Vamping It Up; Are you ready?

Poor Holly! What is she going to do now that her long term fiance has revealed himself to be a liar and a cheat?

***

The harps sounded again.

I want the ring back. Bring it by tonight.

 Rage welled inside of her, hotter than the blistering road. The sun no longer burned.

“Fuck.”

 Holly rarely let herself use the ultimate profanity. As the expletive burst from her mouth, a valve inside of her soul released.

Fuck him.

Fuck his father, fuck her dependency, and fuck her making him the axis of her universe.

She wasn’t going to be his patsy, his best friend, his lover-but-not-really. Holly was done being his doormat.

She poked out the words to her return message. You want it, you get it yourself.

The harps sang with Blaine’s response. If you want to cop an attitude, that’s your problem, not mine.

Holly dumped the phone back into her bag. With the same hand, she removed the offending Batman comic she had bought for his gift. With deliberate, precise movements, she tore open the slick plastic bag. She gripped the front cover and with a surge of strength, shredded each and every page into tiny, multicolored confetti.

The story had been a steaming pile of misogynistic doo-doo anyway. She dumped the heaping pile of crap into the garbage can by the driver.

Hell.

She should have gotten her money back. The refund could have paid for her first vibrator.

Vamping It Up will be released Friday, October 24th! Meet Holly Barros, a shy, young woman who is about to find out some very unwelcome news.

***

An angelic harp arpeggio emanated from her backpack. “Oh.” That was Blaine’s text message tone. She plunged her hand into her cavernous bag. Probably some last minute instructions for tonight’s party planning dinner. What to wear, perhaps, or who she needed to talk to. Huffing and puffing from the heat, she unlocked the screen.

Theresa  is having my baby. I won’t marry you. 

Holly froze. He couldn’t mean Theresa Harrison, the bane of Holly’s existence? Her arch enemy from kindergarten to sophomore year of high school?

She blinked her eyes, shook her head. The heat must have done a number on her vision. Blaine couldn’t have said that. She must have misread it. Confident again, she opened her eyes.

And there it was, in damning black and white.

Theresa is having my baby. I won’t marry you.

The words twisted in front of her. The bottom of her stomach plummeted, leaving her hollow and brittle. The seat burned her thighs, but it barely registered. Nothing mattered except the message on the screen.

Blaine didn’t want her. Her entire existence for the last five years had been centered on Blaine. When she traveled to see her aunt or to attend out of town school functions, he complained. Holly knew it was because he loved her and wanted her around. She called him every morning to wake him and she called him at night to tuck him in.

The skin on her scalp yanked tight, adding to the headache streaking along her brow line. Unthinking, she unwound her ponytail. The curly black strands stuck to her forehead and neck. She’d not cut her hair since she was seventeen when Blaine told her he liked long hair. Even the cherry-dotted mini-sundress she wore was in response to Blaine’s tastes, even though its beige background clashed with the brown skin and black hair of her Portuguese ancestors.

Small, strong, with a full bottom but small breasts, she secretly wanted to wear pin-up girl clothes to show off her rear. Instead, the little dress was cut straight up and down; a style best suited for a narrow-hipped, fair-skinned waif. Like Theresa.

Who was she if she wasn’t Blaine Harrington’s girlfriend?