Fallen From Grace

The Ultimate Betrayal

Now I lived with my partner Andy in our very own flat. It was right at the top floor and it was the door all the way over on the far left. I was number fifty three. It was a one bedroom flat with a living room/dining room and a bathroom - not to mention a balcony overlooking trees from our living room patio windows, and I had a great kitchen which overlooked our entire road. I also thought the kitchen was great because I had a lovely big stretch of unit running under the cupboards so I could make my cakes under, which my love of baking cakes very quickly became activated again. I started cooking Victoria Sponges for everyone's birthday and made chocolate chip cupcakes but at the size of muffins. I actually bought a little series of paperback baking books from a supermarket where it was all Disney themed and I made Fairy Cupcakes which was because of Tinker Bell on the pages and a chocolate cake that was also inside from the Jungle Book.

I worked at a supermarket now. I handed in my notice at my shop and I remember our new Managers face Dawn as she was sad and frustrated to see me go. Dad, Mom and I tried taking Beth to another hearing over her behaviour because it didn't stop. It was somewhere in Stratford (I think) where the manager Emma that dug our shop out the shit was managing and we didn't really know our rights then because she said and I remember...

"I know what you are saying," Emma had said to my Mom in the middle of the hearing. "But we really need to hear it from Kimberly and she needs to be able to say things for herself."

I did my best. Unable to read between the lines of taking a break to talk to my Mom I tried advocating for myself but with someone who suffered with Mosaic Down Syndrome yes I could legally have someone talk on my behalf.

Mom said when I eventually understood we needed a toilet break,

"Emma's saying how a manager should be like and what she should do to run her team but Beth isn't."

I went back in there and Emma picked up on the fact that Beth didn't comment on my hair one day and I could see Emma thought it was pathetic so I tried to skip ahead and past that. The reason it was put in there was to show the distinction because me and other members on Beth's team, it was just a small example of how differently I was treated other than anyone else she liked because Beth would have been all over them and how she just basically ignored me.

In fact what Beth was doing was rounding up any one with a complaint about me. Once Mom asked who said this new piece of information we'd heard and she said to go around and ask. On Mom's advice I did this. I did monitor the changing rooms so I could catch people as they pushed through the doors. I asked Anne, who was Annie's boyfriend's sister and her eyes widened as she came forward...

"Oh my gosh," she was shocked. "No. No I wouldn't say any of that."

And I got a variety of different responses until I asked Leanne a blonde twenty year old and she dropped herself in the shit by her face dropping from a fake smile. I knew I'd be able to see even the slightest micro expression but her face right then said it all. She had dropped her mask and I knew it was her.

"Beth promised me she would keep that to herself!"

The little bitch. I was fuming inside because Leanne happened to be a charming little girl who told me I looked good in any of our clothes and then had different conversations behind my back.

"Well," I arched my jaw to the side. "She didn't."

I wanted to prove Beth was untrustworthy and therefore shouldn't be telling her anything. It didn't take long for Beth to find out I'd said something because she was great at circling around all the girls to find out all the gossip and I was in for it as she raged at me in her office. I just remained a poker face but at least I knew who was fake now. Actually, after that encounter Leanne, even if she happened to serve me at the till made it very clear she didn't like me and I started to wonder if I liked it better when she was fake nice (at least I knew how to handle that better.)