#and my manager wanted the boxes flattened and stacked on a pallet

[abejapeludx]

i will be sisyphus for $14.00/h

[chloe-caulfield94]

Chloe the Anger Management Therapist

Chloe paused for a moment. Her face betrayed she was thinking intensively.

“Max, do you sometimes feel … angry? I used to feel angry all the time. Angry that even though I tried my hardest to be a good daughter, a good friend and a good student, my life collapsed anyway. Angry that I fucked up my scholarship at Blackwell, which was the last thing my dad would’ve wanted. Angry that I always seemed to chase away the few people still in my orbit. Is that how you feel, sometimes?”

“Yes. I feel like that. Angry with myself for all the wrong choices I made. Angry with the people who hurt you and me”.

“Max, do you trust me?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then come with me, I know what would make you feel better!”

They left the Caulfield residence. Ryan and Vanessa, seeing them walk out, said: “Have fun you two! Don’t be too late!”, thinking the girls were simply leaving for a Friday date.

Chloe drove Max to the auto garage she worked at. Nobody was there and all the lights were out.

“Are you going to show me some expensive car that a rich client left for repairs? In the hopes that on the backseat of such a car it would be easier to steal a kiss from me?”

Chloe knew some of the other mechanics tried things like that with their dates. If a particularly trendy car found itself in the garage, it could become a spot where more than one couple kissed.

“You know my tricks too well, Max”.

But instead of taking Max into the auto shop, Chloe took her around the side of the building, to a grassy backyard next to it, surrounded by trees on three sides. It was secluded and not covered by the garage’s security cameras. Stacks of garbage covered it. Cardboard boxes, polystyrene packaging, wooden pallets, rusting car parts. Chloe told her to wait. She soon came back, carrying two sledgehammers, two pairs of thick gloves and two pairs of plastic goggles.

“Max, do you know what a demolition room is? It’s place where you can unload all your anger. Well, this here is not a room, more of a demolition backyard. I had something similar set up in the junkyard, back in Arcadia Bay. Unfortunately, there are no old TVs here, which are the most satisfying thing to break. But there’s lots of other stuff to smash. Want to give it a try?”

Chloe thought that Max would require some convincing or even a demonstration before she would dare to begin demolishing. But Max snatched the gloves and goggles from Chloe’s hands and quickly put them on. Placing the goggles on her face, Max was reminded of the time they had murdered Chloe’s dolls by blowing them up. Chloe stacked up cardboard boxes and polystyrene pieces. Max began to demolish. Swinging the hammer, she flattened cardboard and splintered polystyrene. Max imagined the boxes she squashed were heads. Each time she squashed one, she insulted its owner.

“Eat shit and die!” - she shouted when she squashed Mister Jefferson’s head.

“Fuck off with your teary voicemail! Nobody forced you to hurt Rachel and to attempt to do the same to my Chloe!” - she shouted when she squashed Nathan.

“How about a sledgehammer up the ass?” - she shouted when she squashed Frank.

“How does it feel? Like the good shit you knew Nathan hooked Kate up with?” - she shouted when she squashed Victoria.

“I’m sorry! But you just keep pushing me!” - she shouted when she squashed David.

Chloe stood there, leaning on her sledgehammer, in awe of Max’s fury.

When Max was done decimating the cardboard and polystyrene army, Chloe brought a box full of empty beer bottles. None of those bottles had been emptied by Chloe. The other mechanics knew she was still a year shy of legal drinking age, so they never offered her a drink. But even if they did, she wouldn’t. She never liked the taste of beer. She had begun to drink in a vain attempt to drown her loneliness. Now, her loneliness had already been drowned, in Max’s affections. But the other mechanics provided a steady supply of empty bottles.

Chloe lined twenty bottles up. This time, they smashed together. Once they were done, they were both panting, with their brows and hair covered in sweat.

Max dropped her hammer, took off her gloves and goggles and jumped at Chloe, kissing her passionately. Chloe removed her safety gear too and kissed her back. Each run her hands through the other’s hair. They collapsed into a pile of cardboard, which cushioned their fall and turned out to be surprisingly comfortable.

Max was very bold in her kisses and caresses. Chloe stopped her: “Hold on, Max. You want our … first time to happen here? On a pile of garbage?”

“No, I want it to happen in a place where my wise and empathetic girlfriend cured my anger. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be Chloe the Elf Barbarian? Isn’t making love with your sisters in arms on piles of fallen enemies what you barbarians do?”

“Woah, Maximus! Making love on piles of fallen enemies? Was that a flashback of the time you were a gladiator in ancient Rome?”

Max laughed out loud.

“What’s so funny Max?”

“Maximus! You haven’t used that one in a while! Hearing that, I imagined you as the emperor’s sister …”

“Hey! I could totally be Roman royalty!”

“Of course! With your naturally commanding presence, you could be a Roman empress, like Irene of Athens. You even have a Greek name, too. I laughed, because if you are the emperor’s sister, then I’m Russell Crowe!”

They both laughed, pearly.

And then it happened. Exactly in the place Max wanted it to happen.