A maid and two brats

15

I made my way to the ice cream shop after I left Dalia's office. Sam almost knocked me right out with a gripping hug as I walked through the doors. Thankfully there was no customer insight. 

"ugh... I missed you so much!" she cried happily.

"I was here yesterday," I raised an amused brow, even though seeing so many new faces in the last few hours made me miss her twice as much.

"such a joy killer" she feigned a frown

"I didn't say I did not miss you." I enjoyed riling her up a bit. "is Gerald in?"

"Usually you're the one getting into trouble" she raised a brow.

"I'm quitting." I released her and walked behind to the changing room.

She gaped at me, "Debby, you do not get to spring such news on me so suddenly." she stood at the doorway, planting her hands on her hips.

 "I received the news just as suddenly too." sighed throwing my apron on. my shift was not until 30 minutes but I decided to help out anyway.

"why?"

"well apart from the distance having to travel from one side of town to another, I need to have my attention completely focused on the bratty toddler otherwise known as Damien Mcarthy."

"since when did you start paying Damien any attention?"

"Since I became his personal maid," I enunciated the word 'personal'.

"you're joking?!"

"yes," I said drily, balancing the baseball cap on my head.

"you're serious" she sounded just as shocked.

"maybe"

"Deborah!" she whined.

"yes bestie" I answered sweetly. 

"what are you talking about?" she folded her hands across her chest.

"I'm Damien's new maid, his personal maid." I winced.

"I thought you weren't going to work as a maid there?"

"I thought so too," I shrugged, "but when life gives you lemons..."

"that does not even apply to this situation"

"it doesn't?" another shrug "whatever."

"you are going to be working with Damien and you're like oh well, whatever?" she gave me the what the hell look.

"He made me eat dark chocolate last night."

"Girl you hate dark chocolate ." I knew she was trying to hold back from laughing. "my point exactly. it's bad enough living through it, I'm not going to torture myself further by talking about it."

"They'll be here soon," she informed me, looking at the wall clock.

"They're not coming today."

"what?"

they found a new abode to torture me. "I just know, now tell me, is Gerald in?"

"He stepped out a minute ago, but he'll be back soon," 

"Okay, I'll wait."

"God I feel so terrible for you bestie," she pouted like she was the one on the receiving end of my pain.

"you don't have to. I get to go to a new school, that's more than enough reward for me."

"But I won't get to see you again, at least not often. "

my lips lifted in a smirk, "Says who?"

*************

The house was eerily quiet when I arrived home and I knew the arrogant prince was having an episode again, seeing everyone's mood.

"what's going on?" I asked in a hushed tone to one of the maids I crossed paths with as I walked to his gaming room.

Her eyes were tear-filled, cheeks stained red and lips quivering as she whispered, "he's calling you."

I hated how he terrorized everyone when he was in a bad mood and I stormed into his room with the rage coursing through me.

He had his back to me in the humongous neon-themed room. He sat next to Aaron, tugging at a game console furiously as they played a game on the big screen. Josh was seated on the plush ottoman next to them, reading a magazine with a girl wearing a bikini on the cover. Zac was not in sight.

No, I was not sad at the fact. I did not care about him. 

"what?" I crossed my arms, standing in front of him. there was no need to feign politeness.

"that's no way to speak to your boss," his attention was focused on the gaming console. 

"I don't have time for this." I walked past him, but he threw the console on the rug, blocking me before I reached the door. 

"yo Damien you cannot just leave the game like that," Aaron said angrily he looked at me like it was the first time he was seeing me, "Hey ugly it's you."

Josh's head snapped up like he had just heard the president's name. He grinned like an i***t. "ugly, what are you doing here? "

"She's my new maid, " Damien said with pride.

"f**k can this get any better. " he chuckled.

"What do you want from me, Damien? " I queried, he was still stopping me from reaching the door. 

"where did you go all day?" the audacity.

"why is that your business?" I snapped.

"ooh," Aaron good," I've never seen ugly so feisty before."

"don't call her that, it's now skinny. that's more befitting." Damien grinned.

I sighed, knowing it was hopeless to correct them on my name again, "why did you call me here?"

"my friends and I need some snacks," he said simply, walking back to his game.

I looked at him bewildered, "and you waited for me to come all the way home before you got some?"

"Yup," he said simply. "now hurry up, the snacks won't get themselves."

Restraining myself from boiling over, I took long deep breaths, before making my way back down to get his snacks.

"you seem upset," Georgia said as I stacked my hand with whatever snacks were stocked in the fridge. juice, soda, fritters, cheesecakes, and whatever I could find.

"oh, you don't even know the half of it ." I forced a smile, making my way back upstairs.

I dropped all the packed food, sighing as they landed with a thud. "can I go to my room now?"

it took a minute before he looked away from his game. his piercing gaze traveled from my hair to the snacks lying helplessly on the floor. "where did these come from?"

I scoffed, rolling my eyes, "oh, you see the first ingredient for making a soda is..."

"you know what I meant" he snapped. 

"Downstairs, in the fridge." I planted my hands on my hips.

"I don't want them," he said simply. great.

"Good, I'll be on my way to my room now."

"I didn't say you could leave," he dug his hand in his pocket and took out some change, tossing it my way ."Go get some snacks from the store. Be quick about it, I'm starving."

I chewed on my lip to hold back from screaming all the curses that swirled in my head.

"Fucker" I screamed inwardly.

Without a word, I leaned down, ignoring the sarcastic pearls of laughter, and picked up the money Damien had thrown to the floor. It took about 10 minutes to rattle off everything they ordered, and since I could not find all the things on the list in one store, I spent another hour racing from one store to another. until I had everything on the list. 

I felt drained and exhausted when I walked back into the house. Balancing every item on each other as I climbed the stair leading to Damien's room. I could not help but wonder why no one ever used the elevator in a house this humongous. 

As if they could tell I was coming, their sarcastic laughs rang through my ears as I reached the door. In a way, I missed Zac. He was really the only member of the group that was not mean to me per se but he was not nice either. 

Until recently.

Squaring my shoulders, I pushed the door open and frowned at the sight before me. Damien had a bottle of half-drunken soda in his hands. I could recognize it from the one I had brought earlier, the one they had rejected. 

Aaron too had a soda in his hand, Josh's bottle was next to him on the floor, and there was a nearly empty box of pizza on the table between them.

I curled my fists, banging the door shut and marching to them. "What's going on?"

"We're having lunch," Damien answered, simply "I love pepperoni pizza."

"And what about all the stuff you and your friends made me scamper about for?" I raised the bag so they could see, because maybe, just maybe they had forgotten. 

"You were taking too long, so we had to find ourselves an alternative."

"You had that option all along and you..." I paused, realizing there was no need to reason with his dumb brain. "what do you want me to do with all these snacks you made me get for you?"

"Toss it in the trash, feed it to the dogs, eat it or whatever, I don't care," 

Keep calm Deb...keep calm...don't lose your s**t and punch him in the balls. 

"Don't look at me that way," he said as I stared at him with bottled-up anger and despise, "take it as your punishment for your sharp mouth this morning and not having my breakfast... call it 'Don't mess with me 101,'" No... don't lose you're cool, decide to be the bigger person, "also clean up this mess, I can't stand so much filth."

"Where's the dirt?" I asked, looking around the room for what he meant. Along with his bedroom, I had wiped this room clean this morning, so there was not a trace of dirt, save for the new litter they had left me with after their lunch.

"It's right here," he tipped his bottle, pouring out all the contents, and successfully spilling coke all over the hardwood floor. "And get it done fast."

Something snapped inside of me at the final straw of his arrogance. Without thinking, I reached for the bottle of milk Aaron had made me buy, It was opened in seconds and I stepped close enough to reach him. He looked puzzled, but I had my plan in mind to carry out. 

Warning signs blared in my head—this is probably a bad idea. This is a terrible idea—but I was way past listening. I tipped the bottle over in the same way he had and spilled chilled milk all over Damiens's head. I could not see Josh and Aaron's faces, but if they had the same expression as Damien, they were absolutely petrified. 

I did not stop until the bottle was completely empty, trickling down his perfectly combed black hair and soaking the grey t-shirt he had on. I tossed the bottle to the ground and gave him a matching glare: "Call that you are a bastard 101," 

Without acknowledging their murderous gazes, I moved past them to the door, "If you need anything I'll be in my room," I said with false sweetness, before banging the door shut and leaving.