Unfortunately, I am related by blood to types of characters like this. They aren't as bad as this, nor as good. But they are better than they were before. I hope that when my relative finally learns to pick up the dog shit...
Michelle
"Dad, can you come over now. Please. Please hurry. Bring Pete's pickup and any boxes you have around the house. Right now, I'm putting my clothes in large new plastic garbage bags."
"Michelle?" He paused with worry in his voice, "What's going on?"
"Dad, I need to move back home for a while. Mom already said it's OK. I just called her at Aunt Nancy's house and she said OK. How soon could you get here?"
"It'll take me about 20 minutes. I'll text you when I'm near so you can unlock the back door and I can get into your apartment building."
I knew that there had to be a big smile on his face. Dad and Mom tolerated Stevie. They never confronted me about him, they never asked probing questions. There were there for me and were supportive. They did that because they loved me and allowed me to make my own life. They allowed me to make my own fuckin' mistakes. They loved me enough to let me hang myself with him. That's what I did. Tonight it was just too much. Tonight was the straw that broke the marriage that I'd been holding together.
"Michelle, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Dad, we can talk more when you get here and at our home. I'm finally done here." I exhaled out a ton of frustration.
It was 15 minutes later when both Dad and my brother Pete showed up at the apartment. Both were worried and wanted to talk.
"Talk later. I gotta get out of here now. Stevie probably won't be back here till after 2 AM or morning or whatever and I want to be long gone. Pete, go to the living room and start grabbing the garbage bags I've packed. Dad?"
My father looked at me with sorrow and fear in his eyes. "Dad, could you sit down with me and look at our financial papers? Help me figure out all that I need to take. He won't have a clue what's missing. Later I can return the originals or copies. I don't want anything left behind that I'll need for the divorce."
At the word divorce Dad's face broke from worry to stoic. During college decades ago, he'd been a Mall security guard at Christmas time. First thing he was taught was to show no emotions to the people that he needed to confront. He'd show warmness to the normal everyday people. In times of crisis, either causing or being on the receiving end, he needed to be stoic and expressionless. He would never show fear, never show anger, and never give them something that they could try to control the situation with. Dad did this his whole life. I've been with Stevie for 5 years and married for 19 months, it was my time of crisis.
Pete had made several trips to the truck when he joined us at the kitchen table. I immediately sent him into the bedroom to get what I piled on the bed. Then I told him when he was finished, we'd all go to the storage locker in the basement.
Dad made sure that I had all my tax returns and the two joint tax returns I had with Stevie. Stevie had done his own taxes for several years so I wasn't worried then. However, he sandbagged me and wouldn't let me fully check our first combined Fed and State tax return. That resulted in several automated letters from the IRS and the state for math errors and questionable entries. I did the taxes for the second year and we got our refund quickly.
Dad also made sure that I got the title to my car, the bank statements and the credit card information. "We'll talk later what you should do about this. I take it that Stevie is at a party and having a good time again?" I nodded yes.
"It wasn't the wedding that we were supposed to go to. We were supposed to be at Dave and Chloe's wedding. Stevie found a louder wedding next door in the banquet hall with an open bar and wouldn't come back." I started to shake with anger and Dad just reached over and held me in his arms while I quietly sobbed.
"These were his fuckin' friends, not mine. It was 45 minutes of texting him and getting his buddies to try to bring him back. Stevie just sat at one of the tables, drank from the open bar and had a grand time with talking with those women, those other guests. I sent Bill to get him, his close buddy Bill. It was 10 minutes later that Bill returned and told me Stevie was feeling no pain. He said that when a text from me came in, he'd read it aloud and the whole table would laugh. When I heard that I stood up, got my coat and came home. He can find his own fuckin' way to get here. I drove because he told me was going to enjoy himself again." That's when I chuckled. "You should have seen how pissed he was when he found out Dave and Chloe had a cash bar." We both let out a little laugh.
"Dad?" My father looked at me, "I'm done. It's over. I have to end this so I can get on with my life."
"Michelle, we'll talk more later. Your brother is back and now let's all head to the storage locker in the basement.
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It was after 1:30 in the morning when the last load of my furniture was unloaded into Pete's garage. I had the good but hand-me-down living room furniture, my dresser, lamps and my laptop computer. The laptop was going to have to be checked for viruses for sure. Stevie came with the x-box and a fast and high end gaming computer and 158 movies. He bought a big screen TV with the wedding money instead of paying our wedding bills. I left the TV for him.
His 10-year-old beater was in the parking lot with a flat tire. The tire has been flat for 2 weeks. Every day for the past two weeks he said that he was going to get it fixed while he borrowed my car whenever he could. We bought the bed together and he could keep it. His weight and bouncing on it like it was a toy already broke the wooden box spring in two places. He'd gained 30 pounds since the wedding and he gained at least 50 pounds before the wedding, starting when we became an item.
It took only 2 hours to move everything. Then we all sat around the kitchen table, just like old times. Drinks were poured to ease us all out. We talked, but we talked about everything but the elephant in the room. I was still wired, but looking at Dad and Mom I saw that they were quickly starting to fade. "Mom? Dad? Bed time?" They looked at each other and nodded yes.
They gave me a hug and Mom said "Talk with Pete now. Everything else can wait till morning. You'll be ok. We'll talk later."
"Goodnight Mom, Goodnight Dad. Thanks for everything." They turned and smiled at me and went up the stairs to their bedroom. Pete and I sat there in silence for a few minutes before we heard the sound that we were most familiar with, their snoring. Snoring that could wake the dead.
We started to quietly snicker. Then we looked at each other we busted out laughing till tears came out of our eyes. Pete moved out of the house as soon as he could because of the snoring. I swear that it shook the windows on quiet nights.
When Stevie and I were living here, we were in the basement. We couldn't hear it down there. We only heard it when we came up for breakfast. By thinking about Stevie, my laughter stopped and the real tears began. My brother saw the change. I knew that my marriage was over and I allowed it to fester. Pete moved next to me and held me in his arms. Family is my refuge from my failed marriage.
"Michelle, let it out. We've all know that's it been rough for you. Let it out. You're safe here." He held me in his arms and rocked me until my crying stopped.
"Pete?" He looked over at me and smiled. My big brother is older by a total of 10 minutes. He held my hand and had his other arm draped around my shoulder. "Why the fuck did I get married to that loser? Why wouldn't anyone talk me out of it?"
"Michelle, do you want an answer to your rhetorical question or not?" I shrugged, and then nodded yes. I have to start a new life and that means that I need to hear about the old one. It was time to hear that music, the music I spent the last 5 years denying. "You know that this family has always supported each other. We don't do the command and control number. You needed to figure out if he was going to grow up or not. Sometimes Peter Pan does grow up. We all saw some of the progress. We were hopeful.
"Besides, would it have made a difference to my bull-headed little sister?" He gave me a pretend noogie as I shook my head no. I know that if you tell me I can't do something, I'm stubborn enough to go through hell and high water to do it. Dupek.
"Yea Pete, he changed. It was a little bit for the better at first after the wedding. Then he changed again with the election season. It gave him permission to be an asshole." I downed my remaining vodka. I hope it make the rest of this easier to say. "That's when I started to realize that I didn't matter. It was always hard for him to have me at his side. You know like partners do, like you and your wonderful girlfriend Katie." I looked him square in the eye. "And it you fuck that up I'll never forgive you." We both laughed. His girlfriend was the best thing in his life and we both knew it.
I took another sip of my vodka and got serious. "He stopped caring or even listening to what I had to say. I had to barge in to even attempt to get heard and he kept putting me down or shutting me down. What I thought or what I felt didn't matter anymore.
"He became a bully, and he did it in public and private. Last week we were out with friends and grabbed me between the legs and announced that he had my pussy. It was a big fuckin' joke to him." I clenched my fist and hit the table. "It really was a power trip for everybody to see. I was mortified and he laughed." I stopped and thought about it.
"You know, I only remember only two of his single asshole buddies laughing. Mark and Tom and their girlfriends were quiet. Joan and Rick laughed too. Big fucking joke." I giggled my glass for a refill and Pete complied. "Ever since then I've looked at everything we are, what we've have done, what I allowed him to get away with. That's why it was easy to say that it's over this evening. You know, over. I gotta get a new life."
