"Mr. T? Where's Jamie? Is she sick?" The man closed his eyes and sighed. "We had a fight. She just went to calm down." He whispered. "Oh. Okay." Toby slowly took the last few bites of his pancakes. Ms. Lovett smiled as she finished the dishes. 'Good.' "You..didn't hurt her right?" "No boy. I have not." He whispered.
Jamie hummed with a smile and, still in a daze, kissed the pillow she lay on. "I'm not far either." She whispered then sighed. 'Mmhmm.' She pictured the judge leaning over her half naked body and kissing every inch of her back. '"Jamie. I want you to lay on your back."' The girl hummed.
Toby sighed. "Mum?" "Yes love?" She dried her hands with a light blue towel. "Can I go outside?" Ms. Lovett smiled. "You know, I'm sure there's a few kids around here your age. Why don't you get your swimsuit on and I'll be right out on the porch." "Yay!" He clapped and ran off.
Mr. T just sat there. No thoughts or emotions. Nothing. "Can I get you something love?" "I'm fine." "Mr. T I don't.." "I said I'm fine." He glared at her. She hiccupped. "Then why don't you see if Jamie's awake?" The baker set the last two pancakes on a clean plate. He narrowed his eyes. "What did you put in those?" She tilted her head. "What do you mean Mr. T?"
He jolted to his feet and held her against the fridge with his hips. His left hand holding her neck. "Don't play dumb with me Eleanor Lovett. I've had enough with your jealousy and hate with her. I will never love you. Do you understand me? I. Will never. Love you." Ms. Lovett looked blankly into his eyes then growled before pushing him away. "Then what is your worthless self still doing here huh?"
"Mum?" "I'll be right out love." She forced a smile and held in her tears. "Okay." The boy smiled then left out the door.
Jamie lifted her head and opened her eyes from the shouting downstairs. Her hand undid the braid in her hair, still not over his ways toward her. "This can't be good." She quickly dressed in her clothes, shaking her head and trying to wake up. The girl quietly walked down the stairs and hid behind a section of the wall.
"After I let you stay above my shop and helped you through all these years since we met when we were just little kids in the schoolyard. Then this stupid little.." "SHE IS NOT STUPID!" He shouted. Jamie blinked. 'I knew it. Twenty years is quite an age gap. Let alone forty.' Her body trembled. "..girl catches your eyes and your pathetic memories of your daughter and wife cause you to lust after her."
'Damn. She's so dead.' Jamie gulped.
She wiped her eyes and cleared her shaky voice. Mr. Todd deathly glared at her and clenched his fists. "Look. I'm sorry I lost my temper. Emotions build up over time." He just blinked. "Mr. T?" She whispered then shivered. "You want my love?" He pushed the front of her body against the wall and yanked down her underwear. She hiccupped then teared up again. "Please Ben." She begged, tears falling down her face. "By the sea Ms. Lovett that's the life I covet." He roughly bit her neck.
'Yes I did say just friends. Like kissing automatically enhances that bond. No, that ten second intercourse doesn't count.' The girl rolled her eyes. 'That's it. I can't take this tension anymore!' Jamie ran into the kitchen, separating the two with her eyes wide, taken aghast with the envision he was going to rape her. "What on earth are you doing Mr. T?!" The girl scowled, taking her razor from her back pocket.
He scowled back. "Stay out of this Jamie." Ms. Lovett fixed her underwear. "No. I will not stay out of this! Not until you two learn to get along. I will leave if I have to if that's what the situation calls for. And take Toby with me!" Mr. T growled and roughly pushed her against the wall with a kitchen knife blade five centimeters from her neck. She hiccupped. "Then leave. Before I make you and you will never come back." Jamie shut her eyes with tears blurring her vision. Betrayal; Fear. "Mr. Todd." Her scared eyes met his.
He blinked, remembering flashbacks of the day they met. When they first kissed, their first shave and the first night they slept together. Mr. T forced away those thoughts and saw her face as his daughter's, holding the knife closer. Jamie turned away and shut her eyes.
"Mr. T, stop it!" She ran over. "Stay out of this Nellie. For your own sake. You want my love and you'll get it." She flinched at the growing anger in his words. Jamie began to uneasily pant. The woman scowled as well and held a kitchen knife herself. "Let her go Benjamin. Right now." He slowly did so and Jamie fell to the floor, terrified. She brought her knees to her chest and hid her face in them.
"Why should I?" He spat. "She has no use to me anymore." Jamie narrowed her eyes. "Because she's young. She has her whole life ahead of her. Now please. It breaks my heart to see you like this." "Then perhaps you shouldn't have broken mine." He replied coldly then sighed, leaving him to calm himself down.
Ms. Lovett sighed and set down the knife before kneeling beside the girl. "Jamie. Are you alright love?" She hiccupped. "I'm sorry." "Shh. Nothing was your fault." The girl rose her head. "Yes it is! If I was just watching where I was going, he wouldn't have tripped me. None of this would've happened! It's all my fault." Jamie sobbed.
Ms. Lovett sighed and lightly smiled, rubbing her back. "No no no. I was just being bitter and selfish. Come on love." She helped her onto one of the sofas in the living room. Mr. T groaned then scratched his head. "Damn it." He stormed upstairs and quietly opened the bedroom door.
"Jamie. Forget about him for a minute." In a way she then smiled, relieved that he said that she was no longer of use. Those words in which the girl implied that he will never ask her for marriage or anything as overrated as such. "Alright." "I personally can't thank you enough for getting me out of the dulled city."
Jamie tilted her head. "I'm confused Ms. L. I'm sorry." "Your efforts in the shop." "Oh." She hummed. "Why don't you sit up and I'll get you something to eat once I check on Toby." The woman smiled. "Thank you ma'am." Ms. Lovett went outside for a quick second to check on Toby. Jamie shook her head and lay down on the couch.
Ms. Lovett smiled as Toby was out swimming in the water with another boy appearing to be the same age as he was. His, whom she assumed, parents were sitting on a porch of a coral red house with a yellow roof watching them. "How sweet." She went back inside and immediately threw out the pancakes on the plate. The woman took two eggs and two slices of bread, setting them in a pan and a toaster.
The girl sighed and looked around before shutting her eyes, thinking of what would happen to Toby if she really left. She shook her head. 'Forget it for now.' Ms. Lovett walked in with a plate and motioned her to follow. Jamie smiled and stood up, holding the door open for her.
Jamie sat down on the bench swing and looked towards the seaside to find Toby building sandcastles with another boy. Ms. Lovett sat next to her and set the plate on the girl's lap. Jamie quietly started to tear up again. "Maybe I didn't belong here in the first place. Ms. Lovett?" The girl turned her head. "Yes love?" "Can you not explain..to.." Her sentence stopped once Mr. T opened the door. Jamie then looked away. "Don't starve yourself love." Ms. Lovett encouraged her to eat.
"Feeling better Mr. T?" He sighed with a nod. "Jamie?" He looked at her as she slowly ate and kicked at the porch. "Jamie." He repeated in a softer tone. Still ignoring him and fed up with his so called affection, she went back inside to gather her things upstairs. "I need my own vacation." Jamie tightened her eyes and threw off the shirt Mr. T had given her, replacing it with just her coat. She quickly ate the last piece of toast and lay the nightgown he bought for her on the bed. 'He wants me dead. Three times he told me that.' She overcritically thought and carried her bag downstairs, after making the bed of course. The girl thankfully took all the razors as well. Jamie shut her eyes and deeply sighed, thinking of where to go next. 'Just a place to go and calm down.'