Christmas Griswald sat in her car and cried. She had lost track of time after driving away from Eric's shabby home at 716 Hyland Lane. Her entire life had changed over the past 48 hours, but nothing had hit her like what just happened. Chris had willingly allowed Eric to, not only fuck her, but to degrade and threaten her as well. Before this newfound "sexual awakening", Chris would have never dreamed of cheating on her boyfriend, Josh, much less wanting a man to treat her like garbage. But that was then and this is now.
Her vision was blurry as her eyes were still wet from the constant stream of tears. She had wiped her nose on her old Sal's Pizza shirt. It was a shirt she had always hated, but it afforded her as much modesty as it could in front of the leering eyes of some of her creepiest customers. Now, it was being used as a makeshift kleenex as Chris sat there, bawling her eyes, feeling disgusting for several different reasons.
She felt disgusting for becoming the kind of woman she had always avoided. The kind of woman who didn't respect her boyfriend or the boundaries they had set for their relationship. The kind of woman who would betray the trust of someone who loved her unconditionally. The kind of woman who seeks male approval and would do anything to get it. This type of woman made the former Christmas Griswald's blood boil. This type of woman, though despised by Chris, comforted her because she made her feel better about herself. "At least I'm not like her," she'd tell herself if she ever felt bad.
But she couldn't tell herself that anymore - now she was her.
She also felt disgusting because of her body. While it had been a turn on for men to put her down because of how she looked, their insults stung when she had sobered up from her sexual haze. Chris had always been self conscious of her body and avoided the attention of men because of it. She knew they wouldn't like what they saw. She knew she would never be able to compete with women who were more conventionally attractive. Chris had always felt like an outcast because of this.
Her relationship with Josh made her feel safe from the judgment of others. He always told her how beautiful she was - even if she didn't agree with him. It was nice to have compliments on a daily basis, even if she felt like Josh was only saying those things because they were dating. Chris knew a man, outside of their relationship, wouldn't give her the time of day.
Chris didn't choose to date Josh because he was "all she could get." No. She dated Josh because she genuinely had feelings for him. They had a lot of the same hobbies. They loved the same movies and played the same games. He made her feel special - at least for a while.
The growing resentment she had toward Josh grew and helped nurture Chris' new sexual appetite. The man who used to make her feel like the luckiest girl in the world had now become lazy, unmotivated, and caused her to have to work two jobs to support both of them.
Remembering all the good times Chris had with Josh and his recent shortcomings fueled her sadness.
The clock on her old car was eight hours fast. She had never bothered to fix it or the clocks on her stove or microwave so she never bothered to look at any of them. If she had paid attention to the time in her car, she would know that forty minutes had passed since she left Eric's place and parked in an empty lot behind the abandoned furniture store.
Feeling tired of crying and feeling sorry for herself, Chris took the upper right sleeve of her shirt and wiped her nose one last time. Looking in her rear view mirror, she saw that her eyes were red and puffy - so was her nose. She took a few deep breaths in an effort to snap out of her rut.
While she was trying to come back to her senses, her phone began buzzing. Chris picked it up and looked at who was calling her - it was her boss, Sal. What did he want? Was everything okay? Was she in trouble?
"H-Hello?" she asked, picking up the call.
"Chris? Hey. I need you to come by the store. I need to talk to you about something," he replied.
"Okay. What is it?" she asked.
"Just come by," he snapped, before hanging up.
Sal cursed quietly in his dimly lit, grungy office. He had smoked in his office back when it wasn't against the law to do so. This gave the white walls a yellowish tint and the smell was baked into everything. He didn't care how his office, or any of the rooms that the public didn't see, looked.
Christmas slowly walked toward Sal's open door. She was dressed in her old, dirty uniform - the type of outfit Sal previously disapproved of.
"Come in," Sal gruffed.
She gingerly entered his office.
"Close the door," he barked.
Chris gulped. Usually when Sal wanted to talk to her, the door was wide open. The fact that he wanted her to close it spelled trouble for her, but she did as he instructed. She sat down on a dusty metal chair with a blue hard plastic seat - waiting for what was to come next.
Sal begrudgingly turned around in his office chair to look at Chris. The young girl in front of him looked scared, but smiled meekly at him anyway.
Before he spoke, he let out a long sigh.
"Do you know what this is about?" he asked.
Chris shook her head "no."
"Could you guess?" he retorted.
Chris, again, shook her head "no" - even though she could guess why.
"You're in deep shit," he said leaning forward, "and you can play dumb all you want, but you know exactly why you're in this situation."
She didn't want to lose her job. She couldn't afford to. In order to keep a roof over her head, Chris needed both of the jobs that she had - especially the one at Sal's Pizza. She used to hate working there, but it now provided her an outlet to express her newfound sexual freedom and make more money than she ever dreamed of.
"I got a call from someone on DuLaunge saying that they saw one of our delivery drivers naked on the front porch of a frat house," Sal continued.
Fear and panic set in and Chris clenched her teeth and balled up her fists. At this point, she just wanted him to fire her so she could leave and cry in her car. This was the most embarrassing moment of her life and she didn't expect Sal to ever find out about what she had done the night prior. While she didn't expect it, Chris didn't do anything to hide it either. Her brazen attitude toward exhibitionism had eroded all the common sense she had last night.
"Considering that you delivered to DuLaunge last night, and you meet the physical description of the driver," Sal said, holding both of his hands out from his chest mocking Chris' excessively large breasts, "I'd say that you were the one who took her clothes off for my customers."
