Who: Wrath and a random What: Mostly bitching When: Sunday Where: Some diner in NYC Warning: Language
It was her first day at a new job. She was washing dishes for some shitty diner she couldn't remember the name of. It changed so often it hardly mattered. Washing dishes suited her. It was better than waitressing because she didn't deal with people so well. All she had to do was spray the dishes down, load the washer, and then send the clean dishes back out to be used again.
She took a smoke break a few hours into her shift. The alley around the back of the diner was handy for smokers even though it smelled like a strange concoction of stale cigarettes, fish and piss. Wrath leaned up against the wall anyway, and she lit a cigarette, inhaling deeply.
The door opened beside her and Wrath instinctively moved away from it, hoping the person who was about to join her wouldn't actually join her. No luck. A rotund man who was wearing a apron smeared with what was likely hamburger fat, waddled over and he leaned up against the wall beside her, lighting his own cigarette. "You're the new girl. Acrimonia, huh? Cruel parents?"
Wrath glanced at the man and she inhaled smoke into her lungs, holding it there for a moment before laughing while she expelled the smoke through her nose. "The cruellest," she said, as if he could possibly have any idea. She actually liked the name Acrimonia. It was nicer than 'Wrath' and since most people in this dumbass generation had no idea what acrimonious even meant, most of them just thought it was some kind of froofy name. It amused her.
"I'm Al," said Al. He smiled at her and then he stuck his cigarette in his mouth so he could hold a hand out for her. She didn't shake it. "Not so friendly, huh? That's fine." He let his hand fall back to his side with a shrug. "Why are you here washing dishes then? I think a pretty girl like you could have any job she wanted."
This was why Wrath tried not to talk to people. It never led anywhere good. "I think fatass pricks like you should shut the fuck up and keep their opinions to themselves," she hissed at him. Then she waited for the inevitable yelling or the slam of the door that meant he had gone in to report her for her behaviour. Four hours on the job and she was about to lose it. But no yelling or slamming if doors was forthcoming. Instead, he laughed. And she couldn't help herself.
"Yeah, what's so fucking funny, fatass?" she asked, throwing her cigarette down and stomping on it so she was ready if he threw a punch. She tucked her hair behind her ears and glared at him.
"I've seen dozens of girls just like you is all," Al explained. "Foul-mouthed girls who think they have to act prickly 'cause the world dealt them a shitty hand. Let me guess, you did time? You had a bad daddy? Your boyfriend beat you up?"
Wrath arched an eyebrow at him. "Try all three."
"Fuck," Al whispered. "Still, you all think you're alone, but you're a dime a dozen. Hell, I did time myself way back when."
Wrath hated men like this. Men who tried to take poor, broken girls under their wing. He was a mentor and he probably had a kind heart if he wasn't a pervert, but Wrath didn't get that feeling from him. She wanted to rip that kind heart right out of him, but she didn't fancy having to leave the city. She never attracted these kind of papa bear mentors when she was in her male form, but she had found that when men beat the shit out of people, it was always judged more harshly than when women did. It was blatant sexism, but it worked in Wrath's favour like this.
"I am not a fucking stereotype. Fuck you and your generalisations."
"You're young," Al said, expelling smoke from his lips as he talked.
Wrath laughed. "No," she hissed. "I'm not. And I didn't ask you to judge me, so why don't you fuck right off."
Al held his hands up and he nodded. "Sure thing, princess."
"I am not your fucking princess," Wrath hissed. Then, unable to help herself, she charged up to him, grabbed his cigarette from his lips, and hurled it into the alley. "Go fetch, fucker," she growled and then she stalked back into the diner, leaving him out there.
He still didn't report her. She finished her shift and got told she could return tomorrow. She left without looking to see if Al was planning on giving her some kind of knowing look she would want to cut off of him.
As long as she could avoid him, this job would be fine for a while.