I was making pancakes for my boyfriend when the phone rang. As I spun around to answer it, the spatula knocked into the mixing bowl. The bowl tipped, and gooey pancake batter oozed off the counter, down the cabinet and onto the floor. My boyfriend threw his NASCAR magazine onto the kitchen table and shook his head.
"Nice goin', bitch," he said. "Now clean it up."
He picked up the phone as it rang for the fifth time.
"What?" he said. That's how he always answered the phone. No "hello," no "hi," just "what." "Uh-huh....Sure, sounds fuckin' great....Ha-ha....OK, see you there."
"Who was that?" I asked. I was on my knees, mopping up the batter with a washcloth.
"That was Rick," he said, scratching his beer gut. "We're goin' to the tittie bar to watch the race today. And I'm gonna leave, as soon as I'm done with breakfast. So hurry it up!"
The whole world seemed to collapse around me.
"But I thought you were going to take me to the park for a picnic today," I said.
"Yeah, well, plans just fuckin' changed," he said.
The rage started rising from my chest. But I pushed it back before it reached my mouth. There was nothing I could say to him. I'd tried arguing with him before. It got me an ass-whooping every time. But I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry this time.
I'd had enough. I wanted revenge.
As I finished sopping up the pancake mix, I thought up a plan that would make his stomach turn so hard he'd never want breakfast again.
I threw the rag into the sink and stomped into the bedroom. It was a pig sty. I kicked aside his dirty underwear to find my white, cut-off T-shirt and jean shorts. Then I grabbed the Mustang keys off the dresser and stuffed the Polaroid camera in my purse before rushing out.
"Where you goin'?" he asked as I stormed through the kitchen.