Mean Girls of Maplewood Ch. 21

"OH YOU LOOKING NOW, MUTHER-FUUCKAAAA?!!" She could barely contain her laughter after catching him by surprise with her new friend and secret, money making weapon.

Harry stared at April's back noticing the garish wriggly line design and assorted patches on its surface along with a Chinese dragon snaking throughout the discount collage. This woman was on the pudgy side, but her humongous knockers set her above everyone else out on the strip.

"Uhm yeah, sure Conception." He was already trembling a bit.

"I charging, like sixty dollar for half and half." Harry's heart leapt into his throat at the bait and switch.

"Uhm, no offense but how much does she charge?" Conception recognized his meek posture and the now expected rejection of another potential customer for April.

"WHAT, MY PUSSY AIN'T NO FUCKING GOOD, EH?!!" He flinched unaware Conception was actively trolling him.

"It's just a question; could you ask her please?" Harry was unaware he was whining.

"No llores por mí, hombre; todos se enamoran de esas grandes tetas chico blanco?!!" Traffic ground to a halt because of April as more than a few people took pics of her from their cars. Harry watched as Conception leaned over arms folded whispering his request into April's ear. The buxom blonde hadn't turned back around since flashing him, secretly nervous at being out on the strip.

"THOUSAND DOLLARS!!" Conception yelled back, laughing.

"WHAT, I DON'T GOT THAT KIND OF MONEY ON MEEEE!!" He replied yelling in utter outrage, automatically.

"Well, you better get your old ass to the ATM, motherfucker!!" The ratty looking prostitute was still laughing at him as it became apparent the honking horns were attributed to other potential patrons wanting to shoot their shot with the new attraction on the strip.

"Fuck." Harry Jenkins felt like an idiot getting burned by street people but stole a glance one last time. April was still facing away but glancing back over her shoulder at the father of the one victim who got away. The pronounced eye shadow around her eyes her a darkly, ethereal look.

"Obtener la mierda fuera de aquí perdedora!!" Conception punctuated her statement by hocking a loogie in his passenger seat.

"HEY LADY, WHAT THE HELL?!!" Harry went for his door console rolling up the window as the dingy prostitute decided to get cute yanking her top up exposing her smaller, saggy boobs to much jeering from the leering street audience.

The caravan moved further leaving April and her manager of sorts, in his rearview mirror. He couldn't help glancing one more time finding April flashing another set of motorists while Conception counted a wad of cash. It took another fifteen minutes before he was able to get out into open road. Disappointed, Harry Jenkins hit the off ramp to pick up some burgers for his neglected son.

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It was just a little after nine in the evening as she cautiously walked around from the back alley, shoulders hunched. Her long auburn mane was tied off in a ponytail with a rubber band from her cup holder as she found herself standing adjacent to the red brick wall that bordered part of the elite gated community just outside of Maplewood proper. There was a light sheen of perspiration visible in glistening detail under the street lights. She noticed some day laborers packing up there truck slowing to a crawl worried she might stand out for some reason. There was a queasy feeling in her chest that wouldn't go away leaving her remorseful about the last couple of hours of her trouble life.

Something was wrong everywhere she deemed to show her face with people going out of their way to challenge her. It was obvious things had changed around the small town now that she'd been outed. It felt like everything was getting smaller and smaller until she'd be forced out of a kingdom she'd earned with her own flawless beauty and bloodied knuckles. Her reign was supposed to go off without a hitch, but fate had other ideas and gods be dammed, Melissa Reed was going to take a little back tonight. The truck pulled off just as she was within a few feet with its occupants unaware of her presence.

Her car was parked a block and a half from the wall in the dilapidated parking lot of a neighboring trailer park. It was not lost on the auburn beauty the irony of having a gated community full of rich folks within the vicinity of a bastion of utter failure. Maybe it had been planned that way to give the affluent an elevated plateau and subjects to thumb their nose at when needed.

This was a mindset she could understand having been raised with a similar, almost militaristic esthetic. The fire inside her heart would not abate or flicker away to embers. It seemed voracious demanding recompense for all that had been lost and stolen. It was a hunger that she had to feed before she was captured and likely locked away like the feral animal she truly was.

Red's stream of consciousness drifted away leaving her staring at the cracked unlocked patio door leading to the person she deemed most responsible for her crumbling empire. She pulled the Glock from its hiding place in the small of her back clicking the safety. It was an out of body experience watching her own hand slide the door to the side as quietly as possible.

Leslie was sitting on the couch facing a large flat screen television playing the evening news. Some reporter was talking with a photo of Maplewood High in the background, but Red couldn't hear one word. There was a slight ringing in her ear.

"LOOK AT ME BITCH!!" Leslie found herself looking down the barrel of a gun. There was no reaction as she sat there wearing nothing but a white t-shirt. A small bowl of instant oatmeal sat between her thighs.

"Melissa."

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TRY TO TALK YOUR GODDAMN WAY OUT OF THIS SHIT!!" Red tightened her grip on the pistol holding it like her father taught her during excursions to the local shooting range.

"Melissa, I'm pregnant."

Leslie was sitting there on her sofa Indian style unnaturally relaxed despite the imminent threat of murder by someone she once considered her best friend. Together they were the undisputed queens of a high school until things went south. Leslie knew her former friend well enough not to appeal to a nonexistent humanity in the face of a gun.

"MY DADDY GOT YOU PREGNANT, BITCH?!!" Red was shook to the core of her being, hands trembling.

"I'm not going to lie to you Melissa; I've never lied to you before. When you asked me who I was texting, I told you it was your father, but you didn't believe me. Yeah, I fucked your dad so many times after that I lost count. Melissa, I'm not gonna lie to you right now either." Red was unnerved by the calm manner in which Leslie was speaking.

"This is Humbert's baby."

"WHUUT; WHAT THE FUCK?!!" Red's bottom lip was quivering as her face twisted into a mask of raw emotion while Leslie sat there staring back as the evening news droned on with the weatherman doing the evening forecast.

"We made this baby the night I was trying to take him to you and April. We made our child in potters field and I don't regret it. I came to you the next day because I realized what a piece of shit I really am when it's all said and done, Melissa."

"YOU THINK I GIVE A FUCK ABOUT SOME BABY?!!" Red was trembling all over barely keeping it together after a night filled with karmic payback.

"I know you don't; you're Red, the queen of Maplewood High. I'm different now and that's what you wanted from the start. I figured out you really wanted to fuck me with that dildo, but it doesn't excuse who I am as a person. Melissa, we're monsters and there's no going back for us. I just wanted to speak the truth out loud before you kill me." Red's luminescent green eyes settled on Leslie's palm resting on her stomach.

Leslie took a spoonful of oatmeal followed by another and another until the bowl was empty. Red was gone when she looked up again. The patio door was still wide open as a night breeze floated into her home making the sheer curtains wave about. Leslie muted the television getting closing and locking the patio door before taking the bowl into her kitchen. She placed the bowl in the sink running some water into it to wash away the remnants of her dinner. Her hazel eyes settled on the running stream of water for a few seconds.

She collapsed on the tiled kitchen floor sobbing uncontrollably.

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"How's it hanging Jimmy?" He liked the sound of her voice wishing thee person it was coming from lived up to it's southern tinged brand of seductiveness. Deputy Jimmy was winding down for the day, eager to reclaim the last bit of his early evening after a full day of work with his partner.

"Depends on you Flora Bell."

"You sure are one silver tongued devil, ain't you?"

"Well you've had a bit of a taste; I'd like to come on over and get me a taste between those legs of yours, darling." Deputy Jimmy wasn't shy about shooting his shot.

"So, just gonna come right out with it, huh Jimmy?"

"Well fuck me to death Flora Bell; ain't like we ain't known one another in the biblical sense or nothing." The deputy's brief engagement with the nurse had been ruined by Red's stinging assessment of the duo while handcuffed to her hospital bed.

"Well you're just gonna have to put some ice on that pecker of yours, Jimmy on account of me having a husband thing going on tonight."

"Well if we ain't got a thing going on tonight; I guess I gotta get home to my old lady." Deputy Jimmy was sitting in his patrol car at the end of an uncharacteristically congested stretch of traffic.

"Dammit Jimmy, you ain't supposed to bring up your fucking wife."

"Ain't got no wife; it's a live-in situation with sandwiches; sides you brought up your husband."

"Shit a girl needs to feel special; don't you know nothing?!"

"That's your husband's job, Flora Bell."

"Jimmy."

"Yeah?"

"Lose my number." He scoffed as she hung up in his face caring nothing already thinking of other likely conquests. His phone began ringing almost immediately with his partner's number.

"Goddamn man, don't you ever go home?"

"Heard there was some action at the convenience store; what's up with that?" Deputy Jimmy didn't want to answer his partner knowing his current obsession with Sheriff Reed's out of control daughter, but Mooney outranked him.

"Nothing much, caught a weirdo in the woods probably playing with his self; sent him on home once he passed a drunk test and all." He peered out his windshield taking note of the congealing traffic which was moving at a crawl.

"I heard something about a particular redhead."

"Come on Mooney, I'm trying to get home and I seriously don't wanna go up to Sheriff Reed's place. That little bitch's attitude just wreaks havoc with my pecker and I'm trying to get home to stick it to my girl, Sadie." Jimmy managed to merge into the right lane getting close enough to see the sidewalk.

"Too much information; I already figured we'd take care of things tomorrow. I wanna talk with the powers that be before fucking with our boss."

"Hey man, you bucking for Sheriff Reed's job, or something?"

"Jimmy, sit on it and spin." Deputy Jimmy glanced over noticing a procession of street walkers lounging and strolling the strip. He made it a point to conduct the vice run getting a visceral charge out of watching the working girls.

Just outside of his peripheral vision, Harry Jenkins finally manager to pull off the busy strip leaving a gap that was filled in seconds. Several horny teens were standing on the sidewalk in a large group surrounding something as Jimmy took casual notice. He couldn't understand the sudden traffic congestion that was starting to extend into a second town block in length. There was a flurry of activity giving the deputy the impression of a mounting street fight as he sighed not really wanting to get involved.

He noticed a skanky prostitute recognized from a week earlier vice run but didn't think she was the cause of the incident. She was already organizing the teens taking handfuls of cash which piqued his curiosity while Mooney rambled on his phone. There was some girl standing there facing away from the congested road, definitely a new player in town.

"I'll call you back; gotta get on the clock." Deputy Jimmy clicked off the call without hearing half of what his partner was talking about.

Some chunky, looking blonde was standing on the sidewalk appearing ready to do something that might require his intervention. She was slightly swaying side to side driving her paying audience wild, glancing back in brief intervals with her hands at the front of a bulky gold lamé jacket. He chuckled at her pudgy build, giggling at the desperate, thirsty behavior. This girl had a flair for the dramatic and entertaining suddenly turning to the crowd with her jack opened flashing the gaggle of teenage boys.

"WHAT-THE FUCK?!!" The new girl's humongous breasts even two lanes over appeared unreal looking with a huge, rubbery jiggle flooring her teenage audience.

A few boys unprepared for the surprise toppled over in high comedy. The girl stood facing them, legs spread wide apart jiggling and bouncing her massive boobs for a few seconds before turning away again zipped up. It lasted a few seconds but felt like an eternity.

"Well, time to get on the clock and break this thing up."

His intent not entirely honest, Deputy Jimmy hit the siren on his patrol car adding to the ruckus as cars began shifting about in the lanes trying to accommodate him and alternately escape. Things got complicated as a semi truck got caught trying to drift over a lane causing even more of a traffic jam because of the ungainly trailer.

"FUCK MAN!!" Deputy Jimmy slammed on his breaks barely avoiding rear ending the truck and destroying his patrol car.

He glanced over as he turned the wheel hard noticing the teens running into an illegally parked vehicle. One guy jumped in the open back passenger window while the lineup of prostitutes scrambled in multiple directions. Jimmy slammed his fist on the steering wheel frustrated with himself for acting on impulse. He hopped out of his patrol car in the middle of the lane watching as cars continued peeling out due to his uniform.

He left the lights flashing eventually directing the semi truck safely on its way. Instead of returning to his car, Deputy Jimmy ended up on the sidewalk where the new girl had been standing. She was long gone, likely snapping up a customer in the ensuing fracas. The only evidence of her presence was an abandoned, crisp twenty dollar left behind roadside. He pocketed the bill looking up and down the strip towards the weigh station that bordered the far end of Maplewood.

"We'll meet again, little fairy." He tipped his cowboy hat to the memory of the girl who'd seemingly disappeared into thin air.

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Everything was glistening liquid and semi tangible with this brilliance that was overbearing, powerful enough to make him blink his eyes in rapid succession. In short order, Sheriff Reed realized that his eye sockets were pockets of calm, the liquid gathered there running down the sides of his face on either side. There was a thumping, stone like sensation on his frontal lobe that worked in tandem with the overhead illumination of his kitchen lighting. He raised a hand over his green eyes shielding his eyes feeling a lump on the back of his head. He coughed a bit as his mental faculties returned with a dawning horror.

"Melissa."

"AWWW FUCK, AWWW NOOOOO RED!!" He'd unconsciously called her by her infamous moniker giving unuttered credence to her savage personality which he was starting to consider a separate entity.

"SHIT, FUCK-AWWWWW YOU CAN'T!!" Sheriff Reed went into panic mode rolling onto his side reaching up to use the table edge to regain his composure. His fingertips faltered sending him crashing onto the floor a second time before he was able to get to his knees, eventually using the refrigerator to find his feet.

"AAAAHHH FUCK ME, AWW SHIT!!" His weapon's cache was wide open, daughter nowhere in sight as snatched a rifle down, pushing some rounds into it, gasping for breath.

The good sheriff was oblivious to the fact that he'd been drugged as he half staggered towards the front door prepared to do what was necessary. At the moment he found his daughter, something fateful would occur. There was no way he was going to let her murder someone.

"OOOHHH GAAAWD NOOOO RED!!" The front door was wide open.

"A rifle; gee daddy, I'm really flattered." He slowly turned weapon at the ready finding her sitting on the couch casually sipping from a decanter full of Bacardi.

The Glock was sitting at the edge of the coffee table. The liquor cabinet was wide open with a few empty bottles littering the carpet. Red took another deep drink from the bottle caring little about the fact that her father was brandishing a hunting rifle with the intent of using it.

"What have you done?" He was breathing hard, almost nauseous at the sight of his only child.

"Nothing, but if you give me a minute to finish this off; we can do twenty paces out in the front yard. Neighbors ought to love that shit."

"Where's Leslie?" Red snickered drunkenly at the question slowly rolling her eyes in his direction.

"Alive; is that what you wanna hear daddy?"

"Did you shoot her?" He cautiously took a side step keeping his eye on the weapon on the coffee table.

She was watching him intently taking two more sips from the decanter. There was something different in her face, cracked and damaged where formerly a symmetrical beauty once radiated.

"No, I can't; why the fuck do you think I'm drinking like a fish?"

"Red; what's happened?" She snickered drunkenly at the new question sounding a bit congested. He wanted to remove the gun from her reach but felt it would be further insult to his only child.

"It's over for me."

"What're you talking about?" He clicked the safety back on his weapon.

"Everybody hates me daddy, the whole fucking town is making with the Caesar bit. Fucking Chelsea won after all, because now every little shit and pussy wants to try me. They're all against me and instead of loading up with your goddamn guns for a school shooting; I'm getting fucking drunk."

"Red, they hate both of us."

"OH, SO IT'S FUCKING BOTH OF US NOW, HUH DADDY?!!" That was it as the floodgates opened leaving a former Alpha-Predator sobbing hysterically, cradling the decanter to her chest.

Sheriff Reed's rifle hit the floor with a heavy thud. He sat down on the soiled ottoman, made so from a tryst with Leslie. Her scent still hung at the corners of the room, but neither would acknowledge it. It was jarring to see his daughter in this state finally letting go of everything as her world shattered. It went against everything he'd ever stupidly taught her, and, in that moment, he regretted all of it, wishing he'd done right by her since childhood. Red managed to compose herself taking a deep swig from the bottle.

"I'm sorry."

"I know, you're fucking pathetic and a shitty excuse for a man. Yeah, I know I'm being disrespectful and it' your prerogative to pick up your rifle or even that Glock right under your wide-open nose. Shoot me if you must, you'll only be doing me a favor at this point."

"You're my baby; why would I kill you?"

"Because you have to save fucking Leslie; the love of your shitty life who's more than half your age. I don't being put down daddy; I just can't breathe anymore in this dinky little town. I hated everybody every day that I walked outside of this house, but I never hated you." Her honesty was destroying him where he sat.