Play to Pay:Chapter 7

Olaf grabbed Tony by the collar and pulled him off Jezie. Her shirt was ripped and blood was oozing from a large gash in her forehead. Tony’s eyes were bloodshot, he couldn’t tell if it was some sort of drug or alcohol or from anger.

“Let me go. The little whore had it coming,” spat Tony.

Olaf wasted no time in breaking the slime ball’s nose, “You will not speak to her, or about her in such a manner ever again. You are lucky she is present or I would beat you to a pulp. I suggest you leave, immediately.”

Olaf let go of Tony’s collar and threw him to the puke colored carpet that was now stained with blood. He scrambled to his feet, shot Jezebel a look, and ran down the hallway. Olaf had just scooped Jezie up into his arms before she passed out from stress.

Quietly, he walked back into her apartment and slowly clicked the door shut with the heel of his foot. He set Jezie on the khaki colored couch and pulled the maroon throw blanket over her. Olaf pulled the table over to the couch and set a glass of water on it. He set the plastic-bag lined wastebasket next to her head to serve as a makeshift puke bucket. It was a good thing he did, because the moment he sat down next to her on the couch, she woke up and proceeded to throw up. Jezie sat up straight and took a long slug of water. The droplets clung to her upper lip and Olaf began to laugh uncontrollably.

Putting her hands on her hips, she stated, quit bluntly, “And what do you think is so funny?”

Olaf tried his dandiest to compose himself, but as soon as he managed to get a straight face, he would burst out laughing yet again. This went on for quite a while before pounding at the door jolted them both out of the joke no one even remembered. Jezebel got up from the couch, leaving the “sick bed” just as it was. When she opened the door her mother fell onto her and the man who had previously been holding her up walked away. Her mom was out cold and obviously drunk. She must have thrown up two or three times already. At least, that’s what Jez could decipher from the terrible smell being emitted.

The two did there best to drag Jezie’s mother across the room to the makeshift bed without damaging her. They did pretty well, her knee hit the corner of the table and they only dropped her twice.

“Oh well,” said Jez, “It’s better than if we left her to her own demise.”

They sat up through most of the night making sure she didn’t choke on her own bile. Around 4am, Olaf stretched his arms up in the air, yawned, and excused himself to the bathroom.

As he entered the room, he spoke to Jezie in a hushed tone of voice, “Well, I think I better be heading out. I’ve been up a long time and I think we’ve exhausted all conversation for the night.”

Jezebel stood up and grabbed his bicep, he stopped in his tracks, “No. Why don’t you stay here? You can sleep in my room and I’ll stay out here with my Mom. That is, if you don’t mind spending what’s left of the night in this shit hole.”

Olaf smiled, “Of course not. I would love to stay here.”

--------------------------------------------------Early the Next Morning----------------------------------------------------

Jezie woke up to quiet chatter coming from the kitchen. She was sprawled out on a chair, a line of drool dried on the corner of her mouth. Straining her ears she heard her mother’s laughter. All of a sudden the events of the night before crashed over her. Standing up, Jez yawned and made her way to the bathroom. There she saw the damage that Tony had inflicted upon her. She had a black and blue bruise on her cheekbone, right below her left eye. There was a cut in her lip, she probably bit it when he threw her down. She stripped down to nothing and turned the shower on high. As she went to step in, she caught a glimpse of her back. It was beaten, her spine a nasty looking purple color. There were cuts all over her back, superficial ones mind you. She stepped into the scalding stream of water and had to bite down on her already cut lip to keep from crying out. The cuts and bruises already hurt, but the water seemed to magnify the pain.

Bearing through, Jez managed to clean all of the dried blood off and get her hair smelling better than it did. Turning the water off, she opened the curtain and wrapped herself in the best towel she owned. It was pink and had bleach spots on it, but was the softest, fluffiest towel they owned. She walked down the hallway and into her room. Shutting the door, she turned around to see that her room was picked up and the bed was made. She had forgotten that Olaf had slept in here. Pulling on a pair of cut off shorts and a brown tee shirt, Jez tied her hair up into a bun and brushed a little makeup on over the bruise. Her mother was probably still so hung over she wouldn’t notice.

“How nice of you to join us, Jezebel,” said her mother as she walked into the kitchen.

“You’re one to talk Mom. I’ve never seen you get up before 6pm after getting so wasted and fucked all night long. Which ‘boyfriend’ was it that brought you home this time?”

Jezie knew that her comments had carried an extra sting this morning. She was tired of having to be the adult. Tired of having to deal with her Mother and then listen to her complain. She should have tried to be nicer , but she was tired of being nice. No one wanted to have to clean puke of their own mother’s hair.

Ignoring her daughter’s comment, Lauren spoke, “I was just talking with your boyfriend. He seems nice, why didn’t you introduce us sooner?”

Jezie panicked. Her mom didn’t know about what she did to earn the rent. She must have though Jezie pulled it out her ass, or she just didn’t care. Yet, some part of her wanted to know that her mother didn’t think of her the way everyone else did.

“We met one night at work mom. We’ve only gone out twice. Last night I invited him up to talk after our date. Just as we walked through the door, you got home. He stayed up with me last night making sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit. By the time you were ok, it was so late I let him sleep in my room.”

“Oh,” said Lauren as she blushed a deep red. It embarrassed her to think that her daughter was more of an adult than she was. And had a more attractive man, one that seemed to genuinely care about her.

Olaf spoke, “I should get going. My dog probably wants to be let out, if he hasn’t already used my dictionary as toilet paper. Jezie I’ll call you later ok?”

He gave her a quick kiss and headed out the door thinking, “This is going exactly as I hoped it would.”

So, with the possibility of Testriffic closing, I still want to be able to finish my story. If you'd like me to email you the rest if the site closes down my address is punkrocksk8ergurl92@yahoo.com!