Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)

I bend over to tie my shoes and pick up my keys that fell to the floor. I double check my reflection in the mirror before rushing out of my room to make a quick dinner for my dad. Crap! I think to myself as I realize I got more bleach splatters on the hems of my khakis. Thankfully, Gerrie won’t be working tonight to gripe at me about buying a new pair of pants. She find a way to complain about me at every opportunity she finds. She hates it when I wear my long hair down, she says I shed it all over the store. Last year she got upset with me for not being tan like all the other girls in the mall. She told me guys would come in to buy vitamins if I had a tan and wore make-up.

Andy and I would dream up crazy come-backs to Gerrie’s insults, but I never used them.

Andy.

How can I face another day without her humor? How am I going to deal with my dad without her encouragement? How will I carry on?

***



Chapter One. Cheeky

Six months later.

“Yes Aunt Laney, I know his birthday is Saturday. Dad won’t show up for dinner, he never does. He hates surprises and apparently he hates showers too. I know you don’t like to come to our neighborhood, so you can drop it off at the mall. I’m working tonight and tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, I’ll bring it to you at the mall. I’ve reloaded that Visa for you to get some groceries. Holland, you can come live with me, no one would blame you,” Aunt Laney says for the hundredth time. She’s my dad’s older sister and the only family member who still checks in on us. Her husband is a big corporate lawyer who represents every big company in Oklahoma. She was his paralegal, until they fell in love and got married. To ease her conscience she loads a prepaid Visa so I can buy groceries and gas. She paid off the mortgage last Christmas. She has no idea how much easier she made my life when I didn’t have to worry about that bill anymore.

Things have been looking better this year. June moved away and I was promoted to assistant-manager, which included a two dollar an hour raise. “Okay, I’ll see you then….and thank you for helping us by loading the Visa.”

“Oh honey, you’re a doll. I’m proud of you for being such a good daughter to my baby brother. I hope you’ve been able to keep your flawless GPA. You’ve been working so many days a week, it must be hard to keep up your grades.”

I can picture her admiring her fingernails as she talks. She’s always struck me as a superficial person by the clothes she wears and the people in her life. “Thanks, I don’t have any choice, he’s my dad.” I state the obvious. “I’m taking online classes, so it works around my schedule. Not to be rude, but I need to go; I have to be at work in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Okay, I’ll see you this evening,” I click my cell phone off and close my bedroom door behind me. “Dad, your dinner is in the fridge in the purple container, heat it up for one minute.” I turn the corner and see my dad sitting up for a change.

“You’re going to work early, you should eat breakfast,” he suggests.

“Dad, it’s four in the afternoon. I have to do laundry tomorrow, so it would be nice if you took a shower and put your dirty clothes in the hamper.” He won’t. He’ll give me excuses why he couldn’t shower before I got home. Recently, he developed a fear of showering in an empty house. His therapist called in a new medication, but it only seems to make him more of a zombie and has done nothing for his fear of cleanliness.

“Four? The days sure go by so fast.” He rubs his hand across his unshaven face. He’s not even forty, but you’d never know by the amount of grey in his beard.

“Gotta go, Dad,” I hold my breath and give him a peck on his head.

---

Friday evening at Darby Springs Mall is crowded as usual, leaving the only parking spaces ridiculously far from the doors. During my lunch period I’ll move my car closer so I don’t have to get security to walk me to my car after work. I ease the Charger between two SUVs, barely clearing the one on my right. Aunt Laney gave me her old one as a graduation gift during my senior year. Old to her is anything older than two years old. She had only owned this one for a year before giving it to me. She even covers the car insurance so it wouldn’t be a burden on me and my dad.

“Hey Sam, can you stay until close? It’s the fifteenth which means payday for the military, and they love to come stock up on the protein powder. This is usually the busiest day of the month.” I glance around the store to make sure everything is in order.

“Is that what’s going on? I had to restock the powder a couple of times already today. One guy wanted to return something, but I told him to come when you’re working. He said he’d come back tonight,” Sam says.

“Will you straighten up the display of Vitamin C? Someone turned all the bottles backwards, it was probably a kid.” Sam’s a quirky guy who spends all of his paycheck on body building powder and his spare time in the gym. He dates a girl I went to high school with, she’s rumored to have appeared in a couple of adult films. She’s a pretty girl but she can’t carry on a conversation without talking about kinky sex. “I’m going to the back to place some orders, if you need me just call,” I say as I turn to the back of the store.

“Holland?” Sam’s voice booms over the phone intercom causing me to jump.

“Yes, Sam.”

***

“That guy is here with the return.”

“I’ll be right there.”

There’s a guy at the register dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt talking to Sam. His short light brown hair is definitely Air Force the way it is perfectly squared off on the back of his neck.

I remind myself that I’m the assistant manager and not to be intimidated.

“Hi, I’m Holland, what can I help you with,” I ask as I step behind the cashier counter. Another pretty-boy airman with his deep dimple and flawless skin. There’s no way he’s much older than I am, that’s good because I don’t typically back down to people my age. Older guys in the military scare me, they seem so hard and angry.

“Hey Holland, Sam here told me to come back when you’re here to refund this powder.”

The first thing I notice are his eyes, pale blue eyes…incredibly pretty blue eyes and smile. The manager-in-training classes I took told me to always hold the customer’s gaze. They obviously never looked into eyes like his. It takes everything in me not to shift my eyes away from him. It makes me feel exposed as if he is literally looking into my soul.

“Yes sir, is there a problem with the powder?”

He’s first to avert his eyes and look down at the jug of Mega Muscle Protein Powder. “It gave me a rash,” he replies without looking up at me.

Most of the guys who come in are embarrassed to admit they ended up with a rash. “A rash? Do you have a photo of the rash?” Our return policy on store-brand products are if it gives you a rash, you have to provide a photo. There’s nothing more disgusting than looking at a rash on a stranger.

“That rule on your policy is pretty intrusive. When I read it, I was floored that it was a real rule.”

Here we go, he’ll turn off the charm and turn into a douche. I’m sure Sam is doing the countdown in his head. “Yes sir, we must turn in the photo along with the explanation in to our corporate office. Our policy is for quality control and has nothing to do with being intrusive. May I see the picture?”