"Fuck you, Jimmy!" she yelled as she stormed out of the wooden house.
"Fuck me? Fuck you! You're a stupid whiny bitch!" Jimmy said, chasing after her and slamming the screen door as he left.
"What did you call me?" she turned around as he approached her in his white tank top and blue jeans.
"Bitch!" Jimmy repeated, " Do you want me to spell it for you?" he looked down at her.
"You know what?" she shook her head. "You're not even worth it!"
She stormed off into the dark of the night. She didn't even look back at him. She hated him, that house, and his friends, but she hated her life most.
"Another fight with Jimmy?" the old man behind the bar asked as she walked into the local watering hole.
"Fuck him!" she said as she pulled up the partisan and joined him. "Mind if I put in a few hours?"
"Hell no," he said as he took a seat.
"I'm not going back," she said as she cleaned some of the glasses.
"Yes, you will," the old man nodded. "You always come here when you're mad, he will come through that door, the two of you will talk, then you will leave."
"Not this time," she shook her golden blonde hair. "He can take a fucking leap off a cliff."
"What he do this time?" the old man asked.
"That motherfucker wanted me to strip for him and his friends as they watched the game!" she shouted. "Can you believe that shit?"
The older man shrugged. "Drinking, again, is he?"
"Yes! After the last time, he promised he would stop," Jessie said as she took an empty beer glass from one of the customers.
She popped the top off a new one and then handed it to him. She flicked the cap into the bin across from her.
"Jessie," the old man nodded towards the door.
Jimmy had walked in. He had his brown baseball hat on and wore a worn-out brown jacket over his tank top.
"What part of fuck you, don't you understand?" Jessie said as he reached the bar.
"Hey Leonard," Jimmy nodded.
"Jimmy," the old man replied.
"The usual," Jimmy said as he sat down.
Jessie folded her arms under her impressive bust.
"Now Jessie, he is a paying customer if he sits at my bar," Leonard said from behind her.
"Fine!" Jessie said as she took a beer bottle. She popped the top and slid it to him. "Drink it and get the fuck out."
"I am sorry, okay, things got a little out of hand," Jimmy said. "You can't be walking around with those hanging out and wearing those shorts, especially with the guys around."
"This is my fault?" Jessie screamed at him.
The locals were used to these two arguing. None of them stopped what they were doing.
"I have massive tits, Jimmy! I have always had them if you and your friends can't handle that then watch the game somewhere else!"
"I said I was sorry," Jimmy said. "I told them they had to leave, now just come back to the house."
Jessie shook her head. She had given in to Jimmy too many times. She loved his brown eyes, how they looked under that cap, and how he smelled after working at the factory. The two had been an item since they were in High School.
"Please," Jimmy pleaded.
"Fine," Jessie snapped. "This is the last time, Jimmy," she said as she walked around the bar.
Leonard stood up with a smile. He had known them both since they were born.
Jessie fell back on the bed as Jimmy fell on top of her. Her legs parted as he slid into her. "Don't ever call me a bitch again," she said as he gently bit her neck.
"You're my fucking bitch, and I will call you that as much as I want," Jimmy said as he pushed deeper inside her.
Jessie's legs wrapped around him as he began to fuck her. She squeezed them tightly around his thin pale frame of a body. With each thrust into her, she tightened her grip.
"Fuck!" Jimmy yelled, stopping his pace. "All right!" he gave in.
Jessie had spent most of her life riding horses and being on the cheer squad in High school. She had legs that could crush a man's ribs if she wanted. Jimmy got up. His mood for him had been destroyed, just like the aching pain across his waist.
"And you wonder why I call you that," he said as he put on a shirt.
"Keep calling me that, and I will crush more than just your ribs," Jessie said as she turned over.
The two slept the night away, angry at each other even as they woke up. Jimmy went to work at the paper factory. Jessie turned over as she worked later that day at the bar.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You know one day, one of you are going to kill the other," Nathan said. He was the cook that worked behind the bar.
"I know," Jessie said as she took some orders. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Call it quits," Nathan replied. "You both had a good time, call it a failed relationship and be done with each other."
Nathan was right, but then Nathan was always right. Everyone came to the bar not only for the drinks, music, and sports. They came to ask Nathan for advice. He was the town's councilor.
"Okay, but this town is small, not like we wouldn't know what the other was doing," Jessie said.
The town was tiny. It was one of the small towns that people saw from the highway as they passed it at a high rate of speed. The only time anyone from the outside came into town was to gas up, buy food, or had to make an emergency stop.
"Then leave," Leonard said from his corner. Jessie looked at him, tossing her golden hair aside. "You heard me," Leonard said, standing up. "What have you got going on here that is holding you?"
Jessie thought for a moment. Jimmy was the only thing she had left. Her mother died when Jessie was a baby. She had stayed with one of her mom's friends for most of her life, then Nathan had taken her in. He had been the closest thing to a father she had known.
"He's right," Nathan said, looking at her with those cold blue eyes. "You're going to be thirty in four months, what have you got to show for it? Do you want to end up like us working your life away in some no named town, in the middle of fucking nowhere?"
Jessie looked over her shoulder at the rest of the people in the bar. It was like a scene out of a movie. Everything had stopped, and everyone was looking at her.
"Come on. There is something I want to show you," Leonard said.
They walked to the back of the bar. Leonard and his wife Patricia lived behind the bar. It was a cozy place. Jessie had often slept back there when Jimmy and she had big fights.
"Sit," he said, pointing to a chair and table in the middle of the kitchen.
Jessie sat and began thinking about leaving. She had thought about it many times. Leonard came back with a photograph in his hand. He handed it over.
Jessie looked at it. It was a photo of a lady, she was wearing a white shirt, with beads around her neck, short jeans shorts, and a suitcase.
"Who is this?" Jessie asked.
"I think you know the answer to that question," Leonard said, sitting across from her.
Jessie looked at the picture; her eyes began to water. She knew her mom's story of how she came to this town from somewhere else, hitching rides across the country, she fell for a fellow hitchhiker along the way, and the two traveled together.
They had settled down here when her mother became pregnant. Some people say the man took off. Some say he was hit by a car and died on the spot. Jessie was born, but then her mother became ill and passed away.
"Who took the picture?" Jessie asked.
"I think it was him," Leonard said. "Read the back," he said as he looked at her.
Jessie turned the picture in neat handwriting. It displayed the date a full two years before Jessie was born. Then underneath the date, it said in bold letters: JACKSONVILLE OR BUST.
"They were going to Jacksonville. I thought he was from here?" Jessie asked through teary eyes.
"That was a rumor, neither of them was from here, they found each other on the road. They settled here because your mother was pregnant with you," Leonard said.
"You knew them?" she asked.
"Nah, I saw them around but never spoke to them because I knew the moment they had you, they would be gone," he smiled. "He left her, before you were born, she stayed."
"Where did he go?" Jessie asked.
"Did you read the back?" Leonard asked.
"Jacksonville?" she said.
"Since they were heading south. I figure it meant Jacksonville, Florida," he said, standing up.
"Where did you get the picture?" she asked.
"Found it, when I was cleaning out their apartment," he nodded. "It's yours now."
He left her there to think. Jessie thumbed the picture looking at her mom with her long legs and golden hair. The only thing she had was that suitcase. She looked like she had no cares except for the man who took the picture.
That night Jessie packed all of her clothes into a duffle bag. It wasn't a suitcase like her mom's, but it would do. She picked it up, put it over her shoulder, and headed down the stairs.
"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Jimmy said, standing up from his chair.
"I'm leaving," Jessie said, standing firm. "It's over, Jimmy. It has been over for a while now."
"If you leave, I am not going to chase you this time," Jimmy said, plummeting down into his chair.
Jessie stood there looking down at him. "What are you waiting for?" he asked. "If you're going to go, then fucking go!"
Jessie nodded. She walked towards the door. Then she looked around at him. "Do you love me?"
"Bye Jessie," Jimmy said. His eyes were filled with tears.
"Bye, Jimmy," she said as she closed the door. Jessie walked to the bar to say her goodbyes.
"Leaving now, huh?" Nathan said, wiping the sweat from his face.
"Yes, tear the bandage and all that stuff," Jessie said. Nathan walked around the bar.
"Good," Nathan said.
His big burly arms gave the girl he had known since she was a child the most considerable, tightest hug he could muster. He let her go and then looked down at her.
"You don't come back, you hear me, you leave, and you don't give us a second thought. You got it!"
Jessie nodded. She looked over at Leonard, still sitting on his chair that was always behind the bar. He nodded at her, and she nodded back. She turned to walk out of the bar when a man stepped in front of her.
"Here," he said, handing her a set of keys. He nodded to an old truck parked outside. "She's on her last legs. She won't take you far, might even break down a few miles from here; when she does, you leave her there. She belonged to my ex-wife, and I will be glad to get rid of the damn thing."
Jessie smiled. "Thank you," the man nodded and returned to his table. Jessie got in the truck. It smelled of cigarettes and beer.
