"Please Jarrad." She whispered standing in his living room. "I just came to get my things. I don't wanna go through all this."
A simple trip to pick up a few things from her ex's apartment had erupted into an hour long blowout involving him stealing her keys and purse demanding that she further explain why she had left him. He at least, he claimed, deserved that. But it was all in vain; no explanation was acceptable to him. First she tried the calm approach. Tried to explain to him that situations like the one they were in at that exact moment were precisely why she left him. He was passionate to the point of instability, irrational at times. She refused to live like that. He asked for specific examples citing such behavior. She gave them. Scoffing, he said that she was over dramatic, over analyzed those situations. But what about right now? She countered. He had lied and manipulated his way to getting her to come to his house, held her hostage, stolen her purse and keys, and blocked the door with his 6'2, 210 pound frame when she attempted to leave. "Only because," he answered as if it was obvious, she "wouldn't listen to reason."
She tried to remind him of the women she did not think he fucked, but he led on and flirted with. She hated it. It ate her up inside. He thrived off of attention from females. She was never enough for him. "But I never cheated" he said. Once again, she was over dramatic and a new one: sensitive. The more he claimed that her complaints were unfounded, the louder she got. She screamed, yelled, hit him. Things she had never done before. She was losing control of herself. The only thing she felt she ever really had was self control. And she lost it.
"All I'm sayin' is I'm not ready to give up you." He told her staring her down.
"Please Jarrad." She took a step away from him there were tears in her eyes that she didn't want him to see. "Just let me go...let this go." A tear fell. He saw it, approached her. For every one of his steps forward she took one back. Eventually her back hit a wall. Flinching as his hand touched her chin, she wondered despairingly why and how she had gotten herself into such a mess.
"What's wrong?" He questioned softly, lifting her chin so that he could look into her eyes. How could she explain to him that she was crying, practically sobbing because he was holding her in captivity, because he was controlling her emotions. Because she was stupid enough to think that not only could she control herself, but that she could control him and that her overconfidence had caused her to walk right into his trap, though she knew better. "Baby?" She tried to shove him off, but used his size to keep her contained. This frustrated her even more. Control slipping away more and more in every way possible. She was sobbing and gasping for breath now. "I'm not letting you go. I can't lose you."
"Jarrad" she was begging, defeated. "I can't do this." Her shoulders were shaking with the violence of her sobs. "Why are you doing this to me?"
" I..." He started...he was actually confused. What had he done? He just wanted to love her. He tried to kiss her but she turned her head away. "Baby...I'm sorry." More confusion and hurt in his voice than she would have ever imagined. Raquel looked in his eyes and saw so much pain she wasn't quite sure what to do. "I'll do better baby. I...don't cry...I..." Her gaze caused every word in his brain to escape his grasp. "...make it better..." he mumbled, his sentences barely coherent. "...take the pain...make you feel..."