Good Girl

Mallory had taken the day off work on Monday, as advised by her parents. Her parents had come to Huntington to give her a decent scolding. Mallory was almost thirty years old, and her parents still lectured her when she did something wrong. Her mother, Caroline was a little more forgiving than her father on the basis that Mallory was an emotional woman.

Richard could only shake his head at his daughter, telling her that she couldn’t be so impulsive and irresponsible. No matter what had happened between her and Matt, she couldn’t go around busting windows out of cars. Luckily for Mallory —and Matt was right—, Richard was able to pull some strings over the weekend and talked to the circuit judge on Monday morning. All the charges were dropped, including her DUI, and he made sure that there was no record of her having been arrested.

Thus, Mallory stood outside of Tess’s apartment door with Erin. She felt like her parents were forcing her to apologize to the neighbor or something. She gripped the white envelope in her right hand, biting the inside of her cheek. Forget the letter, Mallory wanted to wrap her hands around Tess’s neck and squeeze until she couldn’t breathe.

The apartment door swung open. Tess stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but matching black lingerie.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Tess said innocently, batting her eyelashes at Mallory.

“Here.” Mallory practically shoved the white envelope into Tess’s face.

“Hi, Erin,” Tess smiled cheekily. “You guys aren’t here to jump me, are you?”

Erin only folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes.

“You know, Mallory, you’ve got some balls,” Tess said as she used her thumb to rip the top of the envelope. “I didn’t know you had it in you, but you do. How was your night in jail?”

Mallory ignored her, exhaling a deep breath. She turned on her heels to walk away. The envelope was delivered like her father wanted, and that was that. She was never going to apologize to Tess.

“That’s just like you,” Tess commented from the doorway. “You can’t deal with anything by yourself so Daddy always has to help you. You never face any consequences.”

Mallory sighed as she stopped in her tracks. She was mentally exhausted and it was just like Tess to want to pick a fight. Mallory glanced at Erin before turning back around to face Tess.

“You destroy someone’s fucking car and Daddy sends an apology letter and a check,” Tess spat, holding up a typed letter in one hand and a rectangular bank check in the other.

Mallory figured there was some type of money involved, but didn’t press her father on the matter. Her father had immediately reimbursed Matt for his five grand and then some. She was sure it was more than enough money to completely cover the damages, plus a good amount of pocket cash.

“You think he can pay off everyone?” Tess asked, narrowing her eyes. “You criticized me for using some guy’s money to get what I wanted when you do the same to your own father. You may as well fuck him, too.”

Mallory had enough of her mouthing off about her father. She stomped over to Tess, shoving the brunette backwards into her apartment. Erin stepped in quietly and closed the door, not knowing what was about to go down.

“My parents worked hard, —and still work hard— to provide for me!” Mallory screamed in Tess’s face, pushing every bit of air from her diaphragm. “I’m never going to apologize because your drug addict of a mother couldn’t do the same for you! And I’ve never laid down with a man to get something I wanted!”

If it made her look like a spoiled brat, Mallory didn’t care. She appreciated everything her parents had ever done for her, and she never took them for granted. She tried not to ask them for things if she didn’t have to. She hated being made out to be that spoiled rich girl with the perfect life, like Tess thought.

“Isn’t that how you got with Matt?” Tess shot back, her steel gray eyes got cold.

“I didn’t get in bed with him because he had something I wanted, Tess!” Mallory roared. No one was ever going to imply that she was a whore, especially not Tess. “I slept with him because I loved him!”

“And he loved you,” Tess commented flatly, stressing the word in past tense.

There was a ping in her chest at Tess’s words. Whether Mallory wanted to admit it or not, she knew that Matt still loved her. She hoped he did, because she still loved him. He’d made a complete fool of her and she vowed to never see him again, but loving someone doesn’t disappear just that fast.

“He doesn’t love you either,” Mallory hissed. “He never loved you, and he never will.”

“And that’s okay, Mallory,” Tess shrugged nonchalantly. “He obviously doesn’t love you either. At least I still have someone that loves me.”

“You’re sick,” Mallory said bitterly, shaking her head at Tess. “You need help. No one loves you, Tess. Not Matt, not your own fucking parents, or the guys you sleep around with for money. Those guys will exchange a handbag for a piece of ass and you think that’s love and it’s not, Tess!”

“And what do you do for Daddy, hm? He makes everything go away in exchange for what?”

Tess clearly had some issues with her own father. Mallory would never, and neither would her father. Her father did these things because she was his daughter. Any father would take care of their daughter if they had the means to.

Mallory was swinging at Tess before she even realized it, her fist colliding with Tess’s face. Mallory was never a violent person, but recently, Tess and Matt had been pulling it out of her.

“Mal!” Erin shouted in surprise, a bystander while the two girls fought.

Mallory’s scalp ached when Tess yanked at her blonde locks, attempting to defend herself. Mallory hit her over and over, her small fists banging on Tess’s head and body. If Tess wanted another fight, she was going to give her one. Obviously one hit hadn’t been enough for Tess from the start.

The pair stumbled into a standing lamp, the lamp falling over and the glass light bulb breaking with a crunch. Mallory straddled Tess’s waist, her fists pounding into Tess while Tess tried to shield her face with her hands. One hit for Matt’s betrayal. Another for Tess’s. Another punch just because she felt like Tess deserved a nice ass whooping.

A firm hand squeezing her shoulder stopped her. Mallory looked up into Erin’s brown eyes, out of breath but feeling a lot better than she did before. Erin’s expression was a mix of amusement and concern.

“Get off of me, you crazy bitch,” Tess croaked, trying to shove Mallory off of her.

Mallory breathed deeply, glancing down at the red marks and bloody scratches on Tess’s tan skin.

Erin nudged Mallory’s shoulder and then glared down at Tess before speaking to Mallory. “If it makes you feel better, fine. But she’s really not worth spending all of your energy on. She’s not worth it at all.”