"It's all a fuckin' mess. I've ruined everything." Mark looked into the bathroom mirror at his fresh black eye and growled "What am I going to do?" Looking back into the bedroom he saw the crib, occupied by his baby boy. Instead of strengthening his resolve, the sight made him more depressed "I'm sorry, kid." Walking back over to the bed left Mark enough time to take out and light his last cigarette before he laid down softly to avoid disturbing Kristen. It didn't matter, she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks either.
"Another terrorist bombing," Mark observed on both the newspaper and TV, the set that was currently flickering badly on it's last legs. "What kind of god wants that for their people. Do you want the last egg?" Mark shook his head behind Kristen's back "No, you have it," "But you have work, Mark." He put down the newspaper roughly "You have it."
"A pack of smokes, whatever's cheapest," Mark murmured as he put the coke bottle down on the counter, pulling out his credit card. "Savings?" Mark nodded at the checkout chick. "It says your account is empty, do you have another card?" He looked into his wallet at the emergency credit card and then back at the smokes "I don't. Sorry to waste your time."
Lucky Burger's fryers were the worst Mark had ever used. "Shit!" Mark threw the spatchula onto the ground as he yanked his hand back, barely avoiding the sudden flash of flame as the gas screwed up yet again. "Hey! Watch what you're doing!" Mark looked down at his hand "You hear me!?" "Yes sir..." He spent an hour working with the possibly homicidal grill before moving further back to washing duty.
"Man you look way too old to work here. Oh wait, you're that fuck up the boss said he hired!" Mark ignored the comment "Yeah! You're the dude management took pity on because you had a kid. Man how fucked up is that? Someone like you with a kid. Man what's the world coming to?" The kid giggled, pleased with himself "Man, she must have been some wierd kind of who--"
The kid was cut off as Mark grasped the back of his neck and shoved him into the grimy water. The thrashing and garbled screams got the attention of workers in the other room, and it took three of them with the manager's help to pull Mark off the kid. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Mark slowly stopped pulling against his restrainers. "Man, he came out of nowhere! What a crazy bastard." The kid stopped a little bit in front of Mark, who was now being held by the workers as the manager went for the phone. "I think something's up my nose... Freakin' sociopath. No idea how he got near a woman for that kid. Must have been an ug--" Mark kicked him so hard in the balls that it dropped him limp and whimpering.
"Again, Mark?" Officer Julie Rogers looked the burger she ordered up and down "I should probably stop eating stuff like this. You want it?" she didn't wait for his response, sliding it over. "What is this? The thirteenth job?" Mark took ravenous bite of the burger "Fourteenth." "Usually we can talk someone out of pressing charges if it's just a sucker punch or a push when we mention your condition... But you've pissed this kid's father off. The way you described it, it falls into terms of battery. He struck a nerve and you didn't want to let him get away with him saying that, I know." Mark nodded between bites. "I'm afraid this might see court if he's not happy with the outcome, and it may actually become attempted murder instead of just battery." Mark wiped his mouth off on a sleeve "So what happens now?"
(Julie Rogers)
Kristen
Mark
Jr.
Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:45 am