Confessions of an Innocent House Maid

I woke up the next morning around 11am, and only because my mom was banging on my door, yelling for me to get up.

“Jess! Wake up!” she said. “You are not going to waste away your summer vacation sleeping! Now get up, NOW!”

I moaned and rolled over then I finally got up. I did my morning routine, got dressed, and came into the kitchen. Everyone of coarse had already eaten breakfast and no one had bothered to tell me to get up and eat with them. I threw my breakfast in the microwave and after warming it up, sat down on the dining table to eat. But just as I was about to dig in, my mom came storming into the kitchen, yelling at me again.

“Oh no. You are not eating breakfast right now.” She said.

“Yeah but mom, I’m starved. What do you mean I can’t eat breakfast?”

“You are going to do a little exercise before you eat breakfast. It is a beautiful day outside and you are going to go for a walk.” She said taking my breakfast away.

“Mom!” I complained as she took my breakfast away from me.

“You can eat when you get back. You’re never going to loose weight if you keep eating like this. Now wear your shoes and go run outside.”

I took a deep breath considering my options. “Can I at least run in the park?”

“No. You’ll be just fine running around the house. You don’t need a park.”

“Mom! I want to run there. I’ll look like an idiot if I run around the house!”

“Don’t be silly. No one’s looking. Now go. Sooner you start, sooner you’ll finish, sooner you’ll get to eat breakfast.”

I took a deep breath trying to keep from exploding right then and there, then put on my shoes to go outside. Right before I was about to close the door behind me, I heard “and don’t even think about coming back before 1:30!” I slammed the door and started walking down my driveway towards the main road.

1:30!? That was over an hour away! She had to be joking. Although knowing my mother, I knew she wasn’t.

I turned the corner of my street to get out of my mother’s view, just in case she was looking out the window. I was over-flowing with anger but had no way of getting it out. I couldn’t scream or I’d draw attention. I couldn’t curse because… well I just didn’t curse. I couldn’t blame anyone else because there was no one around. As I was thinking this I came across a glass liquor bottle on the ground. I immediately picked it up and threw it. The last thing I had expected was for a black Mercedes to come out of no where and hit the bottle. The car screeched to a stop.

“What the hell?!”

I saw the driver step out of the car, over-flowing with anger. He scanned his car for any damages and after finding the scratch left behind by the bottle, turned to glare at me. Once he turned my way I spun on my heal and started walking as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

“Hey!” I heard him yell behind me.

When I continued to stride forward ignoring him, he yelled again, this time running to catch up to me. He grabbed my arm and turned me around to face him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I pulled my arm and thankfully he leg go. “What do you mean?”

“You just hit my car and you think I’m just going to let you go?” he said pointing back to his car.

“I didn’t hit your car.”

“What? Yes, you did, and if you continue to refuse to admit it then I really hope you have some kind of Insurance because if you don’t-”

“If I don’t then what?” I said challenging him.

“Then I’ll call the cops.” He said staring me down.

I hesitated thinking over my options and when I came up with nothing, I decided to try and tell the truth. “Ok, so maybe I did. But it was a total accident-”

“Doesn’t matter. You better pay me fifteen hundred dollars for the damages or else-”

“Fifteen hundred?! Come on! You have got to be kidding me.”

“I kid you not”

“Listen, for a guy who owns a Mercedes I hardly think you need me to pay for the damages. It’s just a scratch. Cant you just take care of it?” I said practically begging.

It didn’t do any good. “Who says I don’t need you to pay? Maybe I worked really hard to get that car. And maybe you putting a huge scratch in it ruined everything.”

I took a deep breath. “Ok wait. Maybe we can work something out here.” I hesitated as he stared me down, then came up with an idea. “Oh my god! Look, Cops!” I screamed pointing behind him.

As soon as he turned to look I bolted in the opposite direction. I thought I was home free and there was no way he could get me now.

But I was wrong of course.

He had realized I was bluffing and was running to catch up to me before I even knew it. He suddenly appeared in front of me out of nowhere and I ended up crashing into him as a result. I’d have almost lost my balance and fell to the ground too if he hadn’t grabbed my arm as he cut me off. This time he didn’t let go.

“Wow! Are you serious? I can’t believe I fell for that!”

He looked down at me and when I only stared back, out of breath, he suddenly got a light, faded smirk on his face and started to lean forward, examining mine. Confused I leaned back trying to keep a distance between us. It didn’t help. When I couldn’t bend any farther and his face was only inches from mine, he scanned my face one last time and then while smiling asked, “What’s your name?”

I started at him in confusion, looking from one eye to the next, just as he was. There was no way in hell I was going to tell this idiot my real name so I blurted the first name that came to mind. “Jennifer. Jennifer Simmons.” I always liked that name, fortunately it came in handy.

“Well Jennifer,” he said straightening himself again and finally letting go of my arm. “I hope you have my money ready soon.”

I rubbed my arm where his grip used to be. “Soon? How soon?”

“Well let’s see.” He looked away from me to indicate that he was thinking. “I need my car for school, so…. How about August?”

“August!” I was totally freaking out now. And I think he was enjoying it. “You expect me to get a job and somehow come up with fifteen hundred dollars in a month and a half?!”

“Yeah, Pretty much.” He had a huge grin on his face now. It made me want to run him over with his own car just to get him to stop.

He got back into his car and turned the key to start the engine. After that he reversed to stand the car right in front of me. “Don’t forget. See ya Jennifer.” And then he was off.

I quickly picked up I rock at threw it after him hoping to hit him, if not his car, but he was long gone.

I had no idea how I was going to come up with fifteen hundred dollars, but one thing was for sure, I couldn’t let my parents or anyone in my family find out about this. And if I didn’t want them to find out then I had to come up with that money, and fast.