Filled by the Bear
By Melissa Barbers
Copyright ©
It was that time of the day again. The twins from next door would not stop crying. I tried to concentrate on the homework I had to do before going in for tonight’s graveyard shift at the café where I worked at downtown. I lived in this dingy little place, it was affordable. I had to try to make ends meet, enough to pay off my student loans and for me to have something to eat every day.
The walls at the place I lived at had thin walls. I could hear the children from the other apartment whining and crying, probably hungry. The neighbor next door was always banging his girlfriend and she wasn’t a quiet one. There were couples arguing, people walking around and during whatever shit they did during the evenings. It wasn’t the most pleasant of places to be at when you needed to study, but this was my home.
I had decided to go in early and maybe finish my readings at the café. I put on my beige colored employee top and wore a pair of black pants. I didn’t do my hair in a fancy way, a simple bun would do. I wasn’t keen on trying to be too fancy as I no one would bother looking at me twice anyway, I was heavy. Heavy was the term I was called since I could remember and it had stuck with me always. I didn’t try to please people by going on diets or working out too much because I knew that I was born “heavy” if that’s what you call it.
I sighed. I threw my apron into my back pack and my notebook and made it out the door. It was chilly outside. The sun had just set and I propped on my jacket and zipped it up. I walked down the trash trodden pathway to the street. Kids, teenagers roamed the streets at night, they didn’t bother me though, I was part of the hood, the neighborhood, plus I didn’t have money in the first place for them to even bother with me.
Catcalls, this was the worst I had experienced so far in the in the neighborhood, they had even stopped when they noticed I wasn’t the hourglass figured Barbie walking down the street. It did hurt. I walked a few blocks down the street to a well-lit town where people walked to and fro, busy and trying to get home after a day of work. I envied them.
I walked a few more blocks and made it to the café. I still had an hour before opening the café for the evening shift and I readied the place by mopping and wiping the tables. This was how my life usually went. I got in early to work, opened the café, cleaned and wiped then studied for a little and worked till the early morning. Slept a bit and went to school.
I was about to take my notes out when the bell of the store rang. “Hi, sorry we’re still closed,” I uttered as I turned around to see who had entered the café.
He stood in his plaid shirt that was a perfect fit to his body. His dark, almost night sky dark hair framed his perfectly shaped face. It was long and messy and was held up in a tie. A few loose strands escaped his hurriedly tied hair but it suited him. He wore jeans and a pair of boots. He was really, really good looking in a very enigmatic way. Oh boy would I like to get it on with you. “Hello,” he said in a deep voice, “decaf?” he asked.
“Sir we are still closed, we open in an hour,” I said, I tried not to stare at him. He had a slight beard, the kind that grew on men in the perfect way that made them even more irresistible, “How about you make me a coffee and I don’t tell you did me a favor?” he said coyly asking, “no,” was all I said and walked to the back of the café. I didn’t know why I did that, it was a simple request but I hated knowing that there were douchebags who were just trying to play with me to get what they wanted. I pulled out my notes and started reading. I heard the door to the café open and then close. He must have left.
Things went as the usually did until Mr. Thomas called me to the back of the café. “Selene,” he said, “you know I don’t mind that you study here when there isn’t anyone around, but I don’t want to hear you being rude to any of my customers, okay?” I was dumbfounded, “okay sir,” I replied. Peeking from the back of the café, I wondered who had thought I was being rude to them and then it hit me, “that fucker!”
***
The sun rose and I walked home, frustrated about what had happened. I wasn’t being rude, it was just following the rules of the café, what really got to me was the fact that I didn’t even stand up for myself. “Asshole,” I sighed. I was just worried that Mr. Thomas would think I wasn’t doing my job well enough. I was highly bothered about it.
It was almost seven in the morning. The fresh air kept me up and I walked all the way back to the apartment with a hot cup of coffee in my hand. I had things to do, places to be and I was feeling like I had been trodden on. As I got to the apartment, there were policemen everywhere, someone was getting arrested and not to my surprise, it was my upstairs neighbor. Ahh the neighborhood that I dwelled in…
I closed the door to my apartment and started to pull out my notes while I made breakfast. “Thud, thud, thud…” the sound of boots filled my apartment as whoever owned the upstairs apartment was certainly not a quiet person. “Thud, thud…” here and there this person had shoes that were not helping. I was getting irritable. I ate my breakfast and quickly took a bath in my small bathroom. Dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, I rushed out of the apartment with my cold coffee in hand.
“Ahh!” everything happened so quickly that I didn’t know what hit me. He was standing there in front of me with a look of dismay on his face. I must have had a look of anger on my face. “What where the fuck you’re going!” I shouted to him—it was the hot guy from the café. I had unintentionally ran into him and spilled my coffee all over the front of my shirt. “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, “Come to apologize for ratting out on me earlier this evening?”
“Actually, no,” I live upstairs as he pointed to the apartment upstairs. Shit.
“Well good riddance,” was all I said and marched away from him.
“You know, if you weren’t being such a rude person to me I wouldn’t have told Mr. Thomas. He and I are… kind of pals now.”
I didn’t look back nor did I even bother to come up with anything witty. I was starting to hate this person. The only thing I could do was to stay away from him.
***
Students milled around the University here and there. I was busy trying to get some studying done. I headed towards my classroom, “thirty minutes early,” I whispered to myself. As I got it, I took the front seat. I had to focus and sitting at the back only meant that I had other things to do then to listen.
The classroom started to fill up, slow as the students got in. The professor was already in front discussing about history and what not, suddenly a knock on the classroom door echoed across the room.
“Son of a bitch…” was all I could mumble. It was him—pretty boy. “Hi, History 103?” he asked as he entered the classroom. The tension that arose from the women in the room and gays probably was almost palpable. People, people if you only knew how much of an asshole he is…
“Everyone this is Mr. Damon Channing, take your seat and try to catch up where we are currently at…” said the professor and the Greek god took his seat…next to me…in front. I could feel the eyes of everyone staring at him and maybe at me. “Of all the vacant seats in the room, you just had to take this one!” I whispered to him with intentional ferociousness. “Don’t flatter yourself, there weren’t other seats. I have taken them if there were.”
Ouch, didn’t have to be so harsh. I thought. I had decided to ignore him but it was certainly hard work. It was a three hour long class and I was feeling the effects of doing an all-nighter. I looked around the class to distract myself from falling asleep; I noticed douchebag had a tattoo on his hand. It was symbol of two swords that crossed each other on
his hand. It was a nice tattoo but it wasn’t his only tattoo. The symbol on his hand looked familiar. I could only tell so much. “Stop checking me out,” he whispered as I suddenly snapped back to earth. “What?” I asked him, “don’t flatter yourself too mister.” I turned to look at the board and finally the sound of freedom rang. The students all made their way down the aisles and out of the room. I threw in all my things into my back pack and headed towards the professor, I needed to get a few things cleared before leaving class.
“Two seconds,” she said, I waited by her table as I noticed Damon talking to a bunch of girls that were giggling and obviously trying to get with him. “So how about tomorrow night?” one of them was saying. I felt a pang of envy and anger at the same time. “So what do you want to talk about…” said the professor. We started discussing the chapter that was tackled and I tried to drain out the sound of laughter that drifted from the sexually hyped group in the class.
“You know what sir, maybe I’ll drop by later to talk to you,” and I rushed out of the classroom. I didn’t know what was up with me but I didn’t feel like being around people right then. I walked to my favorite diner; yes it was my favorite because they gave me free food. The take out menu was good and the fact that it was free was even better. I walked back to the apartment and started eating, I was tired. I didn’t do anything aside from work and go to school and before I knew it was fast asleep on my couch.
***
I woke up to my alarm. It was seven in the evening. I got up and stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. I looked like a pot pie walking around in sweats. Just then someone knocked on my door. It must be the landlord, I opened the door and to my surprise Damon stood there in all his glory looking so delicious.
“What do you want?” I asked, I was embarrassed that I looked like a fat slob that just got up. “Nice look,” he said, looking at my sweats. “What do you want? If it’s to just be a douche I have no time for this.” His reaction changed, looking a concerned and a frustrated at the same time. “I need help with History,” he said finally. “Why not ask the girls that were so willing to help you?” I asked him rather harshly. “They…well. Forget about it then,” he turned and walked away. I slammed the door. Not cool I thought to myself but well sometimes you have to be a bitch to not get taken advantage of.
***
I got to the café just in time.
There was a line starting to build and I was behind the counter in a matter of minutes. “Welcome, what can I get you?” I asked, “Decaf, to go large,” I shouted at the back and out of the blue, Damon comes in from the back in an apron with a cup in his hand. “Here you go thank you for coming,” the customer smiled at him.
“Really,” was all I mouthed as I looked at him, “told you I was friends with the owner,” he smiled as he prepared the orders perfectly. The night went by rather quickly and we were on our feet the entire evening at closing time, I decided to stay behind. I didn’t want walk home with Damon because he lived right where I lived and it was getting rather awkward.
“I can stay if you need help,” he said to me. “What do you want?” was all I asked while I mopped the floors. “History notes and a little lecture for me to catch up, that’s all.” He said “That’s all” like he wanted to clarify the fact that there wouldn’t be anything fishy going on between him and me. Definitely nothing, I thought.
“Okay, Saturday evening,” it was the only time I was free to do whatever I wanted which included excessive eating and sleeping. “Deal,” he said and started mopping the floors, “I’ll do this. You should better just get going.” I didn’t even stop to say thank you and got my things from the back and headed out the door right away.
It was still dark out and it was rather colder than usual. The moon was high out and I decided to take the alleyway. As I walked down the cold, dark alleyway I heard footsteps following me. In the darkness I could make out a disfigured shape. “Hello?” I called out, “who’s there?”
Nothing moved in the darkness. I carried on with my walking this time a little more hurriedly. I turned to look back into the darkness and I saw a figure, a large beast, half hidden in the darkness of the alleyway.
I ran. Fear building up inside of me, I ran as if I had never run before.
I got back to the apartment sweating and tired. I hated being scared like that. The keys in my hands rattled, “Are you alright?” I dropped the keys and turned around, it was Damon. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I said through gritted teeth. “You are sweating, what happened?” he asked me not taking notice of the fact that I was scared, annoyed and irritated all the same time. “It’s nothing and please I just want to go to bed.”
I closed the door and got out of my clothes. I was being stupid but I didn’t want to think about it so I got in the shower and let the water flow over me. Whatever that was, it must have been a stray dog, I tried to convince myself.
***
I was late to class. I had never been late to class but somehow my body just couldn’t get up. Damon was seated next to my seat again; he was looking at me like he had just seen something disgusting enter the room. I didn’t say anything, I wasn’t in the mood. As I sat down, I felt like leaving the room. I felt something move on my desk. A note was on my table, “what’s the matter?” It was from Damon. I looked at him. “Nothing,” I whispered, again another note found its way to my desk. “You look like you haven’t slept a wink, stop thinking of me too much,” I could not fathom that he had the nerve to even say this. I crumpled the paper and looked straight at what the professor was writing on the whiteboard.
“Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed,” he whispered to me. “You know you should get out more, go somewhere and try to relax. It’s like you got a stick way up your ass,” he said laughing at me. I was getting fairly irritated with him.
“You know what? I have better things to do, work and study. I don’t have time to loiter around and annoy everyone. I don’t have friends to go out with because I have to save every cent I make. If you have problems with that find some other seat or talk to someone else who you would find bang-able and that would find you rather interesting because of your looks.” He sat there looking at me. If I said hurtful things, I didn’t really care.
“Sorry…” he mumbled and for the entire class he was quiet.
Finally it was Friday evening, I felt so relieved that I didn’t have to do anything on Saturday and Friday night would be a field day for me. I was just about to turn the television on and relax when I heard a knock on my door. I got up and open the door.
Damon stood there in a white shirt and a pair of jeans that was a bit torn. “Are you free tonight? Actually I know you are so would you like to go to this party with me?” he asked sheepishly. I looked at him, “why? So you could torment me more?” I said. I was feeling a bit grateful towards him, “look,” he said, “I know we started off on the wrong foot, so let me try again.” He held his hand out to me, “Hi I’m Damon, awfully good looking but don’t let that fool you, I’m a stupid douche at times,” he said smiling at me. Fuck, if I didn’t have the self-control I did now I’d really want to kiss him.
“Hello douche, I’m Selene,” I said shaking his hands. “So are we going to this party or not?” he asked me. I stood there thinking, “I’ll be ready in thirty minutes or so,” I said to him. He clapped his hands and gave me a salute then rushed up to his apartment. I rushed to my closet; I didn’t have anything that was suitable for a party. “What do people wear to parties?” I tried to think, I pulled out a corset top and a pair of black pants. “Perfect,” I said. I ran into the shower and washed my hair to lather. Being a busy woman, I often didn’t shower my long hair. I was out of the shower in ten minutes. The blower dryer was on while I did my make-up and hair.
I felt the adrenaline course through me; it was my first party in many years. Yes, it has been that long and I didn’t realize that I was becoming an old woman by just working and studying. I put on the corset
top and the black pair of jeans. I threw a jacket on and looked at myself in the mirror.
I looked darn good, I mean not sexy thin or what but really there was an improvement. I heard a knock on the door and Damon shouting, “If you are still naked in there I am still going to breakdown this door! Hurry up!” he said to me. “Hold on!” I shouted and put on my heels, these were the only pair of heels I had.
I opened the door to walk out and Damon just stood there gawking at me. “Wow,” he said, “you do clean up pretty well,” I smiled, “thank you for noticing, now get moving.”
We got to the party at a bar called “the Guillotine.” Who would name their bar that? I thought. There were people everywhere and the line made its way down the street. “Well, look at that,” I said. “Stop worrying,” said Damon, he moved to the front of the line and talked to the bouncer, “come on in,” said the bouncer as he gave me a wink. “Impressive,” I said to him, “you don’t sound too impressed,” he said.
“Stay behind me,” I did as he said. The place was filled with people and if I thought I had dressed sexily enough, it was nothing to what the women were wearing inside the bar. There were woman who wore bikini tops and really short skirts that revealed some of them were not even wearing underwear. I stood behind Damon and noticed that this was the first time he was wearing a shirt, baring his tattoos. These weren’t normal tattoos; they were symbols and ancient-like carvings on his skin.
Filled by the Bear (BBW Pregnancy Romance) Page 1