AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I checked through our records and it looks like we could use a receiver in our warehouse. It’s manual labor, like you’re good at. The pay is decent, and there’s a lot of room for development and growth down there. Do well, and you’ll climb the ladder in no time.”
“Like I’m good at?” Miles asked, trying to keep the fury out of his voice and knowing he failed.
Roger, for his part, seemed confused by this. The arrogant prick.
“Well, yes. Saundra’s told me of some of the jobs you’ve had in the past. You seem very physically inclined. I didn’t think you’d be happy in a cubicle. Was I mistaken?”
“Ya know what, Rog?” Miles said, standing up. He wanted to beat Roger in the skull with his motorcycle helmet. Because of that desire, he kept the helmet tucked snuggly against his body. “Thanks but no thanks.”
“Now wait a second. I don’t think you’re in a position to be able to turn this down.”
“I don’t need your charity, Roger! I can find a job on my own.”
“Calm down, son. That’s not what this is.”
“I’m not your son,” Miles said, poking Roger in the chest with a finger. “I know what you think of me, looking down on me like you do. You know what your wife does and you’ve never tried to stop her, because you agree with her.”
“Miles, think—“
“No, you shut it! Do you have any idea what I had to go through as a child? Fighting against the opinions and judgements of pompous arrogant jerks just like you and your pig-faced wife? Do you have any idea what it’s like for a ten-year-old to have to claw out his own existence? I’ll tell you this Rog-er: I’ve always survived on my own strength, on my own terms. I’ve gotten this far without your handouts, and I’ll keep making it through without them.”
“You’re making a mistake here,” Roger said.
“The only mistake I made was wasting the gas coming down here.”
Miles marched from the office. He paced the small space in the elevator, doing his damnedest not to shatter the mirrored walls. He needed to break something. He needed to hurt someone. The pain in his chest was too real, too violent. It needed out, and it needed out now. He couldn’t just hit something solid, he needed to feel something break under his fists, to know that he broke it.
As he marched through the rest of the office to the glass walkway toward the parking lot, he remembered all of those people in his life telling him he was worthless. All of them saying he’d never make it.
He proved them wrong. Now he’d prove Saundra’s parents wrong. They thought he couldn’t do this on his own.
He’d show them!
Saundra sat at her desk grading papers. School had been out for the last hour, but she had to get this done before getting back home. After the birthday party she felt better about Miles. She was still anxious, but it wasn’t as bad. They’d make it through. She’d gotten some money from her dad and paid up some bills, so she felt the relief from that.
Her cell phone lit up, catching her eye. She kept it silent, not even the vibration on so that it didn’t go off during class. When she checked it, she saw it was her father calling. A little thrill went through her as she remembered he said he was going to talk to Miles about a job today. “Hi Daddy.”
“Saundra, you know I love you.”
“I-I know.” She put the pen down and leaned back in her chair. His tone of voice was one he saved for piano movers after they dropped it out of the third story window.
“I don’t want you seeing Miles anymore.”
“Daddy!”
“Now listen to me! I have never forbidden you from seeing anyone in your life, and I’m not doing it now, but damnit if I don’t tell you he is bad news. You’ve stood by him. I know you see something in him nobody else sees, but at this point, I have to believe that all you see in him is a delusion.”
“How can you say that? He and I have been together for years. Why this all of a sudden?”
“I invited your boyfriend to my office to offer him a job. He all but threw me out of a window for it! He went on about how it was charity and he didn’t need my handouts. I thought you said he was desperate?”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After everything she went through for him, and he would spit in her father’s face like this? “He is. I have no idea why he would turn you down like this.”
“Some people are dealt a bad hand and make the best of it, darling. And some people struggle because they bring it on themselves. I know you love him, but he is a drag on your life. He’ll only ever bring you down.”
“Daddy, please, I can’t hear this, not right now.”
“The fact that you can’t hear it is why I have to say it! Do you think I would be coming to you with all of this if you were happy? How many jobs has he had? Can you imagine having children in this situation? How much worse would it be with all of his drinking?”
