’t think you got what it takes.” Braxton said a bit buzzed himself.
“Come onnnnnn, hear my mixtape, just really quickly!” Kelly yelled out.
“Are you sure this is worth listening to?” Trody asked in concern.
“Yeah, it’s worth it. Just not even a minute! Pleaseeeeee?” Kelly begged.
“Alright, fine. One chance….” Trody showed one finger.
“Hell yeah! Let’s get it.” Kelly pressed the play button to play a small hip-hop beat like something you would use to avoid copyright infringement.
“Tehy call me Kelly, You think I’m a Whore
But I’m here to drop some beats and settle some scores
When I’m around no one deals with my defense
Pedophiles and Rapists
Get down and repent
Coach Colby, The Counselor, Ms. Ames, Mr. Katz
Get the fuck out, sign off and just get bent
Mr. White is pure for a White Supremacist
But he’ll probably think different
When he tastes my fist
I want them to doubt me
I don’t want them to believe
This will just fuel me and
Go AC-Hoo and Achieve! ”
“So…uh….what do you guys think?” Kelly’s tone changed to a nervous one.
Nicole, Megan and I looked at each other a bit surprised Kelly even made something like this. “It’s….actually not bad.” I said.
“Yeah, it’s actually kind of….Good?” Nicole seemed speechless.
“Yeah, it’s not bad actually. You had a decent flow, too.” Megan smiled.
“Alright…” Braxton belched for a moment. “Not going to lie….That is 100 percent….Fucking…..FLAMES, MAN!”
“Like holy shit, it was really good, Kelly. Where did you learn to rap like that?” Trody smiled.
“It just kind of…came to me, I guess.”
“Dude, we are DEFINITELY telling our friends about your mixtape.” Trody gave Braxton a high five.
“Yeah, we should hang out sometime and hear more of your stuff!” Braxton got excited for a moment.
“Dude, you cannot consider that shit to be good.” Hunter joined in the conversation between Trody and Braxton.
“Yo, you missed it, dude.” Braxon mentioned. “She was actually pretty decent for a beginner!”
“Awwww, thanks guys.” Kelly started to smile.
“That was not that great.” Hunter seemed a bit more drunk than usual. Yeah, he didn’t take the whole theater thing too well. When I told Nicole about how he hits on a shit ton of women while dating Megan, she pulled a prank on him to where he was hanging from the entire audience during the Romeo and Juliet play WHILE exposing all of the messages HE sent to Nicole. Dick pics, Sexts, everything. Especially the “How I love you more than Megan” text. I never saw Nicole so happy that day. It felt a little…weird.
“Dude, it was really good. She’s just having fun. Give her some slack.” Megan jumped in.
“Hold up, the fuck you want? What are you three doing here anyways?”
“We got invited? Because we’re cool as shit?” I snapped back at his drunk standard ass.
“You three girls are literally horrible people. You feed off the negativity and you just want to treat me like shit and boss me around to make you feel good.” Megan started to feel bad from Hunter’s comment. “Hell, I’m glad I was trying to find another woman because at least…”
“Dude, shut your six foot, seven foot looking ass up already. You are an overpowered white man that likes to feed off people below you.” Nicole yelled out. “At least Megan had some form of discipline, she was loyal to you as fuck and you tried to fuck me, Jecka and almost everyone in Lake Braddock. Kylar molests people in their sleep, sure, but you literally look like a sorry sack of shit who has an erection for any woman with a vagina.” Everyone in the room besides the three of us laughed at Hunter.
“Hmmmm? Who the fuck you think you talking to?”
“Let me rephrase it for your pastry, man whoring, dumb ass who bullies people like Jeffery and
get turned on by it when a hot bitch comes along, calm your ass down and let us just have fun.”
“Shut the fuck up. No one was talking to you anyways.”
“You’re absolutely right, I’m so sorry. As a matter of fact, hand me your phone, I wanna put my phone number in your contacts. You know? So can we start over?”
“Really? You mean it? Hell yeah, I’ve been waiting for this since Junior year!” Hunter gave him his cellphone to where Megan dropped her jaw.
“Awesome, my number is four, five, three…” Nicole clenched the phone so hard that it gave a short electric spark and literally squeezed Hunter’s phone in her hand crushing it into tiny pieces. She dropped it all on the floor to where even the circuit board was in pieces. “Oops. Got to get your Sid from Toy Story looking ass to Dollar General to buy yourself another slut phone.”
“I got it from Best Buy, you bitch.” Hunter just left the Cinema room.
“Dude…when the fuck did you do that?” Kelly said, still buzzed.
“Yeah….I never seen anyone destroy a phone like fucking paste before.” I was extremely shocked. Pun intended.
“I don’t know. I did it like three times these past couple of weeks. Kylar’s, Jeffery’s, and now Hunter's. It’s fucking cool.”
“Nicole…I don’t know how to thank you.” Megan started to blush a bit. “I never knew you thought so highly of me.”
“Sure…I guess.”
“Uhhh, hey guys.” Emily walked up to us and Ari was right behind her.
“Oh shit, hey.” Nicole said.
“Rumor has it, you and Megan are dating…?” Ari looked a bit disappointed.
“Yeah, she asked me out and I said yes.”
“And you’re like….cool with it?” Emily seemed confused.
“Yeah, I think she’s cute. So we are just giving it a shot.” No way Nicole actually considers her cute.
“So what about….um…”
“Hey guys!” Karen seemed extremely tipsy, so I have no idea how many drinks or how long she’s been here. She just walked past Ari and Emily and in front of Megan. “Why are you so sad??”
“Megan, can we not do this right now?”
“But I wanna do something right now! Check out what’s behind your ear!” Karen started to just place her fingers behind Megan’s right ear and pulled out a rose with thorns catching everyone off guard. “Here you go!” Karen chuckled and clapped her hands extremely fast after giving Megan the rose..
“Well, we found her…” Emily groaned.
“Apparently, Karen ever since she’s been at the party…she has been pulling random things ‘out of their ear’ as she puts it, all night.”
“Uhhhhh….like what?” I asked while Karen stared at me next.
“A random dollar bill. A fucking wind-up toy. A diamond ring. A pencil. A pen. A cold bottle of water. A small box that HAD another box, an entire shoelace…”
“Dude, someone needs to clear their fucking ears.” Nicole exclaimed.
“Wait….Nooooooo.” Karen held up her hands. “Hold up….Wait a minute! I can do this doo!” Karen placed her hands behind my neck and slowly put her hands on my neck. She then let go of a blue diamond necklace. Everyone gasped that Karen just pulled that out of nowhere. I looked at it to see it was a REAL diamond with words engraved in it.
To my Lord of Frost.
What the fuck does that even mean, but…
“Holy shit, Karen….” Megan didn’t know what to say.
“Karen….holy fuck, it’s beautiful. This is the best gift anyone’s ever given me….”
“Wow, thanks.” Nicole glared at me.
“Shut the fuck up, Momma’s girl.” Karen scowled. “You had your chance with her and you lost it.”
“Um….excuse me, bitch?” Nicole yelled back.
“Nicole, it’s okay. Please, I don’t want any more trouble tonight.” Megan asked.
“What’s going on?” Ari asked.
“Hunter was shit talking about my interest in rap. So Nicole….” Kelly spoke out, but was interrupted by Karen’s gasp.
“That foul piece of….Shit, face. Cock throbbing. Bitch.” Karen adjusted her glasses. “I’m gonna do another major trick on that piece of shit. Cause I’m about to teach him a special Italian word in four small syllables for his stocky ass….”
“Uh….and what would those be?” Emily was beyond confused now.
“DY-NA-ME-TEA.” Karen said as she barged out of the Cinema room.
“Uh….what on earth just happened?” Ari crossed her arms.
“Dynametea…Karen doesn’t know Italian…She knows French.” I added.
“DYNAMITE!!!” Kelly yelled out. “She’s going to try and blow Hunter up!”
“Wait, isn’t that a good thing? He’s a piece of shit.” Nicole answered.
“Nicole does have a good point. He dies. What’s the worst that could happen?” Megan is really trying to support Nicole right now and I don’t know how to feel about it.
“Hmmm, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that MY HOUSE IS GOING TO BE BLOWN THE FUCK UP!”
“Fine, let’s just go find Hunter or Karen.” Ari ran with Kelly to find one of them.
“Dude, I got to see this.” Emily followed right behind them.
“This is gonna be cool as shit. Let’s go.” Nicole left right after as well with Megan, but she stopped for a moment.
“You…want to come with us?” Megan asked me.
“Nah, I’ll just explore the house some more. Let me know how it goes.”
“Uh…okay?” Nicole walked out of the Cinema room with Megan.
“Yeah, I need a fucking drink.”
=====================================================================
Time: 8:45 p.m.
Location: Kitchen
After the literal fiasco that happened, a cold drink was absolutely needed. No, I’m not going to drink more tap water. I’m just going to get something from Kelly’s fridge. “At least this party is kind of fun. Although, Karen is kind of crazy tonight. I just never thought she’d want to drink. Now, to get me something refreshing.” Yeah, I’m going crazy talking to myself. I just wanted a break from everything. Well, technically this is my break from everything. As I opened the fridge, I felt the most relaxing waft of cold air from Kelly’s fridge. Her fridge had a ton of alcohol, water bottles, and every kind of soft drink you could imagine. For whatever reason, I wanted to stick my head in the fridge to feel every ounce of cold air drifting through my body after opening the fridge. It felt like heaven. It felt like my home. Like I could pack all of my stuff and just say “Fuck you, Dad.” and stay in this fridge.
“I need this. Holy fuck this is amazing. I’m going to try and steal this fridge. Wait no, I already have one, but its’ my fucking dad’s.” I looked around the kitchen to see a giant red cooler. So I pulled it around Kelly’s fridge and started to grab a shit ton of ice from the freezer and soft drinks from the fridge. Yeah, I don’t drink anymore, fuck you. “Alright, that’s everything. Now I can-” I turned around to see Megan just staring at me in confusion.
“Jecka, what are you doing?”
“Just….getting something for outside?”
“I saw you for like two minutes sticking your head in there…”
“Why were you watching me?”
“Because I thought you were just getting a drink so I waited for you to finish. Not take the entire fridge.” Megan glared at me.
“Okay, fine. This feels amazing, holy fuck. I thought you were with Nicole?”
“I was, but then Karen gave up and she’s doing an arm wrestling match with Nicole.”
I blinked for a moment trying to grasp what the fuck she just said. “How? What? Where? When? Why the fuck are they doing all of that?”
“Karen made the challenge and Nicole was like ‘alright, bitch, bring it on.’ Then they’ve been going at it for like fifteen minutes now. They shook the table twice and everything. So, during the match. Nicole asked me to get her a drink and now here I am.”
“This is the weirdest party I’ve ever been to.”
“It’s even more weird with you sticking your head in there like an ostrich.”
“Just don’t tell Kelly, please?”
“I mean I don’t care, but why is it that good to you?” Megan opened back up the fridge and freezer at the same time. “Is it even….?” Her face changed to a ton of hamburger meat in the freezer, uncooked ribs, and even fish in packets scattered on each shelf. Then she noticed a few dozen eggs in their own section. “I think I have an idea….”
“Think Kelly would mind?”
“Not at all.” Megan smiled.
=====================================================================
Location: Kelly’s Backyard/Near Indoor Swimming Pool
Time: 9:00 p.m.
(Music: Blink 182 - All the Small Things (HQ) )
Megan and I decided to chill out on a patio deck with her cooking some burgers on Kelly’s giant grill and cooking eggs with an iron cast skillet she found in Kelly’s kitchen. Thankfully, we had a spot away from everyone diving into the outside pool. People were tossing frisbees and even beach balls in the swimming pool. There were people playing Marco Polo with a female awkwardly circling around in the deep end of the pool screaming ‘Marco’ while her friends giggling.
“I’ll be blunt. I never expected something like this to happen.” I opened up an extremely cold Pepsi.
“You and I hanging out together? Grilling and drinking non-alcoholic beverages?” Megan flipped a few burgers as well as moving some eggs around in the cast iron skillet before shutting the grill hood downward with some oven mitts.
“Actually…yeah. That’s a really good way to put it. First, we were cheering for you eating hot dogs. Now, we’re chilling and eating burgers.”
“Well…” Megan quickly lifted the lid off and grabbed the eggs with a spatula, setting them in a separate bowl. Then she sat the bowl beside other condiments on this metal table beside the stove, such as chopped onions, pickles, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and a sliced cheese packet. “I wasn’t expecting all of this either.” She grabbed some more burgers off the stove with her spatula into another separate bowl full of already cooked burgers. Megan placed a few raw burgers on the stove before taking off her oven mitts and sitting beside me in another lawn chair.
“Shouldn’t you be back inside with Nicole? She’s your date isn’t she?”
“Yeah, but she likes being a lone wolf. So I’m giving her some space. Also, I have no idea if she’s done arm wrestling Karen.”
“Again, I have no idea how that came about.”
“So…about earlier, Jecka?”
“Dude, I said I was fine with you dating Nicole. Stop bringing it up.” I scowled.
“Um, this isn’t about Nicole…this is actually about you.” Megan stared at me for a moment with a more serious expression. “Have things been okay? You had a mental breakdown earlier so I was concerned about you.”
“That wasn’t a breakdown….I just had a lot of issues in my life.”
“Like…”
Megan has been a lot of help to me at least. “Okay, my parents got divorced. So I have no idea where my mom is.”
“Is that all?”
“Yeah.”
“Jecka, I’m asking because you didn’t talk much about your dad.”
“Look….” I was going to continue, but Nicole ran up beside Megan.
“Hey, Megan. Do you have those earplugs?”
“Oh yeah, here you go.” Megan gave Nicole a pair of orange earplugs from her back pocket as Nicole quickly put them in her ears.
“Finally, it was getting louder in there once Karen and I arm wrestled. So, I bolted as it just kept getting louder and louder.”
“Are you sure you are okay? Normally, you are fine at parties. Especially the loud ones. Also, who won?” I asked.
“Oh wow, more concerned about your girlfriend winning? Anyways, in all seriousness, for the past couple of weeks loud noises have been FUCKING my head up. It makes me feel like I’m about to break down or some shit.”
“Nicole, are you sure you want to stay any longer?” Megan became concerned.
“Yeah, if this place is hurting you, you should go home. Don’t feel forced to be here.” I was on the same page as Megan.
“Dude, I’m fine. Besides, we may stay another hour or so and then leave.”
“There you are.” Kelly looked extremely drunk. “Why….why did you two raid my fucking fridge…?”
“I got hungry, okay!” I screamed out trying to save Megan’s ass.
“Why the fuck would you raid the fridge and freezer? That’s my parents shit!” Kelly scoffed in a bit of range. “Damn it! I needed food to help this hangover and I’m out of food for the guests….What the hell am I going to do?” Kelly walked over the cooked burgers and quickly grabbed a bun. “Fuck these things are huge…Jecka won’t mind if I take her burgers…”
“No, look. It’s okay. I grabbed the food and the freezer stuff. It’s on me.” Megan lied. “If anyone should be in trouble, it should be me. Nicole and Jecka shouldn’t be in trouble for what I did. So if you need to punish anyone….”
“HOLY FUCK, THIS IS REALLY GOOD!” Kelly screamed out. “These are really freaking good guys.” Kelly’s expression went from drunk to pure sober after biting a few more times into Megan’s burger. “Dude, this is absolutely amazing.”
Nicole grabbed a burger and a bun with a fried egg to see if Kelly was just bullshitting and Nicole’s expression changed into one where we thought she saw a ghost. “Yeah…Yeah, it’s actually not bad. It’s better than what the fucking Diner serves.”
“Wait, what’s better than Diner food?” Emily walked up on the patio with Ari. “That shit smells good, let me try it.” Emily snatched Nicole’s burger from her hand.
“Excuse you, too, bitch.”
“Damn right, I’m excused. This shit is absolutely amazing. Who made these?” Emily muffled while eating her burger.
“FUCK! THE OTHER BURGERS!!!” Megan quickly lifted the lid to three burnt burgers as smoke filled the air. Luckily, the smoke didn’t enter our eyes as it floated upward like a balloon. “Damn it! They are ruined!”
“Uh…not exactly.” Ari immediately grabbed the burger OFF the stove and slapped it on the burger and crunched down on it munching on it like a normal burger. “God, I’ve been wanting this all day.”
“WHAT THE FUCK?” All of us screamed out.
“Give me a break. I get tired of fixing pizza after doing it for 12 hours. Ask Nicole.”
“No, why are you eating a CHARCOAL burger?” Nicole looked stressed out.
“Because it smelled really good.”
“Dude, it smells like Jeffery, pure swamp ass.” Emily blurted out.
“Why do you know what he smells like?” Megan grew concerned.
“When I was in Biology, he had days where he never wore deodorant so he was just sitting right in front of me, and I really wanted to stab him that day.”
“OKAY. Enough about Jeffery literally being a piece of shit. Jecka, can you just hand me something to drink so everyone can calm down?” Ari asked me.
“Sure, here you go.” I got Ari a cold water bottle to drink. She took a couple of sips then spat out what she just drinked.
“Jecka, WHAT THE FUCK is this?”
“It’s Dasani water! What do you mean: ‘What the fuck is this?’ Learn to read.” I told her.
“It feels like there are razor blades down my neck now.” Ari for some reason started to cough smoke.
“Bitch, you had a BURNT burger. Not my fault you suck dick on the side and never got that checked out.”
“Jecka, I’m a FUCKING LESBIAN. I dated Nicole and literally made out with Emily like a minute ago.”
“Okay, I can actually second that.” Emily stated.
“Ugh.” Ari just kept coughing and coughing like she was about to lose her voice. “Fucking Jecka.” Ari then left back for the inside of the house.
“I’ll be right back guys. I’m gonna make sure she is okay. She’s my ride home. Later guys.” Emily groaned while leaving.
“Well, that was awkward. Never thought you’d try and kill my ex.” Nicole mentioned.
“I gave her a cold water bottle. How is that an attempted murder?”
“Beats me.” Kelly shrugged her shoulders. “I was going to serve these outside, but let’s just bring them inside the kitchen.”
====================================================================================================
Location: Main Kitchen
Time: 9:15 p.m.
Nicole, Jecka, Kelly and I brought all of the burgers and condiments into the kitchen for everyone to eat. Then we all decided to just chill in the main foyer with the other guests. The loud blaring music died down to some random guy playing on the piano.
“Karen, in a drunken stupor, told me how Nicole didn’t like the loud music. So, we had aTheater kid play some Classical music for us.”
“For someone who was bombastically drunk like a few minutes ago, you’ve kind of put up one hell of a party.” Nicole smiled.
“Yeah, this is really great. You pulled out all of the stops for the party. The fact she’s even here this long says a lot.” Megan playfully nudged her shoulder against Nicole’s.
“Uh, where is Karen? You said you saw her?” I interrupted.
“Oh last time I checked she made someone pull a crowbar out of their….”
“Just where the fuck is Karen?” I exclaimed. “She’s drunk as shit and she tried pulling dynamite out of Hunter and it’s just fine now?”
“Dude, slow down. Now you’re getting a bit passive-aggressive.”
“You guys searching for Karen?” Emily showed up and gave Nicole and Megan a Dr. Pepper each to drink.
“Dude, thanks.” I smiled.
“Where’s my drink?” Kelly exclaimed.
“I thought you were drunk. Anyways, last time, I saw her with Kylar for like not even a minute.”
“Oh shit…Kylar is hitting on Karen.” Megan got a little bit nervous for a moment.
“Uhh….much worse.” Emily pointed over to Karen and Kylar talking to each other with Kylar giving off an angry expression.
“Dude, come on. You are in the perfect mood to do something with me anyways.”
“I already told you SIXTEEN TIMES IN COUNTING: No! The seventeenth time is not going to be promising for you at ALlllll.” Karen was still absolutely drunk trying to fix her posture.
“Dude, again, I need someone to be a dummy for this movie I wanna do to get into college.”
“If I have to make out with you and do a ‘pretend’ sex scene. I’m going to give you my answer.”
“Yeah, how did you know that?” Kylar smiled as Kelly, Nicole, Megan, Emily and I all showed up behind Karen.
“Perfect. I’d like to quote someone. You’ve probably heard it before.”
“Lay it on me, hot bitch.”
“FUCK OFF! DIE! KILL YOURSELF!” Karen yelled, causing a few guests to look at them. “How many times I told you to LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE?”
“Dude, I hope you get sexually assaulted in the bathroom at an Arby’s.”
“I wish you traveled back in time in the 1800s to get executed by the French. You dumb sack of shit, Football Captain fucking, unconcious fondling, Dan Scheinder loving son of a bitch.” Karen coughed after her long rant to Kylar causing a lot of people to laugh at Kylar in embarrassment while Nicole and Megan looked beyond shocked and Emily and Kelly laughed with Karen.
“Dude, how the fuck did you know about me and the football captain?” Kylar yelled out in rage. “Screw this, you library looking bitch. I’m going to kill you right now.” Kylar tried to do a giant right swing at Karen’s face.
“KAREN, NO!” I screamed out.
As Kylar was about to connect with Karen’s face, she just immediately caught it with her left hand, catching everyone at the party off guard including the piano boy. Karen did a drunk giggle while slowly putting Kylar’s fist down. “You know what? I’m so sorry. I’ve been terrible to you.” She hiccuped and slowly walked up to Kylar. “Let me make it up to a…..Stud muffin like yourself.”
“Yeah, that makes me a little sick hearing that.” Nicole told us.
Karen then just randomly pulled out a stack FULL of cash out of Kylar’s ear. Everyone was in awe of just the random cash found out of nowhere. Kylar looked at the cash for a moment. “HELL YEAH! ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS! That’s what I’m talking….” Kylar then looked at the bills once more to notice… “Wait a fucking minute!!! They have YOUR FACE on them! It’s fucking useless; It’s counterfeit!!”
“YEAH, NOW EAT THIS COUNTER-FIST, BITCH!” Karen threw a giant right hook at Kylar. Then she grabbed Kylar’s collar with both hands and threw Kylar out of a nearby window. Kylar now was literally out of the house groaning in pain while Karen was breathing extremely hard.
“...I’m okay!” Kylar groaned in pain.
Karen raised up her hands and started to giggle and cackle like a madman…or just a drunk ass woman. “Touchdown!” Everyone cheered for whatever Karen just did. Karen was literally about to fall backwards until Megan and I rushed up behind her catching Karen. “How did I do, guys?” Karen was still giggling.
“Dude, I thought you were going to fucking murder Kylar for a minute.” Emily said.
“Kelly, I should come to your parties more often if this shit happens a lot more.” Nicole mentioned.
“Nicole, there is no way stuff like that would happen again. Even with your little date.” I glared at Nicole.
“Karen isn’t your little date?” Nicole snapped back at me.
“No, we didn’t even show up together.”
Karen fixed her posture and stared heavily at me. “You know, Jecka? I’m absolutely TIRED of being your pawn. For you using me….”
“The fuck?”
“You only used me at the fair JUST to get close to Nicole.” She pointed directly at Nicole. “You didn’t care about us catching up, you didn’t care about me, all it’s about is Nicole. Nicole. Nicole. Not about Emily. Not about Kelly. Not about Ari. And not even Megan. But all about goody two shoes, Nicole. The Lady of the Lake. The Head of the Table. The Queen of England.” She grabbed a small glass of whiskey from a guy having a giant tray full of drinks. She took a giant swig and set it by a nearby table. “And what’s funny? All I wanted was ONE day with you.”
“You did have a full day with me. You even told me how much you loved us and shit.” I was starting to get angry.
“Yeah, because I was being honest with myself.” She pointed to her own chest. “When I spoke to Ari when she broke up with Nicole, that’s when I found out about Love. And you girls made me realize that. And how do you guys repay me???? Ari barely speaks to me. Megan sees me as ‘just another student’. Kelly uses me to play Frogger in the fucking toilets in the women’s bathroom. Emily sees me as just an ‘ugly nerd.’ Nicole literally just thinks of me as a bitch. And you used me just because you were ashamed of getting down and dirty with a sociopath.”
“Karen, that’s NOT what happened that night.”
“You don’t think I don’t know???? ALL OF US WERE THERE! You know why? Because I told all of you girls I LIKED YOU. I found out that I love women because you girls gave me joy in my life!”
“Karen…..” Kelly sadly spoke out.
“Don’t you fucking ‘Karen’ me. I know my worth and I know you girls haven’t gotten the picture. Now, I’m going to teach you girls a lesson you’ll never forget.”
“Karen…don’t do anything you don’t regret.” Megan was trying to calm Karen down. We had no idea what she was going to do after what she just did to Kylar.
“Trust me. I’m not going to regret it at all.” Karen stared at me viciously as she passed by me hitting my shoulder. She walked up to the piano and got on top of the lid standing up. “Set in B Minor. I’d love to dedicate this song to a few wonderful women…” Karen was buzzed, but seemed to stand up fine. “Nicole Sanderson, Kelly Johnson, Ari Robinson, Megan Welch, Emily Mendez, and to the love of my life….” Karen stopped yelling to the crowd to stare at me. “Jecka Peterson…this is for you.” She took the piano player’s whiskey drink and chugged it down. “You’re just too good to be true…. I can’t take my eyes off of you.
Karen wrapped her arms around her sides of her stomach. “ You’d be like heaven to touch….Oh God I want to hold you so much….At long last love has arrived….And thank God, I’m alive…. ” Karen pointed back at me along with the rest of the girls. “ You’re….just too good to be true….Can’t take my eyes off of you…
Karen then started to shake her hips at me causing my jaw to drop. “
Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun, Dun….”
Everyone except us was clapping to the beat for Karen’s…song I guess.
“How much DID she drink?” Megan asked Kelly.
“Uh….17 fireballs, 8 whiskies, 3 Bud Lights, and I think a bottle of vodka?” Kelly counted her fingers. All of us stared at Kelly like we wanted to end her life. “What? I’m just going by what people told me!”
“ Dun, Dun, Dunnnnnnn!!!!!!” Karen pulled off a giant high note to where it made two shot glasses near Karen explode. “I LOVE YOU BABY! And if it’s quite alright, I need you baby, and if it’s quite alright, I need you baby! To warm a lonely night! I love you baby, trust in me when I SAYYYYYYYY!” Karen hit another high note while she spun around to where Nicole had to sit down by a nearby couch and Megan followed beside her.
“ OH PRETTY BABY! Don’t bring me down I pray! Oh pretty baby, Now that I found you, please stay! Let me love you, baby! Let me love YOU!!!!!!” Karen walked off the piano face first causing everyone to gasp. It was extremely silent for a moment until Karen got back up with her hands up in the air staring at me. “You’re just too good to be true…” While everyone roared with cheers,Karen’s face streamed with a couple of tears gazing at me and the girls. Everyone was still cheering as Karen gave me the most angry look I’ve ever seen. Kelly decided to just walk up to Karen , still speechless at the entertainment she just did.
“What the hell do you…?” Kelly cut Karen off by pulling her in by the collar and kissing her on the lips. For a second, Karen didn’t do anything until she held Kelly’s hand and passed by me going up the stairs. I thought Karen was okay with everything, but I was wrong. I decided to sit beside Megan, Nicole, and Emily on the same couch they were on, mainly to check on….Nicole…..
“Hey guys….”
“Yeah, are you okay?” Megan asked me. “That was….a lot.”
“I know…I’m just….”
“Speechless?” Nicole took the words right out of my mouth. “Sorry, that was just louder than the music. Her throat must have been destroyed like my eardrums right now.”
“Nicole, are you okay?” Megan placed her hand on Nicole’s.
“Can I take you up on your offer to go somewhere more private?”
Megan looked at me before answering her question. “Okay. We can.” Nicole and Megan started to slowly walk together upstairs….hand in hand….
Emily scooted beside me and talked to me. “I never thought they’d be a thing. Like at all.”
“Where’s Ari?”
“Oh, she went home. She wasn’t feeling too good after that Dasani.”
“Forget it. I’m going to go….” I looked up the stairs and I was planning on going home, but…..
I miss Nicole….
“Uh…Jecka, where are you going?” She saw me bolt up the stairs and I tried finding the room Megan and Nicole were in. I just couldn’t leave just yet. Karen was right.
After I passed the fourth bedroom, I heard voices from the wooden door that sounded like Nicole and Megan. So there was a keyhole to where I could get a small glimpse of the two. It looked like they were just sitting on a red bed. “Thanks for getting me out of the loud party. I just needed a break.” Nicole said.
“Yeah, of course. It’s been a wild party, to be honest.”
“Well, it is Kelly’s party.”
“I had a lot of fun, Nicole. This has literally been the best date I've ever had so far.”
“What about Hunter?”
“Fuck, Hunter. He never wanted to try to do dates with me.”
“Yeah, but you were kind of an asshole.”
“We’re both assholes. You were one when I was in class. Then we butted heads, then you got revenge on Hunter, then we became friends.”
“Well, this is a date, so I don’t know about friends.”
“So…..we’re more than friends?” Megan got a bit closer to Nicole.
“I mean it wasn’t a shitty date so there’s that.”
“Are you and Jecka still cool?”
“Yeah, totally. Good friends.” Nicole brushed her hair back.
“I was a jerk to you. Heck, I still kind of am. But after cooking with Jecka, coming to this party, and going on a date with you…I realized something. I want to use my talents to help people. To become a better person before I leave Burke.”
“I…helped you realize that?”
Megan leaned in whispering something in her ear. “Can I repay you?”
“You don’t owe me anything. I’m just….I’ll be blunt, this is a first.”
“I’m trying to flirt with you, Nicole.” Megan rubbed Nicole’s arm.
“Cool?”
“Are you….okay with that?”
“Yeah, I mean, you’ve been treating me with respect and….I think it’s time to give Jecka a break.”
“Wait, you still don’t think about…?”
“Well, I do, but I want to try and move on.”
“Do you want me to try and help you?” Megan slowly got on top of Nicole, who then got extremely nervous.
“Uh…..”
“Are you uncomfortable?”
“No….just…never thought I’d do something with this with my enemy.”
“I thought Jecka and Ari were your enemies?”
“Nah, Ari just fucking hates me and Jecka….”
“Never stopped thinking about you.”
“And what are you going to do about that, Miss Megan?” Nicole taunted Megan.
“I wish I met you earlier in my life, Nicole. I really do mean that.” Megan wrapped her arms around Nicole.
“Uh….I’m sorry about how I was a giant douche to you in Theater?”
“And…I’m really sorry for being a jerk, but for you….” Megan whispered in her ear before getting close to her face. “Apology accepted.” Megan moved in to kiss Nicole on the lips digging her hands into Nicole’s hair while Nicole pulled in Megan as they both laid down in the bed interacting with each other…..
And that was my cue to just….run away. Tears flowed from my eyes as now Nicole was no longer in my life. Nicole was in love with someone else and it feels like I was shot by a police officer. Karen hates me, Nicole considers me and after thought, and I’m all alone….
When I left Kelly’s house, all I could do was scream into the air with anger…..
Of how a shitty person, I’ve become……
====================================================================
Location: My House/Living Room
Time: 10:15 p.m.
All I could do before entering the house was wipe my tears and pretend everything was okay. Just go upstairs into my room and never…..
“Where the hell were you?” My Dad turned on the lights and startled me.
“I was out. I can do that on my day off.”
“Do NOT get smart with me.”
“I was helping someone out. Give me a break, today and tomorrow are my only days off.”
“DO NOT FUCKING LIE TO ME! I KNOW WHERE YOU WERE!”
“What do you mean?! I was helping someone out and then I got invited to a party. I didn’t drink I swear!” I angrily yelled.
“I don’t care where the FUCK YOU WERE! What matters is what you did afterwards!”
“What the flying fuck are you talking about???”
Dad slammed down photos of Karen and I hanging out together at the fair. The ones where we held hands, the ones where we fed each other and rode on some rights….and the big one…. Where we both kissed on the Ferris wheel….. “EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE FUCK IS ALL OF THIS!!!”
“She came onto me first, how was I supposed to know….”
“DO NOT FUCKING LIE TO ME!” He yelled extremely loud to the point where I thought he was going to kill me. “Just because you are in this house working two jobs, it gives you NO RIGHT to play tiddlywinks with other women!”
“Dad, I cared about her…”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BLONDE WHORE!! I knew you were screwing around this entire time! Even with this insane amount of food you brought home it wasn't actually done with hard work!” Dad then gripped my arm extremely tight…. “I should have done this to you, years ago!!!!”
Now……..
Jecka….hey.
What is it, Nicole?
You threw your notebook again….were you thinking about….?
Nicole…I don’t want to do this….
Then, let me take over. It’s painful. We all know it.
Jecka. You’ve been through enough. I’m not letting you do this alone. None of us are.
How long do you want to do this for?
As long as you need to rest.
Nicole, I want you to tell it in your HONEST opinion. No beating around the bush. No lies. Just everything as we’ve all witnessed.
Okay, I promise. I’ll do this for you, Jecka.
Thank you, Nicole.
Alright, so now, it's’ my turn. Jecka needs a breather, so I’m going to do this for her. So….I guess it’s best to start from….well, where Jecka couldn’t see the rest……
=====================================================================
Time: 9:45 p.m.
Location: Bed Room #5
Megan and I were in what I assumed was Kelly's bed. Yeah, I got a date with Megan, one of the most hated people, but whenever you have her saying stuff like. “I wish I met you earlier in my life.” yeah, that takes you off guard. Especially with the Student Council President. Megan slowly pushed me against the bed asking me, “Are you okay, Nicole?”
“Yeah, I’m great.” I was actually feeling great, but something felt missing. Megan started to bite my neck softly before kissing me on the lips again. I touched her hair because it was probably the best thing besides her indigo eyes.
“Nicole, you are really silly for a sociopath.” She whispered in my ear once more. She really dressed up for this. She might as well become a teacher with the way she looked. She took off her high heels and helped me take off my shoes. I’m really doing this with Megan. I pulled her arms in as she kissed me one more time then started to go lower…..
As Nicole started kissing all over my neck and continued on my arms, she whispered something to herself. “I really hope I’m not bad at this.” I was reassured by softly touching her face. She was holding it while still kissing me. I slowly breathed a bit harder during the process. I’ve never been happy around anyone like this before except…… No…I promised I wouldn’t think about them….I promised.
Fuck……
“JECKA!” I yelled out causing Megan to stop and stare at me. “….Shit I made it awkward didn’t I?” I scooted myself up on the bed.
“I mean a little….”
“Megan, I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I was too forceful. I got really excited after I wanted to date you for months, and I got crazy over the girl I love and now….”
“No, no. It’s okay. Dude, you were like great holy shit. Hunter’s a literal loser for leaving you. I hope he leaves the country to go somewhere else.”
“Nicole, you are right….This isn’t right at all.” Megan got off of me and laid beside me.
“I screwed up with all these antics thinking she’d miss me…”
“Wait…did you date me just to get back at Jecka?”
“No, I wanted to actually go on a date with you because I like you, but I love Jecka…..” Oh my God….
Megan had a very defeated look. “Oh….”
“Megan, I’m sorry. I want to fix things with you and the others, but I’m still stuck on Jecka right now.”
“It’s okay.”
“What?”
“It’s okay…I tried at least and that’s okay. I mean…I got to go ON a date with you. That’s better than anyone else has done.”
“Why is that suddenly an accomplishment?”
“Because I’ve had a lot of fun with you. You and the girls taught me a lot. I was depressed, but you guys made me feel like I have a lot of value. I was a bitch, but I don’t want to be a bitch anymore. I feel like…I have a gift. Like everyone else does.” Megan smiled at the ceiling for a moment. “Sometimes, things don’t go your way and what I feel makes me human. I’m glad to have some experience with you and reconcile rather than not do that at all. No matter what happens, I really hope we will be friends after this, and if not, then I do wish you success in whatever you do. Not in a Catholic sense, not in a just because sense, or even because we may not see each other after again.” Megan turned her body to me. “It’s because I love you, Nicole Sanderson.”
“Megan, I don’t know what to say….”
“It’s okay, take your time.”
“Well, I mean I kind of want to go home soon, but….” I sighed. “I want to fix things with Jecka…I need to tell her I’m sorry.”
“There’s something else I need to tell you….”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I’ve….been thinking about Jecka a lot lately…”
“Uh, you like her, too?”
“No, I mean…You are gonna think I’m fucking crazy, but…I’ve had thoughts about Jecka…in my dreams.”
“If you are going to tell me that you fucked her in your dreams, I’m leaving.”
“Wait! I had thoughts about her dying. Like she overdosed. Then you and Jecka killed Jeffery through some feet business or whatever. Then Ari died or worse….you died.”
“Gross, I fucking hate feet. They are disgusting.”
“Look, I’ve just had these thoughts multiple times in a single night, and I’m worried something is wrong with Jecka.”
“What makes you say that?”
“She had a mental breakdown this morning when I was helping her cook. Telling herself, ‘she was worthless.’ and a bunch of crazy shit.”
“Why would she tell herself she's worthless?”
“I don’t know. Look…Can I try to help you? I don’t want you or Jecka to die.”
“Okay….you can help me, just this once.”
We heard a loud thud come from the right wall of the bed. “Was that….” Megan looked at the wall.
“Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
====================================================================
Time: 10:15 p.m.
Location: Jecka’s House (Outside)
“So, what on earth am I supposed to talk to her about? She’s gonna be pissed because I went out with you.” I was holding a rose with thorns that Megan gave me. Hopefully, Jecka will like this.
“She spoke to us all night. There’s no WAY she wouldn’t say no.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Well, just have to see, Nicole. I just know that….”
“I should have done this to you, years ago!!!!” A man was screaming through the front door as we heard glass breaking and a large thud inside the house.
“What the fuck was that?” Megan and I went around the nearest window to see that Jecka was on her knees with photos laid on the ground. The bland wall had a crack in it and glass on the floor from a broken vase. A man with a red shirt was screaming at Jecka….wait….is that Jecka’s dad?? “IF I SEE OUT OF THIS HOUSE WITH ANOTHER DATE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION OR EVEN A FUCKING WOMAN AGAIN! I will put you down myself!”
“Holy shit….” Megan whispered as we were hiding in a bush.
“YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS TO FIX THIS SHIT OR YOU WILL BE ON THE STREETS LIKE YOUR WHORE OF A MOTHER!!” Jecka’s dad went to another room as Jecka was looking at the photographs. She picked up one of them that had Karen and Jecka kissing. She stared at the photograph with her hand shaking. She was breathing extremely heavily.
“Nicole did this…” Jecka silently said to herself. “I have nothing left. Karen’s gone. Nicole hates me….Nicole….” She silently laid it down. “Nicole planned this all along…that’s why she was so calm about dating Megan…” Jecka looked up and I thought she caught us, but she continued talking. “Nicole did this….” She spoke in such a monotone voice. “I really thought people cared about me.” For some reason, the more she spoke, the colder the atmosphere became. “And when they care, I pushed them away.….I should have held Karen when I had the chance….Nicole moved on and I didn’t accept it.” Now it got extremely cold as…
“Megan, why the fuck are you pulling on my shirt?” Megan pointed up to icicles forming above us. They got bigger as it looked like it was about to drop from the roof gutters. The cracks were louder and louder with Jecka’s words. Wait, how the fuck are Icicles being made during Summer?? It’s like 75 degrees.
“No one cares about me cause no one considers how my life’s gonna be different forever….The next time I see her….I’ll kill her….” The icicles dropped down on us as we got out of the way in time and ran down the road. They crashed onto the grass causing some of the grass to turn into pure ice then melt away on its own.
Megan and I continued to run down the street away from Jecka’s house until we got back to Megan’s car. “What the FUCK was that?” Megan screamed out.
“What didn’t see that in your visions?” I sarcastically said while catching my breath.
“No! What the fuck just happened?”
“I don’t know, but everything makes sense now. She never invited anyone over because of her dad.”
“No, that’s NOT her dad. After how she just basically threw her own daughter after kissing Karen, fuck that.”
“Yeah…we got to do something. She thinks she’s alone, but she knows Karen will help her out.” I couldn’t help, but to think about it, but… “We can help her out.”
“No, everyone is going to help out. Emily, Kelly, Karen, and even Ari. We have to figure out who the fuck sent her those photos. No mailman would even consider dropping that shit off to anyone’s house. Not at least for a reason.”
“On top of that, all that icicle shit…?”
“Yeah, everything has been…extremely weird lately. Do you think this adds up to Karen’s antics?”
“I don’t know, but I hope it’s not related to Jecka’s Dad. Alright, first thing’s first….We need to get Jecka out of that house AWAY from her dad. I can’t bear Jecka to deal with it again. Look, I know we haven’t seen eye to eye…but I really need your help, Megan.”
“I’ll be with you until the end.” Megan smiled.
“Great, so now we are going to need some leads. We’ll have to do it tomorrow…We’ll have to start there.”
This is gonna be a really weird team up….
Notes:
I hate to leave it on this note, but this chapter has been long enough as it is and I don't want to go over it. The next part is going to be Emily oriented so I don't want to spoil too much. I promise not to leave this for a month long again even with everything going on. My job has been hectic considering that I have to travel a lot and I have a new interview this weekend. So, this week I'm going to try and work on both The Life and Times and the next chapter in The Flipside Chronicles. With Nicole being more serious, I'm excited to show off how that might turn out, especially teaming up with Megan. Thank you guys for the love and support and I really hope to keep going with this story!
Chapter 4: Chapter 4 Don't Go Breaking My Heart Into Thirteen Pieces
Summary:
Nicole and Megan start to gather information on Jecka's Dad, but first they are going to have to get some outside help....
Notes:
I apologize for this being so late! More job interviews came up and this took a bit longer! I tried condensing things down, but I scanned this twice to try and lower the word count. It's a lot less than less chapter for sure! Also, thank you to Astral, @@AstroShatter on Twitter, for the artwork for this chapter! PLEASE go check them out, they are super amazing at what they do and they need more attention! Enjoy the chapter about Emily!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 4 Don’t Go Breaking My Heart into 13 Pieces
Date: June 14th, 2009
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Location: My House
So….I guess this is a small recap since I’m taking over for the moment. Jecka and I have been on and off for a while to the point where she dated Karen, then I figured she needed some space from me, so I accepted Megan’s offer on a date.
Yeah, it sounds weird as it sounds, but it was really fun with her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Megan that happy before. Not even with Hunter. Everything was great until Karen got drunk and started doing some weird shit. Finally, I got to be alone with Megan, until….
I thought of Jecka. Her smile. Her eyes. That bitchy personality.
And yeah…Megan thought of her, too. But in a worried way.
So, we went over to Jecka’s house and found her own fucking father abusing her. I always thought to myself why she never invited me over. Her fat fuck of a father is absolutely pathetic. Megan took it the worst because she was shaking as it happened. Speaking of shaking, we somehow nearly died from some icicle shit. Like in fucking Summer? Al Gore would literally be having wet dreams over this type of shit.
I know it’s a stretch, but I really need to focus on Jecka. To the point where I have to work together with Megan, thankfully she didn’t take no for an answer.
We wanted to make that fucker pay. We needed him to rot. Not just get Jecka away from him. Our first plan of attack was to get Jecka AWAY from him. And we knew just who to call first.
“Hey, you got a minute? How are you feeling?” Megan spoke to them on her phone’s speaker as we both sat on my bed.
“uh….I’m fine. Look, it’s about last night. I’m really sorry.”
“Karen, we need a favor from you.” I shouted out.
“You…you do?” I had a bit of shuffling on her end. Like it was a bed sheet or something.
“Okay, it’s about Jecka.”
“Hang….Fuck, not there.” Did Karen just….? “Okay, I’m in a better spot…I had a bad signal.”
“Uh…okay.” Megan and I looked at each other weird then I shook my head before continuing. “Alright, it’s about Jecka….last night, we saw her literally get thrown into a wall by her dad.”
“Yeah, she had a mental breakdown while I helped her cook for her Dad…she was probably freaking out trying to make it really good for her Dad. Then, she dropped a glass and started crying like a lot…”
Karen took a big sigh. “Okay, I….heard some bad stuff as well. When I was going to take Jecka out, I heard a lot of yelling behind the door. Specifically something about how her dad was going to beat Jecka with a fire poker if I turned out to be a guy.”
“We need to do something about this fucker.” Megan added.
“So, how did you guys find out about Jecka being abusive?”
“I was going to apologize to Jecka and then we found out about how Jecka was getting punished for getting caught with you making out on the Ferris Wheel.” I said.
“WHAT????? How on earth did he fucking found out???” Karen exclaimed.
“Apparently, someone took a bunch of photos of you two?”
“How the hell did that even happen??”
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it, and we’re gonna need your help.” Megan had a determined look.
“Yeah, but first, we need you to try to get Jecka to come over to your house for the next couple of weeks.”
“I’m gonna call her and….” Karen paused as someone else was giggling. It was extremely hard to point. “Fuck…not now.”
“Uh…Karen?” I was trying to get Karen’s attention, but she was quiet for a second.
“I’ll call her after this and then we’ll go from there. I’ll text you soon!” Karen then hung up without even saying goodbye.
“That…was weird.” I closed my phone and put it back in my pocket.
“Okay, that’s step one. What’s the next step?” Megan got closer to me on the bed.
“I’m going to take off the next couple of days and try to get some information around town about Jecka’s dad, or at least something.”
“Well…Are you sure you want to take off?”
“Jecka should NOT be having to deal with that kind of shit.”
“I agree, but do you think Ari will allow you to take off just for this?”
“Ari’s cool now, she’ll let me off. Do you think you can take off, too?”
“I can try? I’m only part-time at the moment.”
“Uh…I guess, we can work around your schedule maybe. I need all the evidence we can get to ruin this fucker.”
“I have some ideas, but…”
“But what?” I looked at Megan in confusion.
“I much rather use them as a last resort.”
“Which is?”
“A guy.”
“Ewww, yeah, last resort. Can I borrow your car?”
“I can just take you. You aren’t driving my car.” Megan glared at me.
“Why? I have my license now. I drive around town delivering pizzas.”
“Congrats. You are a wage slave for Domino’s while working for your Ex. What a small world.”
“Uh, technically you’re my ex.”
“We had one date! That doesn’t count.” Megan yelled out.
“Well…it wasn’t awful.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better because?”
“I mean I don’t regret dating you, Jecka and Ari.”
“You are not good at this.”
“Dude, just let me drive your car.”
“Uh, no! I can drive.”
“I’ll give you free pizza.” I smiled at her.
“Nice try. You think that I’m some foodaholic now that I cook for Jecka that you are gonna give me some form of…” Megan spoke out.
“
I want to use my talents to help people. To become a better person before I leave Burke.” I mimicked Megan. “I’m going to go on Broadway one day with how I’m such a pretty Hermoine.”
“Oh my gosh, fine.” Megan immediately handed me her keys then got up from the bed. “Ungrateful, My Chemical Romance loving, Red Lobster eating ass bitch.”
“Red Lobster is great and you know it.” I got up with Megan.
“It’s more expensive as shit with your privileged ass. Not to mention it just took me only an afternoon to ask you out.”
====================================================================
Date: 10:30 a.m.
Location: Ari’s House/Porch
I knocked on the door a few times hoping that Ari would come out. “So, why are we here again?” Megan asked.
“I’m talking to Ari, so I can try to get off for a few days.”
“Why don’t you just call her? Or just go to the Domino’s you work for?”
“Because Ari is a Manager and she is home around this time.”
“That…makes sense?”
“Nicole and…” Ari opened the door in her pajamas as she growled at me, but then stared at Megan. “Megan? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help Nicole.”
“Yeah, I’m in Hell. So, what do you want? You’re off today.”
“Okay, look, I need off for the next few days.”
“Let me guess, you need to do more crazy shit.”
“I mean it's’ crazy, but it's about Jecka…” Megan added.
“Yeah, she is getting fucked over by her dad.” I told her.
“She never mentions her dad now that you think about it.” Ari coughed for a moment. “Sorry, I’ve had a couple of allergies and I burnt a pizza today.”
“How do you burn pizza?” Megan seemed agitated. “You just put it in the oven after you make everything.”
“Apparently, by touching it.” Ari gave us both a glare. “Twice. The second time when I touched it, the dough was on fire.”
“Uh, cool. So Jecka’s being abused.” I yelled at her.
“Hold on. It’s not okay if Jecka’s being abused, but it’s not when I get abused by your hands?” Ari got a bit angry.
“Yeah, it’s almost different when it’s a grown ass man beating their fucking child.” Megan said.
“Okay, how do you even know this?” Ari leaned against her door. “How am I supposed to believe you two when Nicole here is the biggest piece of shit at our school? And YOU somehow care about your former students?”
“Because…..” Megan was going to talk, but we heard a car door slam right behind us. Jecka was in her pink polo with some shorts bolting up the stairs walking towards Ari.
“Ari, can we have some privacy here? I need to talk to them.” Jecka asked in a very calm manner.
Ari looked at Jecka surprised and then glanced at me and Megan for a moment. “Actually…yeah, go ahead. Just take all the time you need…and I’m here for you, Jecka.”
“Okay.” Jecka said as Ari closed the door. She turned to us and was absolutely pissed at us. “I want some fucking answers.” She held up three photographs of her and Karen together.
“That seriously wasn’t me.” I told her.
“Nicole, you’ve been fucking with me for the longest time. The fact you go on a date with your new girlfriend just to spite me proves it.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend. We just had a good time, but she’s just another really good friend to me.”
“Why does that hurt more than it should have?” Megan frowned.
“I know what the fuck you two did last night at Kelly’s party. Stop lying.” Jecka’s eyes started to glare at me.
“You were spying on us..?”
“Jecka, I was going to, but Nicole didn’t want to. Okay? So we just talked and I got worried about you?”
“What? You suddenly care about me after exposing Karen to my dad?”
“Jecka, we have no idea what you are talking about.” I lied so Jecka wouldn’t know that Megan and I were at her house last night.
“Look at the fucking pictures! This has your name all over it!” Jecka screamed out loud and she threw the pictures down on the porch.
“Jecka, we just want to help you out. I promise. We just want to know how….” Megan started to talk.
“STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THIS!” Jecka’s voice echoed throughout the neighborhood and cracked a few car windows down the block causing one alarm to go off. “Nicole, I’m so tired of your shit. Telling people to kill themselves, trying to fuck around with Coach Colby, telling Jeffery to drink bleach, setting firecrackers in toilets, trying to sell cookies with crack in them, telling Kelly to kill herself, making me overdose, trying to make a creep shoot up the school….”
“Okay, I don’t remember even half of that.” I yelled at her.
“You don’t remember because you don’t fucking care! I’m sick of trying to fall for someone who doesn’t give a fuck who cares and who dies. Unless it's you.” Jecka walked up to me. “I want you to suffer like I have, you rotten bitch. That’s why I’m going to fucking hurt you. If you don’t fucking tell me the truth, I will hunt you down for the rest of my life. I’ll make you my fucking hostage and point the gun Jeffery saved to shoot everyone up with at you EVERYWHERE I go. I don’t care who comes after me. The police, the SWAT team, anyone. I just want you to suffer like you made the world suffer.” Jecka breathed heavily while her eyes suddenly became light blue. So, I had to just try and calm her down.
“Deal.”
“What?” Megan was shocked.
“I’m sorry…what?” Jecka immediately backed up.
“Okay, you win. I’ll be your hostage and I’ll go everywhere with you.”
Jecka was extremely confused. “Uh…Okay, I know you’re hiding something, so I’ll stay with you for a while.” This is honestly good because we need Jecka AWAY from her father.
“How…has your day been so far?” Megan tried to get Jecka to relax a bit.
“Uh…it’s been fine, I guess. Karen offered to let me stay at her place tonight. So I’m going to spend more time with her.”
“That’s great, Jecka. Are you two gonna hang out again?”
“Sure, then we’ll watch Jennifer’s Body and make out vigorously.” Jecka glared at me.
“Well…I hope you have fun.” I frowned.
“Dude, I’m fucking kidding. It's just, I don’t know. It made my life a bit better.”
“So…how did you get those photos?”
“Apparently, they were in the mail.” Jecka had a monotone voice.
“Maybe someone knows who sent them to you?” Megan played along.
“Yeah, the fucking mailman knows where these photos came from. Great idea.” Jecka sarcastically snapped.
“No, I mean, someone had to send those photos to your house for a reason.” I told her.
“And what reason would that be? What reason would that ‘someone’ send those photos to MY house? You still have the fucking motive, Nicole.”
“For the last time, it’s not me. We just need some help to find out who did it.”
“You better start thinking, Nicole.” Jecka glared at me. “Who the fuck would even know where to begin?”
She makes a good point. We can’t go to the Police because even with me, Megan and Karen as a witness, that’s not enough evidence if we just SAY Jecka was being abused by her father. The teachers are on Summer break so fuck all of them. My mom doesn’t know anything about Jecka’s parents except she saw Jecka’s mom when I moved here months ago. So, I guess I can go back to our school friends. The guys are shit, so I’m not doing that. Also, they weren’t at the fair. Actually, maybe we can ask someone who knows a lot of shit around these parts. Let’s see….Karen and Jecka would be no help because you know…. Kelly works at FYE all the time now, so she wouldn’t know. Ari was literally with me at the fair and now she’s getting sick. And Emily is with her shitty boyfriend from MS-13….wait a minute…..
“EMILY!” I shouted out.
“Really, I’m right fucking here.” Jecka told me.
“No, I mean Emily knows a lot of shit that goes on in the streets because she’s in MS-13, right?”
“Wait…”
“You can’t seriously think MS-13 KNOWS who sent those pictures?” Megan grew heavily concerned.
“There’s literally NO ONE in town who can at least point us in the right direction. They can at least give us a clue.”
“That’s literally suicide. Even for you.” Jecka seemed a bit angry.
“Do you have any other ideas?”
“Not really….”
“We can talk to Emily and see if she get us any info from MS-13 on some shady fucks around the fair.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let’s go talk to Emily.” Megan slightly raised her hands up. “Do we have any ideas where to go?”
“I remember seeing Emily at the party last night wanting a ride home, but I bolted from there.” Jecka said.
“She does like to crash at a lot of places.” I added. “Alright, let’s go back to Kelly’s.”
“I’m taking my car, bitch.” Jecka said. “I don’t trust you two right now.”
“Uh….Nicole can just ride with me then.” Megan mentioned.
“If you two pull over to have car sex, I’m rear ending you.”
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Location: Kelly’s House
(Music:
Dungeon - 17 - Dragon Quest III HD 2D Remake Switch OST Soundtrack
)
Megan, Jecka and I went through the front door of her house, and her place was FUCKED up from the party. Opened twinkies, trash, glass, garbage bags, broken windows, you name it; Her house looked like that one scene from the Cat and the Hat.
“Hello?” I screamed out, causing a pigeon to fly past me and Jecka.
“Holy shit. What happened?” Jecka looked at all of the trash that was on the floor.
“Oh my god, I just stepped on a used condom, gross!” Megan got closer to me, making Jecka a bit angry.
“So, um, let’s just find Emily. She’s bound to be here somewhere.” I scanned the area to see if Kelly was in sight. “Kelly!”
“She’s not in the Kitchen.” Jecka quickly glanced at the kitchen.
Megan walked in the Utility Room beside us and took a quick look. “She’s not in this room! I don’t think she’s swimming in the Indoor Pool anyways.”
“Let’s try upstairs then.” I started to go up the stairs as Jecka and Megan followed behind me. On the second floor, we tried to go into a couple of rooms, but they were locked.
We went into the room me and Megan were in last night to find Kelly and Karen giggling in the same bed. Don’t worry, they’re fully clothed. They both noticed us come in as Megan looked wide-eyed though to see her in the bed this late in the morning.
“Oh God…” Kelly said, holding her covers up.
“I mean…it’s not your parents at least.” Karen said, looking at us. Wait, where are her glasses?
“No, I wish my parents were here instead of them.”
“Please tell me, I didn’t see what I just saw.” Megan had her back turned away.
“They’re fully clothed, you know that right?” I told Megan.
“I don’t want to take that risk.”
“Why the fuck are you two laying down this late in the morning? It’s like 10:45 a.m.” Jecka exclaimed.
“Holy shit…I didn’t realize we…Um….slept this late.” Kelly kept looking at Karen.
“Yeah, I guess, I just stumbled in here and we decided to catch up.” Karen brushed her hair back.
“Yeah, you caught up alright.” Jecka said.
“Look, Kelly. Can you help us find Emily?” My question caused Karen and Kelly’s expression to be more nervous.
“Uh, she probably went home.” Karen scooted a bit closer to Kelly.
“Karen, where are your glasses? Did you get contacts or something?”
“Uh….” As Karen was going to respond to my question, Emily walked out of a door, which I assumed led to the bathroom. She had her white towel over her shoulder as she had on Karen’s gray T-shirt with some glasses on her face.
“Thanks, Kelly. Your shower feels amazing, holy shit.” Emily walked up to Karen. “Not as amazing as this girl.” Emily pressed her lips against Karen who smiled after she pulled away.
“Likewise, I never realized how kind you two are.” Karen held Emily’s hand for a moment.
“Someone’s forgetting something.” Kelly pressed her lips as Karen grabbed Kelly’s shirt collar. Both of the girls stopped and turned their necks towards us extremely fast.
“FUCK!” Both of the girls said.
“Oh shit, hey guys! What’s up!” Emily yelled out while waving at us.
Megan and Jecka nearly dropped their jaws at them. I just looked at all of the three of the girls and just came to a giant conclusion. “Emily, you’re blind??”
Karen facepalmed herself while Emily still smiled at me. “Dude, yeah, I never knew Karen’s glasses fit me perfectly.”
“Holy shit, Nicole, you’re an idiot.” Megan spoke out.
“No, I can’t believe Emily was blind the entire time. So that’s why she always runs the stop lights.”
“YOU FUCKING MORON! Kelly, Karen, and Emily got jiggy in the same fucking bed you two were in last night.”
“You had your chance, bitch.” Karen scoffed at me.
“Wait….the same bed…that….” Kelly looked at me and Megan then stared at Karen.
“Oh god….” Karen jumped out of the bed along with Kelly.
“So that’s why the bed smelled so good when we….” Emily started to talk.
“If I hear another damn word about last night, I’m calling the cops for sexual harassment.” Megan glared at the girls.
“Please don’t!” Kelly exclaimed.
“Wait, how are we harassing you?” Karen was confused.
“Because you girls are harassing me with your sexual talk!”
“Holy fuck, all of you are dumb.” Jecka groaned.
“Okay, Emily. Can you help us out for a minute?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” Emily handed Karen back her glasses.
“Do you think you can go around MS-13 to see if someone took THIS photo?” I showed her the photo of Karen and Jecka making out on the Ferris Wheel as Karen looked down in disappointment from the photo.
“Oh! I think there was a giant rumor about some guy who took the photo.” Emily caused mine, Jecka and Megan’s expressions to light up.
“Who the fuck did it??” Jecka yelled out.
“Calm down shit, I don’t know who did it. But I can call my Ex to see if he knows something.”
“You two broke up?”
“No, but I’m going to later on tonight when I go over to his ‘base’ or whatever.”
“You sure you want to break up with a fucking gang member?” Megan added.
“He’s a piece of shit. Not to mention, people like Karen and Kelly, hell you guys included, make me feel good about myself. He literally left me on the fucking highway because I don’t like give him blowjobs.”
“That’s disturbing…” Kelly frowned.
“So, can you contact him really quick?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure, one second. Damn, I forgot about the time.”
“FUCK! My parents are coming home today.” Kelly put her hands on her head. “Can you guys help me out?”
“Dude, we’re busy with something…” Megan said.
“What is so busy that….” Karen then whispered in Kelly’s ear causing her expression to change. “Oh….fuck….Karen, can you help me clean up then?”
“Dude, yeah, let’s start downstairs.”
“Perfect. If we can hurry, we’ll finish before 3 p.m.” Kelly rushed out of the room with Karen.
“That was a fully awkward scene…” Jecka looked scared.
“Okay, so I’ll help you girls out, but can you help me out in exchange? I just need some moral support. Yeah, even Megan.” Emily asked.
“Deal!” Megan yelled out.
“What?” Jecka and I blurted out.
Megan then pulled me over. “Dude, we might get a clue if we talk to MS-13, and Jecka will think you’re cool again. We just get some answers then get out. Okay?”
“Fine, we have no other choice.” I broke away from Megan. “Alright, can you try to see if we can talk to them?”
“Yeah, let me make the call.” Emily opened her flip phone and started to call them. “Come on, pick up….Hey…” Emily groaned from a bit of yelling on the other end. “I’m getting tired of your shit and I need something….Can we meet up tonight? Some of my friends need to see you and….Uh…a blonde, a wavy brunette, and a bitch….Why? Alright….sure, whatever….” Emily hung up her phone.
“What did they say?” Jecka asked.
“They said, they’ll meet up with us tonight. Around 7pm Except we’ll have to meet at the Diner.”
“Why do we have to go to the Diner?” I asked.
“They feel like it’s the most discreet meeting for them there.”
“Uh…okay then?” I guess we’re going there then.
=====================================================================
Time: Noon
Location: Diner
It was lunch rush as Jecka, Megan and I sat at a booth looking at the cars passing by and the Diner being absolutely packed. It was nice seeing Jecka getting a small breather by sitting with us. Except one thing….
“We have to sit here for SEVEN fucking hours?” Jecka exclaimed during the rush.
“Apparently, that’s what Emily said.” Megan sat beside me on my right side.
“That’s fucking stupid. Why do we have to sit here for seven hours?”
“I know it’s crazy, but we don’t have anything better to do.” I added.
“I could literally be working right now. Well…” Jecka sighed. “Although it’s nice to get out a bit. Not to mention help Emily with her shit.”
“See? This is good for you. I get to take care of two birds with one stone.” I smiled. “Megan gets to help better herself, and you get to hang out with your best friend.”
“You aren’t my friend until we get to the bottom of this.” Jecka’s stomach growled. Fuck, I haven’t eaten today.”
“Me neither after the research we…” I slightly nudged Megan’s foot to get her to be quiet. “I mean the research we did for looking into my new school! Yeah.”
“Come to think of it, where are you going to school, Megan?” Jecka set her arms on the table. “You finished with flying colors and I don’t think you told me where you were going to college at.”
“Well….” Megan sounded embarrassed. “I got rejected by a lot of schools.”
“Really?” I was surprised. She didn’t seem the person who fucked up on a lot of classes.
“I didn’t do so well on the ACT.”
“Why not retake it? Or the ACT?” Jecka asked.
“I did, but I got one point lower.” That actually sucks ass. “But I think I might want to apply for Culinary School.”
“You do make a really good cook.” Jecka complimented her, which was a bit relieving.
“Yeah, it’s probably better than the shit we got here.” Emily walked up to us in her red apron and a pen and small notebook. “Have you guys figured out what you want yet? If not, it’s cool.”
“Is it okay if I put it on my tab? I’m going to pay for it.” Jecka offered to pay for us…? After she threatened to kill me?
“Actually, the workers and the boss saw you after the whole FYE incident and decided to give you girls a free lunch.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, for real?” Megan asked.
“Okay, it has to be under a hundred bucks at least.”
“Cheap mother fucker.” I exclaimed.
“Dude, it’s free shit still.” Jecka kicked me under the table. I kicked her back to where she glared at me.
“So…what are you guys getting…?” Emily was ready to write in her notebook.
“Oh, I’ll just have a burger with bacon and cheese with some fries on the side.” Megan looked at her menu.
“I’ll have this…Chicken-fried steak.” Jecka said.
“I’ll have some McChicken things and some hash browns.” I said.
“This is a Diner, not a McDonalds. We do have chicken sandwiches, but they aren’t the best.” Emily stopped writing.
“Okay, I’ll just have that then. Can we get some drinks? I’ll get a Dr. Pepper.”
“Diet Coke for me.” Jecka said.
“Same for me.” Megan added.
“Alright, I’ll get it for you girls. See you in a bit. It’s packed as fuck right now.”
=====================================================================
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Emily carried all of our plates on a giant black tray serving each of us our food and drinks. “Hope you guys enjoy it. Again, it’s on the house.”
“Two hours finally.” Jecka said.
“Dude, I told you it’s packed. Also…I decided to cook these for you.”
“Wow, really?” Megan decided to take a quick bite of her food. “Emily, this is really good.” She continued eating her food.
“...Thanks, that means a lot coming from you girls. Let me know if you need anything.” Emily smiled and left, but she came back for a moment. “And Megan….you can be cool sometimes.” Then she left for a nearby table.
“Wow, Megan, you are slowly actually not being a dick anymore.” Jecka took a bite of her food.
“I don’t know. Megan seemed to prove herself lately.” Megan smiled at me after what I said.
“Whatever, I’m still not down for you and your girlfriend’s antics.”
“You know, when we talked and I asked if you were okay with me dating Nicole, you did say you were okay with it.” Megan snapped at Jecka.
“Yeah, until all of this bullshit that’s happened. When you two are the cause of this shit.”
“We didn’t do anything.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Jecka continued to eat her food.
“Come on, Jecka. You can’t be like this for the next few hours.” Jecka ignored my comment and continued eating her food. “Apparently, you can.”
“It’s okay. She has every right to be like this. She’s been through a lot. So, we need to give her some space.” Megan suggested.
“Wow…Mature Megan is kind of weird, but slightly cool.” I turned to her.
“I don’t know. I just feel like it’s for the best.”
“Fine, whatever….Okay, I’m not going to sit in four hours listening to loud rednecks talking about their fifty wheeled trucks.” Jecka placed her fork down. “Megan, what made you want to be a good cook?”
“Well….My Dad was an inspiration to me after I cooked a giant Thanksgiving for everyone after my grandma wasn’t feeling…..”
So, the next few hours we just talked. It was nice hearing Megan and Jecka just get things off of their chest….
=====================================================================
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Outside of the Diner
As Emily finished her shift, Megan, Jecka and I met up with her as Emily was now wearing a black shirt with a bear holding a gun and her black jeans with holes. “Sorry, guys. They are almost here.”
“Phew, they are here earlier….Wait…we are about to meet gang members…How is this even remotely good?” Jecka realized, then exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll talk to them, and then we’ll leave.” Megan said.
“Yeah…they aren’t going to meet us up here….” Emily awkwardly spoke out.
“Uh, why…what’s about to happen?” I asked her.
“Okay, so, non MS-13 members have to go a special way so no one knows where their place is.” Emily rubbed her arm.
“So how the fuck….” Megan got hit in the back of the head with a metal pipe by some guy with tattoos.
“MEGAN!” Jecka and I screamed out as Jecka had her head covered with a leather sack by another thug. Emily fell flat on the ground as she was then knocked out while I had my head covered by another leather sack. I pushed the bulky guy behind me as I tried to run towards anyone, but my throat felt like it was grabbed as I started to fade to black completely….
=====================================================================
Time: ?
Location:??
It was pitch black when I opened my eyes. I could hear the sound of tires traveling on the road with a few bumps shaking me every so often. The sound of two guys talking in a language I couldn’t understand along with an engine revving up with a couple of more bumps.
“CALLARSE LA BOCA! ¡ESPERA A HABLAR CON MI NOVIO!” Emily shouted. “Oh hey, Nicole’s coming to.”
“Perfect! Gonna do this then!” Jecka yelled in the car starting to kick at my legs. “This is for everything, you bitch!”
“What the fuck! I can’t see!” I yelled out, but Megan got the leather bag off of my face. “Dude, thanks.”
“Thanks, Megan.” Jecka smiled and glared back at me. “Now I don’t have to hold back!!!” Jecka then kicked my chest with her fucking white sneakers.
“OW! How is this my fault at…” I raised my hands up to notice they were tied up in rope. All of us were tied up in rope just staring at me. “What the fuck is going on…?”
“Apparently, MS-13 jumped us.” Megan groaned.
“Why did they knock us out…?”
“Like I said, they are secretive about their place.” Emily mentioned.
“This is just extra.”
“What was I trying to tell you, Nicole?” Jecka yelled at me and crawled towards me, but she launched into me after hitting a giant bump. She landed on my legs and stared at me with an embarrassed look.
“Aww, what? You are mad that we finally get to kiss and make up in the back of a gang van?”
“You are such a piece of shit, Nicole.” Jecka then slapped my leg.
“Okay, THAT hurt.”
“Everyone, let’s calm down. I need a minute to think.” Megan breathed calmly and closed her eyes for a minute until the back doors opened up to two buff guys with nothing but tattoos covered around their body. Then one by one we were pulled outside to where a gigantic building was glowing with nothing, but candles around the building.
(Music:
MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha - Music by El Dyablo - City of the Padres
)
People were pulling up to the building with old motorcycles and motorbikes with how their exhausts were so loud passing by us causing my ears to ring. Female and male gang members were surrounding the building as they had beer bottles and red plastic cups jamming to the music inside of the building. They were covered in tattoos, specifically the number 13 standing out the most and a lot of them wore blue and black bandanas. A lot of people turned their gaze to us as we were about to enter the building. They whistled at us like we were property and even threw some devil horn signs at us.
The building we were about to enter was glowing with multiple floors of candles and lanterns that lit up like casino lights on each floor. It was at least four stories high with maybe 10 floors just from the look of it. The building was heavily damaged and barely repaired with some bricks decaying. We were now inside of the building where it was even brighter with the hundreds of candles scattered around the building. Every window was damaged and destroyed with bricks far as the eye could see. There were at least seventy people inside ranging from your standard MS-13 member to someone being interested in joining or partying. Some were playing pool in one corner while some sat in some wooden chairs drinking Vodka or even taking some Fireball shots. Some guys were arm wrestling on a wooden table then immediately started slapping each other followed by some punching. The loud music echoed throughout the building as we walked closer to a somewhat chubby dude with a little muscle sitting on the couch next to….a chained up Siberian tiger. It noticed us walking up and it started to growl at us.
The guy had a t-shirt with a cracked skull, a giant scar down his head, two gold buck teeth when he smiled at us, somewhat of a buzzcut, black hoodie and some black pants and boots. If he straightened his hair and wore some shitty glasses, he’d be a Jeffery but with more tan skin. As we stopped in front of this couch, the four guys who escorted us cut our ropes around our hands giving us free will again. “Emily, my dear. It’s so good to see my girl again.” He spoke with a scratchy voice like he smoked too many Malboros. “Come. We have much to talk about.” He gestured to Emily to come over.
“I’m not here for that.” Emily frowned. “My friends want to talk to you.”
“What on earth do they need from me?”
“Where the fuck did you get the tiger from?” I exclaimed.
“Apparently, it was a reward for trying to protect someone. Some weird doctor wanted me to protect some fat fuck.”
“I don’t have time for this shit.” Jecka wasted no time showing the pictures of Karen and herself. “This. Emily mentioned you know who took this.”
“Hmmmm….your face reminds me of another woman. Supposedly, I know someone who mentioned they saw someone take the photos. They were ‘doing their job’ as they mentioned.”
“Who…?”
“She’s so pretty I wish I had the chance to take her myself…”
“You throw four girls who just turned eighteen and you are already wanting to fuck someone who looks like her. Really know how to make a first impression.” I sarcastically said, causing one of the goons to come closer and growl like a kitten. Am I supposed to be afraid of that?
“....Hmmm. It’s coming back to me. When I tried to approach her, her name was…Peterson…”
“....Mom….” Jecka spoke with a sorrowful tone.
“She’s damn cute….I wish I whistled out to her one more time like I did with my Queens back at home…”
“Great, I wanted to break up with you anyways, dickweed.” Emily shouted.
“Excuse me…?”
“You left me on the side of the road, you bitch. I’m not some pile of trash you can leave on the side of the road. If I can slash my mom’s tires, I can slash yours.”
“Emily, I took you in for two years. Treated you with how I was treated when I started. Showed you your MS-13 family…and this is how you thank me?”
“You’re a sad sack of shit for a thirty year old man, who can’t cook except make people younger than you do your work.” Megan jumped in. “You are a pathetic excuse for a leader.”
Those words made the music stop from everyone hearing what Megan said. Everyone pulled out a switchblade or even a baseball bat, but the leader raised a hand slowly to calm everyone down. Then he stood up. “I’m not a leader. I’m Ximeno.” He started walking towards Megan slowly as the tiger growled a bit more. “You look familiar. And more importantly….How do you know how old I am…?”
“Word gets around.” Megan glared at Ximeno.
“No…” Ximeno started to walk slowly around Megan. “The Word on the street is that a lot of vehicles and trucks that we stole down in PG County have gone missing. And a lot of my members have been seeing a girl with your hair.” Ximeno brushed his dirty hands through Megan, causing her expression like she was about to explode in anger. “Beautiful curls like yours…around these parts…dealing with my men….Sometimes, even the cars go missing.”
“Maybe you need to get your fucking facts checked. I don’t stay around PG County…”
“I know you don’t.” Ximeno started to slowly walk back to his couch. “That’s why I’ve had people watch you…and your friends…and your family for a while now….” Ximeno sat back on his couch. “So…if you four want to leave out of here alive, I want one thing from you…” He slouched back on his couch even more. “I want you to twerk on me.”
“I never gave my ex-boyfriend any form of action because he was manwhoring behind my back. What the fuck makes you say I’m going to do anything for your humpty dumpty big ass.” Megan was giving him an evil stare now.
Ximeno chuckled to the point where it echoed throughout the building now. “I'm not asking you for it…” He then pulled out a revolver and started to wave it around. “I’m demanding.” He got up and started to walk up pointing it at Megan.
“Read my lips. Fuck you, fuck your Smith and Wesson, and fuck your whole group.” Megan made Ximeno laugh one more time.
“Too bad that delicious smell from you won’t save your lives.” Ximeno pointed the gun at Megan’s head.
“Shut the fuck up.” Jecka shouted out. “I’m not afraid of some Scrotum head looking bitch.
Ximeno pointed the gun upwards and shot it. Everyone flinched except Jecka, Megan, Emily and myself.“You girls got some balls today.” He pointed the gun now at Jecka and cocked the hammer. “I don’t mind busting a cap in your big mouthed body as well. Makes things easier to get with your mommy.” Some thugs started to surround us. It should feel like we were about to lose a battle. Everyone had bats, knives bigger than our heads, or even guns in this instance…..
But for some reason…
I wanted to fight. All of us gave extremely angry expressions looking at each other nodding our heads like we were giving each other a signal. “Bitch, I told you to look at me.” Ximeno screamed at Jecka. “I don’t mind driving downtown to pay your family a visit! And your sweet ass, mom!”
Jecka backhands the shit out of the guy causing him to land on his back and shoot one of the lanterns near the entrance. One of the thugs tried to shoot Emily point-blank in the head, but she grabbed the gun before he could even squeeze the trigger and dismantled it by crushing it. Then out of nowhere she had this long, slender white staff with a white crystal ball with holes held by claw-like structures at the top. She shoved her staff into the thug to make him wail in pain, then she hit two more thugs by pushing the guy she had with her staff. Megan roundhouse kicks the nearest thug and throws dirt in their eyes causing her to run up and dropkick them into the pool table flipping it over. The thug behind me tried to stab me, but I dodged it and disarmed them by breaking their arm with a single punch. I continued with a headbutt making his nose bleed and followed up with a lot of rapid jabs from my left and right.
After the commotion, Emily and I looked at each other in confusion. Then Emily looked at her new weapon, then it disappeared with a bright flash. “What the fuck just happened….?” Emily then smiled. “That’s really fucking cool…”
No….that’s extremely weird. How on earth can we just now start fighting like we knew what to do…?
Ximeno was about to shoot Jecka, but Jecka grabbed a knife and threw it at his arm causing him to scream out in pain. Then he ran up to the now roaring tiger and let it loose by unlocking the chain attached to the floor.
I threw another big thug across the room then noticed Jecka was about to be attacked by the tiger. “JECKA! LOOK OUT!!!”
(Music: The Legendary Super Saiyan (From Dragonball Z "Budokai")
Jecka noticed I yelled, but the tiger pounced on Jecka. Jecka was holding the tiger’s mouth as it tried to bite her. Both of her arms kept the tiger’s mouth agape and she kept opening the tiger’s mouth wider and wider. She kept holding the jaws of the beast with such an angry face that she kept screaming in anger and she decided to slowly get back up with the tiger whining as Jecka still held it’s jaw open.
“No…fucking way man…” Emily said as Megan and I got closer to her.
Jecka then made the top jaw go one way and the bottom one completely dislocated as the tiger sat on the ground lifeless. Jecka was standing over the newly dead tiger breathing heavily as she stared at Ximeno. The atmosphere had that heavy, cold feeling similar to when those icicles nearly fell on me and Megan. Jecka’s fists were clenched and pupils fully dilated. “I’m so tired….I’m tired…IT’S OVER!!!!!!!!!!” Jecka screamed out in anger as the air turned chilly. Jecka glowed with gold armor pieces and started to slowly appear slamming against her body . Gold sabatons, bracelets, and a breastplate with special insignias were now scattered across her armor. Then a cape with the same insignias at the bottom of the cape appeared. An elegant hat with light blue and white colors appeared on her hat. She dawned this light blue aura, which I’ve never seen anyone do. She held out her hand and a yellow star-shaped hammer appeared magically.
Everyone in the room just stood there at Jecka’s new outfit while she stared down the guy. “ ¡Mátalo! ¡Mátalo!” Ximeno got ready to shoot at Jecka along with a lot of the thugs with their shotguns and pistols.
“JECKA, LOOK OUT!!!” I yelled out, but Emily pulled me and Megan over behind a nearby couch. Guns were wildly going off as we looked up, but all of the bullets that were shot were hitting the ground as they tried to hit Jecka. She looked completely unphased as everyone was still shooting. Jecka dashed towards one person hitting their ribs with her hammer causing them to crash into the wall. Then she grabbed a female gang member’s leg and slammed them on the ground. She tossed them out of a window on a higher floor then dashed towards a gun shooting some kind of machine gun and slammed their head down on the ground. Each gang member she rushed towards she made it look like violence was an art as she slung her hammer at their heads. All of the gang members were screaming and trying not to cry as they continued to shoot at Jecka.
Three pipe bombs were thrown at her and exploded beneath her feet and we thought she died until three sharp icicles went after three more members impaling their stomachs. Then she rushed to a female gang member trying to rush at Jecka with a baseball bat. Jecka raised them up by their neck and they immediately turned into ice. She tossed the frozen gang member at a random thug, then she created this ice wall by raising her hammer up and pointing it at five gang members. The ice wall grinded against the floor extremely fast as it crashed them into the brick wall.
I noticed a nearby pipe bomb landed near my side. “FUCK! GUYS MOVE!” I shielded my friends from the blast, but the bomb made a small thud sound. As I turned around, the pipe bomb was completely covered by an igloo-like shield, then it melted to a completely corroded pipe bomb.
“Nicole! Megan! Emily! Get out of here!! I can handle them!” Jecka yelled as more gang members pulled up to the building with more vehicles and bikes. One guy tried to drive their bike into Jecka, but she tossed her hammer at the guy causing the guy to spiral out and crash into multiple candles. A few fires were now starting to take place even though more gang members tried to fight Jecka.
“Jecka! I’m not leaving without you!”
Jecka grabbed another guy and slammed them on the ground while hitting the guy’s back hard with her hammer. “NICOLE! Fucking go!!!”
There’s no way I’m leaving her. If she dies….. “Guys, we need to help her…”
“Yeah, she seems fine, to be honest.” Emily stared at Jecka dealing with more of the thugs.
“This ends-!!” Ximeno shot at Jecka, but she dodged the bullet and kicked his groin so hard he flew through the ceiling of the building.
“Never mind. She’s fine.” Emily smiled.
“The basement…?” Megan said to herself.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Guys, we need to head into the basement right now. Follow me.” Megan ran into this door that had stairs going downward with some lighting.
“What the hell are you doing, Megan??” I rushed after her with Emily following behind me.
The three of us were now running down a long hall with Megan leading. She pulled out her phone and made a quick call. “Hey, I need you here in like 10 minutes…..I think I know…wait…you don’t need our location? Okay! Great! Bring something safe to jump on as well. Thanks!” She put her phone back in her pocket as she ran.
“Who did you call this late at night?” I asked her.
“Karen. I told her about this earlier and she’ll be here soon.”
“I’ve always been curious about what Karen drove.”
Emily was just giggling the entire time we ran. “Why the fuck are you laughing?”
“These fuckers are finally getting what we deserve. After the way they treated me, I hope Jecka kills them all.”
“You aren’t questioning how the fuck she can suddenly do all of that shit??”
“Okay, yeah, that’s a little weird, but….” Emily stopped in front of this metal, rusted door. “I need to get in here… Right now.”
“Why the fuck do you need in here? We need to save Jecka.”
“I really need to get in here. Like now.” Emily tried to pull off a lock attached to the metal door.
“Emily, what is so important that you need in here.”
“OH MY GOSH! Fucking hell.” Megan kneeled down and chomped down on the LOCK BOLT as it broke in two. “What we are looking for isn’t in here, but take your shit Emily and leave.” Megan busted down the door with her foot opening up to a room full of guns. Emily squealed with pure glee as she ran up to each of the guns.
“GOD! I always wanted this!!” Emily started to hug one of the guns.
“Emily, what the fuck is up with you?” I told her as we entered the room.
“Hang on….” Emily walked up to one of the gun lockers and pulled out some lever-action rifle with a silver sheen. “YES!!” She then cocked the weapon. “This is just too fucking good!” Her level action rifle magically disappeared within her hands. “I REALLY WANTED THAT! WHAT THE FUCK!!!”
“No time, let’s go!” Megan grabbed my hand as we all rushed out of the room.
“Megan, where are we going???” I asked, but Megan was too focused on this one room as she busted down another door. Inside were two guys just chilling playing some goldfish on a crate with some lawn chairs. They got up and looked at us with sharp knives at the ready.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” The guy yelled out in fear.
“Where is the stash??” Megan yelled out before attacking the guy in front of her pushing him against the wall and started gut punching him extremely fast.
“Ayo, calm yourself!” The other guy tried to throw her knife at Megan.
“MEGAN!!!” Emily reached out for Megan, but a bunch of skeletal arms came out of the wall behind the armed man pulling him into the wall; the more he tried to resist, the more skeletal arms came out gripping a random part from him until he had no control except to scream. It went from ten to twenty hands in just a second. The man screamed until he started to melt in the wall. The gang member reached out his hand carrying a knife until he was fully pulled in the wall, dropping the knife….
“Cool.” Emily and Megan smiled while saying it.
“WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED???” I screamed out in the room.
“Okay….It’s three doors down….” The gang member ran away from Megan and rushed back upstairs.
“Great, let’s go!” Megan bolted out of the room along with Emily.
“Holy shit….where are you going?” I ran after the girls, but both of them stopped staring at this door with a bit of a purple light coming out of the door in front of us. Loud banging was coming from the same one, too. Then the metal door broke off with a skinny gang member having nothing but purple dust all over his face and arm. He started at us and he started to yell out in pure pain, throwing himself at the wall. He slid down holding his right arm and his yell turned into a bloodcurdling roar. His arm started to become a lot larger with a lot of cracking as it started to become bigger than his entire body. His eyes became dark purple as he looked up at the ceiling and roared out in pain. Then he slowly started to rush towards us.
“Holy shit….What the fuck is…Megan…? I watched Megan as she rushed towards the newly made beast as Megan was much quicker than the monster. She held out her hand as she magically had a new weapon with a dinosaur fossil shaped head having a yellow diamond on the tip of its head. She spun around with a lot of force launching her hammer at the monster’s head slamming it against the wall with purple covering the wall. The monster laid against the wall without a sound when it hit the floor.
“Come on. This is it.” Megan ran inside the room.
“Megan, what the fuck is going on??” I ran within the room to see hundreds of these purple vial containers everywhere. There were in this giant see through containers where purple substances floated around within them. Some were in beakers like a science project or some were even in crates getting ready to be shipped. “Skeletons….Dinosaur Hammers….Megan, what the fuck did you do? What are we doing here???”
Megan found some gasoline near a corner and started to pour it on every container she saw. She made a small trail outside of the room. Megan started to loot the monster’s body by checking their jacket. “Okay, there has to be something…” Megan pulls out a metal lighter out of their pocket. “Yes! Girls, get over here.”
“Megan…what the fuck are you doing?” I raised my eyebrows in pure fear of what she’s about to do.
“Sending a message.”
“DO IT!” Emily smiled as Megan dropped the lighter causing the trail to light up in flames.
(Music: Escape From The Dragon )
The three of us started to run as the flames started to catch all of the containers and barrels on fire causing a small purple explosion behind us. All of us fell from the blast, but we quickly got up as all of the rooms started to catch fire. We ran towards the stairs to meet back up with Jecka. She was looking around and ran up to us as multiple gang members groaned in pain on the ground while some fled the scene entirely. The building was covered in flames from the fighting Jecka caused along with the multiple candles and lanterns spread out in the building.
“What the heck did you do?” Jecka yelled at me.
“I burned their entire stash!” Megan yelled out as multiple debris started to fall. Fire was rising up the glass stained windows near the entrance as glass popped out. Emily kept giggling and laughing the entire time like she had unlimited oxygen. “Why does she keep laughing?”
“Yeah, getting her to shut up was the hard part. Let’s get the fuck out of here!” I yelled as everyone ran with me to head towards the exit, but the exit was now blocked with a bunch of steel beams falling down in front of us causing all of us to cough from the cloud it caused. “Shit, that was the only exit!”
“No, it’s not.” Jecka pointed out a fire escape staircase with multiple floors that were extremely far from us. The flames were starting to get closer to us and burned with a hint of purple. “Nicole, get on my back.”
“What?” Jecka pulled me on her back then grabbed Megan and Emily before kneeling down then doing a gigantic jump towards the fire escape while carrying all of us. She landed on a level of the fire escape perfectly. She let us down so that way we can all run up the stairs.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jecka yelled it out as her and Emily ran up the metal stairs while Megan followed behind me. We kept running up the fire escape as I noticed the bottom of the fire escape was melting as we rushed up. Pieces of the metal stairs behind us started to fall apart as the flames grew stronger in the building. It went from an abandoned building to a giant frying pan. We could not go back as the bottom looked like a gateway to hell as the flames started to rise with every item it could burn. Metal from the ceiling started to fall down to the bottom as we made it to the top of the stairs. Luckily, we were able to run along an extremely wide steel beam that led to a small ladder to the roof. All of us were nearly there except Megan who turned around and just stared at the stairs we just left now melting from the flames.
“MEGAN!!!” Jecka and I ran back to try and pull Megan back to us. “Megan! Wake up, let’s go!!”
“Huh..? Yeah, let’s go!!” Megan quickly bolted back to the ladder as all of us climbed on it to the top of the roof. We ran quickly to the edge of the roof to see all of the empty MS-13 vehicles still there. At this point, the cars looked like ants to us, almost. She called Karen one more time as a ton of smoke had filled the night sky. “KAREN! WHERE ARE YOU????”
“We’re pulling up….HOLY SHIT!!! We can see you! Kelly is backing up now!” We saw a white Chevy speed up past the cars with a giant equipment trailer with a white sheet. The car screeched when it stopped as Karen got out of the car and inflated the sheet making some kind of penguin bouncy castle. “It’s ready! You girls need to jump now!!!” Karen screamed into the phone.
Explosions from the building started to come up far behind us. “JUMP! NOW!” Jecka demanded. All of us jumped as the explosions caught up with the entire roof while Emily still giggled, Megan was screaming, and Jecka had a very defiant face as she leapt with her armor. This was probably the most insane night of my life…
We all landed in the bouncy house with a little bit of resistance, but now all of us were safe. Karen was back inside of the Chevy to give Kelly the signal to book it. Kelly drove around the building and took a gravel road leading to a forest, but it was best as we heard fire trucks and police sirens as we drove in the forest. Jecka’s outfit changed back to a pink polo with shorts and she closed her eyes and fell forward on my legs. Breathing extremely heavily and staring at the star-lit sky…
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Location: Karen’s house?
Kelly slammed the breaks by a small one story house with a giant backyard. She got out of her car with Karen. “Are you guys okay?? How the heck did that happen?”
“Megan for whatever reason wanted to blow up the building.” I told Kelly while we got out of the bouncy house. I helped carry Jecka still exhausted from earlier.
“They wanted to kill us. It was us or them. Think about it.” Megan yelled out
“I guess…but like….what the fuck just happened.”
“I can’t exactly explain it, but we got out didn’t we?”
“What about Jecka?” Kelly got extremely scared for a minute. “She’s not moving….”
“It’s okay. I can walk….” Jecka broke out of my arms and walked towards the backseat. “Is my stuff in here?”
“Yeah, you told me to pack your stuff like you said.” Karen opened the door for her. Jecka then pulled out her two pink suitcases and a large sized box for Karen to carry. “Alright, before we go, let me deflate this bouncy house.”
“Where on earth did you find this?” Megan stared at the Penguin themed bouncy house.
“It’s for my dad when he throws birthday parties.” Kelly smiled.
“For you right…?” I asked her.
“Sadly no….”
Karen used a small pin to pop the bouncy house as it emitted an extremely loud, plopping noise as air released from inside of the material. “Karen, what the heck?”
“You’re welcome.”
“No! That was my Dad’s!”
“He was going to know that it was going to be gone anyways. Jecka, can you move?”
“Hold on a minute…” I ran up to Jecka.
“What the fuck do you want?” Jecka kept glaring at me.
“You aren’t going to tell me how you just magically happen to have King Arthur’s armor and beat the shit out of people when you cry when a goat screams out.”
“Fuck off! Goats are scary.”
“What we just witnessed was scary!” I yelled out. “You like to beat the shit out of all of those gang members, and you are WAY too calm for any of this.”
“Nicole…I just feel like something is wrong with me.” Jecka sighed. “So, I just kind of embraced it. I’m tired of people thinking I’m a joke. People think I’m just some preppy kid. Some weakling….I’m tired of being worthless….” Jecka clenched her fists. “And I’m tired of being your bitch…”
“Dude. Come on. Seriously, you just did….”
“No…I killed a lot of those gang members FOR NOTHING. We did all of that. For nothing….”
“Not exactly….” Megan whispered to herself.
“Either way. The only lead we had is now gone”
“Okay, in my defense, you kicked the shit out of him.” I said.
“Wait…what gang members….” Karen got worried for a minute.
“MS-13.”
“YOU DID WHAT????” Kelly screamed out causing dogs to bark a couple of blocks over. “Oh my gosh, what have you girls done?”
“It’s fine. He was the leader, but fuck him.”
Kelly nearly fainted until Karen caught her. “Everything is going to be fine. Everyone is here. That’s the bottom line.”
“The bottom line is there’s no evidence for Nicole’s shit. I’m tired of Nicole getting a pass. I don’t want to hang around you anymore.”
“Jecka…Come on. We went through all of this stuff, and I was submissive to you. What is going to make you change your mind?? I’ll do anything.”
“Anything, huh?” Jecka’s angry face turned to a more blank expression.
“Anything.” I told Jecka.
“You and I are going to go through Couples Counseling.”
“FUCK THAT!”
“You want to fix things with me and prove you didn’t do it?” Jecka grabbed her suitcase and turned her back towards me. “Then I want to figure things out with you. Okay, I was an asshole, and I still am. I killed so many people…. I want to find the real me….And I want to fix myself. And I know you have problems, too….So it would make sense for you to join me. If not, I don’t want to be around you anymore.” Everything she said made sense, but it hurt more than it should. “I appreciate you helping me with Emily, but I just don't trust you. Not after right now.”
“Why do you want ME to go to Therapy with you?”
“Because Nicole…I just really want to help everyone. If I am going to leave for Virginia Tech, I want to say goodbye to everyone. I want to fix the wrongs we made TOGETHER. Everyone we hurt. Everyone I killed….” Jecka rolled her suitcase towards Karen and stared back at me. “Take all the time you need to think about it, but right now, I really don’t want to talk to you.”
“Jecka….” I tried calling out to her, but Jecka walked inside with her items as Karen stared back at me with a depressed face of her own. Karen waved at me goodbye to reassure me, but it honestly didn’t matter to me.
“Hey…Nicole.” Kelly placed a hand on my shoulder. “Do you want me to take you back home?”
“Sure….I’d like that. Thanks.” We both turned around to see Emily hugging her lever-action rifle that she found earlier.
“How long has she had that for…?” Kelly started to get uncomfortable.
“Apparently, a good minute….” Megan groaned.
“I missed you so much! Yes, I did. Yes, I-” Emily’s weapon magically disappeared again with a small white flash. “FUCK! Why does it keep going away?!?!” Emily immediately looked under Kelly’s car to try and find it.
“We got to find some answers….”
It was really good to at least get Jecka in a new place, but now we had another problem.
What the hell is even going on?
Notes:
This is absolutely INSANE chapter, I know. I promise a lot of plot points will be addressed in the next chapter. Next chapter is going to have a lot of planning mainly because its' going to be focusing on Ari! We are at the half way point of the story and now the girls are going to have to team up to figure out what's going on around them and for Jecka's sake!
This weekend I plan on absolutely grinding on the next chapter of the Life and Times of Nicole Sanderson. So, in the mean time, check that story out, too! I have some more artwork planned for that chapter as well, which is also another reason why that's taking so long! Thank you guys for sticking around!! I hope you guys enjoyed this bonkers chapter!
Chapter 5: Chapter 5 Ari Ready For What's Next?
Summary:
After the MS-13 Incident, the girls are back at square one and now have to help Ari while helping Jecka reach back her sanity. But more importantly, what about Nicole's sanity?
Notes:
I apologize for how long this took again. Life was busy, I had a ton of good and bad stuff happen to me, and I went to an anime convention after a 6 year hiatus almost, and drove 3 hours to it, which was amazing. Also, I didn't realize this story was over 3 months ago since I last posted it. So FINALLY, I'm back on this. Big shout out to @Lulusglasses, or Ania on Twitter for the art for the chapter (I apologize for the black and white, I had to get in noncolor for right now), and enjoy the chapter!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
After that INSANE fiasco from that abandoned MS-13 building, Megan, Kelly, Emily, Karen, and myself all agreed to kind of lay low for a minute. At least two weeks worth of laying low. We were expecting MS-13 to try to find us after killing their leader basically, but we never saw them. I guess we got lucky.
Except for Jecka….
Whenever I would see Jecka in public, she would look away or just flat out ignore me. Sometimes when she was with Karen, Jecka would have this angry expression and just grab Karen’s hand, walking away from me. Karen just stared back at me with a worried expression while I just seemed defeated. Even though Jecka was away from her father, you think life got better with her right…….?
Well……
Date: June 28th, 2009
Time: 10:45 a.m.
Location: Burke Mall FYE SECTION
“I’m sorry, she’s been what?” I asked her in confusion. I wore some kind of a black shirt with some black and white spirals and teal ghost on it then with some shitty blue jeans.
“Look, I can’t disclose TOO much information, but….I’ve been a bit worried about her.” Kelly was playing with her name tag a bit as no one was in the store.
“She’s been working for two weeks straight at BOTH JOBS. Why wouldn’t we be worried about her?” Megan was agitated in whatever she had on her black shirt.
“I think she’s still stressed from…you know.” Kelly whispered.
“Why are you whispering? There is no one here. Are you worried Coach Colby is spying on us again?” I glared at Kelly.
“Nicole, I WILL fucking murder him this time.”
“Who doesn’t?” Megan set her right hand on her hip. “So where is she?”
“She’s….in the back….”
“What? Like stocking?”
“Uh….sleeping….”
Megan and I looked at each other in concern. “What?”
“Look, she’s been wanting to stay a lot to help out and I appreciate it, but I REALLY think everything is starting to get to her.”
“She murdered a bunch of gang members, her dad is an abuser, her mom is somewhere in the state, she doesn’t have a home because two of her best friends like her and she went…all the frozen guy from Batman or whatever?”
“Dr. Freeze?” Megan added.
“Yeah, him.”
“Wait a minute. She’s staying with Karen, why is she sleeping here?” Megan seemed confused.
“I don’t know….I get how she wants to work, but she’s going to work herself to death…” Kelly’s eyes darted everywhere in fear.
“Do you know where her Mom would be? Or like any leads to help us out? We’ve done some digging and we got nothing.” I asked Kelly.
“I’ve been helping Karen after we cleaned up my house and we haven’t gotten anything. Not even the adults at our school know anything about her parents.”
“Not even Bitch Lynn?”
“I asked Principal Lynn and she just told me that her dad was an ‘upstanding person’.”
“I’m about to upstand his ass the next time we see him.” Megan looked extremely pissed.
“This is scary how much we’ve agreed with each other. First, we make out and now we’re like partners in crime.”
“Yeah, I never realized how much we can get along so well.” Megan smiled.
“Hey there, Welcome to….” Jecka seemed extremely drowsy until she stared at me with some small bags under her eyes. “What the fuck do you want here?” Jecka stared at me crossing her arms in her FYE Uniform. “Go back to Dominos and burn the place down with you in it, please.”
“Why the fuck am I the problem?” I glared at Jecka.
“Do I need to remind you of what the fuck has happened since I’ve been around you?”
“What if I want to buy a DVD here?”
“Get something off Netflix then.” Jecka seemed more and more aggressive. “Get out of my store.”
“Uh….it’s my store technically….” Kelly added.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Nicole just doesn’t make me comfortable anymore….” Jecka had to be lying about that…right? “Nicole, please leave.”
“Are you serious? I’ve been worried about you, what the fuck?” I tried to talk to Jecka, but Kelly pulled me and Megan to the side.
“I get what you are going through right now, but I need you two to leave and tomorrow I need a favor. Ari is sick, so I need you to help her feel better.” Kelly whispered to us. “Megan, I need you to help Nicole on this one.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Yeah, why does Ari need OUR help making her feel better?” Megan was also confused.
“I need to talk to everyone and all of us NEED to talk to Jecka. About her father, this whole crazy shit, EVERYTHING. Once Ari feels better, I need you to call me, okay? We need to figure out everything that’s going on.”
“Uh….okay…..”
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: My House
Megan and I crashed on the couch after we did a lot more research on Jecka’s last name, Peterson, which of course gave us too many results for DIFFERENT people on Google. So, now we were running out of leads. Ironic because Jecka pretty much killed our only lead. Now, the only lead we have left are photos of Karen and Jecka together at the fair.
“It’s been two weeks and we haven’t gotten shit. The teachers at our school are shit as usual and I REALLY don’t want to deal with the guys.” I stood up from the couch.
“I think Kylar is still in the hospital after that party.” Megan fixed her posture on the couch to where she was just sitting.
“Still can’t believe Karen did all of that crazy shit, but do we have any more leads?”
“Other than maybe asking everyone in town, no. Also, we can’t let rumors go around that we’re digging shit on Jecka’s dad. If he finds out, he may try to find her.”
“Ugh. This is bullshit.” I then heard giggling from the garage. “Uh….did you hear that?”
“Yeah, it kind of sounded like your mom.” Megan started to walk towards the garage after going past the laundry room. “Oh God.”
I followed up behind Megan. “What…?” Some mechanic was just trying to talk to my mom. He seemed really sleezy with his raspy voice leaning on her Honda while the hood was still up.
“You know you are such a charming woman. Although, with how messed up your car battery is. I’m going to have to take it in and do some repairs.” He snorted after his comment.
“Well, you know what. You seem reliable.” My mom smiled at him. “I don’t have any work for the next couple of days. So, you can take my car and check it out.”
Why the fuck is she just giving the car away?
“Maybe afterwards I can take you out to eat? Maybe I’ll do the car free of charge….as well as other things.” The mechanic awkwardly winked at her.
“Uh….That part I really don’t….”
I felt some energy from the car battery. Like there was a surge calling out to me….It felt weird. I started to walk towards her car and my body started to have a jolt. “Uh, sweetie, what are you doing?” My mom spoke to me as I stared at her car battery.
“Hi, stranger.” I smiled. “What is exactly wrong with the car to the point of you asking to fuck my mom?”
“......Uh….the car battery. It’s drained and it needs an oil change….”
“I just got my oil changed though.” My mom added.
“Well….I can still do the battery and….”
The electricity started to flow in my body as I kept staring at the car battery with energy I’ve never felt before. I set both of my hands on the positive and negative posts causing a lot of electricity to surge through my arms. I should have been completely zapped or went flying from touching it, but…..
It felt really fucking wonderful.
There was a rush pulsing through my arms and I could feel the blood in my body pushing the electricity back or even in my body. I guess this car battery became my fucking Gatorade. I gripped on the posts for a bit longer until my mom’s car turned on by itself.
“Holy Shit!” Megan yelled out. The car sounded perfectly fine as the a/c was on and I heard the serpentine and timing belt run smooth as ice cream.
“Nicole….you turned on my car….” My mom was about as shocked as Megan was.
“Great. Now get the fuck out of my house, you sleezy fuck.” I turned to the mechanic.
“Damn….” Then he ran away like a bitch.
Megan and I walked back into the living room as Megan started to get concerned with me. “Nicole, are you okay? Even with that sleazy guy, you’ve been on edge lately. Like….. a lot.”
“I mean, this weird shit keeps happening. It's like whenever I see something technology related, I want to touch it. The microwave, that retail guy at Dollar Tree when he pisses me off.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. You crushed Hunter’s phone, now basically some random guy’s phone.”
“Ugh, it’s getting on my nerves. Speaking of which, can we talk about what happened that night? You know with that gang…?” I crossed my arms.
Megan seemed a bit startled at first. “Oh, okay. Let me start at….”
“Uh, excuse me, Nicole? What did I hear about you and a gang? Also, isn’t this the girl you went on a date with?” My mom walked into the room.
“Yeah, we’re good friends now. Still can’t believe I’m saying that though. It’s like Obama and Trump actually liking each other.”
“I thought Obama was a really nice guy?” Megan asked.
“Trump looks like he says the N word though. If a black man enjoyed a racist child saying the N word in a derogatory way, I’d question my life even more.”
“Well, I’m about to question you even more, Nicole.” My mom held out my white hoodie that had burn marks from the building exploding. “When I was about to wash it, I smelled some smoke, not cigarette smoke, not cooking fumes, not even from cigars, like it was a fire. So, Nicole….” My mom walked closer to Megan and myself. “I want to know what on earth this is.”
I stared at Megan briefly, but talking to my mom. “We were just hanging around some people who smoked weed.”
“That’s not weed, Nicole.”
“Well, I really don’t know what to tell you at all.”
“I figured you would say that.” She got out some small black thing from the same hoodie. “This is rubble, Nicole.”
Shit.
“Nicole, I promised I’d be a better mother to you, but I’m done with games.”
“We were going through a building set on fire, big whoop.” I lied.
“WHAT???” My mom got startled by my answer. “YOU BURNED DOWN A BUILDING??”
“I didn’t burn down anything! If anything, I got fucking dragged into it! It was an old ass building that was structurally unsound. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Fix it?” I raised my arms in the air in anger.
“Apparently, you can fix a fucking car battery.” My mom yelled.
“How the fuck was I supposed to know about that? You were about to get conned out anyway by some sleazebag.”
“I was going to say no anyways! I’m dating someone.”
“Yeah, you finally find someone and you want to fuck my Principal, big fucking whoop!”
“Nicole, that’s enough! I’m so sick and tired of you doing all of this terrible stuff. How can I even believe you didn’t burn down that building after what I’m witnessing?? After everything you’ve done in the past?”
“You act like a random building burning down with a bunch of MS13 gang members dying inside is a bad thing.” I groaned.
“BECAUSE THAT IS A BAD THING, NICOLE! How many times have I told you to STAY OUT OF TROUBLE??”
“YEAH, I HAVE! AND TROUBLE SEEMS TO FUCKING FIND ME. I can literally sit on my ass and now its’ my fucking fault. Whenever I try to do something nice, people think Hitler is a better person than me.”
“There you go again! Trying to put a negative spin on things as usual and-”
“You want to know how I can stop ‘putting a negative spin on things’?” I interrupted. “Listen to your own fucking daughter when she’s actually TRYING to fix her life. Be happy that I’m actually GOING to fucking college instead of rotting in the basement all day lurking on Canadian underage ass!”
“DOES ME CALLING THE POLICE ON HIM MEAN NOTHING TO YOU, NICOLE?”
“Ms. Sanderson, I did it!!” Megan got in between both of us. “I’m the one who burned down the building. I had to do it or your daughter, Jecka, Emily and myself would have died. We went to MS13 because Jecka’s dad physically abused her daughter.”
My mom looked shocked for a minute. “Nicole….what’s….what’s going on?” My mom’s hands were shaking for a minute like she was setting everything in.
“I….should explain everything, Ms. Sanderson.”
All of us sat down on the couch as Megan started to explain everything to my mom. How we went to Kelly’s party a couple of weeks ago, how we saw Jecka’s Dad abuse Jecka, how we had to get captured by MS13 members…..Everything. The more we explained to her, the more her face grew into a look of fear. Like she just saw a ghost.
“So….YOU blew up the building and not my daughter….”
“I’m the one who blew up their gigantic drug stash. Yes.” Megan confirmed.
“But….But…..Oh my God, my daughter almost died….” My Mom started sobbing.
“And that’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“Yeah, but this is extreme just to try to find the truth. Honey, you are putting your life in danger…..For someone else.” My mom wiped away her tears.
“We are just trying to put Jecka’s Dad in his place.” I told her.
“But you almost got killed. How am I not supposed to be mad at this?”
“Mom…..For once, I’m trying to do the right thing.”
Mom sighed. “Okay….Okay. I’m not going to call the police on any of you. Especially because its’ already all over the news.”
“We’re on the news????” Megan screamed while jumping up from her seat.
“No, No. I mean the Police have been investigating the random fire that happened at the building. A lot of evidence pointed out that MS13 started the fire, which in this case, it’s true. So you girls are fine.” My Mom reassured Megan. “But I’m asking for something in return, Nicole.”
“Fine, I’ll work harder at my job and do more chores.” I groaned.
“That’s just the icing on the cake…..Nicole, I want you to get Couples Therapy with Jecka.”
“Couples Therapy??”
“I know someone who will help you get in for free. Its’ an Intern that who is extremely willing to help others.”
“So someone who doesn’t even know everything. That’s not very inspiring.” Megan commented.
“Well, from what I heard they are extremely helpful, and it’s free so you don’t have to pay a penny. Jecka has been through a lot and the fact she….” Mom sighed for a moment. “Well…she technically lashed out a lot in response to her father’s abuse….”
“Sounds like someone I know.” I glared at my Mom.
“I say this because I’m getting Therapy for my abuse against you.”
“What?” Megan seemed astounded by her comment.
“This is my only way of being a good mother.”
“Um….Thank you?” I told her.
“I love you, Nicole.” My mom randomly said.
“I…love you, too…?”
“Um….I guess the therapy is going to help both of you out….” Megan awkwardly tried to make things a bit lighter.
“I know this doesn’t help, but I remember Jecka’s mom saying she was moving soon….”
“Wait a minute, you know where Jecka’s mom is?” I asked
“No, because this was a couple of months ago. I didn’t know how to tell you or Jecka. So I left things alone.”
“That’s okay.” I was trying to be calm after everything that happened.
“Nicole….please be careful…..” My mom hugged me extremely tight.
“You can like…get off me now.”
Date: June 29th, 2009
Location: Ari’s House
Time: 2:45 p.m.
After my shift at Domino’s, Megan and I went over to Ari’s to help her feel better for whatever Kelly has planned for us. Although, when we pulled up we saw a small pink Porsche convertible up there and….
Shit…
“Jecka’s here, you’ve got to be kidding me.” I rested my body against Megan’s steering wheel.
“It’s fine. Let’s just help Ari and get out of here.” Megan kept looking at my Domino’s outfit every so often.
“Are you done staring at me? With your Wal-mart Smiley shirt having ass.”
“It’s just weird to see you working.”
“What the fuck? I helped out that one time by selling cookies.”
“YOU ATE all of my cookies and then bought them out. That doesn’t count.”
“Be happy I even ate them.”
“Screw it, let's go.” Megan got out of the car.
“What? Are you gonna eat me too?” My comment apparently caused her to stare at me with an angry look. “Kidding. Shit.”
Both of us walked up to the door of Ari’s house, echoing Ari’s coughing before we even knocked. Then the door rapidly opened to Jecka in her Diner outfit with the white apron, white pants and the red shirt. “Great, you’re here.” Jecka glared at me.
“We are just here on behalf of Master Kelly that we need to be here.” I sarcastically said.
“Okay, yeah, don’t say that around her.” Jecka was already scared.
“Why…?” Megan asked.
“Just get in here, Ari’s laying down on the couch.” Jecka gestured us to come inside as she threw down her apron on the kitchen table. Ari’s kitchen was extremely modernized, but the white paint seemed a bit scraped with some paint that was already off. It was a one floor house with the living room having an extremely fluffy couch and more white paint with some pictures of Ari and her family. Her Dad was in a tuxedo while her Mom was in a wedding dress. Ari had on this extremely cute blue dress. The pictures were hanging above Ari snuggled up in a giant cover laying down on the couch. She was watching some game show where the guy was shouting with a bunch of playing cards.
Ari started coughing when the three of us came in. “Shit….Hey guys.” She looked pale compared to her original skin color. “How was….Work, Nicole?”
“It was fine, I guess. Is it safe to be around you?”
“Kelly said it was okay apparently. She wants us to help her feel better.” Jecka shrugged.
“Where are your parents?” Megan asked Ari.
“Out of town for the weekend. They had to check on my Grandma.”
“Is she okay….?”
“Yeah, they just want to make sure she can walk for the cruise.”
“She’s 80 years old and going on the Disney Cruise?” I commented.
“She’s 76!” Ari coughed more and more until she coughed up a black smoke cloud. “Fuck, not again.”
“Why does that keep happening?” Jecka gave Ari some ice cold water.
Ari gulped down the ice water and handed the glass back to Jecka. “I don’t know. I've felt like this since I got the charcoal burger.”
“You ate a charcoal burger, dipshit. Of course, you are going to get sick.” I yelled at Ari.
Ari moved up and stared angrily at me while holding her cover. “Nicole, when I get out of this….I swear I’m going to…” Ari kept coughing until she actually sneezed out some steam before it disappeared. “Fuck….” Megan and I just stared at Ari.
“Just lay down and watch some Card Sharks.” Jecka tilted Ari back down staring at the TV.
“What the FUCK was that?” I screamed out.
“I don’t know. Just some weird shit. She’s been doing it all morning. It doesn’t add up.” Jecka started to feel even more stressed. “It’s like she’s a steamboat or whatever.”
“Or a grill in this case…” Megan kept staring at Ari in concern.
“Are you going to blame this on me as well?” I glared at Jecka.
“No.” Jecka immediately sighed. “Look, I was a little harsh at FYE, but I mean fuck Nicole.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking this is MY FAULT. Didn’t you give her the burger anyways?”
“No….that was technically me…” Megan raised her hand slightly.
“Even then…Ari just grabbed that and took a bite out of it.” I added.
“I’m not talking about the burger thing. Just all the OTHER BS you’ve made me go through.” Jecka crossed her arms.
“I’m getting really tired of being blamed for shit I haven’t done.”
“Nicole, almost all of this is your fucking fault!” Jecka yelled out. “Seriously, you give me no reason to trust you after everything that we’ve been through.”
“Even with a building collapsing on us, and you killing hundreds of MS-13 goons?”
“Guys….” Megan tried to set her hand on Jecka’s shoulder, but was rejected by Jecka taking it off.
“Megan, don’t.”
“Jecka, you literally killed the only lead we had. And you think it’s healthy to take it out on me?”
“Because I know you fucking sent the photos! Just like you tried to get back at me with Ari, the time with Hunter, how you tried to get back at my dad with your bullshit. ”
Megan and I looked at each in confusion. “Jecka….what are you talking about?” Megan asked in concern.
“Nicole and I were hanging out and she tried to get back at me by doing some weird jobs and even tried hitting on my dad.”
“How…did she try to hit on your dad?”
“With some feet shit, but eventually Nicole bailed out and lied about having to move or whatever.”
“I think I need to pull Nicole off to the side for a moment. Have an important chat.” Megan immediately dragged me into the kitchen. “Nicole, you wouldn’t happen to remember any of that would you…?”
“No….” Yeah, that’s not good….like at all. “I’m very afraid of what you are going to tell me next.”
“I would be, too…..Because that’s how she died….”
“Uh….by hitting on Jecka’s Dad? He's completely disgusting.”
“Agreed, but much worse. Like she overdosed because you did something sexual and….”
I immediately gagged and nearly threw up from just that sentence alone.
“Nicole!” Megan rushed beside me.
“Look….” I coughed for a minute. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Just…Yeah, someone or thing is definitely fucking with us. I don’t remember that at all.”
“But I do…” Megan thought to herself.
“Nicole….are you okay? I heard a lot of coughing.” Jecka walked into the kitchen.
“Um…I’m great. Megan just….gave me the Heimlich maneuver.” I turned to Megan.
“Yeah, she was choking on some food she decided to just randomly grab from Ari’s kitchen.” Megan added.
“Nicole, stop stealing my-” Ari stopped mid sentence as she coughed some more.
“Yeah, if I catch you fucking Megan in the kitchen like you fucked Ari at work, I kind of want to beat your ass.” Jecka glared at me.
“Dude, you still believe that? I made it up.” I told her.
“Whatever. Fuck all you want I don’t care.”
“So me being somehow interested in Megan and Ari pisses you off, but when Karen becomes a whore like Kelly, that’s fine?”
“To be fair, Karen hasn’t had a date ever I don’t think.” Megan said.
“Yeah, but Karen is actually hot, while Nicole and Kelly are like the two dollar pregnancy tests you see in the garbage at a Dollar store. Now, let’s help Ari out.” Jecka walked out of the kitchen.
“Did….she just say Karen was hotter than me?”
“First, Karen beats you in arm wrestling and suddenly she’s the Megan Fox of her life.” Megan was shocked as well.
“Actually, Karen’s hotter than Megan Fox by a mile and…..Wait, she didn’t beat me! I forfeited because it was getting too loud!”
“That’s still losing, Nicole.” Megan smirked at me.
“And you still wanted to date me that same loser the same night.” I retorted back at Megan.
“I mean I’m more of the winner than anything, so…”
“Fuck off. Dude, let’s just help Ari feel better, I guess.”
Time: 3 p.m.
All of us were sitting beside a sick Ari, who stared intently at a lot of the cheering and whistling going on during the broadcast of the LGBT+ parade. A lot of people were wearing t-shirts with words like ‘no one is free when others are oppressed’ to ‘this is who I am’ with a lot of colorful t-shirts and flags waving them around. Parade floats were slowly going down the roads with hundreds if not thousands cheering for their parade. Some of the floats were extremely frilly and elegant while some just rode their cars with even men standing on them. Confetti was being thrown everywhere and the camera focused on two females kissing, then it transitioned slowly to two men kissing, a white man and a man of color. Ari just kept smiling at the screen.
A part of me really wanted me to talk to Ari at this moment. “So…you enjoy these kinds of things?”
“Yeah….” Ari got a bit nervous.
“Why?”
“I mean….look at all of them. They are all happy. All of them are living their lives. They are happy that they can be themselves. That they can have a freedom than they normally don’t have.”
“Freedom?”
“Think about it…” Ari scooted closer to me. “We have to deal with Kylar, who bullies a lot of people….so think about how many people are like that in the world bullying homosexuals for no reason…”
“She does make a good point.” Megan agreed.
Ari smiled. “One day…I really want to make a difference.”
When Ari mentioned stuff about bullies like Kylar, I’m shocked she didn’t mention….me.
I don’t think Jecka ever said this, but I was an asshole to Ari.
Okay, fine….I was abusive and I controlled her.
Maybe that’s why I feel a bit bad. Or something else is making me feel bad.
“What…about me? Since we… you know…?” I tried to tell Ari what I mean.
“Right….I forgot about us for a minute….”
“Did you enjoy dating me, Ari?”
“Yeah….I really did. Then you were a jerk, then I wanted to date Hunter, but then you did that HILARIOUS prank and now none of us like him.”
“I just hated how he hit on a lot of girls and just wanted his ass exposed….” I stared at Jecka, who immediately rested back on the arm rest of the couch when I caught her looking at me. “Ari….do you still feel angry at me for what happened…?....Between us?”
Ari stopped watching the TV and gazed at me. “Honestly….yeah…it’s nice you wanted to help me, but I have part of an edge to not trust you.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled. “And you’re right. I just wanted to help you since Kelly and Jecka have been working extremely hard for you. They’ve pulled a lot of stops during their busy schedule to help you feel better. And…yeah, I think it’s time that I try to become a better person….And I can start that by helping you….”
Ari’s eyes widened by my comment. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Yeah, seriously?” Megan stared at me while Jecka looked shocked as well.
Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck is going on at all.
“Yup, I actually want to help you.” After what I said, Ari rested her head on my shoulder.
“You really are hopeful, Nicole.” Ari closed her eyes and kept resting on my right shoulder while Jecka gave me a death glare then immediately got up and softly pulled my arm dragging me into the kitchen.
“Great, what did I do now?”
“Why are you suddenly being nice with your ex after using her to get at me a while ago?” Jecka whispered.
“Does it look like I even remotely fucking know?”
“You’re the evil genius here.”
“I love how you consider me this smart. Look, I’m serious. I just….feel bad for her, I don’t know.”
“The Sociopath with a heart big fucking whoop.” Jecka smarted me off.
“Why are you being so hostile with me?”
“Why are you trying to show off the good communication you have with your fuck buddies?”
“You’re mental if you are thinking I’m trying to go after Megan, Ari, and the other girls.”
“You are trying to be on good terms with them at least.” Jecka crossed her arms.
“So I can’t try to be a better person?”
“If you are trying to do a malicious plan. Absolutely not.” Jecka’s blank stare turned into an angry one.
“Okay, Jecka. I REALLY want you to listen to me for a moment.” I clasped my hands together. “I have nearly died by gang members, beat some of them up, witness a burning building collapse, became your hostage, went to a party with someone I used to like because I thought YOU wanted to move on, and I have made out with you multiple times….Jecka Peterson….what on earth do you fucking want from me?”
“I want you to seek fucking help. That’s what I absolutely want.”
“You are like the 2nd person who has told me that I need to get therapy.”
“Who’s the first?”
“My mom.”
“Okay, that actually caught me off guard. Normally, your mom takes the cheapest route possible. Like having Hamburger Helper for a week.”
“Dude, that shit is amazing with some cheese. Seriously, she said it was free because of some intern or whatever.”
“Eww, I’m not going to see a fucking man lecture me on how I should be the bitch of the house.”
“Definitely, no young fuck boy is telling me on how ‘my life has meaning’ or some kumbaya shit.”
“I mean, the first part isn’t wrong, but I seriously would take advantage of this.”
“Look, I’ll think about it.”
“Well, you’re about to be thinking a lot.”
“How does that even make any sense, Jecka?”
“Because I need you to go to the mall and get some herbal tea. I tried like every store in town so maybe get some fragrance shit or whatever for Ari.”
“Why do I have to go? Get Megan to go.”
“Because you don’t have anything else better to do, and get you away from Megan and Ari.”
“Dude, you’re jealous.” I smirked.
“No, I’m fucking annoyed. Now, go take my car and grab the shit.”
“Fine….” Yeah, she’s jealous.
Time: 3:45 p.m.
Location: Burke Shopping Mall
It was honestly great to feel by myself again. Not worrying a lot about people or even gang members….But it’s been awfully quiet these past two weeks. I went from doing an investigation on a shitty person to being Ari’s nurse. The mall was absolutely quiet for now as I walked into the mall trying to find the nearest pharmacy.
“Seriously, why the fuck did they tell me to go to the mall? I can’t just get some medicine and call it a day? Alright, let’s just go to the next couple of floors or whatever.” Before I could even continue to walk, some random dude in a business suit bumped into me while still talking on his phone. “Holy fucking shit dude get a hobby.” Then more people started to walk past me but just noticed I was bumped into. More and more people started to walk where I was as people started to walk in giant crowds as I now noticed I was in a sea of people. I’ve never seen this many people at the mall before.
Did I show up during lunch rush? No, it's like 4 p.m. in the afternoon.
Did I go to the right mall? It’s the only mall in town.
Am I getting the right stuff? I haven’t even started.
What did Jecka tell me to get again? Some kind of herbal tea stuff.
Why the fuck did I go to the mall? Jecka told me to.
Too many questions that filled my head as I kept turning and turning to find where to even go. Just to help me think. I’m trying to help Jecka, but she’s just angry.
Angry……
The lights were starting to flicker above the ceiling, more people spoke louder and louder so it sounded like ringing in my ears, I wanted to move my body, but it moved on its own as it started to make me get on my knees clenching my stomach. My entire body had a surge of pain, this time it was similar to when I was charging up that battery. I was shifting my body back and forth to the point where I thought I was going to pass out. All I could see were people’s shoes hitting against the mall floor slightly. No one was seriously going to help an innocent….well, not-really innocent woman.
I felt something behind me though. Although, it didn’t feel like a good feeling at all….Like I was being watched by something or someone. I couldn’t turn around because of the absolute pain I was in. This feeling suddenly became extremely close to my body as I now had a looming mood over my body.
All I just wanted to do was close my eyes and just hope everything goes away……
Dad…. I miss you so much right now.
My Dad doesn’t have any fur on him…..unless he’s really fucking hairy. I opened my eyes to see a decently sized black dog with white spots nuzzling against my body. It’s warm body pressed against mine whimpering while I was holding him. It made me stare into its brown, anxious eyes as it continued to nuzzle against me.
“Uh….Hi?” I continued to pet the dog as it suddenly barked in joy then huffed repeatedly with its tongue out. Someone then ran up to me and the dog as I noticed their blue and white sneakers before looking up. They had on a black t-shirt with green shorts; I had no fucking idea why wear a black shirt in Summer, but more power to them. Freckles on their face with brown, long flowing hair, round glasses like you’d see in Harry Potter, and they looked a bit shorter than me.. They even had a small, cute brown dog on their t-shirt.
“Oh my gosh, thank you so much for finding my dog! Beethoven, come here!” Her dog came back to her barking with joy as the crowd was still walking around us. Beethoven stared at me while panting as the girl smiled at me. “Here, let me help you up.” The girl held out her right hand as I held on to her soft, small hand while getting up.
“Thanks….I think….Who are you…?”
“I’m Teresa. You must be…?”
“Nicole. Nicole Sanderson.”
“I’m new to the mall and my emotional service animal gets too excited around crowds. Do you think you can guide us around?” Teresa smiled at me.
(Music Used:
Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" Op. 68
)
“Sure….” With my consent, Teresa started to walk away out of the crowd with me still holding her hand and the leash she hooked on her dog’s collar. Both of us were walking out of the crowd as my heart rate decreased ten fold, I felt more relaxed. More at peace. And I’m with some girl I’ve never seen before. As we walked on the elevator to the second floor, I just stared at her hair while we rose up to the first floor.
“Are you okay, Nicole?” I nodded in embarrassment. “Great. Do you need to take care of some things?”
“Uh…I need to make some tea to help make my friend feel better.” As we got off of the elevator, she slightly tugged on my hand to some plant shop that had a bunch of colorful flowers outside of the entrance of the shop. Teresa let go of my hand and kneeled down to her dog.
“Beethoven, I want you to sit here, okay?” Teresa stood back up as Beethoven was still sitting perfectly ignoring all of the chatter in the background. She walked inside of the store leaving her dog behind while I followed behind her.
“Uh….is he going to be okay?” I walked up to Teresa beside the counter with an old lady behind the register. Inside the shop, there were hundreds if not thousands of flowers within the shop. Some were hanging above us, some were on tables or even shelves hanging above the wall; it felt like we were in some kind of museum.
Teresa nodded while smiling. “Hello, Ma’am.” She spoke to the old lady. “Can we get plants or some herbs related to Capsicum, Lavender or Chamomile, and Rosemary?”
“I’m so sorry, dearie! We don’t have Rosemary because it’s extremely hard to find but can I provide an alternative such as Sage plants?”
“That’s absolutely fine. Thank you.” Teresa smiled as the old lady gathered some nearby herbs, a small baggy full of reddish colors and grabbed a giant plant with all kinds of flowers with white stems and yellow center setting it all on the table.
“I went and got you a Chamomile plant, some sage herbs, lavender herbs, and some crushed up capsicum, is that okay?”
“This is perfect. Thank you.”
“That will be 15 dollars, please!” Teresa handed the old lady the money in cash as the old lady opened the register while pushing the items towards Teresa. “Thank you both!” We both walked out of the store while Beethoven walked up to Teresa with the leash in his mouth. Continuing the walk, I was now holding a lot of the items she just randomly bought for me, making this errand one of the easiest I’ve ever done. Wait a minute…
“Hold on, lady.” I stopped Teresa in front of her. “How am I supposed to make the tea with all of this?”
“In the food court.” Teresa said while walking past me.
“Excuse me…?”
We were now back on the ground floor as we sat at a green metallic bench within the hallways eating some Panda Express. Teresa got me some orange chicken while I had a chicken and rice bowl while eating it with chopsticks. She fed her dog some kind of dog food as Beethoven was sitting beside her on the bench eating within his dog bowl. “Uh….why is he sitting like that?”
“It’s okay. He’s almost done anyways.” Teresa continued to eat her food.
“So…why did you buy all of those items?”
“Do you have a water fountain?”
“You still have that giant empty plastic cup with your meal.” I pointed to Teresa’s large Panda Express cup. “What exactly do you need it for?” Teresa immediately walked up a few steps towards the water fountain against this grey wall and sprayed some water in the cup. Teresa came back to the table and crushed up some of the lavender and sage herbs in the cup while breaking down the Chamomile as she pulled off one from the plant she bought. She broke down some of the capsicum into the cup then she stirred up the items in the cup with one of her chopsticks.
Teresa then handed me the….whatever the fuck she made. “Here, you go.” Teresa smiled.
“What’s this?”
“The tea you wanted, right?” Teresa handed me the Panda Express cup that was now a bit warmer than usual.
“Dude, did you piss in this?”
“Bitch, you-” Teresa took a small inhale. “I mean…no, Nicole. I did not piss in this cup. As you did see me prior.”
“Whatever you say.” I grabbed the cup from her. “Alright, what now?”
“I got some ideas to do with you.” Teresa smiled as she got up and started walking with her dog, hopping off his seat. She wanted to explore a shit ton more like going to the bookstore and grabbed a few books before checking out. A lot of them were just your normal books like Harry Potter or stuff like How to Budget Better, but then she had random books like James and the Giant Peach and Your Average Autistic Child and You.
We made another stop at an arcade where it was absolutely packed covering the atmosphere with loud buzzing and beeping noises from some of the arcade machines. When we walked in the arcade, the wallpaper was dark blue with barely any light compared to that dumb barcade further downtown. Some were even hollering during the foosball and air hockey games at their tables. Unlike how it was downstairs, I felt more relaxed when I was with this random girl and her dog. Everyone seemed to be okay with Teresa bringing her dog in as people still kept playing their games and even chatted while eating their food with their friends at these small tables.
Teresa walked up to a random machine with the title “House of the Dead” while still holding the leash to her extremely calm dog. This machine had two cardboard copies of half body zombies trying to reach out towards us on the sides of the contraption. Another zombie was above the machine but this time had its arms open wide like it wanted to give a hug….in a deadly way. Teresa pulled out one of the fake guns that were connected to the machine as a zombie screamed out from the game catching me off guard. “Shall we play together?”
“This looks weird in general. Why should I play with some random person like yourself?”
“Because Nicole…I’m so scaredddd. You can’t let me take on zombies by myself will you?” Teresa tried to play around with me.
“I’d definitely leave you over to the wolves. While we’re running, I'd trip you so you’d get left behind.” I smiled back at her, which apparently caused her to do an extremely cute cackling laugh.
“That sounds exactly like something you’d do, but can you help me out this once, please?” She kept waving around the fake toy gun.
“Fine, holy shit.” I pulled out the second gun that was on my end. “Just this once damn.”
Teresa held the gun like a police officer would and pointed the gun at the machine to start the game. We were as two detectives as our characters got out of the car and shot up a zombie that just took a guy’s life. The guy on the ground wanted us to try and save others in this weird graveyard setting. We kept going through the level shooting more zombies, including zombie dogs with wings, until we met up with a woman named Sophie, who was immediately grabbed by some flying green monster shouting, ‘Nobody Leaves here alive!’, then flying off to a mansion. Now, we had to keep going dealing with shooting all sorts of monsters, ugly worms, and hopping zombies. We continued through a couple of floors until we found Sophie then we had to deal with this giant, robotic zombie with some kind of scythe. The zombie pushed Sophie out of the way giving us every reason to put lead bullets in the creature. Each bullet took off a lot of its armor before it died in a grueling fashion falling face first on the old floor in the game. Our characters spoke to Sophie telling us to stop some sort of guy before she died.
I put the plastic gun back into the machine. “Well, that was a load of shit.” I said walking out of the arcade.
“Wait a minute, Nicole!” Teresa and her dog followed behind me on the elevator to catch up. “Didn’t you have fun?”
“I mean we saved like a few people in the game, but that was about it. But that game was older than my mom and principal combined.” I turned to her.
“Well, I could see it in your eyes though, Nicole.” Teresa said.
“What?”
“You were having fun with me.” Teresa smiled.
“Okay, gonna have to ask you to tone down on that smile.” Even if it is kind of pretty.
“Sure, no problem. Sorry about that.”
“Uh…..” I’m shocked she was kind of chill about that. “That was quick.”
“Yeah, you told me to tone it down, so sure.”
“That….” I got off the elevator as it ended as the crowd was less gigantic than it was before.
“Do you want to sit down, Nicole?” Teresa asked.
“Um…sure?” I saw beside a nearby bench as Teresa sat down with me while still holding the leash of her dog. “Ever since I entered the mall, you’ve followed me. Granted you are extremely nice to me and even paid for my stuff, it’s still kind of odd.”
“That’s understandable. I just remember you from my classes before we graduated.”
“I don’t remember seeing you at Graduation.”
“It is a big school. I was the girl in the back of your Chemistry class. I figured I could say hello to my old classmate before I left the mall.” Teresa turned and looked up at the glass ceiling revealing the sky starting to become orange. “It must be sunset soon.”
“I think I kind of remember you.”
“Thank you again for your help, Nicole.”
“You act like I enjoy helping people.”
“I feel like deep inside you really want to. Don’t you have a lot of friends?”
“Kind of, I’m just helping someone feel better to figure out some shit.”
“What kind of shit?”
“Just some crazy stuff. I don’t want to stress you out.”
“Well…you seem more stressed out.”
She….isn’t wrong. I don’t even know what happened earlier when I came into the mall. I just felt like my body wanted to give up.
“If I catch you telling anyone about what I said to you, I’m going to break your fucking back and stab your neck.”
Teresa placed her left hand on her chest. “And I solemnly won’t tell the police for sure.” She was extremely comfortable right now. She seems way too normal about this, but then again, compared to a building burning down, and killing a bunch of MS-13 members, this feels the most tame….
“Okay….so my friend is being abused by her father. All of my friends are wanting to help her out, but a lot of WEIRD stuff has been happening. One girl is into guns, my best friend just now has ice powers and killed a bunch of people, my cute friend REALLY knows how to cook, the nerd just now knows how to fight let alone arm wrestle, my best friend thinks I setup all of this shit, and my ex who I abused just somehow sneezes steam. She sneezes fucking STEAM. You can’t make this shit up.
“It’s not even a little bit after graduation and everything just wants to tumble down. After my friend and I saw her get abused, like….everything has changed, like I never wanted revenge like this before…Okay, I have, but not against a pathetic, sad, whiney, fat, ungrateful, degenerate, waste of life. This isn’t about me wanting to help Jecka because I care, or I think she’s cute, or even because I want ALL of this weird shit to end, but I want this guy to suffer as much as Jecka suffered….It’s just Jecka is just really mad at me…..and I don’t even know if getting revenge on this guy is worth it. We’ve been digging deep and deeper every day, only to go back to square one……..So….I’m lost…..”
When I finished, Teresa started to do her little cackling laugh again, I was honestly a little annoyed by her. “Nicole, you’ve been through so much, but your heart still makes you want to smile.” Teresa raised up a finger slightly. “You really are a blessing in disguise.”
“Why the fuck is that your reaction to everything I just said…?”
“Because Nicole….you are helping Jecka in her darkest hour. You’ve gathered people who you consider close because you need help. And that’s the first step to acknowledging your problems. Heck, you already did it earlier. You aren’t a Sociopath, Nicole. You’re just a child that had too many problems early on, and I absolutely send my condolences to you and your friends.” Teresa handed me the cup full of the herbs she made earlier. “Do me a solid and heat that up when you get home. Microwave it, stove heat it, whatever. Megan and Ari probably need you back home asap. Especially your girlfriend, we don’t want her to think you’re cheating on me.”
I turned away for a moment just to think. “Maybe you’re right….I forgot how late….wait…..How did you know…..” I turned back to Teresa to find her and her dog completely gone, leash and everything. “What the fuck just happened?”
Time: 5:58 p.m.
Location: Ari’s House
As I went through the door, I saw Ari coughing and hacking a lot more on the couch with her body even more pale. I saw her stare at me with Megan bringing in soup to Ari and Jecka just holding my arm softly. “Where on earth were you? Ari looks like she is about to die.”
“It’s an extremely long story…” I then showed Jecka the cup. “I did get something for Ari though.”
“Nicole, you better not have done something like put laxatives in Mr. Katz cup again.”
“Dude, THAT was fucking awesome and you know it. Seriously, this is going to help Ari. I promise if it doesn’t work, you can kill me here.”
“Great because we’re about to test that now. Give it to her.”
“I need a microwave or a stove first. We need to heat this up BEFORE we give this to her. It’s tea.”
“Actually, let’s set that on the stove.” Megan immediately grabbed my cup and grabbed a teapot, setting it on the stove. A few minutes later, it was steaming and Megan poured it into a coffee mug. “Here, Ari, Nicole made this for you.” Megan handed Ari the tea as Ari started to take a quick sip. Ari stopped for a moment staring at the cup then started to chug it down like it was beer.
“Uh…..Ari?” Ari ignored Jecka’s question as she kept drinking until it was empty, but she kept looking in front of her completely frozen. Ari dropped the cup and started to clench her chest in pain; she was heavily breathing and panting. Faster and faster all of us could hear our heartbeat. “NICOLE, WHAT DID YOU DO???”
“I didn’t DO anything. Someone gave me that handmade tea and….”
Ari gasped for air causing her pale skin to go back to normal, but then she exhaled fire breathe out of nowhere, completely burnt soup that she made on a nearby table.
“Damn it, Ari! You ruined my soup!” Megan yelled out completely unphased by what just happened.
“Yeah, because THAT’S the main issue right now???” Jecka was freaking out.
“Ari….are you okay?” I asked Ari, who then stared at me for a moment. Ari got up from the couch in her pajamas in an extremely quick fashion. She looked her skin completely back to normal and started to do random stretches. “Uh…..Ari….?” Ari then bolted towards the kitchen and started shuffling random stuff from her fridge. After a second, she walked towards me with a can that said ‘Great Value Original Dairy Whipped Topping’. “Ari, why do you have that?”
Ari with an extremely angry look pointed the can at me. “Honey, you’re gonna finish your extra creamy whipped cream and you’re gonna fucking like it!!!!” Ari then started spraying the cream at me in random rapid shots causing Megan and Jecka to burst out laughing. Ari kept spraying at me with an angry look on her face.
“Ari!” I ran away from Ari into the kitchen spraying the whipped cream, but missing and getting some on the microwave. “What the fuck, Ari!?!” Ari tried to move the can and spray it in my face, but I was holding both of her arms like we were wrestling. While I was stuck, I stared at Jecka and Megan, still laughing at my dire situation. “ARE YOU TWO JUST GOING TO SIT THERE OR ARE YOU GOING TO STOP THIS BITCH???”
“Nope.” Jecka trying not to continue laughing. “Ari needed to cool off and take it out on you.”
“Yeah, how does it feel being the whipped one now?” Megan burst out laughing with Jecka at that shitty pun.
“Ari, holy shit, do you just want me to eat the whipped cream?”
“Yes, but the way I want it.” Ari sprayed more of it at my face. “I promised myself I’d prank you after I got better.”
“Did you have to do it right….” Ari now covered my face in that shit. “ARI!”
“Had enough?”
“YES! I’ve had…” I spat some out more whipped cream. “PLENTY!” Ari handed me a clean towel and I started to wipe my face off. “Are you still mad at me? I said I was sorry earlier.”
“Well, that’s my way of accepting your apology.” Ari devilishly grinned.
“So, how are you feeling Ari?” Jecka walked up to Ari, trying to compose herself.
“I feel great! So we need to head over to Kelly’s since I’m better?”
“Not in those pajamas that you’ve been in for three days.” Megan stared at Ari’s clothing.
“Oh shit, yeah, let me get cleaned up.” Ari went into her bathroom after grabbing a spare set of clothes from her room. Few minutes later, we heard the shower turn off and the hair dryer turn on for a few seconds.
“We’re just going to Kelly’s. Why is she doing all of this shit like she’s about to be on the E! Entertainment channel?” I crossed my arms.
“You want her to smell like your Eggman looking ass gamer brother?” Megan asked while the three of us sat on her couch.
“You have a fair point.” I admitted defeat.
Ari was walking out rapidly drying her hair off with a towel and setting it on a nearby recliner. She was wearing her signature orange Siced T-shirt and some blue jeans. “Okay, I’m ready whenever you guys are.” Ari smiled.
“So all of us are going to Kelly’s? Right now?” I asked.
“Kelly wanted us to come over after Ari felt better, remember?”
“Karen called me earlier and asked if Ari was any better before she went over to Kelly’s.” Megan added.
“Kelly’s home alone again?” Jecka said.
“Yeah, and surprisingly got her house cleaned up, too. I don’t know how, but it’s cleaned up.”
“Alright, let’s head over. I’m kind of anxious about what Kelly is going to say.” Ari walked with us out the door. As we went outside and went to Megan’s car, I wanted to talk to Jecka for a minute. So I held her hand and went back to Ari’s front door.
“Nicole, why the FUCK did you drag me like that. I want to go to Kelly’s.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just…I want to talk to you.”
Jecka sighed. “Fine. We’ll be there in a second.” Jecka yelled out to Megan and Ari getting in the car before Megan started it up. “Alright, you got 30 seconds.”
“I was in the mall for so long because I was freaking out.”
“Dude, are you anxious about that cop again?”
“No, but I do want to shoot him now.”
“Go on.”
“I freaked out with a bunch of people and one woman wanted to hang out with me. And I felt a lot better afterwards. She even helped me find the stuff for the tea.”
“Wait….a random girl helped YOU find the stuff to make Ari feel better?”
“Yeah, I know this is crazy, but a lot of stuff has been happening. Like I charged up a battery with my bare hands, I felt like someone’s been watching me, my Mom had found out about the building burning down….”
“You told your mom that??? How did she react?” Jecka started turning to see if anyone was eavesdropping us.
“Okay….that’s the catch….She’s not going to tell anyone….If I go to Therapy…”
“I’ll be blunt. If all of us died right now, getting Therapy is the best case scenario because you deserve it….” Jecka seemed mildly annoyed.
“Jecka…..I want you to come with me….”
“You’re serious?”
“We have a lot of bad blood between us. I want to help you and I know you hate me and everything….but if things need to get better then I have to talk to my girl….”
“Yes.”
“Really?” I was a bit shocked.
“I will go to therapy with you, Nicole. If it means getting your white ass lined up again, then absolutely I’ll join you.”
“So….when do you want to go?”
“As soon as possible. Now, get your toaster strudel ass in the car.”
Time: 6:26 p.m.
Location: Kelly’s House
Ari, Megan, Jecka and I took Jecka’s car as we pulled up in Kelly’s driveway close to her garage. Then not even a few seconds after, we saw Emily and Karen pull up in Emily’s banged up Saturn. “Yo, what’s up guys?” Emily slammed her car door then walked up to us. Got to love her suicidal bear shirt.
“Hey, Ari. How are you feeling?” Karen….was wearing the same shirt as Emily.
“Great, um, Karen, why are you wearing that? It looks cool, but why the same shirt as Emily?” Ari kept staring at Karen’s shirt.
“I just thought it looked really cool. So Emily and I went to Hot Topic awhile ago, and she bought me this shirt.
“Yeah, I always wanted to dress Karen up in something else and black REALLY suits her. Karen is like a cute barbie doll, but with black hair and not racist.” Emily smiled.
“You give me Sid from Toy Story vibes except a female on crack, but a lot hotter.” I told Emily.
“Thanks…? I never really liked Toy Story. I wanted the toys to blow up at the end.”
“Uh, fucking spoilers?” Jecka looked annoyed.
“Wow, did we ruin your childhood?” I rolled my eyes at her.
“You ruin a lot of things, Nicole.”
“Shhhh.” Megan turned to the house.
“See? Megan is the only one with some….” Jecka spoke out.
“SHHHH!”
“Bitch, really?”
“No, guys. Do you hear that?” Megan was pointing out the music coming from the house.
“Please tell me that’s not breakbeat music. No more pedo bros, please.…” Karen grew scared.
“Why the hell would my brother be in KELLY’S house?” I told Karen. “She’s desperate, not fucking hungry for Five Guys.”
“I mean there’s six girls right here.” All of us stared at Karen after what she said. “What the fuck guys? She made out with three of us here and….”
“Yeah, I’m going inside….” Megan walked in the house and all of us followed suit. Kelly’s house was completely spotless as we walked back into the main foyer and the music was louder, but it ended for a bit. “Her house is spotless….Karen, how did you help clean this place up? It’s like you guys just moved in here.”
“Well, I just had to really put some elbow grease in it.” Karen stared around the place as her voice echoed in Kelly’s mansion-like home.
The six of us heard a funky beat echo from the pool room. “Is…..Kelly listening to Rap?” I walked towards the hallway near the pool room.
“It's’ not Lil Wayne for sure.” Jecka added.
“You listen to Tha Carter III?” Emily smiled as the rest of us followed me.
“It’s a really good album. I listen to that a lot.” Jecka gave off her cute smile.
(Music: Jay Z - Hard Knock Life (Official Instrumental) )
The rap beat got louder and louder when we reached the pool room. “Take the Baseline out!...Wait, I can’t, I forgot this is an instrumental. Forget it, bounce with it!”
We heard Kelly shouting from a room with a metal door containing the words ‘Plant Room’ and glass that you can barely see through. As all of us ran towards the room, we opened the door to Kelly in a white shirt and blue jeans jamming in her spinning seat while hundreds of plants from every corner in the room started bouncing in her pots to the song. Venus fly traps, pitcher traps, bladderworts, you name it. Vines around the room were slowly approaching Kelly’s desk with a few chemicals and a giant magnifying glass above a purple vial laying on her desk. All of us were shocked by how relaxed Kelly was let alone vibing to the song. All of the plants like the Venus Fly Traps and Pitchers were mouthing a lot of the lyrics to the song…..
“It’s the hard knock life…For us! It’s the hard knock life…For us!
Stead treated, we get tricked! Stead kisses, we get kicked!
It’s the hard knock life!”
“I don’t know how to be, but Kelly’s all to me. God’s really watching?
Got Nicole down in the PG, you know how it goes.” Kelly said cutting a vine and pouring it into a vial.
“Evil’s all that I see; my hashtags, you ask? C to the Crazy, O to the Omniscient, 9 to the Lives we have, I’m a crazy motherfucker, y’all know that!” Kelly spun around in her chair then faced back to her desk.
( It’s a hard knock life!)
“The counselor popped me in the first route. Now it’s backwards, What’s that about?
Time to make some prophecies from the Karen’s to the Emily’s.”
Four vines grabbed random items from Kelly and surrounded her like they were giving them to her. “Hand me some Percs, Lady Gaga, a Coca-Cola from Down 95. And Some Domino’s motherfuckers!!” Kelly started to eat some Domino’s pizza from a box that a random vine gave to her.
“It’s a hard knock life….for us! It’s a hard knock life….for us!”
“Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!” Kelly poured some stuff from a vial into the purple vial.
“Steada treated, we get tricked! Steada kisses, we get kicked!
It’s the hard knock life!”
“Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh.” Kelly bounced her head left and right slightly. 
“KELLY??!” I tried to scream out while walking into the room, but Kelly and the plants were still focused on the song.
“It’s the hard knock life…for us!
Steada treated, we get tricked!
Steada kisses, we get kicked!
It’s the hard knock life…for us!”
“I don’t know how to sleep, except pray and eat, stay on my toes.” Kelly moved away the magnifying glass. “Got a lot of beef with goons, gotta prey on my foes…Til then I’ll….”
“KELLY!!!!!” The six of us yelled at the same time causing her to stop the music as we heard a record drop and break. The hundreds of plants hissed at us like they were snakes ready to strike.
“Wait a minute, guys! They are okay!” Kelly petted a random vine and then a random venus fly trap to calm all of the plants down looking around at the other plants. “You guys made it! And Ari’s okay, too!”
“What the FUCK!” Jecka screamed out.
“Yeah, holy shit, what is all of this???” I also screamed out.
Kelly slowly started to push all of us out of the room before closing the door softly. “Okay, I understand what it looks like is kind of crazy, but when we get to the living room, I’ll explain EVERYTHING. Because we need to figure out some stuff.”
The seven of us were now back in Kelly’s living room after whatever the hell we just saw. Kelly was sitting beside Ari and Karen on a couch. Emily was in her own comfy, brown recliner. Then Jecka and I were sitting beside each other in kitchen chairs while Megan sat in her own recliner as well. I don’t even know where to begin because there were so many questions rising within my head.
“Are you alright, Nicole?” Karen fixed her glasses while turning to me.
“Dude, what we saw was NOT alright. What the fuck was up with all the vines and the plants and all that shit?”
“Wait a minute….Kelly….” Jecka grew heavily concerned. “Did you use your vines to change Megan and Karen’s clothes when we did all those ‘modifications?’ ”.
Kelly smiled briefly. “So you noticed? I don’t know how I did that myself to be honest. I just had a voice call out to me and it just went from there.”
“YOU DID WHAT TO US???” Megan screamed out as she jumped from her couch.
“Look, it’s fine. What we need to do is figure out what’s going on with us. You guys need a drink?”
“Sure, I’ll take some Siced soda.” Emily said.
Kelly held out her hand as a vine whipped itself into the kitchen like a rocket grabbing a soda from the fridge. “Here you go, Emily.” All of us were caught off guard even more.
“Yeah, I’m not thirsty anymore after that….Speaking of which, have you guys seen my gun?”
“Okay, yeah this is extremely weird.” Jecka held out her fingers. “Emily is into guns, Ari blew out some flame shit when got this drink from earlier, Megan knows how to cook and had this giant fucking dinosaur hammer, Kelly is singing to plants, and I’m….a murderer…..”
“Yeah, something else happened to me earlier…..” I groaned. “So…I apparently charged a car battery….with my hands….”
“That’s….really weird. Cool as fuck, but really weird.” Emily was also weirded out.
“Maybe we are all getting super powers like that one comic book character, Shazam?” Karen smiled.
“What the fuck is a Shazam?” I asked.
“Oh, he’s a superhero.” Megan seemed excited to talk about it with her smile.
“I’m not into shit Jeffery is into.”
“So maybe drinking and eating?” Jecka smirked at me.
“You are too chill for this right now.”
“I’m fucking terrified. We just dealt with MS-13 and we are back to square one on trying to figure this shit out. You’re still suspect number one by the way. I really don’t know who else is fucking with us EXCEPT you.” Jecka glared at me.
“Speaking of suspects….Can we talk with you for a moment?” Kelly raised her eyebrows in concern.
“Sure, I guess?”
“In this room, what is your honest opinion of us, Jecka?”
“Nicole is a fucking prick, Karen’s cute, Megan got better, but she is still egotistical; Emily’s got no ambition, and Ari is almost the most normal one here.”
“What the hell? I cooked for you.” Megan shouted.
“No…I mean…” Kelly hesitated and looked at everyone in the room. “Do you consider us people you can trust? People you can rely on?”
“Where the FUCK is any of this coming from?” Jecka got more aggressive.
“Jecka…..All of us have been concerned for you for a while. And I’ve been a little scared about your well being. You came up to me asking for more work when you did 8 doubles in the past week and a half.”
“Come to think about it….I think I remember you wanting to sleep at the Diner and then start at 6 am.” Emily added.
“So, what? I want to work and start the grill for the place. Big deal.”
“No, I mean the Diner doesn’t open until 7:30 a.m. Maybe later when someone’s not hungover.” Emily shrugged.
“Jecka….is someone….after you?” All of us stared at Jecka when Kelly finished talking.
“What are you talking about?” Jecka defended.
“Okay….” I chimed in. “There’s no way to say this, but…..” I took a small breath. “Megan and I….saw you and your dad the night of the party.”
Jecka’s face turned to blank and just stared at me. No expressions. No emotion. Just a blank stare into my soul.
“I know this is none of my business, but when I was about to knock on your door….I heard your dad yelling at you. Threatening to kill me if I was a guy.” Karen had a sorrowful look on her face.
“I actually remember Nicole telling me about how your mom wanted to give you a disciplinary tattoo last year….I thought it was really concerning for a while myself…” Ari rubbed her arm.
“I just want to let you know. You AREN’T in trouble at all. We just wanted to talk to you. All of us, especially Nicole…” Megan said.
“Uh, fuck off, no, I’m not…” Megan slightly punched my shoulder.
“All of us have been concerned about you for a while. None of us want to sit on the sides and watch you be abused by your father.” Megan continued, but Jecka kept staring at me.
Jecka stood up and raised her open hand with her hand glowing until she had the hammer from the other night, ready to slam down on me. All of the girls rushed up to Jecka holding her wrist with mine and five other girls trying to restrain an enraged Jecka. Jecka stared at me with cold-dead eyes like she was out to kill. I looked into those eyes and for some reason felt extremely bad. All of us were holding her down with Jecka straining and streaming trying to move her hammer. “Jecka….please…..” I went ahead and wrapped my arms around Jecka, causing her to calm down, but still held the hammer. “I don’t want to fight anymore….I want to fix things with you….Everything.”
Jecka started to sniffle and wrap her arms around my body, then started to ugly cry while sobbing into my shirt. She continued to cry and cry as one by one, all of us surrounded Jecka. It was the weirdest group hug ever, but it doesn’t matter if your own girlfriend needs it.
All of us surrounded Jecka on the couch as Emily and Megan pulled their recliners in front of us while Ari and Kelly stood up. Jecka wiped her tears, but her expression was still blank. “Does this help you out a bit?” Karen asked her childhood friend, who nodded slowly ‘yes’.
“I know this seems bad….Like really bad, but I’m dead serious about wanting to help you.” I said.
“Yeah, Nicole actually kind of put this all together. She’s been asking around trying to help get revenge on your father abusing you.” Megan smiled at me.
“It’s true.” Karen added. “Megan and Nicole called me a little prior to the MS-13 incident, they called me asking me about you since we used to be so close. So I told them what I was concerned with.”
“Oh…” Jecka seemed defeated. “I’m shocked, you girls don’t find any of this funny.”
All of us looked at each other in confusion. “I honestly don’t see how any of this is really funny. Like I’ve been abused, but Nicole at least apologizes for it.” Ari mentioned.
“So, you get why I’m so pissed off at your dad?” I started to grow angry at the thought of her dad.
“Okay, Nicole…I believe you. You didn’t take the photos. I’m more shocked you are even trying to do this, but if you are trying this hard to be a better person, then I believe you.” For some reason, Jecka saying all of this made this weight go away. Like it felt like the world is no longer on my shoulders.
“Uh….Thanks?”
“So…all of us are going after Jecka’s dad now?” Emily smiled.
“I’m absolutely down for it.” Karen clenched her fists in anger. “Especially after those photos were sent to Jecka’s and took it out on her.”
“Wait…I don’t want you to kill my dad.” Jecka winced at the thought. “I get it. He’s an asshole, but I don’t think he deserves to…”
“He absolutely deserves to die.” Megan said.
“Guys, I’m fully okay with this, but at least try not to kill my dad. He’s still my father….” Jecka is lost for words right now. I don’t think she’s thinking straight.
“Wait a minute…Okay, so you guys know how my ex somehow knew Jecka’s mom before we clocked their asses?” Emily caught our attention. “So…what if the same person who took the photos MIGHT be linked to their mom, too?”
That’s….not a bad idea…..
“What?” Emily looked confused.
“That’s actually a really good idea.” Ari smiled at the thought. “We find out who took the photos and see if they know any leads.”
“I actually have a question for Megan….” I asked.
“Yeah, Nicole, what’s up?”
“You’ve been acting a little fishy yourself.”
“I’d like to know your reasoning.”
“You just knew what to do to explode the building, you’ve seen Jecka in a lot of visions, and you’ve been extremely chill considering you just killed a drugged up gang member.”
Megan took a deep sigh. “Okay, you are probably wondering what’s going on. So….let me start from….Honestly, this is gonna be hard to do…”
“Why…?” Karen was confused. “Now that I think about it. I’m shocked you interact with me since….”
“Karen….we aren’t ready to talk about it yet….”
Karen’s face turned more serious as she responded with a nod.
“Kelly, can you grab that purple vial you were looking at in the plant room?”
“Sure…?” Kelly walked back to the plant room and a few moments later handed Megan the purple vial. She opened the lid with a purple stench you could see before taking a small sniff. Then she passed it around to other people in the room. Ari gagged, Jecka looked like she got jumpscared, Emily was grossed out, Kelly looked completely unphased, and I smelled it, but I had a quick flash, like we’ve seen this before……
Megan walked back up to me and slowly took the purple vial away from me. “For whatever reason, when we saw that guy transform into some monstrosity, this was the cause of what Nicole, Emily and I saw. Nicole is right…I have seen visions of us before. Some stuff that none of us may even remember.”
“I….kind of have something to confess myself….” Ari seemed scared. “In my dreams….I keep seeing my house set ablaze. I don’t know why…”
“That’s another thing I want to bring up….” Megan slightly raised the purple vial up. “Whoever interacts with these purple vials, they are automatically turned into a monster…..but I saw Jecka and Nicole inhale this a while ago, but instead of dying or even transformed….they survived.”
“Megan, I’ve NEVER seen anything like this up until now.” Jecka was extremely confused.
“Exactly. It’s not a matter of where, but WHEN.” Megan was absolutely not making any sense, but to be fair, nothing made sense so far.
“That doesn’t explain why you wanted to blow up the building BEFORE hand.” Emily raised an eyebrow. “You were talking to yourself like you heard a voice in your head.”
Megan became extremely silent for a minute. “Because I did…..I was told to destroy the building. There was a sinister presence within that building just BESIDES those gang members. Something more sinister than what they normally do.”
“Megan….what do you mean by ‘what they normally do.’? ” Jecka fearfully asked.
Megan walked outside to Jecka’s car and grabbed a small box and set it in the middle of our circle group. She looked at all of us like she was about to sweat bullets. So, I kneeled down to the box and opened it to see…….
A steering wheel with bite marks?
I picked up the wheel and showed everyone it. “I’m confused, why is there a wheel with bite marks? Like look at this.” I pointed to one that looked like a shark bit it multiple times.
“Nicole…….” Jecka gave the expression like she saw a ghost. Everyone stared at Megan, completely embarrassed as her eyes were in the corner looking away from us. I stared at the wheel one more time and thought of a couple of things.
The MS-13 disappearing cars disappearing from the news and when she was at that eating….contest….
“The Word on the street is that a lot of vehicles and trucks that we stole down in PG County have gone missing. And a lot of my members have been seeing a girl with your hair.”
“Beautiful curls like yours…around these parts…dealing with my men….Sometimes, even the cars go missing.”
“YOU ATE A FUCKING CAR???????” I screamed out loud echoing through the mansion.
“I ate….two of them……” Megan rubbed the back of her head.
“WHY????????” Kelly screamed out as well.
“Holy shit that’s crazy….” Emily’s eyes widened.
“Well, it’s safe to say she can swallow us whole.” I think Karen was joking.
“God bless America.” Jecka groaned.
“Ewwww, no. I’m not going to eat a fucking human.” Megan distastefully expressed.
“Because eating a fucking car is normal?????” Jecka screamed out.
“Dude, I got hungry, okay! I beat up some MS-13 gang members, and when they ran away from attempting to rob some stores, I just got hungry…..and took it into it one by one….Never forget that white honda this guy had….”
“MEGAN!” All of us screamed out.
“Dude, don’t get on to me! Nicole’s charging batteries, Karen can read minds, Kelly can make plants dance, Jecka’s dropping icicles in near July heat, Emily wants to fuck a gun, and Ari is like literally spitting fire.”
“But eating a car is WAYYYY too fucking much. Why would you even THINK about eating one?” Ari twiddled her fingers rapidly.
“I just felt REALLY compelled to. Like my body wanted to do it on its own. I just can’t describe it.”
“We need to get you to a hospital RIGHT NOW.” Kelly screamed out.
“I honestly feel fine considering that was almost a month ago.”
“Oh my God, Megan, what the fuck is wrong with you….?” I was kind of shocked that Megan had a bigger appetite than my fucking brother.
“To be honest…..I think there’s a lot wrong with me…..More specifically, us….” Megan stared at everyone in the room. “When we were trying to escape the building, do you remember how I stopped on the beams before we reached the top of the roof?”
“Okay, yeah, what about it?” Jecka grew more concerned.
“In that fire, I heard a voice calling out to me. The same voice that wanted me to burn down the building. So I turned around to see a girl…..They had light brown hair, freckles on their face and glasses that….”
“Looked like Harry Potter?” I intervened.
“Yeah….just like that….”
“What….were they wearing…?”
“They were coming out of the fire and staring at me with an orange wizard robe and had like an elegant hat with my dinosaur hammer…..They smiled at me within the fire and I wanted to ask……….You’re the Emerald Angel…..aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” Teresa’s voice came out of Megan’s mouth as Megan smiled devilishly while staring at all of us. But Megan blinked and stared at everyone in absolute fear….Catching us all off guard.
Notes:
We are nearly at the end of this of the tale and we only have technically chapters for Nicole and Jecka left! The next chapters will be a two part for Nicole! Right now, I'm going to work on the Life and Times of Nicole Sanderson, since that's been a hot minute for sure.
For context though, the part where Kelly was singing was a reference to Jay Z's song and that one scene from Austin Powers in Goldmember XD XD
Thanks everyone so being patient with me and I hope you enjoyed the story!
Teresa Geary (Guest) on Chapter 1 Fri 18 Oct 2024 03:53AM UTC
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