The glass of red wine was sitting on the table as he ventured out of her house. She picked it up and hurled it at him but it only reached the slammed door. The juice dripped down, leaving the room with a strong, odorous scent that smelled of death and memories that had just been washed down the drain.
It started out much differently. Among the crowds of a party, they found each other and immediately fell into easy conversation. He wore a black shirt, and immediately she complimented him on it, telling him it brought out his eyes. She found out they had some of the same interests; he was different from any other guy. Only did she discover much later that that very difference would be the driving force to separate them. Looking back, she could see how easily she fell into his hands, like putty. He would come over to her place to watch movies, talk and have coffee and cigarettes. He took her out to the nice restaurants in town, and she felt lucky that she had found someone so intriguing, but it didn’t take her long to look past the façade to see who he really was. She tried to ignore it though, but in the end, she knew she had seen it all along. He was selfish and cold-hearted, only having his interests at heart and never thinking of her except when it was convenient for him.
It was a dark and cold Friday night when the fires started. That day he informed her that he had lost his job. She told her best friends what had happened, and they were sorry, but the funny thing was that he was filled with hurtful words and sarcasm at every thing she said to try to comfort him. Joyce, Beth and Lynn had told her from the start to watch out for him. They had seen how he was and so had she, but being the nice girl that she was, she let him walk all over her. With her friends’ advisement, she ended things that very night.
Earlier on the same night, she got a call from her friend Jack, “Hey, can you come pick me up? I’m at a party, and I can’t drive back home.”
“Sure, give me five,” she told him. Beth rode with her to pick him up, and as soon as she got in her car, she glanced at her cell phone seeing that she had a few text messages from the guy she was dating telling her that this was BS and demanding that she forgive him for the way he had treated her that day.
She responded, “I don’t really want to talk right now, you really upset me today,” and drove off setting her phone back in her white purse. She and Beth had begun conversing over different things when she received another text.
“I had a horrible day, and if your skins not thick enough to take today then we need to go ahead and finish this. I could have been a lot worse, and I’m moving back home anyway,” the text read.
Frustration filled her and tears sprung to her eyes immediately after she read this, and at once, she dialed his number to convey her feelings only to receive his answering machine. What a joke, she thought texting him back.
“I’m not the one with skin not thick enough, but thank you for enlightening me enough to know that I do not deserve this. I really thought you were different.”
“Don’t act like you’ve had some kind of epiphany when you’ve known all along how I am,” he furiously responded.
She felt dumb getting herself into this catastrophe when she had known he had anger problems from the beginning. Even still, no one deserved to be treated in such a manner. She meekly responded, “Good luck moving back home, I guess things aren’t going to work out.”
He quickly replied, “It was your choice. So. Goodbye Hannah.”
She pulled into an empty parking lot where she instantly began sobbing while having Beth beside her to try to put the pieces back together.
“He was a jerk anyway, he will never be happy as long as he treats others this way,” Beth comforted.
“You’re right Beth. I was stupid to get myself into this mess. Why do I always do this?”
She lit a cigarette, and after a few seconds she put her car in reverse and drove off to pick up Jack. She wondered how and why this had happened to her. Nevertheless, she was already feeling exuberant at the thought that he couldn’t drag her down anymore.
A few minutes later, after having picked up Jack and taking him home, she stepped out of her vehicle and into her house with Beth behind her. She was feeling exhausted, having known that this was one of the best and worst days of her life. One of the best because she felt full of life again already without having to worry about the next hurtful thing he would do. She poured Beth and herself a glass of red wine, and they clinked the glasses together to cheer the hour.
“I just want to forget about this whole mess and start over, Beth. Who was I to believe I could change him? He knows how he is. I’m just glad I never have to see him again.”
At that very moment, the doorbell rang.
She and Beth looked at each other in astonishment, both thinking the worst.
“I’ll get it,” Beth offered.
She tiptoed to the door, glass of wine in hand while looking back at Hannah every so often. Hannah lit another cigarette; she often smoked when she was stressed. Much to their dismay, upon opening the door, he stood in the doorway; hair disheveled with the same black shirt on he had worn the first day they met.
“Hannah,” he started walking towards her, “Let me explain…” he didn’t get to finish.
The moment he began walking towards her, she held her hand out in a motion that told him to stop what he was doing.
“Please listen Babe, I’m sorry, you know how I can get.”
“It’s happened one too many times,” she told him. “From that first day, I could tell something was different, but I ignored my intuition and instead I followed you around like a stupid fool for over a year, and this is how you treat me? No, I don’t think so, I’ve had enough.”
They argued back and forth for awhile; Beth had gone into another room where they could have privacy.
“I want you to leave,” she told him firmly and assuredly, pointing to the door.
“Fine, no skin off my back Honey,” he confidently told her. He slammed the door, and moments later, she had red wine dripping down her white door. She took one last puff of her cigarette and burned it out as if it were that simple.
