A fight with Allan leads Roseline into the arms of her two best friends
Warning:
There is bisexual sex, and group sex in this story.
***********
We fight, my boyfriend Allan and I. We have tremendous fights, often over silly things, and eventually we make up. I know what youâre thinking, and yes, it is. The make-up sex is wonderful.
This last fight, however, was especially brutal. I guess Allan has anger issues. I know what youâre thinking, and the answer is no. Allan has never laid a hand on me in anger and Iâm sure he never would. I am most definitely not a battered woman, and if Allan tried anything like that I would leave him in seconds. He knows that, at least on an intuitive level.
So, the fight was not physical, but it was brutal nevertheless. I had suggested Allan seek therapy for his anger issues. I had told him it probably stemmed from his childhood, maybe something about his relationship with his parents growing up and KABLOUIE! I had stepped on a landmine, and I suspect his shouting was heard in at least six of our neighboring apartments. Itâs embarrassing, you know.
It was Allanâs apartment. He rented it and I had sort of moved in with him. I still had my own apartment, a few blocks away. I was not ready to commit myself by definitively giving up my apartment and moving in with Allan. I continued to pay rent on my apartment just for the reason of being independent. I was always a bit leery of Allanâs problem with his temper.
Allan stormed out of the apartment. I knew where he was going. Allan is, if anything, predictable. He headed off, no doubt, to his favorite sports bar. I know what youâre thinking: heâd get drunk, get in a fight, and Iâd be going either to the ER or to the jail to bail him out, right? Wrong again. Drink makes some people bellicose, but it doesnât for Allan. Drink combined with the distraction of sports on television calms the man down.
So, I knew Allan was going to be okay. It wasnât Allan that concerned me; it was me: Roseline. Liquor doesnât help in my case. Eating doesnât help. Meds (like Xanax) in general donât help. None of the usual venues people use to calm down when upset help, in my case, except of course, for time. Typically, Iâd be okay in a few days.
Except for this time. This time was different. Allan had crossed a line. People say things in anger at times that they regret saying. It happens. It probably happens a lot. The thing is, when people cross that line, saying things they really shouldnât, it tells you something. At least, thatâs what I think. What they really think, deep down in their inner being, reveals itself, if -- through the shouting and emotional turbulence -- you are aware enough at the time to see it.
Once you see it, though, itâs horrible, because you canât un-see it. Itâs there, and it will stay there, and it will always be there, and you either have to live with it always in your consciousness, or cut bait and run. There are no other options. All this appeared clearly in my head as if it were a blinding flash of light.
It was at that moment, minutes after Allan had slammed the door and left, that I knew we were over. I suddenly realized it had always been there, it had been present in all of our fights, lurking just under the surface. I had never wanted to see it, but in this last fight it had peaked out from under the rugs of nasty verbiage emanating from his mouth and it was said explicitly. It was said only once, fleetingly, then covered up again, but only once was enough.
Allan had contempt and hatred for who I was, where I came from, and in short, my social class. Allan had contempt for me because I was raised poor. I was, too. I grew up in poverty. I wasnât proud of my background, but I sure as hell wasnât ashamed of it, either. Allan had shown his inner self, his true id if you will, and it was ugly. More than ugly, it was something I could not live with. Allan was a racist.
More than just being a racist, which is bad enough in and of itself if one is Black, was that Allanâs sexual desire for me was due to my skin color, and all that that represents. He found it sexy that his regular squeeze was black. It wasnât really fucking me that he liked, even if I always tried to make it as good as possible for him, it was fucking his âblack sexpot,â as he called me.
I took my lithe, young body, with my perfect, unblemished skin, and my love box that lubricated on a dime, and my naked body that drove Allan nuts, especially when he drove me to a climax which was every bleeping time, and I dressed myself. I found my few treasures that I had at his apartment, and emotionally said goodbye to my clothes that I kept at Allanâs, which were too much to carry.
*********
I texted Jim and Ally, my two closest friends. We met at Popeyes. They had been urging me to leave Allan for a long time. They were thrilled I was finally doing it.
âWhereâs Allan now?â Jim asked.
âAt his favorite sports bar, Iâm sure. You know the one,â I replied.
âHeâll come to your apartment you know,â Amy said.
âI know; I wonât be there,â I said.
âHeâll find you, you know that,â Jim said.
âNo, he wonât,â I said. âNot this time.â
âLook, Roseline. Youâre the prettiest black woman in Indianapolis. Youâre recognized everywhere you go. Half the men in Indy want to take you to bed. I hate to speak in clichĂ©s, but here I go: you can run, but you canât hide. Not you,â Jim said.
âJimâs right, Roseline,â Ally said.
âI know youâre both right,â I said, âAnd thatâs why Iâm leaving town. When Iâm settled, would you be willing to send me my stuff from my apartment?â
âYou canât leave town! What about us and your other friends?â Ally exclaimed, and she really did look upset, and sad.
âI know Ally, but itâs the only way. Iâve thought this through,â I said.
We sat in silence for a while. Jim and Ally, who were just friends, not a couple (well, they were friends with benefits, if you know what I mean), both looked very sad.
âWell, youâre better off without him. Sooner or later he was going to beat you,â Ally said.
âNo, he would never have done that,â I said.
âWhere are you going?â Jim asked.
âYou can tell nobody. If you do, Allan will find out. You can tell nobody at all, and you have to swear, okay?â
They both swore, and then I made them swear again, and then a third time. I grabbed a napkin, covered what I was writing, and wrote NYC on it and gave it to them.
âMy bus leaves in two hours. The trip is 20 to 21 hours long. I got a new phone so Allan canât track me. Iâve texted a friend, and heâll put me up for a few days until Iâm on my feet,â I said.
âHe?â Jim asked, and I noticed Ally kicked him. God, I love that woman. Iâll miss her.
âYou mind works in the gutter, Jim,â I said. âHeâs an old friend from college. No worries.â
Ally and I went to college together; thatâs how we became friends. I met Jim in Indy, thanks to Ally. âWhoâs the friend? Do I know him?â she asked.
âYou know him. Heâs Bob. Bob Jackson,â I said.
Ally raised one eyebrow. She was really good at that; she could arch an eyebrow up to the ceiling. It always made me giggle and I did. I giggled for the first time since leaving Allanâs apartment.
âYouâll have to compensate him,â Ally said. I knew what she meant. No doubt she was right.
âHe said heâs glad to help a friend. Heâs not asking for money,â I replied.
âYou know the kind of compensation I mean,â Ally said. âYou okay with that?â
Jim had not been following, but suddenly he understood. His eyes got wide.
I didnât answer Allyâs question. There was no way I was going to tell anyone that I was, in fact, looking forward to giving Bob some compensation for his New York hospitality. Iâd always had a thing for him, but in college I dated only Black men. Had I enjoyed Bobâs âhospitality,â I would have been disowned by all of my friends.
*************
Jim had always been totally correct with me. After all, I was Allanâs girl; but when he and Ally took me to the bus station in their car, things changed. Ally and I hugged and kissed goodbye. Ally surprised me by giving me a kiss on the lips that was an eight or nine on a ten-point sexy scale. I never would have suspected Ally, but hey, she can do no wrong in my book, and if thatâs how she feels, and if sheâs a little AC/DC, more power to her.