Ruin My Life

The Spark

I get out of the shower, wipe the mirror and I see the black eye start to take form. My phone rings, I look down it's work. "Hello?" I answer, my voice shaky. "Yea hi, Jessica? It's me Bradly, are you in school right now?" His voice is in a hurry. "No, I just got out of the shower though, whats up?" I ask. "Can you come to work? Justine called out again." Bradly says annoyed. "Yea of course I'll be there in half an hour I just have to put my clothes in the dryer." I explain, "Okay but hurry please, morning rush is coming in soon and I don't have anything ready." He says. "Okay, I'll hurry."

I hang up the phone, throw my clothes from the washer to the dryer and pray that they will be dry enough so that I can go to work. My dad hasn't paid rent yet and we got our last eviction notice yesterday on our door. At least I get paid by midnight tonight, that way I can make a quick payment to the landlord. After brushing out my freshly washed hair, putting a little bit of makeup on, I check to see if my clothes are dry. They have a few more minutes so I put my thick hair up in a high bun, and check the mirror one last time of my eye. I don't have time to cover it up fully with makeup so I apply just a little bit of concealer to hide it just enough. The timer goes off on the dryer, I throw my uniform on and jump into my purple jeep. I push the speed limit and arrive just in time for work. As I'm clocking in I can hear Bradly taking orders up front.

"There you are thank you for coming in today." Bradly says as he's out of breath. I keep my head down "Yea no problem." I say almost in a whisper. I'm really not in the mood to talk to anyone right now, after all I just got pumbled in the face by Derek. "Hey, you ok?" Bradly says in a caring tone. "Yep, all good here." I respond still keeping my head down. "Hey, can I be on aux today?" I ask Bradly. "Yea, that's fine. I will just have you cook today if that is okay. If you need me I'll be in my office. Let me know if you need help out here." Before I can mutter a thanks he takes off to his office to do his paperwork.

Two hours later and the morning rush finally ends. I waltz myself over to his office and knock on the door. "Come on in" As I open the door Derek is standing on the right side of Bradly arguing about his paycheck I assume. Derek whips his head towards and I cower my head down. Bradly notices and excuses Derek for the time being so that him and I can ask him my question. As Derek leaves the office he glares at me the whole time.

" How long did you need me today?" I ask him. "Whered you get the shiner?" He asks in response. "Was it Derek?" I duck my head down and cover my eye with my hand. "Jessica, shut the door would you?" As I shut the door Bradly gets up from his chair from the desk, and inches toward me. His hand is on mine that is covering half of my face. "Let me see" He says to me. I uncover my face and I can see something in Bradly's eyes but I don't know what. I try to catch my breath as he gently touches my bruised cheek. "You don't have to worry about him, not here." Bradly explains. "Why?" I ask. "Because I just fired him."

His chocolate brown eyes are staring straight through me. I wasn't to look away, but I can't, I'm mesmerized. "Why did you fire him?" I finally choke out. He lets go of my face and looks down at his feet. He backs away toward his desk and smirks. "He was consistently late, time to let him go." "You understand what he is going to do to me now don't you?" I raise my voice at him, "Derek with no job and me with a job. He will take my money for sure, that is if my dad doesn't take it first." My eyes start welling up with tears. "Why would you do this to me?" My voice shakes. "I-I didn't know it would affect you this much, Im sorry what can I do?" Bradly asks. "There's nothing you can do now, it is what it is." I chuckle through the tears running down my face. "I guess I don't understand" He says as he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. "You don't understand what? I ask while wiping the tears from my face. "How can you be with someone like him? I know you know he has had other girls here, giving them his phone number. So why do you stay with him?" He's leaning back on his desk with both hands now, staring at me. "Listen, he gives me what I want." I say rolling my eyes at him. He inches closer to me again. He brings his hand up to my chin and lifts it up so that I look at him. "Whatever I want." I raise a brow as if to challenge him to ask me anything else. Bradly lets my face go again, his cheeks are flushed, he look flustered. My heart is racing I don't know what I'm doing or what is going on. He turns away and walks toward the door, as he puts his hand on the doorknob, he turns to look at me. "You can go home now if you want, it is suppose to be your day off after all." "Thanks" I whisper back. What the hell just happened?