“Sure”

“Why not!” you say, happy to get off your feet. You head for the passenger side door when she calls out “Sorry Zack, you’ll need to sit in the back. It’s for your own safety.”

You look in and nod at your cousin. As you take a seat in the back you can see a wire mesh between the front and back seats, obviously there to prevent any kind of attacks on cops from anyone they’ve arrested.

You laugh, “Great, I feel like I’m being arrested back here.” you say as she pulls out from the curb.

“Oh, do you like that idea?" Kimberley says, "A pretty cop like me taking you in for questioning...”. She turns giving you a seductive glance.

“Is she flirting with me...?” you ask yourself.

“Uhh... no not really.” you reply, unsure how to respond to that.

“Oh what, I’m not pretty enough- is that it?” she says pouting in a playful way. "You know, when I'm in this uniform, usually I'm not just chasing bad guys - I'm trying to chase them off of me too!" she says matter-of-factly.

You laugh at what she said - and thinking back to your dad's jokes you reply without thinking, "Like all those donuts, right? At least that's one way to burn the fat."

You can feel the atmosphere change, as if the temperature suddenly dropped. You realise what you said... you just called her fat.

Thinking back to when you were younger, you recall that time when Kimberley had overheard your dad make a tasteless joke about her - well, unfortunately she only heard the part where you joined in, laughing and making fun, probably because you were just trying to look cool in front of your dad. Kimberley stormed into the room and slapped you, hard. She was so pissed that her face was turning a dark red, her eyes like that of a carnivore about to slaughter its prey. You tried to apologise to her, but it took several attempts by your mother to finally make amends on your behalf. If she had sore spot, calling her fat would be number 2 on that list. YOU calling her fat would be number 1.

"I'm dead..." you think. "Uhh... listen... Kimberley I-" you start to say when you're cut off abruptly.

"You think you're so damn funny, don't you?" Kimberley says calmly. "You think it's funny to call the fat girl fat... oh, and I like donuts because alllll cops just loooove donuts - right?"

She pulls the car over and turns to face you, looking you dead in the eye. "How fuck-ing-original!" she says, her voice now louder.

You try to apologise, but she won't let you - all you can do is sit there and listen to the suppressed rage that's now unravelling before you.

"You know what - this is why I hate men. When I realised it was you, I thought to myself that MAYBE I could let go of what happened between us all those years ago... but what do you go and say... clearly you don't give a fuck about me, to hurt me like this."

You know you fucked up - calling her fat, making fun of her... repeating your past mistakes - but her reaction still seems a little bit over the top - she sounds downright violent.

"Did you know I got dumped?" she says, "When I thought he was ready to propose, after 9 fucking years he went and fucked some skinny bitch instead. I confronted him about it and all he could do was blame me for what he did - saying I never gave him any head anymore, saying I only ever got fatter..."

You now understand why Kimberley was so upset - this was probably the worse time to call her fat of all things...

"Kimberley, really I'm sorry I... I didn't know." you say, feeling truly sorry for both her and for what you said.

"Yeah... well, you will be." she says then begins laughing to herself as she opens the car door. "Stay put." she commands.