Snapshot into Charlie’s past.
Charlie lifted her drink from the bar and casually moved to the opposite side hoping that the older caucasian man in the Hawaiian shirt and flip flops who’d been eyeing her wouldn’t approach, but her move was in vain. She felt him approaching and she tried to ignore him, but he tapped on her shoulder.
“What,” she snapped with an eyeroll, but it wasn’t enough to thwart him. He leaned forward against the bar with his beer in hand. She could smell cigarettes and some strange foggy salty odor. It was a smell unique to this type of caucasian male.
“I’m Chuck. Chuck Garrett, divorced and looking for something special. What’s your name, beautiful?”
“My name is I’m not interested so walk away,” Charlie flared, baring her teeth. She refused to leave just because he was making her uncomfortable. She had a right to be at a bar at night as late as she wanted to be. It was 2 AM and she couldn’t sleep. Amazingly, this small pub was open. She wasn’t a big drinker, so she didn’t keep up with bars and closing times.
“You have a sense of humor,” he chuckled, “I like that in a woman. Maybe I could buy you another drink?”
“No, you irritating fuck. I’m not interested,” she said looking away hoping to cut off the interaction.
“How could you know that yet, you haven’t even spent time with me. Let’s get outta here and go somewhere, you and me.” The man was persistent to his own detriment.
“Look Buck or Tuck or whatever the fuck, unless you wanna die, back up off of me. Go irritate someone else.”
“Oh come on, the night is young. Come back to my place and I’ll show you a good time that’ll knock that sass right on outta ya.”
Sass? SASS? Alarms went off in Charlie’s head. This asshole just referred to my valid demand that a complete stranger leave my personal space as SASS. Am I being impudent? Am I not showing the due respect? What respect does he think he is entitled to? These questions flashed within a second in Charlie’s mind and she stared into the tacky man’s brown eyes. He was sure he’d walk out of there with her and wouldn’t leave her alone until he got the answer he wanted.
“I’m not interested and you’re making me uncomfortable. Go away,” she said calmly turning back to her drink. The fact that no one got involved let her know that he was on his own. He wasn’t known to the pub and neither was she.
“Not until you agree to come to my place tonight for a drink and some fun,” he said with a sip of his beer. She was disgusted.
“Ok, you know what? If you insist. Let’s go. Where are you parked?”
They walked to his blue Toyota and his hand found its way to her back, sliding down to her butt. She cringed inwardly, but let it rock. It was another strike against him. In the car, he put his meaty hand on her thigh. Charlie paused in disbelief. The disrespect. She stared as he groped it and climbed in attempt to reach the apex of her thighs only to be blocked by her hand. “Stop,” she said firmly. It was obvious that he took her protests for a joke. Back at his apartment, he ushered her in, dusting off the space and moving things from the chair and floor.
“Well, this is me,” he waved gesturing to the space. It only took five seconds for him to be all over her, his hands roaming and invading her body like Europeans on African soil. It made her itch as she wrestled with him. He ignored every command she gave to in hand her, like she knew he would. He was exactly what she knew he’d be. She slapped him hard across the cheek and he sobered for a second, looking her in the eye. Staring him down, she looked him in his brown orbs, seeing the same expression and the same wickedness she’d seen in many men before him. She knew what she had to do.
She let him strike first with his words as he resulted to misogynistic and then racial epithets in attempt to build himself. He couldn’t handle rejection. In his mind, he was entitled and anyone who did not succumb willingly would be brought down by force. He lunged for her, reaching to grab? Punch? She wasn’t sure neither did she care to find out. As soon as he reached, she stepped back to dodge and then came back in, kicking him low and seizing his wrist using speed and acceleration to snap it. Once he cried out, she grabbed the same broken wrist as he winced and she twisted his arm until he went down to his knees. With one hand holding him down, she used the other to make a fist and punch him in the nose multiple times effectively breaking it. She was met with more disgusting slurs and insults from him that came now from a place of pain as well as anger.
“You think you’re better than me,” she told him. He didn’t need to respond. She already knew his type. She’d seen too many of them. “You think you should be able to do and say whatever you want because you’re a white man and you’ve been brainwashed to believe that your kind is supreme.” The man bit his tongue, rage seeping through him. “Go ahead,” Charlie spoke, “Respond.” The man said nothing only proving to Charlie that she was right.
“I told you to stop. I told you you made me uncomfortable. I said go away and leave me alone. Why didn’t you? Why don’t you respect women? Why do you force yourself on us when we tell you no?” Silence. She clamped down on her lower lip with a sigh, closing her eyes to make herself calm down. “I just don’t understand why your kind can’t just be decent. I don’t get it. You must be demons.” He dropped his head, but he was just waiting for her to stop talking or leave.
“Look at you,” she goaded, “Pathetic sitting there like the broken shell of a man that you are. You are nothing and I hope you know it to your core.”
He chuckled then, not taking her seriously. It was a truth that was hard for him to accept apparently. Charlie turned her back, adjusting her clothes. In her head, she counted down waiting for him to try something dumb and right on cue, he lunged at her. She pulled a small pistol and shot him between the eyes and immediately he dropped, dead weight.
She made sure to examine his face and everything in the room where she’d stood, leaving no evidence of her arrival before ducking from the apartment and walking to ground floor where she called an uber to catch a ride back to the pub.
In her own car, she was able to take a breath and unwind. She just wanted to mind her business and have a drink because she couldn’t sleep and now here she was exhausted with another body in her kill count. How many men had it been so far? Eight? Why did she draw so many predators? Why were men so unapologetically disgusting?
“Better they find me than someone defenseless they could victimize,” she reasoned to herself in the dark. “I can fight back. That’s just what I have to do… For all women of all ages who can’t. So yeah. Bring me the creeps.” She said it, but in reality she just wanted peace. She was a college student with a lot to do and a lot on her plate, she didn’t need the extra stress. Boy was it stressful being met with perverts all the time. It was like she could sense it in people.
With a final sigh, she started her car and pulled off to head back home. It was enough drama for one night and she had class early the next morning.
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