Work Text:
Right now…
Julia’s probably slow dancing with that bleached blonde Emma and she’s probably getting frisky.
Right now…
Julia’s buying her a fruity little drink cause she sucks bad at shooting whiskey.
Right now…..
“No no no fucking erase…” MK told herself as she facepalms while spamming the backspace button on her keyboard. The nightly private hate poems have continued but after filling her notebook completely to the brim she went digital to save the $3 it would cost to buy a new one, and to save her hand from future arthritis after writing so damn much. Unfortunately for her, the lack of ideas of what to write have been dwindling steadily. It started with simple Linkin Park quotes, and whatever her brain could cook up. But two months of repeatedly writing hate poems towards Julia really fried her creativity.
“i’m resorting to blatantly ripping off Carrie fucking Underwood now? The fuck is wrong with me?”
It's been a tad over two months since the day MK and Julia broke up for good, the day MK tries to forget but can’t shake the storm and the cloud of negativity it struck her with. She was four words away from starting the next chapter in her life, but it took three words to burn the current chapter to smithereens before it could finish.
And it's all Julia’s fault…
But MK can’t find herself believing that last part. She constantly blames herself for being so oblivious to the massive sign that Julia was acting very suspicious that fateful day. The mixed up drink from Starbucks, her little squeak of shock when her phone went off at the movie theater. Her scrambling to find a valid and acceptable lie for said reaction. “My PhOnE iS oN fIvE pErCeNt!” She is so attached to her phone that anyone with a half working brain would know she more than likely has a charger in her purse. And to top it off, the blatant lie when she pulled out the supposed 5% battery phone a couple hours later to snap pictures of the aesthetically appealing view. “I sHuT iT oFf sO i CaN tAkE tHeSe PiCs NoW.” MK even noted to herself that Julia never turned off her phone but was so caught up in the fact that she was about to ask her for her hand in marriage that she scurried that thought bubble away so she could process the moment.
That fucking phone ruined MK, the idea of love to her prior to her relationship with Julia was that it was “mushy shit” that’ll “always end in heartbreak.” Unfortunately for her, Julia got her to abandon that mindset while they were together. To everyone, the MKulia (don’t say that in front of MK or she will kill you) relationship was super stable. You could ask MK herself during that period and she would say she is happier than she ever was in life. She had someone who understood her, who loved her, who ACCEPTED her. But now? MK ponders if it was all just snake oil. Where did she go wrong? And why she can’t stop beating herself up over this. Her own thesis on love was correct at the end of the day, what gives?
It’s the lack of closure and this being MK’s first real heartbreak. Anger and depression are common with heartbreak but she can’t break either. She needs closure but is too broken to get anything done. The only thing she could muster up were the nightly hate poems that honestly hurt her more than helped her as it kept reminding her of that final day. In a world where progress always means going forward MK is in a sideways loop. Again, that fucking phone broke her… and there’s times that all she hears is that stupid fucking-
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buzz…
buzz…
buzz…
Ma
“Are you alive up there Yogi?”
ugh… of course Mom remains oblivious that her daughter has been going through it…
“yes.”
“Then come downstairs we need to have a talk.”
greattttttt….. MK begrudgingly walks borderline snail pace downstairs to procrastinate whatever bullshit her mom has to offer. Is she making her get a job? Is she making her apply to university and stop bumming around 24/7? All MK knows is that it's gonna be some grade A bull-
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“Your father and I have been really worried about you lately Mikki…
shit… a sentence in and it's already a massive Pandora's Box, pulling out her old nickname right from the get go is not a good sign.
“Please don’t call me that… but what do you mean?”
Her mother sighs, “listen Mik- MK… the last couple weeks you’ve done nothing besides bum around in your room doing nothing, you are almost 20 years old for god’s sake you shouldn’t be lazy like this!”
yep, this is awful… wait did she say only a couple weeks? it's been quite a bit longer dumbass, maybe read the blaring signs that your daughter is struggling. MK puts her hands in her pockets and slouches down on the couch hoping to just melt and get out of this makeshift confrontation.
“it’ll be fine, ma…”
“Not if you just go back up there and do nothing… What do you even do up there all day? What happened to you going outside and being social. Where’s that Julia girl you were always with???”
MK’s eyes lit up the second that last sentence exited her mother’s mouth, and she’s now one more bad sentence from lighting her mother up…
“You’re kidding me right?” she asks her with anger steadily building up.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not fucking serious right?”
“Language, Mik…”
Yep, shit’s about to go down now.
“You have no fucking idea what i’m going through! How can you even call yourself a mother when you are so braindead at the key signs that i’ve been fucked up the last couple months. You said weeks Mom, WEEKS. IT'S BEEN MONTHS! Wanna know why i’ve been fucked up? That “Julia girl I was always with” cheated on me and I found mere MINUTES that I was gonna PROPOSE… PROPOSE MOM… HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW MY LIFE? AM I EVEN YOUR FUCKING DAUGHTER?????”
Not wanting to hear a bullshit response or counterargument MK immediately followed that explosion by slipping into her shoes and storming out the front door, and making sure to slam it shut so everyone on the block could hear.
“What a fucking bitch…” she mumbles to herself as she walks on the shoulder of the road getting as far away from home as possible without looking back. The issue now is where to go, it’s nearing midnight on a Wednesday, nothing besides the 24/7 Dennys and McDicks are open and going back home tonight was ruled out the second she slammed the door shut. She can figure that out a little bit later, she needs to clear her head first. Airpods are in, playlist of over 200 songs is shuffled, time to click play and see where the music takes her. Linkin Park? Paramore? MGMT? But by sheer coincidence the first song stops MK dead in her tracks the second it starts…
“Right now, he's probably slow dancing with a bleached-blonde tramp and she's probably getting frisky…”
“Right now, he's probably buying her some fruity little drink ‘cause she can't shoot a whiskey…”
Carrie fucking Underwood. Less than an hour ago MK was ripping off this exact song for her hate poem. Julia is forever stuck in her head closure free and she can’t escape it no matter how hard she fucking tries. MK shakes her head and rushes to skip the song to something better, completely forgetting the chorus of said song, which might be exactly what she needs all along…
“I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up four-wheel-drive, carved my name into his leather seats”
“ I took a Louisville Slugger to both headlights, slashed a hole in all four tires. Maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats…”
Even in the pitch black outside you can see MK’s eyes light up with something she has wanted for months. Hope and closure. The short klepto knows exactly what she needs to do now…
For someone who hates running, MK sprinted like a gold medal Olympian getting to Julia’s house almost three miles away, specifically her driveway, where parked is the same Blue 2023 Toyota Camry that picked her up that tragic day. The same Camry she had so many great memories in, all for nothing. It’s now the same Camry that Julia and Emma probably makeout in and have happy fun memories that’ll last a lifetime… yeah the car’s gotta go. All those years in high school learning auto mechanics are about to pay off.
“Where to start?” MK asks herself, before deciding to pay homage to Carrie Underwood and pulling her house key from the pocket of her jacket. But instead of just keying the side, MK decided to really make it hurt. The key is her paintbrush and the Camry is a blank canvas.
“Alright… time to make this beautiful.” was all she said before going to town on the Camry. Keying shapes, various letters, a game of tic tac toe on the one door for some reason, and a giant middle finger on the hood of the car to top it off and finish the masterpiece.
“Every good artist will sign their work.” she says. Placing a very sarcastic heart and her name on the corner of the hood next to the majestic go fuck yourself symbol. But this is just the outside. A car that's been keyed to hell and back can be repaired. MK wants this thing in the junkyard tomorrow. Fortunately for her and unfortunately for Julia, she knows how to dismantle this mechanical piece of shit beyond repair. All she needs is a screwdriver and 30 minutes. She has one of those things, and that's the 30 minutes. All she needs is a screwdriver. At damn near 1am that might seem like an issue, but luckily inside Julia’s garage her father Greg, has a little shop workspace full of tools. The backdoor of the garage leads right into the backyard and is left unlocked 95% of the time.
As MK walks around the house the thought of how illegal it is to do what she’s doing crosses her mind. Given that she can walk into the police station calling everyone there by their first name already doesn’t help as what she is doing is wayyyyy more severe than shoplifting. Vandalism, damage to private property, currently breaking and entering into a garage… yeah she’s slowly starting to regret signing her name on the hood now. Oh well! Julia shouldn’t have cheated. Plus it’s been a minute since she saw her favorite cop, Officer Thomas Reed. It’d be a “happy” reunion for her at least. MK, now standing in front of the backdoor, crosses her fingers, reaches for the handle and pulls.
“Yes!” she whispers in celebration as it opens. Trying to not make any noise she tiptoes inside the garage and slowly shuts the door. Eventually she makes her way to Greg’s shop, where inside the top left drawer contains MK’s coveted magical dismantler.
“Bingo…”
MK tiptoes back outside and heads back to her canvas. Screwdriver in her left hand and a mischievous grin on her face. Time to pop the hood and get to work. To avoid a certain car horn blasting like an alarm waking everyone inside the Marquette residence and then some her first act is to take that shit out immediately. Disassembling that was a breeze, yanking the horn out and chuckling to herself as she tossed it into the front yard. Next up, the battery! Cars can't run without a battery! A couple twists of the wrist later and the battery pulls out smoothly, MK’s taking that with her for “safekeeping”. MK thinks about taking apart the engine but has a better idea. Faulty wiring in the car is a massive fire hazard, and all it takes is a couple loose connections and there's a good chance it'll blow. Until she rethinks that as well.
“No…” she tells herself. Thinking about how to torch the car. A potato in the tailpipe? Nah. Jamming the AC unit so it overheats the engine? Nah… MK is rummaging through all these ideas in her head until it clicks the second she pulls out a cigarette. Staring at the back left of the Camry with a giant smirk. Time to add arson to the list of charges if she gets busted. Unfortunately a cigarette in the gas tank wouldn’t ignite it, same with a singular lit match. Fortunately, all MK needs is a simple garden hose to get the job started, and there is one at the side of the house.
Game plan is to siphon the gas from the tank, spray it all over and underneath the car, light a match to ignite, and MK runs off into the darkness of the night before anyone spots her. Just gotta hope the fire doesn't spread to the house. Then MK might be looking at murder charges. She sprints to the side of the house and grabs the garden hose. It’s gonna be disgusting, but to siphon it she has to suck in the gasoline and spit it out instantly. It’s gross, but the taste of revenge will be so sweet once the job is done. She gets to the car and opens the gas flap, unscrews the cap and sticks the one side of the hose into the tank. MK grabs the other end and prepares herself.
“One… two… three…” she counts before sucking into the hose awaiting the gasoline to start coming up. After a couple sucks, her mouth fills with $4 a gallon. Trying to ignore the horrendous taste MK spits it out onto the car, decrees that she is going to brush her teeth and tongue for 24 hours straight when she's done with this and goes back in for more.
Suck, spit.
Suck, spit.
Suck, spit.
Suck, spit.
Suck... The stream of fuel suddenly gets more strong, it’s working, when MK takes the hose out of her mouth there is a stream of gasoline pouring out of the other end of the hose. Dodging out of the way so no gas hits her clothes MK grabs the loose end and tries to not waste it not knowing how much gas was in the tank, douses the car with the gas and pulls the hose out of the tank, tossing it onto the front yard next to the horn and battery. She then reaches into her pocket and pulls out a match. Lighting it up and holding it into the air.
“You deserve this you cunt…”
That’s all MK says before tossing the match towards the car window and sprinting the opposite way. Behind her she quickly feels her entire backside warming up and a bright orange like hue popping up at the corner of her eye. Once she feels she is at a safe enough distance she goes behind a tree and stares at her handiwork. The job is done… that fucking car is in flames. And better yet, rushing out the front door in their PJs are the Marquettes. Julia, Greg, Judy, and Megan stare in shock at the fire before scrambling to put it out. It's a damn big fire at this rate so they should think about getting the fuck away. Oh well… To make things even better, running out of the house seconds after is Emma, now flailing her arms around not knowing what the fuck to do. As much as she wanted to sit back with a bucket of popcorn and an ice cold beer to watch the festivities, MK knew she had to get as far away before either the car blows up, or anyone spotting her. As fun as this was, she wanted to sleep in her own bed tonight, not in the “bed” at the police station, so before she took off into the night, she left the scene with four words, knowing that she can’t be traced with the fire destroying any sort of finger prints.
“See you never, bitch…”
After months of depression, hate poems, and anger. MK finally got her closure thanks to of all things, a 2005 Carrie Underwood single shuffled to the top of her playlist, and goddamn does it feel good. MK walks down the road towards home with her airpods in, blasting the same song. Dancing and jumping not giving a flying fuck. When she landed after a jump she felt a big rumble under her feet, like she climbed a huge mountain and arrived back at ground zero. She feels invincible and accomplished but better yet, she feels like MK again, even with the taste of diesel in her mouth she couldn’t be happier. The song gets to the last line in the chorus, and MK sings it out loud, only changing the pronouns in it.
“Maybe next time she’ll think, before she cheats…”
MK waltzes up the driveway of her house and walks in the front door. Nobody should be awake its almost 3AM for fucks sake. At least she won’t have to deal with the consequences of screaming at her mother until at least the morning. But unbeknownst to her, her whole family was still awake, in the living room eyes peeled at the TV.
“Oh, you’re all up???”
Her mother has tears in her eyes.
“It's awful Mikki! That Julia you hung out with all the time…”
MK’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Yeah?”
“There was a massive explosion at her house… police say nobody survived!” she tells her fighting back tears.
MK’s eyes remain lit, but the rest of her is frozen as she slowly looks at the live news helicopter feed. The fire was put out, but the damage was insurmountable. The rumble she felt while dancing was the explosion. Julia’s house was in shambles, paramedics and police blocking off the scene. MK took a loud gulp… she did this. She killed five people. It was supposed to be an act of revenge trashing the car of someone who hurt her tremendously, she went way too far and took out way more than just the car. It was supposed to be her moment of invincibility and freedom of depression, but now it's shadowed by an enormous tragedy of her own doing. And now all MK’s thinking about is how the fuck she is gonna get away with all this… if that’s even possible…