Miranda, despite only being in 4th grade, loved makeup. She was very much into costuming, makeup effects and just fashion and makeup in general. And her parents didn't see anything wrong with this, either. If anything, they loved seeing her so passionate about something, and even once or twice discussed amongst themselves whether it would ever lead to anything career wise down the road if nurtured correctly. This Saturday morning, Jason was making breakfast while Miranda sat at the kitchen table watching a video on Youtube about how to do makeup from a fairly popular influencer. After a few minutes more, Jason plated her breakfast and plopped it down in front of her, rubbing her head.
"You having a good morning?" he asked, and she nodded, smiling, picking up her fork and digging into her waffles; Jason walked back to the stove and started making himself some eggs, adding, "Listen, I have to go meet with someone today, so just stay in the house, keep the doors locked and I'll be home fairly quickly, okay?" "Okay," Miranda said, mouthful of waffle. Jason loved this. Sure, the situation it arose from wasn't exactly ideal, but he didn't realize just how badly he'd missed domesticity. After he finished cooking, Jason seated himself at the table and read the paper while Miranda, headphones on, watched her video on his laptop. Afterwards, Jason cleaned up the table, showered, dressed and finally started to head out. As he climbed into his car and looked at himself in the rearview mirror, he sighed. He was somewhat, understandably, scared to do this, but he did need someone to talk to. Even if that someone was the college student he'd ruined his marriage for. *** Kelly wasn't having the best day. Sitting outside Lawrence Mousser's home in her car, watching and sipping her iced coffee, she wanted to shake this bad feeling, but she just couldn't. These were the worst kinds of days, when one could feel something was off tonally, but couldn't do anything to alter it. Kelly chose, instead, to do her best to ignore it, which was proving harder than expected. Lawrence Mousser, as Kelly had learned, was not only the man who had ultimately dismissed Jason from his job after the incident, but also - as Kelly had recently learned - had met her father at a party they'd each attended and told him if Kelly was hoping to get into his school, he hoped her father would provide a generous donation. This rubbed both Kellys father and herself the wrong way, but only Kelly was gutsy enough to do something about it. Kelly had been tailing Lawrence for the last few weeks, watching his patterns, marking everything schedule wise down in her usual little black book, and coming up with just how exactly she would like to see him hurt. Today, however, he left the house earlier than usual, causing Kelly surprise. In all the weeks she'd been following him, he'd never once changed routine. Why now? Kelly started her car as he started his, and once he'd driven a bit down the road, she began to follow, keeping a good length behind so as not to arouse suspicion. After a brief drive through the city, Lawrence stopped at a building Kelly had never seen him stop at before, get out of his car and head inside. It wasn't in a seedy area either, it was just a little shop tucked away somewhere downtown. It was a seemingly perfectly ordinary spot to be. And yet...something about it made Kelly feel unease. She waited for a bit until Lawrence finally returned, got back into his car and then, finally, much to her delight, started on his usual routine. Following him, Kelly thought to herself that now, given this new information, if she really wanted to do this right she was going to have to have all the accurate information necessary beforehand, and this new stop really threw a wrench into that. Kelly almost felt like turning around and checking the building out for herself, but that was a bad idea, she knew, to put herself in a place her victim would maybe frequent. No. She needed to remain as detached as possible. Jason, however...there was no reason he couldn't explore it. *** "Sounds like things have been rough," Emily said, picking up a few chips and dipping them in the bowl of salsa on the table as Jason nodded, leaning back in the chair opposite her at their table. Jason and Emily had agreed to meet at a popular little Mexican place and, instead of ordering separate meals, just eating the chips and salsa and sharing a plate of nachos. "Don't get me wrong, I am happy," Jason said, "but I'm about as happy as happy can be allowed given the situation, you know? Like, realistically, I'd rather have just gotten back together with my ex wife and reconciling everything, but that was obviously never going to happen and I kind of feel like an idiot for ever believing it might've." Emily smiled as their plate of nachos were set in front of them. She sipped from her soda and then started to dig into the plate. "Well," she said, licking cheese off her thumb, "I don't think you're an idiot for wanting or believing that. I think it's sweet, and if there's one thing she and I can agree on it's that that's part of your charm. But, like you said, sick as it might seem to say, at least there's upsides. Now you're with your daughter again and that has to be nice." "It is," Jason said, scratching his stubble, "but...ya know...I feel guilty about being happy just because of the circumstances. That being said, you're not wrong, it is nice and I hate that I'm feeling bad about being happy. It's a double edged sword. Can't feel happy without feeling bad, can't feel bad without feeling bad for feeling bad when I'm happy." Emily laughed as she continued to eat nachos, Jason finally joining in after taking a long drink from his own soda. Honestly, Jason thought, this was nice. He never really expected to see, let alone talk to, Emily again. But this was nice. This was good. It was good for him to have a friend outside of Kelly, someone still attached to the life he continually yearned for. The life that made sense. The life where he didn't help kill people. But that was the thing, wasn't it? You can't go back in time. Jason felt his fingertips touch Emily's as they both reached for the same chips, and Jason pulled his hand away, laughing nervously, apologizing. "Either way, you recognize it, and that's more than most people would be capable of doing," Emily said, "so don't feel too bad, man." Jason hesitated, then cupped his hands. "What are you doing tomorrow night?" he asked, causing Emily to glance up at him and blink a few times, smiling nervously. "Uh...tomorrow night? Nothing, why?" "Because I miss having dinner with an adult," Jason said, sighing, "I've been spending too much time with children." *** Jason was excited. Today had been great, and he and Emily had a dinner metup set for the following night. Nothing romantic, either, just two adults being friends. Standing in his bathroom, brushing his teeth, Jason couldn't help but feel like, for the first time since his life fell apart, he actually was feeling good about himself for the right reasons again. Like things were returning to at least what could be considered semi normal. Jason finished brushing, put his toothbrush back in the cup on the sink, then headed out of the hall bathroom. As he headed to the kitchen for a glass of water before bed, he heard the light tapping on his front door and sighed. He knew that sound all too well. Jason walked to the door and, after unlocking it, pulled the door open to, as expected, find Kelly standing on his porch. They looked at one another for a moment, before Jason finally moved aside, allowing Kelly to enter and shutting the door behind her. Kelly put her purse on the kitchen table, following Jason into the kitchen so he could finally get his glass of water. "Didn't expect to see you today," Jason said as he searched for a glass in the cabinet. "Are you disappointed to?" Kelly asked, making him laugh. "No," Jason said, chuckling as he filled his glass with water, "not at all, it's good to see you. I feel like we haven't been connecting as much as we were. How was your day?" "...I need your help, Jason," Kelly said, causing him to sigh. "Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that. Alright, hit me with it, what's going on?" Jason asked as Kelly sat on one of the chairs by the table, pulling a nail file from her purse and getting to massaging her nails as she spoke. "Well, for one thing," she started, "I need you check out a building for me. Lawrence Mousser usually had a pretty strict routine, but today he made a stop at-" "Lawrence Mous...Larry? From the college?" Jason asked, now fully invested, setting his now empty water glass on the counter and coming around towards her, "Larry Mousser? That's who you're targeting? For what reason?" "Extortion. Told my father the only way he'd ever allow me entrance into the school would be if a large donation came along for the ride," Kelly said, "and, seeing as what he did to you, since you told me last month, I figured it'd be one you wouldn't mind getting some kind of revenge on." Jason nodded, hands on his hips, chewing his lip. "...where's this building?" he asked, and Kelly smiled. *** Kelly and Jason drove back down to the area she'd followed Lawrence to earlier that afternoon and parked across the street from it. Again, its storefront was innocuous. Completely innocent. Devoid of any and all sorts of things that might convey something sinister within its walls. Sitting in the car, eating the snacks they'd picked up at a nearby convenience store and watching the building for any signs of activity whatsoever, Jason couldn't help but admit to himself that he had, in fact, missed these little stakeouts. "How're things going with you? I'm sorry we haven't had the chance to hang out and work as much," Jason said as Kelly bit into a taquito. "It's alright," she said, chewing, shrugging, "I've been okay. Been doing a lot of therapy lately. Nothing too exciting." "...you know I can't keep doing this forever, right?" Jason asked, and Kelly slowed her munches, turning her head to look at him as he sighed and added, "I didn't know how to say it, but...listen, I'm forever grateful for what you've done for me, and...and I honestly don't know where I'd be without your pity, and I'm happy to have helped you get revenge on some quite honestly despicable people, so it's not a personal thing. But I'm trying to get a new degree so I can start a new career so I can raise my daughter better and...it's just...this doesn't fit into that schedule anymore." Kelly nodded slowly, eating the last bite of that particular taquito and wiping her hands on a nearby napkin. She cleared her throat and looked at the building again before looking back at Jason, who did have a genuinely sorry look on his face that made it hard to be mad at him. "I guess I sort of assumed that maybe you wanted to help me because you couldn't be there for your own daughter," she said, "like, maybe you were making up for something. I'm happy she's important to you, as she should be. I'd be nobody without my father, so I get the necessity of having her in your life. That being said, I won't deny being a little disappointed. Here I thought we were in it for the long haul and-" "Kelly, come on," Jason said, the both of them laughing lightly, aware of what she was doing; he continued, "You know I'd dedicate my life to helping you eradicate scum if I could, but I have a daughter. And she's not your age, she's young, she needs guidance, you know? I gotta be there for her. Lately she's been really getting into makeup and girls who run, like, makeup and beauty video channels online and I just...I wanna watch her become who she's gonna be and support that as well." Kelly smiled, nodding, as she reached over and patted Jason on the leg. "You're a good father, and I'm sorry it took your ex wife going into a coma to prove that," she said, "and now, before the schmaltz police come and arrest us, get in there and do your thing." Jason nodded, pulled his animal mask down over his face and climbed out of the car. He pulled his gloves on over his hands and headed across the street as Kelly watched from afar with binoculars as he approached the building. Jason peeked into the window of the storefront, but couldn't see anything. He reached out and touched the handle, pulling, but it was locked. Jason then reached inside, pulled out the lockpicking tool Kelly had gotten for them and quickly unlocked it. Oddly enough, no alarms sounded. There was no security system present, it appeared. Jason vanished into the darkness of the building, leaving Kelly to wonder what it was he was discovering. What it was, in actuality, was a shop. Full of textbooks. Absolutely full of textbooks covering every course, every topic, everthing that was taught at the college. Textbooks that ran students hundreds of dollars, money they often didn't see recouped. And here Lawrence was, hoarding them and, from what Jason could tell, selling them at a marked up value to another college. Jason picked one of them up and shook his head, disgusted with Larry's business practices. He'd never much cared for the guy, but now? Now he really loathed him. Just an utterly horrid man in a cheap suit. After about ten minutes, Jason finally emerged, came back across the street and climbed back inside the car, pulling his mask off as he did and running his hands through his hair. "Well?" Kelly asked. "He's selling his own schools textbooks at a markup to other colleges," he said, "normally this wouldn't be an issue, but considering the fact that the year I was last working there he claimed there was a shortage and, as a result, requested students who wanted or needed them pay extra to attain it, yeah, he's a lying sack of shit that needs to be dealt with. Between this, what he did to me and what he said to your father? I'm definitely down for getting rid of this guy." Kelly smirked and put the car in drive. "That's the kind of attitude I missed," she said as they pulled away from the curb, asking, "so, your daughter likes makeup huh?" *** Sunday mornings. Always the best day of the week. Jason got to sleep in a little, and when he did finally start to stir, he made himself a healthy breakfast, went for a jog and thought about his upcoming dinner with Emily that evening. As he went about his duties for the day, Miranda spent her Sunday afternoon in her pajamas, drinking iced tea and watching even more makeup tutorials on Youtube. Most of the popular ones she'd seen, her favorites hadn't uploaded anything new, but after a bit of clicking around, she finally landed on one that looked promising. The girl in the thumbnail was, in fact, gorgeous. She looked like an expert at not just applying makeup but also crafting a wardrobe. Miranda clicked through to that video, and as it loaded up and started to play, she adjusted the headphones on her ears and settled in for a lesson from someone clearly intelligent about the subject. "Hi," the girl said, tossing her long blonde hair behind her and flashing a perfect smile at the camera as she waved playfully, "I've never done this sort of thing before, but I guess it's good to try a new hobby, especially one you're already good at." Miranda chuckled. This girl was not only good at what she did, but charismatic too? A perfect combo. "Anyway," the video continued, "welcome to my channel, and please just be aware right off the bat that I am not doing this as a career, I don't wanna work in the field, I just know that there's a lot of young girls out there who maybe don't have great relationships with their moms or maybe even have moms and don't have sisters and as such they don't have anyone to teach the very basic ins and outs of makeup, you know? In a way that is simple and easy to learn and remember. So that's really what I'm here for more than anything else. I grew up in a very, um, appearance savvy family, my father is a fashion photographer, so I know all about this stuff because I've been surrounded by models and stuff my whole life. Alright, let's begin with something very standard. And, if you're here for this first video, please, leave a comment, and maybe we could connect more and I could give you makeup tips! My name, for those unaware, is Kelly Baker, and I'm happy to be here to teach you everything you need to know."
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A rich teenage girl befriends a desperate man in his thirties to kill people that get in the way of her or her family happiness and fortune. Slowly, the mans guilt eats away at him, while the girl ego rises to dangerous heights. Archives
July 2023
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