“A friend,” Clarissa said and stormed off into the store room.
“Be careful,” Maggie said following behind her, “I’m not trying to tell you what to do or anything, Clarissa, but guys like him can be trouble. If he’s hanging out there, he’s most likely trying to join their little gang bullshit and that’s bad news.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Why am I telling you this?” Maggie laughed, but Clarissa could tell that it was fake, “You’re a bright girl. You already know these things. So I’ll leave it alone for now, but promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” Clarissa sighed, although she wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. She had been a little reckless recently, but not too much. She hadn’t done anything too dangerous and the guys at the bar didn’t seem like criminals. Her mother would tell her that she was just being naive, but since when did she actually listen to her mother’s advice? Well, sometimes she did, but it wasn’t something Clarissa liked to admit.
Two and a half hours later Clarissa had finished the inventory reports and mopped the floor of the storeroom after spilling a box of those little plastic creamers that she hated. A few of them had been crushed by the fall and turned the floor into a milky mess. Sighing, Clarissa clocked out and headed into the restroom to wash the sweat from her face.
Once she the task was complete and she had brushed her hair, Clarissa decided that she didn’t look much worse for wear. She walked past Maggie without telling her goodbye. The sky looked dark so Clarissa decided to take the back streets back to the bar in an attempt to beat the rain. She hoped that Skull had really waited for her, because she wanted to see him again. A small part of her wanted to just climb onto his bike and cling to him. Clarissa was beginning to enjoy the feeling of riding on the back of Skull’s bike. It made the world take on a surreal quality as her worries were left in the dust.
Clarissa turned into an alleyway hoping that it wasn’t a dead end, because if she could cut through she’d come out right next to the bar. She froze when the sound of knuckles cracking against flesh reached her ears. Clarissa had been lost in thought and watching her feet as she walked. It took effort to take a deep breath and look up, because she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see the blood and gore, but more than that Clarissa didn’t want to admit she knew the owner of the boots she was staring at. The boots the attacker was wearing.
Clarissa forced herself to look up and gasped in opened mouth shock. Skull drew his fist back and hit the guy again. He had his victim pinned against the brick wall of the bar and the guy was struggling, but couldn’t get away from him.
“Skull!” she finally managed to say, but her voice cracked and barely sounded above a whisper.
Clarissa backed away slowly as Skull froze and lowered his fist that was just above to collide into the guy’s face again.
“It’s not what it looks like, Bookworm,” Skull said.
He had a bruise on his cheek and the knuckles of his free hand were swollen and spotted with blood, but Clarissa couldn’t tell whether it was his or the other guy’s.
“Don’t follow me,” Clarissa said, clutching her purse to her side, “I mean it, Skull, don’t follow me. This is done! This through! It hasn’t even started, but I can’t... I just... Don’t follow me!”
Clarissa turned and ran as quickly as she could. She could hear Skull following her, but she didn’t slow down. She was sure that he would concoct some bullshit story that explained it all if she gave him the chance, but she wasn’t going to be that girl. Clarissa wasn’t going to be the naive girlfri
end. Her feet moved of their own accord and she soon arrived back at the shop. Maggie was locking up for the evening and looked up when she heard Clarissa approach.
“You okay, kiddo?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Clarissa said forcing her feet to stand still, which proved difficult with the adrenaline that was pumping through her veins, “Can I get a ride home?”
“Sure,” Maggie said, but didn’t ask any more questions.
Clarissa leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes to hold back the hot, angry tears that were threatening to make her dissolve. She inhaled slowly and deeply feeling her lungs with as much air as they would hold and held it until they burned then she exhaled. The deep breathing granted her a few minutes of composure, but that was all she needed, just long enough to thank Maggie for the ride home and sprint up the stairs to her apartment. She locked the door behind her before collapsing onto the sofa.
Clarissa was angry at Skull for being a jerk, but that didn’t seem fair. She knew he was a jerk from the beginning. He was a bully and she had still allowed him to get close to her. Why had she been so stupid? How was it even possible? Hadn’t she carefully guarded her heart closely since Justin left her for the possibility of loose college chicks? Why had she allowed this to happen? Skull had fooled her and she had been stupid not to see it coming. Just because he was semi-sweet when they were alone didn’t mean he was a nice guy nor a good person. She retrieved her cellphone and dialed Julie’s number.
“Hello?” Julie answered.
“Julie,” Clarissa cried into the phone.
“OMG, Rissa are you okay?” she asked.
“No!” Clarissa said and shook her head even though her friend couldn’t see her, “I’m so not okay.”
“What happened?” Julie asked.
Clarissa quickly brought her up to speed on what had happened since their fight at the mall.
“I told you he wasn’t good for you,” Julie said.
Clarissa bit her tongue, Julie had told her, but she hated that her bestie sounded so smug about the situation. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t want to get into another argument with Julie.
“It’s going to be okay,” Julie said and Clarissa could hear her car keys jingling, “I’m going to stop and rent some romcoms and some ice cream. I’ll be there soon. It’s okay.”