A Girl in Glass

I did a few piercings before I closed up shop. I sat down at the computer and printed up a sign, “Closed for the Holiday weekend. Will return on Tuesday morning.” I said this out loud as I typed it up.

I taped it to the door and did my run down to make sure everything was done before I left for the day.

Doors, check.

Cash secured, check.

Display cases and cabinets locked, check.

I set the alarm next to the back door and walked out.

I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my new found free time. Take care of my house first and foremost, it had been ages since I have dusted, scrubbed the floor, and cleaned the windows. I desperately needed to go grocery shopping and get to the pet shop so I could feed the snakes.

Grocery shopping and the pets shop was definitely first, then I would take the car to Randy’s.

Randy’s shop was a half hour drive from mine. When I got there I was greeted by a few of his co-workers, all of them scrambling to open the door for me. One yelled into the garage letting him know I was here. Randy was covered in grease and sweat with a large smile on his face.

“Hey hey,” He greeted me while wiping his hands on a dirty cloth then shoving in the back pocket of his pants.

I held up Ash’s keys, “I have been tasked with bringing you these.”

“About damn time,” Randy chuckled and took the keys from me, “He has been telling me for months that he’s needed a tune up and oil change.”

“You know Ash, can’t get anything done without it taking forever to actually get to the point of starting it. His check engine light is on,” I pointed at the car, “I didn’t check anything, not my responsibility.”

“Well, can I take you home?”

“That would be great, I just need you to help me unload my groceries into your truck.”

We pulled up to the front of my house, he jumped out and ran to my side. He opened the door for me then walked to the bed of the truck, scooping up all of my groceries. He carried them while I carried the feeder rats. Once in the house he set all my groceries on the kitchen table.

I gave Randy a hug, not caring if I got grease all over me. I hopped out of the truck, “Thanks dude, I appreciate it.”

Before I shut the door he spoke, “Don’t forget tomorrow, Jenny and I’ll be here around nine.”

“Got it.”

I waved at him as he drove away from the curb. Edgar was sitting next to me. I leaned down and gave him a scratch, “You ready to have a clean house again?” He purred and ran back inside.

Music was first. I scanned the shelves in the living room and pulled my best of Siouxsie and the Banshees CD off the shelf. I stuck the cd in the stereo and turned it up. I opened all the windows to let the breeze in and to let the stuffy air out. Edgar perched himself on the back of the couch right in the direct sun light. He closed his eyes and had a look of satisfaction on his tiny face. I ran up the stairs and changed into a ratty pair of sweats and a tank top then grabbed all my laundry, throwing it into a pile at the bottom of the stairs.

Everywhere and everything had a think layer of dust coating it.

All my books, movies, and Cds were out of order.

My house was awful. I can’t believe I let it get this bad.

I danced my heart out as I cleaned the night away. Around midnight I called it quits, the kitchen and living room were completely spotless, the laundry was almost done, and I fed the pythons. Edgar sat by my feet as I looked at my acomplishment. I walked through the house and made sure all the doors were locked, turned off all the lights. The cat followed me up the stairs and into the bedroom, he jumped up on the bed and meowed at me.

“Hold on.” It was his bed time too.

I was too tired to shower the grime off my body and shed my dirty clothes. I threw them into the recently emptied hamper, then went to the dresser. I pulled a fresh pair of sweat pants and t-shirt from the drawer, put them on and made my way to the shelf in the corner.

Bauhaus, my favorite. I took the disc from its case and put it in the small stereo on the top shelf. I pushed the top closed and hit play.

Learning lines in the rain
Special effects by Loonatik and Drinks
The graveyard scene
The golden years

As soon as my head hit the pillow I felt my eyes get heavy and the cat get comfortable between my legs, his purring becoming fast. My eyes slowly opened at the sound of frantic knocking at my front door. The clock read 2:56 am. I dragged myself out of bed and made for the stairs, I turned and looked back to see Edgar glaring at me for waking him up. Typical cat of course.

My feet made a light thud against the wooden stairs as I tiredly trudged down them. I couldn’t understand why anyone would be knocking at my door at this hour of the night and whoever it was better have a good reason for doing so.

I turned the dead bolt and the lock on the knob, but left the security chain latched. When I opened the door, the smell of whiskey, beer, and stale cigarette smoke hit my nostrils. I looked around the door and came face to face with my ex boyfriend Nick. I tried to shut the door but he stuck his foot in the crack, preventing me from getting it closed.

“Ray, don’t shut me out,” He spoke softly, “Can’t we talk?”

“Its three in the morning Nick, what do you want?”

“I just want to talk about everything, its been two months, haven’t you had enough time to get over what happened?”

I rolled my eyes, “Are you serious? It’s the middle of the night.”

“Please Reagan, just let me in.” He pleaded with me, “We can work this out.”

“Nick, I’m gonna call you a cab. You need to go home and get some sleep, I need to get some sleep. We both have been drinking and are in no condition to talk about any of this.”

He definitely been drinking, I only drank a half a bottle of wine but that was enough for me to say something I would regret. I tried reaching for the cordless phone on the table around the corner in the kitchen but I was afraid if I let up he would some how get in. I lightly slammed the door into his foot so he would move it back so I could shut it but he wedged himself in further.

“Seriously Nick, get your foot out of the door.”

I took the heel of my foot and jammed it right into his shin, he just hissed in pain and pushed his way in even more.

“Stop it Nick.” I tried pushing him out of the way but he wouldn’t budge, “Get out of the way.”

“Just let me in,” He was starting to get angry, I could hear it in his voice. He kept pushing the door, trying his hardest to get in. I was loosing my grip, my feet sliding on the tiled floor. He gave one more push, hard enough for the chain to snap sending me flying back onto the floor.

I felt something wet drip down the side of my face, a sudden pain emanating from my forehead. I was bleeding, the door hit me. I looked up and saw Nick standing in front of me, terror written across his face. He tried to come close to me. I slid across the floor as fast as I could, backing myself away from him. He advanced then ran out of the house.

I watched him stumble down the porch stairs, falling flat on his face at the bottom. He scrambled and got up, he disappeared down the street. I crawled out to the porch and looked down the street. No sight of his truck. How the hell did he get here?

What if he got back into his truck and drove?

What if he crashed and killed himself or someone else?

It didn’t matter if we were broken up or that he bashed my door in, I still cared enough about him to hope nothing would happen because I let him leave here and drive drunk. The only I could think to do was to call the cops. Before I dialed information to get the dispatch number and went to the freezer. The bag of frozen peas I pulled out was more of a brick of peas, only god knows how long they had been buried in the back of the freezer. But it’ll do for the time being.

Once I got through to dispatch, the receptionist asked how she could direct my call. I told her the whole story, gave her my address and that was it. I wasn’t expecting an officer to come knocking at my door.

“Miss Gehring,” The officer spoke, “I’m officer Daniels, you called about a possible drunk driver.”

“Yeah,” I opened the door wide, “Please come in.”

He walked in with a paramedic, they followed me into the kitchen. I sat down at the table, the officer joined me as the paramedic started to clean the cut above my eye.

“I called because I was worried that he might hurt himself or someone else, mostly someone else. I couldn’t live with that guilt.”

“You said he was drunk?”

I nodded in agreement, “Yes, I could smell the booze on him. I know he has previous DUIs and would feel guilty if anything happened because I couldn’t stop him from doing something dumb.”

“What happened to your head?”

I proceeded to tell him how we argued because I wouldn’t let him into the house and how I tried to call him a cab to take him home. I told him how he got angry and when I refused to let him in he kept pushing the door and finally slammed into it. The paramedic flashed the small pen light in my eyes while I talked to the officer, checking my pupil response for signs of a concussion.

“What kind of car does he drive?”

I hissed as the paramedic applied a bandage, “A blue Ford Ranger.”

The officer asked if I wanted to press charges, I declined and he thanked me for my time. I was told by the paramedic that there was no sign of a concussion and that the cut didn’t require stitches.

When I woke up, I had a slight headache. I made my way into the bathroom, put my palms down on the counter and looked in the mirror. The area above my eyebrow was tender and bruised, I peeled the bandage away as fast as I could. The small cut and eyebrow hairs were encrusted in dried blood. I grabbed a cotton ball from the drawer and a bottle of antiseptic from underneath the sink. Pouring the liquid on the cotton ball, it got in a tiny paper cut I had on my finger. I hissed in pain but moved on to the cut above my eye, which hurt far less than the stupid paper cut.

The door bell rang, was it nine already. I hadn’t even taken a shower, let alone ready to go to the flea market with Randy and Jenny. I opened the door, with a slight fear that it was Nick, but it was them.

“Morning,” I kept my head turned away from them, “Sorry, I’m not ready.”
“Yeah,” Jenny laughed, “What’s up with that?”

“Just woke up, I slept through all my alarms.”

I brushed my hair from my face, Randy’s eyes went wide.

“Jesus,” Randy stepped closer to me and swept my hair from my face, “What happened?”