A Life More Complete(122)
“I need to get a few things that you forgot to pack,” he says quietly. “You alone?”
“No,” I blurt out.
“Can I come in? I really would like these *s to stop taking pictures of me.” He motions toward the driveway.
“Those *s are here because of you.” I step aside and he ignores my comment as he enters the condo. “Hurry up, please. I don’t really want you here.”
He heads into the bedroom without acknowledging Bob. I follow after him not knowing what to do or say. I make eye contact with Bob who mouths, “What the hell?” I shrug my shoulders and hold up one finger signaling to him to hold on. Tyler emerges from the bedroom carrying the box of pictures he gave me shocking me even more.
“What are you doing with my pictures?” I half shout.
“Your pictures?” he questions, his tone lacking any seriousness. “I don’t think so. I might have given them to you, but the last thing I want is for you to have a reminder of how great things were and try to come crawling back to me.”
I’m livid now. The fury is building and is nearing a frenzied peak. “Are you kidding me? Are you f*cking kidding me?” I scream, following him to the front door. “You’re mistaken if you think for one second that you are worth my time. My point was already made clear. We. Are. Done.” He laughs in a condescending tone that just adds to my blind rage. “Don’t you f*cking laugh at me!” I follow him as he proceeds down the stairs to the driveway. I can hear Bob behind me yell, “Don’t follow him. Please don’t follow him,” which he follows up with a breathy, “Fuck”.
The flashbulbs begin their blinding glare as the two of us make our way to his car. I stop dead in my tracks when I see her sitting in the passenger seat of his car. Everything around me goes black and I lose any self-control I have left, which is almost none. Seeing her sitting in the car looking away like she has no idea who I am, like I didn’t spend the last eight years of my life with her. Like we were never even friends. I follow my first instinct, probably not for the best. I grab the first thing I can get my hands on and launch it at the passenger window of Tyler’s car. Hitting it dead on, the window shatters into a million little pieces, scattering glass all over my driveway and covering Trini. My pulse is racing and I’m breathing like I’ve just finished running ten miles. Every bit of my behavior is surprising and Bob’s voice jolts me back into the now.
“Jesus Christ! What are you doing?” he screams as Tyler backs out of the driveway without responding to my retaliation.
I turn to face him, the anger still apparent on my face because he takes a step back. He puts his hands up in a defensive posture. “You need to go back in the house and calm down.”
“No!” I scream back at him. “Did you see who was with him? How dare he bring that bitch to my house.” All the while I’m stalking down the driveway in pursuit of his car. The cameras in my face, flashing and recording my every move. Bob grabs ahold of my arm and begins to yank me back to the house like a tantrum-throwing kid being dragged out of Disneyland. Defeated, my shoulders slump and I follow him willingly. He closes the door behind him and the tears begin to fall. I press my face into Bob shirt and his arms come around me in a comforting hug.
“Oh honey, I know this is hard, but you really need to stop publicly humiliating yourself. It’s bad enough that Tyler did it to you.”
“Bob...” I sob. “I really am going crazy.”
“No, no,” he says, but with little conviction. “Just a momentary lapse in judgment. Regardless, let’s never mention this again. You were like one of those girls on The Bad Girls Club.” I laugh as I slump down on the couch. “The worst part is that it was all caught on camera.”
“Oh my God! Don’t remind me,” I say covering my face with my hands.
“Why don’t you lie down while I make us some popcorn? We can watch The Notebook and cry at the ending.”
Bob joins me a few minutes later on the couch and I grab a handful of popcorn. Turning to him I say, “I’m really sorry. That was pretty awful.”
“It’s fine. Everyone needs at least one bat shit crazy friend, right?” He makes me laugh as he leans down and kisses my head.
---Chapter 41---
The next morning I opt out of going to work and since my travel has become impossible and my most important client has been obliterated, it couldn’t be better. I can’t deal with the fact that leaving my house will create controversy not to mention exposing my embarrassing act of vandalism. I don’t have anything to do but catch up on sleep, so that’s exactly what I do. I sleep in until eleven and then lounge around my house watching talk shows and eating non-breakfast related crap. In a way it feels as if the outside world doesn’t exist and I didn’t do a horrendous job of bringing a world of shame upon myself last night. Oh wait, yes I did.