Unsung Heroes

Ch. 4 Whiskey and Churches
My work shift at the store was long... very, very long. Or at least, it REALLY felt like it! Agnes deciced to me more of a bitch than usual, which meant basically breathing down my neck and barking orders at me for four hours. Angel had gotten off her shift an hour after I arrived, and guess what? MAYA came in! And boy did she look scared! Maya may be a slut, but she isn't stupid. She knew that she was in deep water with me. Deep... boiling... scalding water that melts the flesh off her bones and --
"Indy?" Maya's tentative voice cut through my internal monologue and list of tortures. She hasn't spoken to me all evening, until a fucking HALF HOUR till closing.
She was behind me, stacking CDs in a shelf while I was organizing records. I stood up straighter and held my head high.
"What?" I said coldly, setting down the Diamond Dogs record in my hand so that I wouldn't break it and instead clenched the tabletop underneath them.
"Can we talk?" Her voice was so quiet.
I pursued my lips and looked up briefly before picking up the record again and MAYBE i put it where it belonged on the rack a bit harder than it needed to be.
"I don't know," I said sarcastically. "CAN we?"
"Indy, I didn't mean to --"
"'Mean to' what, Maya?" I hissed turning to look at her with a snarl on my face. Her white blonde hair was pulled back in a headband and her unusually big lips (Ashley would love that) were painted with pink gloss.
"Mean to hurt me? Betray me? Take away the only person I actually care about? Ruin a friendship we've had since sophomore year?!" My accent was getting thick again. With each thing I was listing, I was taking another step closer to Maya, who was slowly backing away from me, looking more and more terrified with every step I took.
"I TRUSTED you, Maya, and you know VERY well that I don't trust easy! You took Mitch from me, Maya! How could you?! Just cause you can have any man you want and I can't doesn't mean you can have him too!"
Maya looked downright terrified of me and tears were starting to fall down her face. Oh, what fucking BULLSHIT!
"I'm sorry, Indigo! I am so fucking sorry you have no idea! But Mitch came to me! I didn't approach him! If I had wanted him, I would have gone after him YEARS ago! He came to me! He told me that you refused to have sex with him and it was driving him crazy! I was basically just his fuck buddy so that he wouldn't end up raping you in your sleep because you wouldn't give him any!"
I gaped at her in shock, stumbling away from him. "What?"
She took a deep staggering breath. "You heard me. He wanted sex and you weren't putting out."
I scoffed. "And I'm guessing that he neglected to mention that every time we tried -- which we did, by the way -- I would have a fucking PANIC ATTACK before we even get to the good stuff?!"
Maya looked shocked. "...What?"
I pressed my lips together. "Yeah, that's what I thought," I sneered, turning away from her and going back to the counter. I picked up the records in front of me and started to place them on the rack a bit harder than I needed to, but at least they weren't breaking.
"Indy! If you damage those records in ANY way, your ass is on the line!" Agnes's voice pierced the air like nails on a chalkboard. I cringed and shuddered at the sound.
I mimicked her under my breathe and started to quickly stack the records, mainly so I could get the fuck away from Maya, who I could just FEEL was staring at me from behind.
Maya stayed silent for most of the time, and the only thing I could hear was the almost silent clacking sound of the CDs Maya had hitting the dispay case she was putting them in, and the quiet Rolling Stones music playing in the background.
"He wouldn't have come to me if you'd just slept with him." A sudden mumble.
Oh, that is fucking IT!
I turned with a snarl and lunged for Maya, my hands reaching for her neck.

I was driving home a half an hour later, jobless, with my last paycheck, my face throbbing and my hand having a hard time gripping the handles of my bike.
When I'd jumped on Maya, she'd screamed in shock so I was able to hit her a good number of times so now her lip is split and she has a black eye and a swollen cheek and a bloody nose. After which she somehow flipped us over and grabbed for my hair and hit me until my face swelled up and gripped my fingers and strained them until they started to throb.
Agnes screamed for help until a guy in a blue sweater who was browsing the store appeared and yanked Maya off of me and kept a hand on each of our shoulders to separate us.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Agnes shrieked, her face bright red.
"Indigo attacked me!" Maya whined.
"She fucked my ex and then blamed me for not sleeping with him and mocked me!"
Agnes looked at me with a look that I knew she'd been waiting for this opportunity.
"Maya, I want you to leave. You're suspended without pay for three weeks." She looked at me. "Indigo, if I ever see you here again, I will call the police."
My jaw dropped. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
She frowned. "No, I'm not. You've caused enough trouble to last a lifetime. You will egt your last week of pay, and then I want you to leave."
She signed my last paycheck and then she all but threw me out the door. Now, I have no job, and only enough money to pay rent till the end of the month. I needed to find a new job soon, before I ended up on the streets.
I pulled in front of my apartment building and shut off the engine of the bike. I carefully pulled the helmet off of my head to try and not aggravate the swelling on my cheek.
I grabbed my bag and quickly moved to the door of my building and fumbled for my keys to unlock my door. As I was about to put it in the lock, the door swung open and I found myself face to face with none other than the manwhore himself, my douche of an ex Mitch. He was holding several bags and a black duffel bag. Looks like he got wise and came back from work early to get his shit.
He looked more than shocked to see me -- he looked downrigth terrified!
"Indy?" Looks like he took my warning seriously after all.
"I thought I told you I never wanted to see you again. Now get lost!" I pushed past him into the building and started walking up the stairs.
"Indy, can't we talk about this?" He started following me back up the stairs.
"There's nothing to discuss. You fucked Maya, therefore, you have to leave. I told you that i don't want to see either of you ever again. Now fuck off!"
"Indy, I never wanted to hurt you! But we've been together five years, and it never went past foreplay! I'm a human being, I need sex!"
I turned and struck him across the face. He stumbled backwards and rasied a hand to his face.
"How dare you! How dare you think I am so expendable that that wouldn't hurt me! Get the fuck out of here!" I turned and slammed the door into his face.
I threw my bag on the ground and then myself onto the couch. I groaned softly and then pulled my phone from my pocket, only to curse when i saw that Ashley had both called and texted to me a bunch of times.
Hitting redial, I pressed the phone to my ear.
It only rang twice.
"I was beginning to think you weren't interested."A cool, smooth voice answered as a hello.
I laughed. "No. In fact, I think I'm interested now more than ever."
"Bad day at work."
"Let's just say I won't ever be going back there... ever."
"You quit?"
"Something like that."
"Oh shit." He laughed. "What did you do?"
"... I may have run into the whore who slept with my ex, and I may have broken her nose, but I definitely need the tallest, strnoestg drink I can find."
"Oh damn," Ashley chuckled. "Want to meet me at Garth's at 9?" Garth's is tihs really popular little bar about 10 minutes from my apartment. Grinning to myself, i sat up and crossed my legs. "At 9?" I questioned coolly.
"Yeah. See you there?"
I grinned. "See you there."

Notes