The Jukebox at The Diner Volume Three: "The Ballad of Jessica Rose James" Part Two - Bad Girl
"Bad Girl" by Avril Lavigne, Marilyn Manson
Previously on The Jukebox at The Diner Volume Three…
“Ok, so how bad is this Nickleback infection?” -Penny, while eating the Lasagna she’d helped Charlie make.
“Oh. Can we pause for a minute? I’m sorry, but this is the best fucking lasagna I’ve ever had. Keep in mind I’m a trailer park girl where popping a Stouffers Family Size Lasagna in the oven was for holidays and birthdays, but still. Holy shit. The sauce is called Bechamel?” -Jessie
“Let’s have Charlie teach us.” -Penny
“Deal… Ok, I guess we should talk about my time with your uncle now.” -Jessie
“Before we do that, you should listen to something.” Penny dug her Walkman out of her backpack and handed it to Jessie. “Just listen.”
Jessie put on the headphones. When she realized it was Jake, she looked at Penny. When Jessie took off the headphones, they both sighed a little relief. Jessie could hear it in his voice. “What did you say to him?”
“I brought him cookies and milk, and he was sitting there eating them almost smiling, like he was happy that we were all together. He wasn’t at all sorry for the doctor’s murder. It was completely unnecessary. So I growled at him and left. I’m pretty sure I channeled Luna during that growl.” -Penny
“The voice singing that song isn’t the same one that took me in.” -Jessie, grabbing the Bluetooth speaker they had brought along and connecting it to her phone.
“Ok, we’ll get into the Nickleback infection later, first, if I’m gonna tell you this story, I gotta play a few songs to get into the mood. Also…” Penny grabbed her backpack and pulled out a small black bag. She pulled out two pairs of blue latex gloves and handed a pair to Penny.
“Two by two, hands of blue?” -Penny
Jessie put hers on and pulled out two small containers. One blue, one pink. She took two small hair ties and put her hair into two high ponytails and then opened up the containers.
“Oh my god.” -Penny, as Jessie pressed play on the song she’d pulled up on her phone.
Jessie just smiled as she dipped her two right fingers in the blue container and then stroked it into the left ponytail, and then used two left fingers to stroke the red coloring into the right ponytail. She used a black eyeliner pen and then powdered her face white. Then she dipped her fingers into the coloring and streaked pink and blue tears streaming down her cheeks. Then she took out candy apple red lipstick, applied it, and instead of smacking her lips, kissed Penny on the cheek. She smiled the same way she smiled as she walked into La Barbeque in Austin, and then stood up.
She undid her belt, pulled it loose of the loops, folded it in half, and then snapped it loud enough to startle the horses.
“I’ve been a bad girl.”
Penny smiled. “A Jones has always got something in their back pocket.” She reached into her right back pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
“That key Charlie handed me?” Penny reached into her pocket and held out in the palm of her hand. “I almost forgot the key.”
In the morning when the girls were washing their faces in the creek, they laughed at the bubblegum Rorschach tests they were wearing on their faces.
“We sorta got distracted.” -Jessie
“Let’s get the horses home and spend the day at camp. Charlie, Samantha, and JePo got things handled and I’ll help you with the horses when we get back to the barn. Also, Charlie and Joey finished the bathroom.” -Penny
“A real shower.” -Jessie
“Yep.” -Penny
“You think they already christened it?” -Jessie
Penny understood that was rhetorical.
When Penny and Jessie stopped by the diner to grab food for the rest of the day, Samantha came over and joined Charlie in the booth.
“You see that?” -Samantha, watching Penny next to Jessie at the jukebox.
“Of course, it was a pretty romantic night, I’m happy for her.” -Charlie
“I’m having Mom feelings.” -Samantha, turning back to look at Penny and Jessie again.
“Hey, leave the helicoptering to Amanda. What you should ask her is if she christened the shower before we could.” -Charlie, knowing that would get under Samantha’s skin.
“No! She….” Samantha turned back one more time, with a stern look on her face. Penny caught it and stuck her tongue out then grabbed Jessie and kissed her. Then she walked over to Samantha and Charlie. She picked up Charlie’s headphones and put them on his head, then pulled up Spotify on his laptop and played “Hakuna Matata”.
Then she turned to Samantha. “Lot of firsts for me lately, it seems. You should be used to coming in second to me by now.” Then Penny walked back over to Jessie and they left.
Charlie just moved the mouse pointer on his laptop to set the song to repeat. Then looked at Samantha, her eyes full of fire. He just left the headphones on until she got up and went back to work.
As she walked away he sang along…
“It means no worries, for the rest of your days. It’s a problem-free, philosophy…”
Samantha spun around. Charlie took off his headphones, closed the laptop, put both back in his leather shoulder bag, and slid out of the booth. He walked past Samantha to the front door of the diner, and as he opened it he said:
“You coming or what?”