Chapter 8
Junior Gets Shafted, Or Does He?
Rubbing a warm hand against this damp forehead, Pablo Robles Junior glanced at the bright green lawn he'd just finished mowing. The nineteen year-old had been hoping to finish with the assorted yard work by one in the afternoon. Unfortunately, his Aunt Cecilia, or Aunt Cessy for short, kept coming up with one chore after another, effectively prolonging the agony of the young man being out there in the scalding sun.
And then, just when Junior was about to finish mowing the grass, his aunt had very conveniently hopped into her silver Honda and driven away. Junior saw neither a flash nor a mention of the twenty bucks Aunt Cessy promised to pay him for his labor-intensive endeavor. It had been bad enough that Junior hadn't been able to get any kind of job for the last couple of weeks, with that drug misdemeanor permanently blackening his record. But now, to do all this stupid yard work and to get stiffed by his own aunt? That was the final straw!
With a grimace, Junior glanced at his last appointed task. He was supposed to break up an old couch into smaller pieces and toss it into the garbage.
"Fuck!" The young man cursed out loud, knowing that the big garbage tub was already filled near capacity. No way all that debris from the couch was going to fit in there. If he knew his Aunt Cessy, she might well start deducting dollars from his promised pay for such a minor infraction as that one.
"Fuck!" Junior exclaimed again, aiming these particular obscenities towards all judgmental and unforgiving employers, law enforcement in general, and his cheapskate aunt in specific. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"
The couch was going to pay, Junior thought, as he stalked into the open garage where the innocent piece of furniture was resting. He contemplated the many forms of torture the garage had provided for him. He could snip at it with the hedge clippers, slice at it with the weed cutter, beat it with the shovel, or if he felt so inclined, attempt to run the damn thing over with the lawn mower he'd just turned off a few minutes ago. As he ran his gaze over the handful of shelved, combustible liquids, then scanned across the floor at the rest of the gardening tools, he came to the form of a sledgehammer with a two-foot handle. Perfect, Junior thought, yanking the heavy item out and testing its grip.
"Come here, little couchy couchy." He teased, stepping over to the offensive piece of furniture. "I got something for your punk ass!"
Junior lowered the heavy sledge to the ground, where it reverberated a dull and echoing thud against the concrete floor of the garage. Peeling off his sweaty shirt and tossing it aside, the teen momentarily wished he had a boom-box nearby, preferably set to a hard rock radio station.
Then, the sledgehammer eagerly hopped into his hands, and smoothly swung out in its graceful, upward arc. It crashed down like lightning, crippling the defenseless armrest and making it cry out in splintery protest. A second strike ripped through fabric and exposed the shattered wood beneath, followed quickly by a third and slanted blow that nearly tore the pleading armrest away from the rest of the couch. A couple of vicious kicks finished dislodging the limb, after which Junior pulled out his folding blade and cut the last of the clingy fabric away. One armrest down, he thought, and the rest of the couch was going down right after it.
The teen held the fragment out before him like a trophy. Once he turned to parade it out to the garbage tub, Junior realized he'd acquired an audience. His eighteen-year-old cousin Diamond and some unknown friend, of the same age judging from the other girl's appearance, were both standing in the driveway staring at him.
Undeterred, Junior dumped the trash, then realized the two girls were holding schoolbooks and had backpacks slung over their shoulders. "Hey, Diamond, what time is it?"
"Two-thirty." His pretty cousin answered, glancing at her watch and blowing a small balloon of bubble gum out of her mouth until it popped. "Watcha doin'? It looked like you were dreaming you were at a mosh pit or something."
Junior ignored her, staring at the now brimming garbage tub and knowing no more trash would fit in it. No wonder his bitch aunt had taken off, right after having seen that he was almost finished. Right when the time was approaching for her to fork over the cash.
"Fine then, don't talk to me." Diamond snootily raised her nose in the air and walked towards the front door of the two-story house. "Dick!"
"Shut up, Diamond." Junior testily replied, all the while wondering when Aunt Cessy was coming back.
"You shut up." Diamond snapped back, followed by a low chuckle from her friend. "Don't be telling me to shut up. You ain't nobody to be telling me to shut up!"
Junior considered issuing a smart answer to that, as the girls paused to unlock the front door. In a rare moment, he bit his tongue. Instead, the teen's gaze took in his younger cousin's maturing body. Diamond was a little on the short side, maybe five-foot-one, with a lean figure that was several pounds lighter than the century mark. She had long black hair and a pretty almond shaped face, with thin stretches that only barely qualified as lips. Her pink blouse had spaghetti straps, showing off her slender shoulders, and clung to her small, perky breasts. Diamond's waist was extra lean, giving her bigger butt a lot of extra oomf, and her nicely curved derriere was presently covered in a tight, white skirt. Junior preferred his women with a little more meat on their bones, however, as he considered Diamond's long and skinny toothpicks-slash-legs. All in all, she wasn't too horrible to look at, as far as cousins went.
Diamond's friend didn't look too bad, either. She was a cute white chick, a blond with short, sassy hair that didn't quite touch her shoulders. Junior guessed her to be maybe five-foot-four, and to weigh somewhere between one-twenty and one-forty. Much more to his liking, he observed that this hottie without a doubt carried D cups. The well-rounded boobs noticeably pressed against the front of her white tee shirt. Her big, healthy butt stood nicely defined by the tight jeans she wore.
Junior wouldn't have minded going a couple of rounds with that one. He stood there, watching lustily as the two young ladies gained entry into the house. Very obviously, his cousin gave him a raspberry when she noticed the young man's leering attention, and slammed the door shut behind her.
As Junior turned his focus back to the crippled couch, he found he didn't have the patience or the heart to finish it off. Not that it mattered one way or the other, he realized. It was becoming crystal clear that he wasn't going to be paid that day, or perhaps any other day, by his long-gone, cheapskate aunt.
Instead, the teen dragged the heavy piece of furniture back into the farther reaches of the garage, and returned all the tools he'd used into their original resting places. Having finished this task, Junior snatched his shirt up from where he'd set it and rolled the garage door down from the outside.
He was about to begin the short trek back to his parents' house, when he realized just how sweaty and grimy he was. If there was one thing Junior couldn't stand, it was walking around smelling like a giant, stinky armpit. Since his aunt had just stiffed him for twenty clams, the teen thought he'd be justified in taking a quick shower at the stingy woman's expense.
Junior was stepping toward the front door when he saw the curtains abruptly slide shut. Probably his venom-tongued cousin, he figured, waiting to bathe him with even more choice expletives.
Whatever, the young man thought to himself, hoping his cousin hadn't been so immature as to lock him out of the house. The knob turned, thankfully, and Junior stepped into the tiny foyer and removed his dirty sneakers. He started across the living room in his socks, noticing that both Diamond and her cute buddy were sitting nearby. Both hotties were pretending they'd been watching television, although it was pretty clear that they weren't. They were up to something, Junior's senses warned.
He felt the need to vocalize his intentions. "Uh, I'm going to take a quick shower before I hit the road, okay?"
"So, who's stopping you?" Diamond snapped back.
Diamond's friend tried and failed to suppress a giggle.
So Diamond wanted to show off, Junior realized. In retaliation, he balled up his sweaty shirt and flung it in his cousin's direction. The teen scored a direct hit to the head.
"Ewww!" Diamond squealed, slapping the shirt away as if it were diseased. "Don't be trying to give me your nasty cooties!"
Junior ignored the outburst and made his way down the hall. The residence had two stories, with the top level harboring three bedrooms: one for his aunt, one for his cousin, and a spare room where guests could sleep over. The first floor had the usual, a living room, a dining room, a washroom and a kitchen. Lucky for him, it also had a three-quarters bathroom that he'd emptied his bladder in earlier.
He walked into the downstairs bathroom, making sure he shut the door behind him, and shucked off the remaining pieces of clothing still on his body. Reminding himself to change gear as soon as he got home, Junior started up the shower, tested the water for optimal warmth, and tiredly stepped inside. The tropical beach-themed shower curtain and opaque liner were plenty thick enough for privacy.
