MALLORY
There was Derek, walking through the crowd toward us. As if on cue, every girl started fixing her hair. Al started obnoxiously chirping away.
“How is it going?” Derek asked, scanning everyone, his eyes stopping on me for a long second.
“Wanna join us on the rides?” Vic asked.
“For a minute. I have tickets to the concert tonight.”
“Who are you going with?”
Derek smiled mysteriously. “That’s a secret.”
I didn’t like secrets, and I definitely didn’t want to hang out with him in the company of Al and Vic. No way I’d survive their stupid jokes about me in front of him. He couldn’t know that I was the maid for these two.
I picked up my phone and feigned concern. “Oh, man. I have to run. My shift starts early tonight.”
Before Al and Vic could say something mean, something about me mopping floors or cleaning toilets, I sent air kisses and took off, diving into the fair crowd.
I wasn’t going to let them peacefully enjoy the fair. No way. I was watching them from afar. Clueless, Al didn’t even know how pathetic she looked, hanging on Derek, joking, laughing like a hysterical toddler.
I could call Dougie and tell him Al was fooling around, even though they technically weren’t together. Dougie was a jealous type. But he’d tell Al I told on her.
Then I spotted our neighbors’ kid by the Yo-Yo booth. “Hey, Johnny, come here. Need a favor.”
I only promised him two bucks, but hey, that was big money for ten seconds of conversation.
I dialed Dougie’s number, punching *67 before it. That was how you blocked your phone number ID back then.
When Dougie picked up, Johnny blurted, “Your girl, Alysha, is at the fair with her new boyfriend. He says you are a wuss and a redneck.”
He hung up, giggling, as I handed him two bucks. Small price to pay for what happened next.
I didn’t notice Dougie approach the group, but heard his shouting first. Suddenly, he was chest to chest with Derek, though there was nothing he could do in public. Then Derek was walking away. Alysha was pissed, pushing Dougie’s chest.
I followed Derek toward the west entrance and out of the fair to the field parking. Ducking behind the cars, I watched him get into his. That’s when I heard loud calls.
“Yo, you!”
And there was Dougie and several of his bulls. They surrounded the car, banged on the roof. Dougie angrily knocked on the driver’s window.
Derek slowly got out of the car, and when Dougie lunged at him, I pulled out my phone to call 911. Sure, Derek was a fine guy, but there were four against one.
The phone froze in my hand as I looked at what happened next. Derek suddenly had a gun in his hand.
It could’ve ended badly. But Derek wasn’t Dougie. He was cool. Calm. In less than a minute, Dougie and his friends were nowhere to be seen, Derek was driving out of the parking lot, and I wondered what he’d said to Dougie to make him back away.
I drove home, changed into the proper clothes for work, and thought about texting Derek, asking who he was going to the concert with—if he actually was, because he’d left the fair.
It was already getting dark outside, so on my way to work, I decided to drive past Derek’s house. If his car was there, I would pop in. Maybe call him, see if he wanted to “blow off steam.”
Except when I approached his house, there was another car parked out front next to his. I recognized it. Al’s.
She always got what she wanted. What was worse, she always got what I wanted. Clothes, toys, boys.
And she was here, at Derek’s.
If it were daylight, I would’ve driven off.
I wouldn’t have dared park around the corner, grab a hoodie from my back seat, and, pulling it over my head, walk toward Derek’s house.
I wouldn’t have gotten riled up seeing the dim light in his bedroom.
I stood outside the bedroom window and simmered with hate as I heard Al’s moans coming from the inside.
I spotted a watering can by the porch. There was water in it—a sign that everything happened for a reason.
I crept up to Al’s car, untwisted the fuel cap, and poured water into the gas tank.
Have a great effin’ night, slut.