Breaking And Entering With Steele Pt. 11

"You saved yourself," Jaxson shouted right back. He turned to AJ. "She thinks she's got it all figured out, right? Like I'm some kind of sucker. I know all about your 'predicament'," Jaxson said, turning back to Melody. "You never got the paperwork done. Your husband wasn't a U.S. Citizen! You don't even have a valid driver's license. I could call ICE and have you fucking deported TODAY."

"You bastard!" Melody shouted, turning and storming away.

"Fucking bitch," Jaxson said, turning back to AJ. "What are you doing today? You getting a job any time soon?"

"Yeah," AJ said, nodding. "I was going to go check on the applications I put in. Maybe see if thee...uh...see if they're hiring."

Jaxson nodded, obviously not listening to a word AJ was saying. He was still thinking about everything that was just said.

"If she's not from here...where is she from?" AJ asked.

"I don't fucking know," Jaxson said. "Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil... some fucking jungle somewhere. It's hot in the jungle, so all the women walk around with barely any clothes on. Suits em fine but god damn does it get my dick hard."

"You're not going to have her deported, are you?" AJ asked.

"Not if she gets her shit together. I told her before, don't fuck with my head. That's it. Oh, and, Suck and fuck every day. No exceptions. At least she's got that part down." AJ felt his face turn red and his father seemed egged on by it. "If you're serious about that little twat of a girlfriend, you need to make sure she understands that shit too. Every day, suck and fuck. No exceptions. If she keeps you happy, you keep her happy, everything else is bullshit."

"So...if that's true, then...all this arguing with Melody," AJ used her name, risking his father's ire, but feeling he had to make his point, "all of that is just, bullshit."

Jaxson grit his teeth and looked like he was going to say something else, but then nodded. He paused and then nodded again, balled his fists, and then let go, shaking his hands out. "I raised you right. You're right. This is all bullshit. She's just testing me. Accusing me of some stupid shit that didn't happen, and trying to see if I'm gonna throw a punch at her."

"Why?" AJ asked, now confused as to why Melody would do such a thing.

"Chicks. Hot chicks...especially crazy hot chicks, they're super insecure. Oh they'll act like they've got the world by the balls, but you see them looking in the mirror, making sure every hair is in place, no pimples, pussy as smooth as a cat's meow. One little thing, they're in tears like it's the end of the fucking world. You gotta tell them you love them, constantly. And I mean, non-fucking-stop. It's enough to drive you fucking batty."

AJ smiled at that and nodded. His father did too. "Well, I've gotta get down to the bank, and then I'm going to go see Frank, tie one on, and then maybe go fishing. I dunno."

"What about therapy?" AJ asked, reminding his father, now that Melody had gone wherever she'd gone off to.

"Fuck therapy," Jaxson said. "The only therapy Mel needs is this big fucking cock in her mouth, or up her ass. Teach her where she fucking belongs, and remind her of where she fucking comes from."

AJ didn't say anything and his father looked as if he were done talking. "I'll see you later. And don't call your mother by her given name. It's disrespectful."

"Okay. Got it. Sorry Dad," AJ said, and his father walked out of the kitchen and into the front room. AJ raced down the stairs, happy to get away relatively unscathed by the war of the jaded roses.

Less than half an hour later, AJ heard the shouting resume, building in volume and intensity until his father and Melody were screaming at the tops of their lungs. Suddenly, the house shook as the front door was slammed shut so hard AJ thought the front wall might fall off the house. AJ held his breath, wondering which one of them had left, or if both of them had left.

His question was answered a moment later when Melody began screaming. Her voice sounded strange this time, and AJ smirked to himself, wondering if Melody was standing by the door, waiting for his father to open it for her. A moment passed and then AJ heard something heavy hit the floor and the sound of something heavy, like glass, broke. A second later, a terrific crash filled the house, as if every glass, dish, and plate had suddenly been thrown against a wall, all at once.

"Jaxson! Don't you dare!" Melody shouted. Something else smashed upstairs, and then something else. Another gigantic crash and breaking glass filled the air. AJ cringed, feeling the devastation in his bones. What the fuck was going on? Why was his father throwing things? Hadn't they just discussed this? She was just egging him on! Trying to get him riled up!

"You bastard!" Melody shouted, this time her voice coming from the kitchen. "Ahhhh! Noooo! Stop! Don't!" Something else smashed against a wall, and more glass broke. This time it sounded like a window. Something metal slammed against the counter. He heard the "WONGGGGG!" sound of a metal bowl or something hitting the floor, and then something else incredibly heavy smashed against the floor.

Unable to sit idly by while his father continued to rampage, AJ gathered his courage and raced up the stairs. He came into the kitchen and discovered a fucking nightmare of epic proportions. The stove was pulled out from the wall, the door was smashed in and a large casserole dish lay in pieces. Shattered glass and ceramic dish fragments were scattered everywhere. Food, mostly leftovers, but quite a few shattered condiment jars, lay strewn about. Pickles and ketchup, soy sauce, jelly, and old leftovers were strewn about like grenade fragments. AJ hurried into the front room, just in time to see Melody scream at the top of her lungs, facing the door.

"Get the fuck out of here!" Melody shouted, and then she hurled a full jug of milk overhead. AJ watched as it soared toward the front door, which was closed, and it hit the jacket and shoe closet just to the right of the door, exploding. Milk fired right and left out of torn holes in the plastic, and shot backward, toward Melody, out of the jug's cap which was blown off by the impact. The jug smashed to the floor, gushed the remaining contents into the floor, and then sat, mostly empty, like a hollowed-out carcass.

AJ looked down and groaned. Spaghetti sauce and noodles were whipped across the room in two gigantic arcs, covering the stark white carpet, the walls, the fireplace, and the ceiling like claw wounds inflicted by Godzilla. An empty jar of something sat sideways next to the couch, its lid missing. The coffee table was broken. Something heavy had been smashed down on top of, and through, the upper surface and AJ couldn't tell what had done the damage, or where it now resided.

"AJ!" Melody said, calling out his name in surprise. "Did you see what he did? Did you see what your father just did?"

"What happened?" AJ asked, looking all over at the sheer amount of destruction he now faced.

"Your father!" Melody shouted. "He was on a rampage!" She turned and waved at the broken bowls and the scattered food. "He said he didn't care if he went to jail. He said he was going to kill me!"

"Why?" AJ asked then, confused, and utterly surprised by this simple statement. His father was the ultimate asshole, but he'd never said at any time that he wanted to kill anyone.

"I don't know," Melody said, holding her hands up to her face as if trying to hide the fact that she was crying. The only problem was, she wasn't. AJ watched as she poked herself in the eyes with her pointer fingers, and then hissed. A moment later, tears were streaming down her face and she was squeezing her eyes shut hard, trying to milk every drop of moisture from them.

"Where did he go?" AJ asked.

"I don't fucking know," Melody cried. "I hope that bastard never comes back!"

AJ cringed and Melody ran to her bedroom, his father's bedroom. A moment later, she was changed into a different dress, a supremely tight and short-cut cocktail dress that revealed more than it concealed.

"Two can play at this game," Melody said, rushing past him and grabbing her keys off the hook. "If he thinks he's the only one that can go fuck some stranger in a bar, he's sadly mistaken!"

AJ watched as she yanked the door open, stepped outside, and then slammed it closed.

"Jesus Fucking Christ O' Mighty," AJ said, shaking his head.

A moment later, his phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket. It was his father. AJ swore and then picked it up. "Yeah?" AJ answered.

"AJ! Is that fucking psycho bitch still there?" Jaxson asked him.

"Jesus Dad," AJ said, shaking his head. "She just left."

"Where did she go?" Jaxson asked.

"I don't know," AJ responded. "She didn't say." AJ stood there, silence filling the room for a moment. "She said you threatened to kill her."

"Bullshit!" Jaxson said forcefully. "Number one, not worth it. Number two, fuck that."

"Why'd you throw everything around?" AJ asked.

"What do you mean?" Jaxson asked. "I just slammed the door. What? Did I knock something off the wall?"

"No," AJ said, switching his phone to video mode. He waited for his father to select video and when he didn't, he told his dad to switch to video.

"I'm driving," his father said.

"Dad. There's fucking spaghetti everywhere. Broken glass. Dishes. Pots and pans. Like you emptied the cupboards and just heaved it everywhere."

"I didn't do that," Jaxson said.

"Did you smash the stove?" AJ asked. "Or the coffee table?"

"That fucking bitch!" Jaxson growled. "She's trying to set me up!"

"Well, if she's the one who did this, she's doing a pretty good job of it."

"AJ. I need you to clean it up," his father said.

"What?" AJ asked, unable to even fathom such a task.

"Son. She's come unhinged. She's gone completely loony. I need to find out where she went, and bring her back, before she hurts herself, or worse, someone else."

"Jesus Fucking Christ Dad!" AJ said sharply. "Do you know how much shit she fucked up?"

"No. But I need you to fix it! Before I get home."

"There's fucking holes in the walls!" AJ said incredulously, glancing over at the front door. "There's a fucking jar of olives embedded in the wall above the T.V."

"Don't gimme this 'shit can't be done' attitude!" Jaxson said sharply.

"I'm not her fucking maid!" AJ shouted at his father. "This needs a fucking clean-up crew! The carpet is going to need cleaning!"

"AJ! AJ, listen. I get it. Go in my room. In the closet. There's a couple safes. In the top safe, it should be open. If it's not open, the code is 349454. Remember 349454. Go in there, and grab my black credit card. Use it. Get the carpet cleaners. Get whoever you need out there, and get it cleaned up. If it's broken, replace it. Just get it done."

"349454," AJ repeated.

"Alright. Can you do it? Can I rely on you to get this done?"

AJ looked around and then sighed. "I'll try," he said.

"Alright. I'm going to go find Mel, and I'll call you back."

AJ "Okay," AJ said, but his father had already hung up the phone.

With a heavy sigh, AJ went to his father's room and retrieved the black card from the safe, which had been locked. He'd also have to make a point to inform his father that the rat trap that had been set inside the safe, now needed to be reset, as it had gone off when he'd brushed up against it, and luckily, he hadn't gotten snapped by it.

AJ strategically started his trek through the front room and then stopped. What was he doing? He thought. He turned back, went through his father's room, and opened the door to the stairwell, heading down to his room, bypassing the front room and kitchen. He powered up his gaming console, opened up a browser, and searched for cleaning services. In less than thirty minutes, he had the carpet cleaners on their way. Another call had a maid service coming to clean up. A third call was for a handyman who specialized in dry-wall repair, and replacement.

Another quick trip upstairs, and a quick jotting down of information, and AJ had a replacement stove being delivered by six p.m. with free installation. They didn't have the same model, so AJ found a much better stove that was on sale, the same color, and selected that one. The price seemed a bit high, but with the discount, it was only a couple thousand more than the other models, so he went with it.

He went on a popular home goods website and ordered a completely new set of dishes with matching glasses. He got a new set of pots and pans, non-stick, with cool-grip handles. He ordered a set of metal mixing bowls and a set of Pyrex cooking dishes, ones he thought were nearly indestructible, unlike the plethora of shattered dishes now littering the dining room and kitchen. Lastly, he called a window repair guy and told him he'd get a five hundred dollar tip if he could come out and repair the window before dark. The repair man said he was on his way, and AJ hung up the phone, satisfied he'd done as much as he could. Thirty seconds later, there was a knock at the front door, and AJ hurried upstairs to go find out which one of the people had arrived first.

The drywall guy was the first to arrive. He said he couldn't get started until he had a safe environment to work in. The delivery people followed, and the maid service came after that, only they said it was against policy to clean up broken glass, and they refused to do anything until that was done. Frustrated, AJ asked the drywall guy if he would help him clean up the broken glass, for an extra two hundred. Hearing this, the maid suddenly had a change of heart and insisted that for an extra two hundred, she was more than willing to clean up broken glass, policy or not. Not bothering to negotiate, AJ told them both they'd both get an extra two hundred, and he would help, as long as they got it done quickly.

Less than thirty minutes later, the broken glass, dishes, jars, pots, bent pans, and shattered stove, were all boxed, bagged, and out at the curb, waiting for the trash to pick up on Tuesday. The carpet cleaners arrived next, thoroughly impressed with the amount of devastation that had been wrought, but confident they could get it cleaned up. AJ paid the maid an extra hundred to clean the walls in the front room, wiping the spaghetti and sauce off of everything, before the carpet cleaners and the drywall guys could start doing their work.

The maid asked if AJ wanted the dishes to be washed, and AJ told the woman no. He had new dishes as well as pots and pans on their way, and once everything was thoroughly cleaned, she and her co-worker could go. AJ got the dry-wall guy to help him carry the coffee table out to the trash and then called a local furniture store to order a replacement when the dry-wall guy told him he knew a guy who could probably repair the table for a decent price. AJ hung up the phone and within a few minutes, the dry-wall guys contact was at the house, picking the table up and giving him a price. AJ gave the guy the credit card, shook hands, and that was that.

Everything seemed to be coming together nicely when AJ's phone buzzed yet again. He took one look at the phone and, seeing nothing, knew it was Abbey. He checked the time and saw it was now nearly four in the afternoon. Abbey was probably off work. He went to the couch, sat down, and immediately stood up when he felt something cold and wet soak his ass.

"God damn it," AJ swore, reaching down and finding a half-drained jar of pickles stuck between two cushions. He yanked all the cushions up, took the shells off, carried them downstairs, put them in the wash, and then called Abbey.

"Hey Sexy," Abbey said cheerfully. "Came you come pick me up at like, six?"

"Six? Absolutely. I was afraid you were going to say now."

"No. Why were you afraid?"

"Oh, because I'm having the house replaced."

"What?" Abbey asked.

"So, Melody and my dad got in a fight. Melody threw a bunch of stuff around and acted like my dad did it. Honestly, I don't know whether he did it or not...but a bunch of stuff got broken."

"A bunch? Like what?" Abbey asked.

"The stove for starters. Oh, and the coffee table. A bunch of plates, glasses, dishes, pots, pans, jars, food...basically everything that was in the fridge was thrown everywhere. I mean, everywhere."

"Day-am. Send me pics!"

"Most of it's already cleaned up," AJ said. "I've been working on it all day long. I've got the carpet cleaners here, a dry-wall guy. Maid's already been here and gone."

"We had a maid?"Abbey asked.

"Yeah. For like three hours."

"Awesome!" Abbey said. "Oh! Okay, I gotta go. Take pics if you can. Come pick me up at six! Love-a-lust!"

"I, uh, love you-" the phone connection went dead. "Too," AJ finished, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

"Hey, uh... Mister Steele?" A voice called down to him from the top of the stairwell.

"Yeah. I'm coming up," AJ said, hurrying up the stairs.

AJ got to the top step, only to find out the guy was from the carpet cleaning place. "So, we got everything taken care of, but we can't guarantee that all the glass is out of the carpet. We recommend you replace the carpet, just to make sure."

"I'm not replacing the carpet," AJ said.

"Yeah, I understand. I just wanted to tell you, we're done."

"Alright," AJ said, hurrying through the house and pointing out two corner spots that looked like they needed some extra care.

While the carpet guys were finishing up, the appliance company showed up, hauling four giant boxes up to the front of the house and cutting the heavy cardboard away with expert precision and speed. AJ opened the door to inquire what was going on, just as two of the men came forward holding something that looked like a microwave.

"Uh, what's that?" AJ asked.

"New microwave," the guy said, opening the door and stepping inside.

"Microwave?" AJ asked. "I thought I ordered a stove."

"Stove's coming in third," the men said, trekking through the house to the kitchen.

"Third?" AJ asked. A moment later a dishwasher was brought in, and the old Microwave was being hauled out.

A few minutes later, AJ realized that he'd ordered a set of four appliances that were a set. The dishwasher, microwave, stove, and refrigerator were all being replaced. AJ hoped his father wouldn't be pissed off at that, and he cringed as the moving guys hauled the old dishwasher out next, literally throwing it to the curb next to the stove and microwave.

An hour later, AJ was sitting on a bare naked couch, bare cushions piled behind him. The coffee table was gone. The entire dining room and kitchen looked like something out of a kitchen cooking show featuring the latest and greatest. The refrigerator took up the same amount of space as the last one but had twice the space, an ice maker, water dispenser, air and water filter, wireless connection, and a display that told you when the milk might be going bad. Everything was high-tech and modern, programmable, wireless, and could be controlled by his phone. AJ was stupefied.

"Ehhh, that's about as good as it gets," the drywall guy said, giving the patch another feel with his fingertips. "Once it dries completely, you can paint it and you won't be able to tell it was ever there."

AJ stood up and shook the man's hand, signed the invoice, and then headed into the kitchen to check on the window guy. The window was also done. The glass had been replaced and the screen outside as well. The guy tried to talk AJ into replacing all the windows in the house, but AJ politely declined. "Well, just think about it. Replacing your windows with high-efficiency windows will make a world of difference in your electric bills."

"I'll let my dad know," AJ said, and he signed the glass repair guy's invoice as well, and then bid everyone a good day as they all left.