Jillian Rose

Chapter 4

 I could feel the holes Boss John was burning into my back. I took a slow deep breath. He wasn't going to like this story as much as the Dutter story.

"Miss Caroline took me to the James family," I said softly. "No one raped me there. Do you still want to hear about it?"

"How long were you there?"

"...not long?"

"Then yes. Has to be a reason you didn't stay," he was grinning.

I took a deep breath. "From day one I disliked the James' family. They were large, loud, and aggressive. Not that they were all overweight large more of a big boned family. Mr. James was huge. When he passed under doorways he had to bend down. I'm sure he would have made it through without banging his head but there were no promises his hair would come out unscraped. Every time I saw him I wanted to sing "Fee figh foe fum I smell the blood of an Englishman." I hummed it once. I didn't do it again."

"Why?"

"He smacked me upside the head."

I looked over at Boss John and he nodded for me to continue. "Mrs. James was plump. She had to have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds easily. She was short, very round, like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka. She was actually quite pretty under all the blubber. It's a shame her personality didn't reflect that though. She yelled a lot. I'm not really sure why. She was always yelling. The house wasn't clean enough, dinner wasn't done, there wasn't enough food for everyone, there was no toilet paper, the TV wasn't loud enough, the TV was too loud, or anything else she could think of. She even yelled at me once because the dog was sitting on the wrong couch cushion."

I smiled a little. Boss John had his left eyebrow raised in a slight arch. He was amused. At least, that's what I took that look to mean. His face never let on to what he was thinking.

"Apparently it's written somewhere," I continued, "that large people get together to have even larger children. The James' family had one son, biologically that is. His name was Jeffery. I hated him most of all. I could stand Mr. James' loud laughing at anything that crossed his line of sight or even Mrs. James' uncalled for yelling, but I could not stand Jeffery." I shuttered at the memory of Jeffrey. I could see the grin returning on Boss John's lips.

I swallowed. The thought of Jeffery made me uncomfortable. I wish Boss John had brought more wine. Last time telling the story was easier. "He had his father's height and his mother's roundness. He would have made a great football player if only he cared half a second for something besides his XBOX. He yelled at whatever video game he was playing and would often throw his controller at the TV. More than once while I was there he had broken both of them. Sometimes on separate occasions sometimes at the same time. His parents were always quick to replace whatever he broke, even on the days Mrs James was yelling about not having enough food. They let him do whatever he wanted.

 Honestly, the best way to describe Jeffery," I said moving from the floor to the ugly leather chair, "he reminded me of the cousin from Harry Potter. He always got what he wanted and he was a complete dick to everyone in the house. The worst part of it though was the way he looked at me. He was my age, and when the school year started he was in all of my classes at the new school, and every time I turned around he was staring at me. It wasn't like...an innocent crush look. I could have handled that. It was something else. Like he was trying to steal my very soul."

"Did he?" Boss John said. "Steal your soul I mean?" 

"Do you want to hear whole story or not?" I asked bitterly.

I rolled my eyes as he rolled his wrist towards me again like I was a peasant in his kingdom.

"The second I walked through the door he looked at me and didn't once take his eyes off me. The first night I was there I was getting ready for bed when Mrs. James barged into my room. I quickly pulled my shirt the rest of the way down and looked over at her.