It had been only a week plus since I began working at Stanley’s, the grocery store, but it felt like a year. Working for a year in Twinkle Stars hadn’t felt this crazy. It wasn’t just the workforce that was the problem. This woman, Marsha Jay, was an earthquake in my life.
Here she was, firing hard and dangerous scowls at me, only because Kenneth and I were going home together, for the fourth time this week. She was just like Sherri, to be honest. The only difference between them was, Sherri was cuter and richer, and was a hypocrite in a way. But, Marsha was blatant in the purest way. She even complained about Kenneth and I, right in front of the innocent customers who had no interest in her babbles.
I rolled my eyes. “Marsha, this is crazy. What makes you think there’s a thing between Kenneth and me?”
She chortled. “We only broke up about a month ago. There’s no doubt that he still likes me. So, why the heck are you trying to take him? Do you always have to go home with him? Huh?”
“What an idiot,” I mumbled, and just kept the attendance book on the shelf above me. Grabbing my bag, I cleared my throat, ready to take my leave.
Soon, Kenneth came over to us. He slung his backpack past his shoulder, beaming as usual. “You’re ready to leave now?” He enquired.
“Sure.” I returned his smile. I sauntered towards him, sighed when I stood in front of him. “Should we eat dinner or something? I’m quite hungry.”
“We should go on a date.” He winked. “Everyone’s gonna stare at us, huh? They’d think we’re the cutest couple in this locality.”
I giggled. Okay, Kenneth seemed so much like Ryan, except for the fact that Ryan was funnier. It hadn’t been long since I had known Kenneth, but in the short while we had been friends, I liked being with him. He wasn’t just cute from the outside, he was cute from inside.
“Hello!” Marsha snapped from nowhere. She stood in between us, faced me, her hands on her waist as she glared like a mad lioness. “Wait, don’t tell me you’re really planning to go home together? Again? What the heck is this? Serene, are you trying to steal my man or what?”
Okay. This was Sherri’s twin.
I shook my head at her craziness. “First, you need to learn how to speak properly. Second, why are you this protective and insecure? This dude’s not even your guy. Not like I’m—”
“This is crazy!” She snarled, wrath running in those big, blue eyes. “It’s not fine. You can’t just come here and claim him. It’s crazy.”
I sighed, trying so hard to conceal my wrath. Glimpsing at Kenneth, I swallowed hard, then turned back to her. “Fine. I won’t go with him. And, that’s only because I don’t wanna create some craziness.”
“There’ll be no need for that.” Kenneth pushed her aside, gripped my wrist. He hardly ever got angry, but anytime he was with her, the rage appeared. “Marsha, enough of this. She’s coming with me, and that’s it. Go home now.”
She gaped, blinking, probably to hold back the tears that were soaked in her eyes. “But, Ken, this isn’t—”
“Goodnight,” he cut her off. Instantly, he pulled me towards the exit, pulled me out of the store. I knew Marsha was sulking at herself, which was quite funny to me. Why was she ever this frustrated for no good reason?
As soon as we stepped out, we began trekking down the street. I smiled at him, admiring how cute he looked, though he was frowning. I squeezed his hand in order to grab his attention, and he looked at me.
“It’s fine, okay?” I assured him.
He sighed. “I’m really sorry about her behavior. She really never wants to learn how to be respectful. That was the reason I broke up with her. To be honest, I regret dating her. She’s such a mess.”
“Don’t be so harsh.” I frowned playfully at him. “Guess you’ll have to forgive her, as usual. I understand her, really. I’ve experienced such a thing once. Some ladies could be really, really insecure, trust me.”
“It’s annoying,” he said.
We walked towards the next street. Looking down, smiling at myself, feeling weird for some reason, uniformed, my body abruptly hit something. I rubbed my hand against my forehead, wondering what had happened. Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked up at the obstacle I had just hit my head against, only for me to see Ralph.
I gulped a morsel down my throat. Not again.
His eyes rolled to Kenneth, then to me. They rolled back to Kenneth, then they finally got fixed on me. “S-Serene? You’re here.”
I removed my hand from Kenneth’s, my fingers curling into a hard fist. So hard that a blow from it would break down a brick.
I sighed. “Hey, Ralph. How’re you doing?”
His nostrils flared, his jaw clenched, some ugly emotions motioning in his eyes. “We need to talk. I’m sorry, but at this point, this is crazy. Can’t take it anymore. Let’s go now.”
“Hey, are you nuts? What the heck is with you? You bumped into me, and the next thing you can think of is forcing me to speak with you? That’s mean,” I complained.
He grunted. The moment he attempted to snap my hand, I stepped backwards. I was seeing a monstrous Ralph. This was crazy. Was this man possessed by a demon? How could anyone think of something like this?
“Hey, dude. That’s not cool.” Kenneth gently hit Ralph on the chest, his voice sounding angry. “You can’t force her to go with you. It’s rude, okay? Where are your manners?”
“Get out of my way,” Ralph threatened amidst clenched teeth. He was glaring hard at Kenneth. Really, this made me feel queasy. What if they both got so angry, and ended up picking a fight here? What would I do?
“Don’t try to do something crazy. If you think you’ll go with her, you’re definitely kidding. Fuck off now. She’s with me,” Kenneth stated.
The rage racing in his tone absolutely wasn’t normal. It made me feel like something was up with him. He wasn’t supposed to be this protective and furious, right? What was going on?
Ralph scoffed. “If I get to repeat myself, danger will come forth. For the last time, leave. My. Way.”
“You’ll—”
“That’s enough!” I cried. Due to the hard beats of my heart, the weakness and coldness of my feet, the fear that washed through me, tears built in my eyes. I whimpered, and was only able to take Kenneth’s hand. Dauntlessly, I faced Ralph. “Don’t ever think of this. You ended our relationship. Being dominant won’t change anything. I’ve moved on completely. There’s nothing between us, and there’ll never be anything between us. So, please, don’t ever try this.”
“But you can’t—”
“Good. Night.” I spat out.
Not giving him another chance to state a word, I walked past him, trudged out of this proximity with Kenneth.
To be honest, I was done with this. How could Ralph think I would accept him back? What a joke.
***
“Thanks so much for being supportive.” I smiled at Kenneth as we stood in front of my house.
The bright light of the street lamp glinted on his face, outlining his nose and green eyes. He was ever cute and admirable.
“It’s not a problem. I’ll always be here to help you out. I can assure you that,” he said.
“That’s cute.” I didn’t know what made me say that. Gosh, this guy was freaking making me go mad! It was stupid. But, well, it wasn’t like I felt anything for him. His tranquility was just so irresistible.
He tweaked my cheek. Just like Ryan always did. “You’re the cute thing here. The only cute thing.”
“And, what’s with this ‘cute’ discussion?”
Hearing that deep voice coming from the porch of my house, I flinched. Pivoting my neck towards the sound of the voice, I widened my eyes in surprise.
It was Ryan who had spoken. As he sashayed towards us, he had his hands in the pocket of his dark joggers pants. Darn it, he looked so cute! The pants matching the grey v-neck shirt he was wearing, together with his white slippers, he seemed like one of those runway guy models.
Reaching us, his eyes scrolled over to Kenneth, then to me. He wiggled a brow at me. “If I may ask, who’s this dude?” His voice was harsh. This was Mr. Arthur.
I breathed silently, and made a short prayer. These days, Ryan had been pretty, I meant, very, very protective of me, for some reason I didn’t know. I hoped he wasn’t going to create a second ruckus tonight, just like Ralph had done.
Okay. It would be fine. Amen.
—