Heroine Addiction Pt. 03

Part 3 of 4. All parts written. This is the longest part by far. I hope you have fun.

Heroine Addiction

Part 3

Kari

Kari was on another mission. She knew it would be personally humiliating. She passed that test by never thinking about that aspect again. She knew she was going to have to get help from them all. She went to each of their neighborhood's friend's houses and spoke to the man of the house asking for an audience with him and his wife.

Kari explained what the intent had been with the ladies' "Lewis Plan" and how it was supposed to play out. She explained her desire to not tell her husband until the burnt and bleeding corpse of cootie Lewis was there to place at his feet. She thought matters would be self-explanatory then. She explained she feared Barry finding out sooner, because things would appear different before she'd wrecked Lewis, leading to exactly what the men thought now.

As each household discussion unfolded the wives were all horrified to hear their husbands describe what they saw happening with "the Lewis Plan" as a jousting tournament where Lewis was the jouster and each wife in turn was to be the ... "joustee". Most of the men kept some anger while admitting Kari's explanation also fit the timeline.

When Kari spoke to Phyllis and her husband, Jack, he had a pointed response.

"Kari, I'm rooting for you because I'm rooting for my friend Barry, and I think he'd like to find a way back to you. But you need to know he currently fears your affair had been going on for a while and that you and the lizard putz were having sex."

Kari gasped at having her heroic plan referred to as an affair. She fought to keep her emotions in check so she could hear the rest of what Jack was telling her.

"Kari, you're going to have to go after Barry. This mess is all about your decisions. Barry's gone and won't be back unless you prove to him it's in his interest to return. After all, you put your interest first having your affair."

"Jack, I didn't have an affair! Do I need to explain it again?"

Jack held up his hand for Kari to stop. He took his time taking a sip of his drink and leaning back in his sofa making decisive eye contact with both Phyllis and Kari before he formed a sardonic smile and answered, "Your plan involved making out with Lewis. That much is confirmed, for now let's pretend that's as far as it went. I'm being truthful, I'm as red blooded as any man, though I'm not dog nuts. Your slobbering with Lewis has taken you down several notches in desirability for me. Kari, that has to be true at a whole different level for the man who's married to you. How could you adopt any plan that has you make out with another man? That's betrayal Kari! You betrayed Barry! Worse, what the hell is he to think when you engage in bestiality with a creep like Lewis? Didn't you know how much Barry loved you?"

Jack's expression was one of complete bewilderment. He'd been honest and wanted an answer which knocked Phyllis and Kari for a loop.

Kari was amazed at the difference in perspective. These were questions she didn't think would ever be asked. She was going to nuke Lewis; everything afterwards would largely be answered by the fact of his radioactive corpse.

The word betrayal had never come up. She shook hearing it. Jack told her adopting the plan was a betrayal before she even spoke to Lewis. Betrayal, that was a heavy word. Kari closed her eyes. How could this be? If that word had been used it would have scared her away from the plan. She'd never thought anything near betrayal applied to any part of her plan, but dammit it, it certainly seemed to apply now.

Worst was Jack telling her just how bad a betrayal it was by reminding her how much Barry loved her. That was awful, except it was nowhere near as bad as referring to Jack's love for her in the past tense.

Kari didn't try to explain away how miserable she'd made her husband. She explained having created the monster that destroyed Barry, she had to invent the science to reanimate him. She was speaking to the neighborhood husbands not to rehabilitate her own image, but to aid Barry.

By the end of their conversations many were convinced that no matter how silly she'd been, Kari now had Barry's best interest at heart. Kari enlisted them as "Barry's ally" not hers. She swore she was an ally of Barry's too. She made them all to pledge to help the innocent man cut down accidently by the person he trusted most. She told them, "If in the end the best thing we can do is burn me down, then that's what we'll do. If that's what Barry needs, I'll hold the flint while you strike the match."

* * * * *

BARRY

I got a call from Susan, a mutual friend of Kari's and mine. She'd been a friend of Kari's in college and lived in my apartment complex after she graduated. Back then, Susan became as much my friend as Kari's, it was just a proximity thing. Susan would always have more in common with Kari, and they knew each other first. Kari was often at my apartment and Susan blended in seamlessly for drinks, food, movies, and time spent downtown. She was a quality person. She was thrilled when Kari and I tied the knot and really seemed to be a friend to both of us. We lost most of our contact with her when Kari and I bought our house and moved out of the city a couple years ago.

Susan and I worked downtown not far at all from each other, yet our paths rarely crossed. I was happy she called. Talking to her brought back earlier, happier, memories. That was nice. She called me at my office asking if I wanted to go out for a drink. I hemmed and hawed quickly, and then said yes.

I thought I knew Susan pretty darn well. She didn't need to clarify what she was asking for, but I was glad she did anyway. "Look Barry, I'm talking about a drink, one, and if it reaches into a light dinner then fine, but that's all I'm talking about. I want an open conversation. I've heard you and Kari are having trouble and I haven't been a very connected friend lately. I thought this might be a good time to reach out to both of you, separately of course. As I know both of you, I thought I might be a better person to vent towards because you don't have to waste time filling me in on loads of backstory before you reach the part that's important to you right now."

I was convinced. Perhaps I was a pushover now as I wasn't investing in anything deeply. We agreed to meet at an upscale restaurant bar close to where we worked the next day.

Susan was already there when I arrived, sitting in the back where there were three secluded booths. They were all dark and the other two appeared empty, but I saw Susan plainly enough. She'd picked a good table where we'd have plenty of privacy in which to discuss my evisceration.

Susan looked up at me with concern but seeing me she grew a wide familiar smile that warmed the icy spot in my chest where I used to keep my heart.

"Hey Barry, I got here a little early to snag one of the booths with more privacy. Considering that you were going to explain why you left Kari I thought that would be appropriate."

She looked at me with eyes hoping she'd made the right decision, at least concerning the table. I gave her a smile and a nod easing her concern. She also saw I was not entirely comfortable with how she'd assigned responsibility for the condition of my marriage. She tried to back pedal seeing my reaction.

"Um Barry, I know there has to be a lot more to this. I also know you're probably the one trying to keep things quiet, you like your privacy and would protect Kari's even if she was at fault. Barry, I fear your respect for privacy may be causing you some difficulty. The story out there says you just walked away from your wife."

There was a hint of venom in her query. I responded in kind.

"Yes, I left, but only because Kari cheated." Susan's head snapped back. "I honor my commitments; don't you want a man who does?" I waited for her to realize she'd entered a fray she didn't truly understand. "I tell you Susan, it's a sick interpretation that paints me as anything but the good guy in that fetid story."

Susan was taken aback obviously surprised by this side of the story. Talk about surprised, I wasn't aware there was another side to the story! Susan tried to right the ship.

"Barry, I didn't mean to attack. I know you. It's because I do, that I don't understand. I don't get where you would leave and not cut ties. But apparently, you aren't talking divorce and haven't filed."

Her eyes pointedly flicked down to my hand inviting mine to follow, then flicked back up looking directly into my eyes. "Barry, you're still wearing your ring."

I glanced down at the ring. It hadn't occurred to me to remove it. I'm sure everyone could make hay trying to explain that. Worse, I'm not sure I could.

"I'm subletting my apartment month by month from a guy I work with, it's a good situation. I've only been gone a month. I'm learning to deal with things. I'll go back to talk to Kari when I decide what I want."

I just looked at Susan letting her know I was in complete accord with my actions. I let her read my body language for herself. I wasn't the cause of my leaving: I was the wronged party.

"Susan, it appears cut and dried that I wasn't enough to keep Kari to myself. She was dating a guy with regularity. When I found out and confronted Kari, she refused to discuss it with me, actually telling me, "Just trust me. It will run its course then I'll be back to you."

Susan's eyes were wide open in an apparent attempt to show me how much white they had.

"There was a lot of attempted communication on my part for quite some time before it blew up. After the conversation I just mentioned I told her to stay away from him, but I had to travel for business. Against my express wishes she saw him while I was away. I was never going to stand for that, it was too much. I left.

"I spent the night in my car then returned home late the next afternoon. In that short amount of time Kari was already back with the guy! My leaving her didn't dissuade her at all. She apparently saw it as more time she could spend with him. I caught them red handed, literally, making out in a hidden spot. I beat the guy up and left."

Susan's jaw had dropped wide giving me a wonderful view of her dental work. It was clear I hadn't just left. In fact, I'd discovered Kari's infidelity, warned against it, demonstrated the consequences, then caught my wife in the act! Kari was at fault; this wasn't innuendo or a misunderstanding. It wasn't one strike and you're out; there was a double header's worth of strikes to be had.

"It's been about a month. I haven't talked to Kari and I'm not ready to. I tried to talk a whole bunch of times before things completely blew up and she wouldn't stop seeing the guy. Talking didn't do me any good. She's tried to contact me depressingly few times, that may mean what seems obvious: that I don't mean much to her. Though she probably knows to let me cool off. I haven't much, cooled off that is. You called, here we are. That's it. If you want any details, you'll have to go to Kari, I don't know why she threw me away."

"I-I can't believe that. She's nuts about you!" Susan was dumbfounded and thrown for a loop. There was something off though.

"Susan, another significant part is I hate the guy Kari was seeing. Worse, Kari knew that. He sickens me. I don't view him as an equal or even a competitor. He disgusts me, and lot of that disgust has now rubbed off on Kari for me. I haven't talked to her because all the problems that made me walk away are still all too valid and potent for me. I didn't say anything that made Kari stop her affair before I had to leave. Now I can't think of what she could say that would make me go back."

"So, you're going to divorce?!" Susan was blown away.

"I didn't want a divorce. I'm nuts about Kari. I'm ripped in half that she didn't love me back."

Kari was shellshocked, "I can't put all this together, Barry. Kari does love you! But if you caught her with the guy ... this can't be a misunderstanding. How could this have happened? How could things have gone so badly between people that love each other so much that you're going to divorce her?"

Susan was legitimately having trouble making any sense of this. She'd already been dismayed I'd left Kari, finding it was for good cause sent her head spinning.

"Why should I file? Kari wrecked the marriage. She'll file when she needs her next man. I didn't damage the marriage, why should I have the heavy lifting of ending it? I'm not the one interested in finding someone else. I don't think her relationship worked with last guy, but he was no good for her. He was way beneath her."

I sighed and forced a smile apologizing for my toxicity. I breathed deeply trying to calm myself before I went on. "Kari gave me some cock and bull story about wanting to take that guy down a peg. But he was way lower than her, an algae feeder, she couldn't lower him any further. Her "plan" amounted to trying to remove the dog shit in the yard by rolling in it until it all stuck to her, completely debasing herself in the process."

Was my friend really smiling now? It was a fragile smile, but it was a smile. Was it because I'd just defended Kari in a small way? The rest of what I'd said damned her fairly heavily. I sensed some motion in the booth behind me now. Damn, I'd have to be quieter.

"Barry, I've spoken to ... some people about what happened, that's how I came to know about your split in the first place. I think you may be too close to the fire on this one my friend."

I just looked at her. "How could I be too close? That's the woman I loved, my wife."

Susan nodded indicating she knew she had to connect the dots for me. I had no idea what she knew, even less what she thought.

"Don't you get it? That guy really was nothing. The story is the ladies in the neighborhood wanted to stop him hitting on them. He was dog shit. I mean there's no argument, the only guy who thought he was neat was him."

I didn't hide my exasperation, "Susan, all the "ladies" which believe me is a huge misnomer, had to do was say "No" and look at Lewis like he was crazy. He'd go away. All they had to do was report it to their husbands, any of us would've loved the chance to thrash the little poser. But they liked his flirting. They liked being titillated by another man. They liked being the object of desire. What eventually got them was their temptation. They had to respond in some way to maintain his continued pursuit of them. As soon as they made that move Lewis wasn't alone in the malfeasance. Then it was two for the tango." I paused for emphasis, "Susan, Kari pursued HIM."

My friend's eyes widened a bit further as I explained.

"The ladies flirted with him because he told them things they wanted to hear. Then they'd be ashamed that they flirted with lowest scum of humanity to get praise. How low were they if they went along with it? Then those stupid worthless coquettes talked my wife into taking him down a peg.

"All it would take to make him scarce was a nasty glance and a curt sentence. He'd be on his way sniffing out garbage elsewhere, unless he smelled it here. He'll be wherever he finds scraps, period. So, if they truly wanted him gone, they didn't need to take him down a peg to remind him of who he is; just don't give him the time of day.

"Instead, my wife got talked into throwing herself at him, to make out with him, maybe to sleep with him. And to keep going back to do it more and more, until they fattened up the calf for slaughter. Or so they claimed. And Kari did it! She wallowed in the trash and became garbage too."

Susan gasped at my description. My antennae came up, there was definitely something more going on.

I continued cautiously, "How low did she really fall? Kari kept it all from me. But I know for a fact she kept going back to him. I caught her on the phone to him a couple times, and a few more talking to the "ladies" about him and how well things were going with him. She told them how excited she already was for the next time she'd be with him. It was obvious she'd been with him several times.

"I confronted her. I left on a trip all but begging Kari not to see him while I was gone. I left no wiggle room. I made sure my wishes on the subject were my last words out the door, not "I love you" to underscore the importance that she not spend ANY time with him. The first thing I did upon returning was check if she'd seen him; she had."

My dinner partner's mouth became a pucker, her eyes lowered to the table. I waited for her eyes to come back up before speaking again. When I did, what I said made her eyes flare and her jaw drop in shock.

"When I caught Kari in the act, they were wrapped around each other like mating octopi in a combine rotor. Kari was letting him feel her up, while she gave him a hand job, all the while talking about the sexual things they do. She was positioning him to screw her. I saw it. I saw how into him she was. I heard the nasty erotic things she was saying to him. I stopped them before they screwed -- that time anyway."

I thought tears were coming to Susan's eyes. Several emotions were dancing there. She might have felt she was given the wrong story. That was a bit iffy, just hopeful thinking on my part, but she was clearly not aware of this nasty little chapter.

"Oh Barry, you saw that?"

That took away some of my steam.

"Yeah, they were hidden away in a little cove in the brush. I stood outside for a while hearing everything they said. I knew what I'd probably hear but I was still rooting for Kari. I knew what had come before, that was obvious enough. At a previous party I saw her flirt and stroke his arm, giggle, bat her eyes, stare adoringly, yes even push her breasts into his arm. That was the behavior she allowed when I was there, just around the proverbial corner. I figured if they were ever alone, they'd go a lot farther.

"Then I'd pieced together they had been alone before. When I called her on it, Kari didn't deny it. Well, she did until she knew she was found out, then she said it was for a good deed. Good deed? What does that even mean? I made it clear I didn't want her to even give him the time of day. We used that phrase all the time. There was no way she misunderstood how I felt.

"Things got worse. She was seeing him more sneaking behind my back. She was giving him attention, hugging, kissing, caressing, and finally sex of some sort, if not full-on whose-your-Daddy stuff. I mean when you sneak around, have covert conversations, flirtations, and physical contact beyond making out, which I believe was occurring on a regular basis, that's an affair, right?"

Susan was shaking her head in disbelief while understanding that I honestly believed everything I'd said. Unfortunately, I seemed to have facts to back me up. Susan also understood I truly wished I didn't believe it; I didn't want this to be true!

"If you ask the guy Kari was fooling around with, I guarantee he thought it was a real affair. Kari, however, doesn't feel it should be designated as cheating because it was done for some sort of justice. But she perpetrated a greater injustice upon me than she solved for the "ladies". I said the word with a sneer.

"In fact, she didn't solve it; I got the guys together and we beat the crap out of Lewis and told him the beatings would recur until he moved. His house is for sale. If his behavior was that bad all the "ladies" had to do was mention it to any of their husbands, and problem solved, right? How's giving him exactly what he wants putting him in his place?"

There was stirring in the booth behind me again. I really had to lower my volume. Susan looked positively miserable; I think a lot of it was sympathy for me. I had sympathy for me too. I didn't like that I was the steady guy, the strong guy, and still ended up in this position. How the hell did I end up the victim? I never wanted to be the damn victim!