Petty Rage by Thandiwe Mpofu

Chapter 3

KIM

Past

ME: What is it about you and the color blue?

Sexy Stranger: The place, the feeling and none of your fucking business. Why are you texting me like we’re fucking familiar?

ME: I’ve noticed things about you.

Sexy Stranger: I’d think so. You are a fucking stalker after all. What things?

ME: You talk too much, Noah. So, consider this me monitoring what comes out of your mouth. Same thing you’ve been doing, apparently.

ME: Also, there’s nothing wrong with having blue balls ;)

Sexy Stranger: Oh, I’m fucking watching you all right, but let’s be fucking honest here. You texted me because you desperately want to talk to me.

Sexy Stranger: And why the fuck would I have BLUE FUCKING BALLS? I fuck.

ME: Not well, from what I’ve heard.

Sexy Stranger: That’s a cute little lie. But since you’re going around asking about how I fuck, maybe you’re the one who wants my dick in your tight little cunt.

ME: That’s never going to happen!

Sexy Stranger: Aww, I’m heartbroken.

ME: HA!

Sexy Stranger: And yes. That image that just flashed in your head; me fucking you so hard you’ll claw by back, the sheets and everything in-between just trying to hold on? Yeah, I fuck harder than that and I won’t stop making you come, even when you can’t take any more. Then I’ll do it all over again, just to destroy that wet, tight pussy.

Present

Fired?

That fucking asshole fired me? All because of the billion dollars that were in the room?

To be fair, from the moment I walked into that room and saw a glimpse of the freaking fairy design on the back of that leather jacket, I knew.

I felt the way my heart surged and goosebumps started gracing my arms and every inch of me that he’s seen bare.

I swear I could sense his presence nearby, or maybe I was thinking of him so hard he just had to appear out of nowhere, like a fucking fairy. But he’s no longer the fairy I knew before.

That Noah… is long gone.

“Fuck!”

I freaking knew that something was going to happen tonight, but Jesus, I wasn’t expecting it to go south so fast. I’m still reeling.

It’s as if I got the wind knocked right out of me.

I rush to the staff room where the lockers are and grab my stuff, feeling an unfamiliar sting of unnatural liquid in my eyes.

How could I lose it like that? How could I let that son of a… well, Noah’s mother is actually a sweetheart that I met only one time, but Noah… how could I let him blow up my life like that?

I roughly wipe away my tears, knowing damn well that I’m on the verge of screaming.

I feel like I might burst if I stop even for a second, so I yank my locker open. First, I reach in my bag for my knife, then strap it to my ankle where I can easily reach it. Then I grab my hoodie and jogger pants and quickly dress as fast as I can.

I wear the hoodie and joggers over the stupid, revealing outfit I’ve had to wear for the past three strange, frustrating nights but I feel hot and overwhelmed by embarrassment.

It’s like a volcano is bubbling in the pit of my stomach, the last few minutes playing over and over in my head.

I was already having a shitty day after spending the day dealing with my mother whose only words to me for the past two years were how the death of the man she loved was all my fault.

Luci doesn’t care that Larry raped her, abused her, demeaned her and reduced her to nothing. She never cared when the same things were happening to me by his hand so why would she not blame me for her heartbreak?

Fuck Noah to hell!

I needed this job! I needed the money!

Nights are the only times I can actually work these days and he just took that right away from me.

No way. It’s not going down like this.

“Hey, sweetheart, you’re already heading out—whoa, is everything all right?” I look up at Sniper, one of the bouncers whose actual, government name is Pixie.

He’s one of the only people who’s been nice to me since I started.

When I asked him why people were so rude to me, he told me it was because I threatened all the girls. That I was too beautiful, smoking hot and sassy not to steal their clients, which didn’t make any fucking sense to me because I didn’t sign up to strip. I came here to serve alcohol and rack up all the tips I can. Not fight with anyone. But still, that’s not what got me the boot. My inability to ignore Noah did all that and more.

“Well, I just got fired,” I grit out, noticing what he’s swinging in his hand. “Hey, can I borrow that?” But I don’t wait for his consent. I just grab it and keep it moving.

“Hey, sweetheart! I don’t know how that thing will help you with the job situation!” he calls after me.

I smile, but even I can feel the brittle coldness of it.

“It will help plenty,” I mumble.

I pass through the crowded strip club filled with all sorts of men who come to these joints to feel a bit more alive than they actually are.

Truckers, lousy husbands cheating on their wives, and of course, heirs to billionaire families who have nothing better to do than come fuck up my life.

“Excuse me. Why aren’t you gone, bitch?”

I halt to a stop as Crystal’s annoying nasally voice reaches my ears. She’s one of those people that like to think they’re on top when in fact, no one can find them on the deck, let alone in a line up—unless of course you count the nasal, fake Valley Girl voice that doesn’t do what she thinks it does.

“You were fired remember?”

I resume walking, heading toward the doors but I can hear her following me, her glee as obvious as the fake ‘diamonds’ around her throat.

“Yes, that’s right! Get out and never come back!”

She’s also the girl who was seconds away from giving Noah a fucking blowie in a desperate attempt to snatch herself a wealthy baby daddy by mechanically inserting cum in her dry ass pussy. These past three days have been interesting but my life so far, has been fucking educational.

“You know what, bitch, why don’t you—”

I don’t give her a chance to finish then. I just swing around with my fist ready to go… and knock her the fuck out.

I hear the club come to a screeching stand still but I don’t wait to check if they’re watching. I’m out the door before the bouncers can come after me, but in the few days I was here, they sort of became my friends, so they pretend like they didn’t just see me knock out the star whore of the joint.

But see, maybe they should’ve stopped me.

Maybe that fucking weasel of a manager should’ve called the cops when he had the chance because now, I make my way toward one of the two cars in the parking lot I had noticed when I came in but chalked it off to random customers.

I hadn’t thought it would be his, but as I get closer, I see the license plates as clear as fucking day and I know.

This is Noah Montreal’s sweet, favorite baby.

Good.

I drop my bag in front of the car, get a good grip of Sniper’s metal baseball bat and then… I go to work redecorating Noah’s sweet Fairy ride.

I don’t hear the alarm of the car as it goes off shrieking into the dark night.

I don’t see the people rushing out to see what’s happening.

I don’t fucking care about anything as I smash the windshield. Then the roof of the car. I swing back and hit the doors, denting them over and over again.

I go to the driver’s side and smash out the window, the body of the car, the side mirrors. I hit everything I can, my gaze unfocused yet clear all in one breath.

I know someone has already called the cops so I’m not surprised when I hear the unmistakable sound of police sirens in the distance, but I don’t stop until I get more hits in.

Just as I’m rounding to the back to smash out the rear windshield, someone snatches me up and I’m slung over their shoulder.

It’s then that I notice I’ve been screaming like a banshee throughout my revenge session.

“Let me fucking go!”

“Shut up!”

I grow still, his familiar voice soaking into my body like the worst kind of poison known to man.

Poison because my own immune system can’t seem to be able to fight it—fight him.

“Let me go, you asshole, or I swear to God I’ll—”

“You’ll what, Kimberly? Ruin my fucking car? Newsflash, you just fucking did that, now shut up and get in the fucking car.”

Before I can react, he shoves me into the back of an SUV, and before I can right myself and see what’s going on, we’re already peeling out of there.

When I scramble to right myself, shoving my hair out my face, my heart beating erratically, I’m still fuming.

Noah is sitting right next to me, breathing hard and fast with a pure livid expression on his face that if I wasn’t mad myself, I’d have been afraid of him right about now.

But fuck him!

Toxic.

Anyone could see that Noah and I were a bit unusual. We’ve never been any good for each other and now this?

He glares out the window, his jaw ticking incessantly, fists clenched like he’s holding himself back as best as he can.

He can’t even look at me right now. Good, I can’t even bear to see the look in his eyes right now either.

The blood in my veins is rushing hot, simmering like lava, contesting with the pain and the humiliation I just suffered.

My adrenaline is still fucking high so I move away, scooting back toward the door, creating as much space as I can between us, because if I stay close to him, God only knows I’ll slap him like I did when we were up in the mountains of Colorado, and I don’t want to do that. I hated physically hurting him. It made me sick, but what he just did… Jesus.

You could slice through the tension, the anger and the hurt in this car with a fucking sword but it wouldn’t do a damn thing to cool either of us down.

When I look up, curious about whose car I’m in and where we’re going, that’s when I notice Emmett’s the one driving and he’s on the phone.

“I just sent you a location. There’s a matte black Lamborghini, license plates ‘FUCK OFF’ in the parking lot of a strip club close to the gas station on the interstate. I’m sure you’ll fucking recognize it. It’s been recently… remodeled. Pick it up and deliver it to the other location I sent you.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Easton.”

He hangs up and tosses his phone, then I see his green gaze through the rearview mirror.

I expect him to give me a mouthful, to tell me that I went overboard for what I just did to his best friend’s car but instead, the gorgeous god shoots me a wink.

Well then.

So, Noah makes a fucking mess, and the god fixes it, huh? I wonder if he’s also fixing the mess we discovered at Christmas about his family dynamics.

“So,” Emmett starts. “Your plan tonight was to get her fired from her new job, huh?”

“Wait, what?” I demand, swiveling around to stare at Noah.

“And you, Kimberly, instead of just taking it like the pathetic weakling types that Noah is used to walking all over, you do him one better and practically destroy his favorite car? And all in the space of a few minutes?” He shakes his head, looking impressed. “Fucking unbelievable and so damn petty.”

I start sweating, my palms growing warmer as the car speeds down the highway. I’m so close to exploding, I can feel it on the tip of my tongue and when I feel his gaze on me, I just can’t hold it in any longer.

“You wanted to get me fucking fired tonight?” I demand, only to feel like I’m going to disintegrate when I hear my voice break at the end.

Shit!

I’ve gone through so much over the years and lost so much but I never, ever wanted to be the girl that breaks down in front of the guy she had something deep and real with before all that was snatched away.

“Fuck,” Noah curses, but I’m just… I’m beyond shocked and hurt so much so that I don’t say a word, feeling like my tongue’s all dried up now.

All too soon, I feel the car slowing down. When I look up, I see we’re parked at some fucking fancy building in the city.

“Well, this is me,” Emmett says in that low tone of his. “Kimberly, I hope you give him hell.”

He unsnaps his seatbelt, grabs his phone and he’s out the door without another word and Noah gets in the driver’s seat.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I demand.

He ignores me, starting the car up and again, and in short order, we pull away.

“Where the hell are you taking me?”

I reach for the door handle, but it doesn’t budge. Asshole locked me in.

“Noah!”

“I’m fucking driving you back to your shithole, unless you want me to take you to the fucking station for what you just did to my car,” he snaps. “And before you think of fighting and throwing a Kimberly fucking tantrum in this car, just know that this isn’t mine and Emmett isn’t like me.”

“You mean he isn’t an asshole who plots to get someone fired? Yeah, I kind of got that.”

“Say whatever the fuck you want, but I could’ve stood there and watched as you got dragged to jail tonight after what you just did!”

“What I just did? You made me lose my job!” I snap. “I haven’t seen you in months and you come back and mess my life up with just a few words?”

“That’s your fucking fault. You should’ve watched how you react to people’s words!”

Stunned, I glare at him from the backseat, the charge in the car so palpable and unnatural, we both can’t seem to catch a fucking breath.

“Right, like you know how to control your emotions, huh?” I seethe.

“At least I can say I have a better handle on my fucking insecurities,” he hisses. “The last time I fucking saw you, you had burned your own hair off, looking like a damn pariah and so now when someone says one word to you, you’re ready to pop off? Seriously?”

“The last time I saw you, you made me cum over and over again in a fucking shower stall and then you shut me out, and now you actively seek me out to mess with how I eat? Seriously?”

I can feel him bristling in the front seat; I know he’s angry, but what he did tonight crossed the line.

“Why would you do that?” I seethe, my voice hoarse and slightly broken. It’s past midnight, making this the anniversary of one of the worst days of my fucking life—which also gave a blessing that I’m now fighting for. “Why tonight? Why the fuck did you decide to fucking resurrect your petty assholery tonight?”

Things were going well, or as well as they can get for me.

I scored a job I could work evenings. My sisters have been hanging out with their new friends this summer, and this week, they are away at a sleepover, so I didn’t have to worry about them being around Luci.

I thought I could make a bit more money than I do at my other jobs and then maybe pay the bills and get a birthday cake.

Now I barely made enough to pay the rent, let alone the medical bills.

“Don’t get it twisted, Kim Possible, I’m not the only petty one in here,” he seethes. “And besides, you should’ve known that it was coming, sooner or later.”

Yes, but why tonight?

It’s as if a lightbulb goes off and then breaks over my damn head.

The broken pieces shift into place, giving me my picture, one that I was doing my best to ignore but it was right there.

Today.

Friday the 13^th.

He always comes for me on this day, every fucking year since we made the mistake of finding out what the day means to us.

Hell.

“Of course,” I murmur as all the adrenaline drains out of me with just those words.

“Had you forgotten?”

“No.”

How can I forget, when this is not only the day I delivered my little sister under a bridge full of junkies, the homeless and the destitute, but it’s also the day Larry found us… again.

How can he forget when today is not just his big brother Craig’s birthday but also the day he took his own life?