The Shoes

“I’ll be right back, I need to refill my glass of wine,” Lisa said to Todd with a smile. “Would you like some more?”

“No, thank you,” he said, looking at the glass like he was thinking about it. “I do have to drive tonight.”

“OK,” she said, sounding like she was disappointed. She wondered if she should make a joke about him spending the night if necessary with the hope that it might end up being more than a joke. She decided against it. “I’ll be right back.”

She stood up off of the couch and made her way through the crowd to the kitchen. The party was going great. She called it her “Vaccination Celebration” party as all of her friends and colleagues were invited to the indoor gathering at her house to celebrate their first real party unmasked. Everyone seemed happy to be breaking free and getting back to normal.

When she came back from the kitchen holding her wine glass she saw a girl sitting on the couch next to Todd talking to him. Lisa was 38-years-old and she hadn’t invited a single person to this party who was under 30. This girl looked no older than 22. She was sitting quite casually on the couch as she talked to Todd, the both of them laughing, her body sinking into the couch as she sat with no posture, and her legs were kicked out with her bare feet resting on the coffee table, the soles of them staring at Lisa as if they were saying “I’m crashing your party and talking to the guy you’re interested in.” Lisa had no idea who she was, must have been a sister or a cousin of one of the guests, but with over twenty people at the party it was impossible to guess who.

“Excuse me,” Lisa said to the girl as she walked up to them, neither her nor Todd looking up until Lisa spoke. “But I was talking to him.”

“You were, and now I am,” the girl said to her with a bratty, disrespectful tone that Lisa didn’t like at all, especially when she was being spoken to that way in front of Todd. “It’s your party so why don’t you go along and mingle with some other people?” The girl then actually made a ‘shoo’ motion at Lisa with her hand. Lisa tried to keep her composure.

“Who invited you anyway?”

The girl then actually stood up and had the nerve to give Lisa a look like she was annoyed with her. She was a good five inches shorter than Lisa was but she looked up at her with confidence. “I told you to go mingle!” the girl said.

Lisa lost her cool and she shoved the girl. She pushed her body back a little bit but the girl looked fired up as opposed to intimidated. The girl reached up, put Lisa in a headlock, and pulled her head down into her hip.

“Fight, fight, fight, fight!” Lisa heard the people at the party chanting.

Lisa would have thought that a party of people in their thirties would be more mature and try to break up a fight rather than encourage it but she supposed some things never changed and people never grew out of wanting to see a good fight. She was going to have to teach this girl not to come to her house and disrespect her.

She pulled on the girl’s arms thinking she should be able to free herself from this headlock.  Lisa was a fit woman and considered herself fairly strong, at least strong enough where she should be able to take on some brat that was shorter and a lot younger than her. But as she pulled at the girl’s arms she felt weaker than her and quickly got frustrated as she was not able to free herself.

Lisa continued to listen to all of her friends cheer on the fight as the girl kept her trapped in the headlock. The audience got more excited when the girl took Lisa down. Lisa began getting upset as the two of them wrestled around on the floor with Lisa losing. The girl got on Lisa’s back and got her arm around Lisa’s neck in a chokehold.

Lisa pulled on the girl’s arms and could not free herself, now beginning to panic as she did not want to have to give up to this girl and get beat up at her own party. She could feel the girl’s weight on her back which wasn’t much – she couldn’t have weighed more than 115 pounds – but she felt strong and she kept Lisa down.

Lisa struggled as much as she could, feeling her arms choking her out. Lisa finally got her hands between the girl’s arm and her throat and she pulled her arm off of her. She tried her best now to get up but the girl kept controlling her back. Lisa struggled the best she could but the best she could do was roll on her back. The girl sat down on Lisa’s stomach. As Lisa was having a bit of trouble breathing with her stomach being sat on, the girl kicked up her legs and then pushed her bare feet right into Lisa’s face.

The humiliation of the feet in her face was even worse for Lisa than the trouble she was having breathing. She grabbed the girl at the ankles and tried her best to pull her feet off of her face but her arm strength was no match for the strength of the girl’s legs. The fact that Lisa still had her stomach being sat on didn’t make things any easier.

Lisa struggled mightily trying to free herself from this humiliating position but she couldn’t. She couldn’t see anything but feet and the audience started to quiet down but she couldn’t help but wonder what they all thought about watching this being done to her in her own house. No one seemed to want to help her, though.

“Alright, get off of her!” Lisa finally heard a guy say. 

Lisa felt the feet quickly remove themselves from her face and the girl sprung up. Lisa looked up to see her friend Joe chasing after the girl who pushed a guy out of her way to run away. She then ran under another big guy’s legs to get away and Joe gave up on her. Lisa watched the girl run out the door to the outside, still in her bare feet.

Lisa then sat up and looked around at all of her friends that looked like they were almost as shocked about the whole thing as Lisa was. Lisa wanted to know who brought the girl but she was too embarrassed to say anything. She could feel the anxiety building up in her as she processed what had just happened and she felt like she was going to explode.

“EVERYYONE GET OUT!” she yelled loudly.

**

After lying on her floor for a half hour thinking about how much she hated the girl and thinking how unfair life was for that to have happened to her, Lisa got to her feet. She started looking around, seeing a lot of beer bottles and cups around. The girl had ran out barefoot so her shoes had to be around somewhere. Lisa felt determined to find them as if that would solve some sort of mystery.

“Looking for these?” she heard a voice say from behind her that scared her half to death.

Standing there with her feet still bare was the girl that beat her up, holding a pair of shoes that Lisa would have done anything to own herself. They were gold high heels and the heels looked like the handle of a sword. Why did such a brat get to own a pair of shoes like that? When everyone had left, Lisa hadn’t even thought to lock the front door.

“Get out of my house!” Lisa said to her assertively.

“Nah, I’m gonna stick around a bit longer,” the girl said. “I had to leave too early and didn’t get to hang out long enough.” 

“I’m calling the police,” Lisa said.  

“No you’re not.”

The girl didn’t move but she was close enough to Lisa where if she wanted to take the phone from her once Lisa pulled it out there was no way Lisa would be able to dial 9-1-1 before the girl took it from her and Lisa knew that was exactly what would happen. 

“What do you want?” Lisa asked. 

“Just want to hang out here,” the girl said. 

The girl then turned her back to Lisa and started walking to the couch. Lisa considered pulling her phone out but then she had a feeling that the girl was ready for that and the second she tried it she’d take it from her. And once the girl took the phone from her, Lisa wasn’t going to be it back. She couldn’t rush and had to wait for just the right time, though it drove her crazy that this girl could just walk into her house and take over like this.

The girl threw the shoes next to Lisa’s couch, had a seat on it, and put her bare feet right back up on the coffee table. Her soles were looking right at Lisa, and those feet on the table were perfectly summing up the humiliation Lisa felt about all of this. The girl then picked up the remote control and turned on the TV.

“What do you have to drink?” the girl asked her. Lisa wanted to tell her to get out again but she didn’t have the courage.

“I have water, iced tea, and Diet Coke. I also have some beer and wine left over if you are old enough to drink.”

“I’m 21,” the girl said. “But a Diet Coke would be just fine. I know you have cans because I saw a couple of people with them at the party. Make sure it’s unopened when you give it to me.”

Lisa turned her back on her, really furious. That was OK, though. Once she got in that kitchen she was calling 9-1-1 and this brat was going to pay for what she did. She saw the swinging doors leading to her kitchen. They looked like a finish line, she just couldn’t wait to get past. 

“Wait!” the girl said to her and Lisa stopped. “I know you have your phone in your pocket. Phone stays here.”

Lisa was far enough away from her now. There was no way the girl could jump up off of the couch from the position she was in, get over to her, and get the phone from her before she dialed those three numbers. She was pretty sure there was no way.

“Don’t even think about it,” she heard the girl say. “I play soccer so I’m quick. I see you even reach for your phone and I’ll be over there before you push the first number. You and I are just starting to get along – don’t make me mad.”

Lisa realized she had only a second or two more to think about it and then she just chickened out. She turned around to walk over to give her phone to the girl, the girl just sitting there comfortably with her bare feet up on the table like it was obvious that Lisa was going to give her the phone. When Lisa got close enough, the girl made a grabby motion with her hand for Lisa to give it to her.

Lisa went into her kitchen, got a Diet Coke can, and brought it back out to the girl without opening it. As Lisa walked towards her, the girl was watching the TV and laughing, not paying attention to Lisa. When Lisa got close enough, the girl took the can from her without even looking at her. Lisa began to walk away.

“Uh, don’t go anywhere,” the girl said and she snapped her fingers. “Rub my feet for me.”

Lisa looked at the girl’s feet as she swayed them back and forth. Lisa was furious but since the girl could beat her up and she had her phone there was nothing she could do. Lisa got on her knees on her own floor as she began rubbing the girl’s soft feet. As she did so, the girl laughed at her show and drank her soda. 

“Alright, you can stop now,” the girl said as she pulled her feet away from Lisa. “Put my shoes on and I’ll be out of your way.” 

Feeling completely inferior to the girl, Lisa slid the shoes on her feet. She was glad the girl was going to leave but as she put her shoes on for her, she could tell this humiliating experience was going to leave a mark on her and she regretted not doing anything about it. Still, she didn’t have the guts to do anything right then.

“You were a great host,” the girl said to her as she stood up. “I’ll be back sometime and we can do this again.”

The girl had Lisa’s phones in her hand and she dropped it out of her hand at Lisa. Lisa tried to catch it but it hit the floor, luckily not breaking. Lisa watched the girl walk away. Those shoes looked so good on her.