Day eight: Oh my GAWD!!

Yes. Well. It is the 8th day of NaNoWriMo. I'm still in the running, sort of. I decided to just post my favorite chapter of the story (so far) and work on that 16K word count I have to attain by the end of the night. Enjoy. :-)

Chapter 2
(2 weeks later)

“I’ve got to go.” Marcus sighed.

I turned away from his kiss. He gave my hand a small kiss instead. The tears were coming before I could stop them.

“Why are you crying?” he brushed his short black hair back with his fingers. “What did I do?”

“You do this every single time. You just…use me.”

“Natalia, you’re old enough to understand…all this. You’re pretty. You’ve got a cute little body. I never said I was in love.”

“You sure act like it. When we’re together…I mean, I’ve never heard so many sonnets and love poems in all my life.” I pulled the blanket up over my breasts and sat up, pressing my back against the headboard.

“I don’t have time…” he mumbled.

“You don’t have time for what, Marcus?”

“For your bullshit. I have got to get home. It’s damn near 8 o’clock.”

I watched his flawless buttocks as he picked his boxers off the floor and shimmied into them. He had to dig his socks out of the trash can where he haphazardly threw them. He sat on the edge of the bed and unpeeled the socks, pulled them on his feet.

“So, what now? You’re just going to leave like this? You aren’t even going to try and smooth this over?” My heart was pounding in my chest.

“Smooth what over?! Nat, we come here every other weekend and do what we do. What can you possibly be thinking about? You think this fun-time or something? You think we’re playing house?”

My face burned. I felt like flinging that cheap bedside lamp at him. He stood up and pulled on his gray sweatshirt. I watched his face. It was calm, despite the irritation in his voice.

“I am a PERSON! I have feelings! I’m more than a quick piece of ass, Marcus! Why don’t you respect me?” I screamed.

“Keep you damn voice down. Don’t be yelling my business! Look, Natalia. I think we both need to review the facts. One: I got a wife and a baby boy. Now, you knew that from jump street,” He ticked off the points on his fingers. I always hated when people did that. It’s like, I can count! “Two: you opened your legs to me. I didn’t game you out for sex. Remember? Three: I have never, ever said I loved you! So don’t give me that.”

“I never said you said you loved me. I said you’re Romeo the Second when you think you can hit it. Today is my birthday! I wanted to…I canceled plans with my best friend to see you tonight. You said you would take me out tonight. For real, I am just sick to death of you.”

“Good. I gotta deal with Myrna’s bitching at home. At least I don’t have to deal with it from your ass.”

Something inside of me exploded. Maybe it was my tolerance. I made this weird growling noise and leaned over the edge of the bed. I grabbed my shoe and beamed it off his right pec. I’m a horrible shot: I was aiming for his balls. The look in his eyes…it was all wild and insane. I knew what would happen next, though I didn’t believe it ever would. You never expect to be attacked.

Marcus dove into the bed and sent a stunning blow into my face. I felt nothing but heat on the left side of my face. Not even pain. Just the sensation of warmth. I threw out my hand, felt something soft scraping under my nails. I heard Marcus’ husky cry.

“GODDAMNIT!!” He rolled away from me. “What’d you do to my face?!”

I knew the worst thing you could do to a supercilious, cautious, lying cheater was to leave marks. Inerasable, tell-tale, bleeding, bruised or otherwise obvious-ass marks. He ducked into the bathroom, clicked on the light.

“FUCK!” he growled.

I flipped out of bed and balled up my panties and bra, stuffing them into my coat pocket. I doubt I have ever gotten into my jeans faster than I did that night. I pulled on my sweater, while shoving my sock less feet into my shoes. I danced into my coat and smoothed my ponytail back. Marcus appeared with a wad of moist toilet paper clinging to his face.

“I can’t believe….what the hell is your problem, bitch? Huh?”

“You call me bitch like that’s a bad thing, big daddy.” I grabbed my purse from the chair in the corner and scanned the floor for anything I might be leaving behind.

“What am I supposed to say to Myrna about this? Huh?” He moved close to me.

“You try that ninja shit again I’ll give you a matching pair.” I raised my clawed fingers. “And if Myrna notices, which I doubt she will, you give her my number. I’ll tell her what kind of piece of shit she’s married to.”

Marcus was still hollering when I climbed onto the elevator at the end of the hall. I was sure he would rip me in half after that last little comment. However, the wrath of Marcus only amounted to him getting a sore throat from all that hollering and him giving a few extra bucks to the cleaning woman, to deny that she’d ever laid eyes on him. Pretty much the way all our evenings ended. But tonight, I struck first and seethed later. He was more pissed than I’d ever seen him. Hell, he put his hands on me. He should feel fortunate to be alive. A lesser man would have his heart in my purse as a souvenier.

I pulled my chapped lips into my mouth and hissed at the pin-prick of pain that spread through the left side of my face. I leaned close to the reflective elevator doors and examined my face. My frigging lip was busted. I cursed loudly. What would my mom say? She’d probably chew me out for fighting.

It hit me when I pushed through the revolving doors and got out onto the street that I would probably never see Marcus again. I glanced back at the Windsor Regal Hotel and spat a gob of phlegm onto the sidewalk. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing if I never saw him again. He was a married man, after all. Married with a kid. Did I feel bad? No, not really. If I didn’t think about his family, I didn’t feel remorse. And of course Myrna was a major bitch. I shoved my hands into my pockets, gripped my underwear in one hand and turned left on Broad Street.

Slowly, I started to feel horrible. I was throwing things he’d told me right back into his face. I was taunting him with the wife who wanted little to do with him, sexually. He once told me he went to an optometrist and got a pair of colored lenses, and the day he wore them home, she didn’t even notice. He said they were some outrageous hue like purple or violet. Their son, he believed, was all that she had wanted from him. Nothing more, nothing less.

I almost wished that while my adrenaline was pumping, I would run into Santa. She had been on the job for a month now and I wanted nothing more than to play golf with her ovaries. She found ways to grind her ax, the best of which was making nice with Grace. They were so close they actually started to wear the same perfume, and a few of the same pieces of jewelry. Creeped me out majorly.

The train ride home was quiet. I didn’t really want to go home. But I knew Upton was in for the night, and he wouldn’t be coming out. Sometimes he could be such a homebody. I sucked on my lip the whole way home and when I finally got up to my room I collapsed across the bed and started sobbing.

“Natalia? You in there?” My mom knocked at my door.

“Yea, Asia. I’m here.” My voice was all moist and icky. God, she could tell I was crying.

“What’s going on baby girl? It’s early for you to be home on a Saturday. What’s going on?” she sat on the edge of my bed and tucked her feet underneath herself, Indian-style.

“Nothing. I’m just tired.” I sighed. “I’m beat. I’ve been using so much negative energy at work…I’m just drained right now.”

“Crying is your soul’s way of purging. Let it out, sweetie. It doesn’t make sense to keep it in. That’ll just poison your aura.” She touched my leg, patted my calf.

“I’m alright, Asia. I just need to move on from something. I just keep running into this brick wall. Makes no sense. I’ve got to over come this.” I turned to face her and smiled a little, “I’ll be alright.”

“I believe that. You’ve got the resources, Natalia. You’ve always been a strong girl. But tell me, what happened to your face? What have you been up to tonight?” she touched my chin, tilted my face toward the over head light.

“It’s nothing, mom. Really.” I ducked out of her hand.

“You only call me ‘mom’ when you’re lying. I know you like the front of my knees. Hmmm. I’m not going to force you to tell me what’s going on. You pay rent to stay here, you help me pay the bills. You’re a woman now. But I want you to know I’m here. For whatever you want to talk about. And I won’t pass judgment on you. I know life is all about trial and error.”

“Thank you, Asia.” I smiled and opened my arms to her.

We embraced, tightly. She always gave the best hugs. The kind that makes you feel like your soul is melting inside you. Mom had faith in me, but I was just wondering how I got into this mess in the first place.

She left me to throw on some shoes and take a spin out to her boyfriend’s house. I knew what that meant. It meant I would wake up to an empty house. She would sleep there tonight. I was totally okay with mom dating. She was a woman, after all. Besides, she was cool with me dating.

It was funny how, whenever I had guy trouble, my hatred for my father grew a little more. He left my mom when she was 8 months pregnant with me. They were living together, not married, but cohabitating. The way my mom tells it, he was upset when he found out she was pregnant. He even accused her of cheating on him. Denied me before I was born. One day, she came home from work and all his shit was gone. I mean, the fucker took everything his money had bought. Mom had to sleep on some blankets on the bedroom floor for a good week because he took the bed. It still burns me up, picturing my mom all pregnant and 8 months swollen with me, lying on the floor like some homeless mutt.

I was in bed, fully clothed when the phone rang. I stumbled out of the covers and hurried down the hall to my mother’s room. I flipped across her bed and grabbed the phone off the night table.

“Hullo?” I was glad I had stopped crying.

“Yea, lemme speak to Asia.” It was Ms. Gladys, an old friend of the family.

“Is this Ms.Gladys? How are you tonight?”

“Oh! Natalia. You sounded so grown! I didn’t know it was you. How are you?”

“I’m good. My mom went out. You just missed her, Ms.Gladys.”

“Oh, darn it. Well, how old are you now, Natalia?” She lowered her voice, almost to a whisper. I knew she was alone at home, with no one but her 5 cats around her.

“I’m 19 today, Ms. Gladys.” I replied.

“OH! Happy Birthday! I didn’t know today was the day! Oh you must be so excited! Oh, I can’t remember turning 19. That was 50 years ago. Hehe. Well since you’re 19 years old, I suppose you’re old enough to know about this. I have to tell somebody, since your mama’s not home. I just heard from your Aunt Molly that her daughter, Myrna, just called her up. She said Myrna was hysterical. Apparently, Marcus came home to Myrna with scratches on his face. He was supposed to be at the office tonight, so she couldn’t figure out where the scratches could have come from. She left him tonight and took their baby with her.”