Free Jennifer Needs a Job by Huck Pilgrim

Jennifer Needs
a Job

    Jennifer stomped out of her mother's home and
flung the heavy door into its frame. It landed with an unsatisfying
thud. She reached for the handle, hoping to pull it open and slam
it a second time, but the handle wouldn't turn and the door held
fast in the jamb. "Fuck me," she hissed. She kicked the bottom
panel of the door with her bare foot and felt a sharp pain.
Jennifer wanted to cry. Reaching to her pocket for her keys, she
realized she was still wearing her sleep shorts. They were short
and loose-fitting, made of soft terrycloth, and comfortable as
hell. They had no pockets. Her keys were in her bedroom.
    "Fucking bitch," Jennifer spat. She ran her
fingers through her long, dirty-blonde hair. She had just made a
dramatic exit. She couldn't very well knock on the door now and ask
for her keys. Her mom would laugh at her.
    "Fuck you," Jennifer hissed at the door. "I
ain't never coming back," she added, raising her voice
dramatically. Even as the words came out of her mouth, she hoped to
be back on the couch in time for Jerry Springer, just before
dinner.
    Jennifer hobbled to the front porch steps.
Shielding her eyes from the hot afternoon sun, she plopped down on
the top step. Her tan thighs and heavy breasts wobbled. She was an
attractive girl and well-proportioned, but if her beauty had a mar,
it was that her blossoming body had taken her by surprise. She
didn't always know how to carry herself. Her mother would scold her
for sitting with her legs too far apart, or her girlfriends would
pull back when Jennifer sidled up to them, pressing her chest
against their bodies. Reaching inside her bra, Jennifer found a
crumpled one dollar bill and a cigarette lighter. She peered
between her boobs but there was nothing else. Her cigarettes were
probably inside the house with her keys. She could feel the urge
for nicotine rising inside her. She put her head in her hands and
made a rueful little laugh. She was one desperate bitch. Barefoot.
Broke. In need of a Newport.
    The skin on her foot was broken and it was
bleeding. Jennifer hobbled to the house next door, feeling certain
her neighbor Dray would have a cigarette.
    Jennifer sat on the toilet seat, her head
swimming with nicotine. Dray sat on the edge of the tub, dabbing at
her foot with a medicated cotton ball. He was her mother's age, and
Jennifer liked to watch him play basketball with the neighborhood
boys, his muscled back dark and wet with sweat. His gift was a no
nonsense posture he carried with ease, and he was often called upon
to settle disputes between neighbors throughout the Hoover Home
projects. He never laughed at Jennifer.
    Jennifer tapped her ash into the sink basin and
Dray affixed an adhesive bandage to her foot. His eyes rose from
her foot and lingered on her sleep shorts.
    Jennifer froze.
    His eyes were fixed between her legs. Her face
caught fire. Too shocked to move her legs, she felt ashamed for how
she was sitting and wished she had put on a different pair of
shorts. She lowered her head, her legs still wide apart. The thrill
of exposing herself made the warmth in her cheeks spread to her
core, and that spreading warmth made it more difficult for her to
marshal the nerve to rearrange her legs.
    Dray moved her foot from his lap.
    "You hungry?" he asked.
    In the other room, Jennifer sat at the breakfast
bar and Dray fried eggs.
    "Bitch wants me to start paying rent," she
said.
    He squinted his eyes skeptically. "You don't pay
rent?" he asked.
    "Fuck no," she said. "It's my parent's
house."
    He pursed his lips but didn't say anything. He
flipped one of the eggs on its head and it sizzled in the pan.
    "It's a fucking dump anyhow," she said.
    He kept his head pointed to the pan, but his
eyebrows went up on his forehead.
    "All these places are," she said.
    Dray inhaled deeply but held his tongue.
    He slid the egg out of the pan and onto a slice
of toast. He put another piece of toast on top and then slid the
plate in front of Jennifer.