Page 16 of Cut Me Down

“Nope, I'm fine. I don't need a man touching me, and I certainly don’t need to meet the mystery man that happens to know where I live.” I say dismissively.

“Oh, come on, Ash! You need to loosen up. Maybe this admirer could dust the cobwebs off of your pussy.” She says as she shakes her body, shimmying her shoulders enough to sway her breasts.

“Ewe! I just don’t think I'm ready for that, Ser.” She stops shaking abruptly.

“I'm not going to sit back and watch you end up alone, and you're stuck with me. So, the only plausible solution is to get you ready to assimilate back into the dating environment.” She raises her eyebrows and purses her lips at me.

“Or hear me out, you could be a doll, and leave me the hell alone.” We laugh and I start to wash my bowl out. Serena sets her bowl down on the counter and looks at me with a concerned gaze.

“I just know how badly you wish you had someone to love. I don't want you to be alone forever.” She looks at me with soft eyes, and I can’t help the anxious wave that floods my body. I hate that she worries so much about me, and she might even be starting to pity me. I can’t stand the thought of that either.

“I’m fine, Ser. I don’t need meaningless people in my life. I mean, come on, you’re not lonely? No offense, but one-night stands aren’t necessarily meaningful connections.” I put her bowl in her dish rack and turn back to her.

“Hell no girl, our hospital is practically Grey’s Anatomy, and I'm comparable to Mark Sloan. Well, Mark before Lexie.” She winks at me.

“Are you openly calling yourself a whore?”

“Hey, I wear my badge with honor.” We laugh again as she looks down at her phone. Her bright green eyes widening in shock. “Oh shit! We’ve got to go!”

“Go?” She grabs her keys and then my hand, pulling me along with her with almost enough force to yank my arm out of my socket. “Where are we going!?” She rushes me through the apartment and up to the front door.

“On an adventure! Come on we can’t be late!” Without question, we run down the hallway to the elevator, make our way downstairs to the lobby, and out of the front doors. She runs down the sidewalk and I follow closely behind her as our steps crunch along the concrete. After a few turns, and down a few streets, she takes us down a side street and turns us into a large grass field.

We double over and stop only for a moment to catch our breath, and I seize the opportunity to look up and take in our surroundings. A tall, chain-link fence stands in front of us. The area behind piled high and scattered with abandoned cars.

“Oh my God, Ser. We can NOT do this.” I know exactly what she’s thinking, and last time we did this, we almost got arrested.

“It’s fine, Ash! I was with Robby last week and he said we could, we just had to do it before dark. That’s why we’re in a hurry. Come on!” She takes my hand again and pulls me up to the fence before she starts climbing it.

“You know, I'm starting to regret ever teaching you how to do this!” She stops at the top and straddles the horizontal pole.

“Oh, my sweet little delinquent, I’ve learned much naughtier things since.” She giggles before dropping to the ground.

I lace my fingers through the cold metal and climb over myself, internally thankful that I can still climb these as easily as I used to. We quietly walk through the rows of cars as her head moves side to side, seemingly like she’s looking for something in particular.

“So why did we have to do this before dark? And if it’s okay, why are we sneaking in?” I scrunch my eyebrows at her and ask accusingly.

“Robby doesn’t want a liability after its dark, and because we can be caught on the cameras inside if we come in from the front. If Robby’s dad found out we’re here again, we’d be fucked.” She shrugs her shoulders as she avoids eye contact with me.

“Oh, so really we’re not allowed?” I cross my arms over my chest and ask sarcastically.

“Eh, there’s no true answer to that question.” I giggle as we come up to an old-looking Ford truck, conveniently placed in what seems to be the only open spot in this junk yard. The paint has been sanded down, and I'm not sure it has any parts left under the hood, but there’s two pairs of safety glasses, two baseball bats, two knives, and two crow bars on the open bed of it. “Oh, hell yeah, thank you Robby. Go on girl, get your glasses on!” I hesitantly grab a pair and put them on before grabbing a baseball bat.

“You want first hit?” I shrug my shoulders and hold the bat out to her.

“Nope, but I call stabbing the passenger seat! All the movies say bad people hide shit in there and I want to see if I can find some paraphernalia!” I chuckle at her naivety.

“Suit yourself.” I climb onto the bed of the truck, the shocks squealing as it bounces with motion, and leap onto the top of the roof, still holding the bat in my hand. Looking down and over at her, I wait, my mind full of hesitation. “You’re sure this is okay? I don’t want you getting into trouble with the law.”

“Yeah, he said he’d pick one they’re getting ready to crush. No biggie! Robby said he’d make sure to clean up before his dad came to work in the morning.” The confirmation was all I needed to lift the bat up high above my head and drive it down into the front windshield. The spider web looking cracks, and the crunching sound that emerges already makes me feel a little better. As if the crackling sound also came from my muscles and not just the glass. “Oh shit! Alright hulk, get down from there, it’s my turn.” I hop down back into the bed, and she picks up her bat, immediately driving it into the driver’s side window like she’s known how to swing it her whole life.

“Hell yeah!” I yell out excitedly as she squeals at the damage she caused.

“Jesus Christ! This might be better than sex! No wonder vandalism is a crime!” We ring out laughing as she pulls out her phone and plays ‘It Wasn’t Me’ by Shaggy and Rik Rok from her phone. My laughter immediately intensifies, seeing the irony in her song choice.

“Seriously?!” I have tears spring to my eyes as I hold on to my side I'm laughing so hard.

“Go on girl, get that frustration out!” I walk over to the other side of the truck and take out that window as well. Hitting the side of the truck over and over until the dents make the door look like Swiss cheese. Every hit, every crunch of glass, every grunt as we swing chips away at the buildup of anger, fear, and sadness I’ve had lately.

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