Support Network

Who was he kidding? You can't demand anything of a woman. That would be sexist and misogynistic. Society required that women be allowed their freedom to do as they liked. It didn't matter if a woman would promise him that she would never cheat. She could not be held to that promise and it was now wrong for a man to oppress her by expecting her to keep her word. She had to be free to cheat and men had to either suck it up and allow it or just not date in the first place.

Well, David was done being lied to. He was done being cheated on. If the only way to not be the victim was to not participate then he was out.

After work that day he got a call from Gina. He didn't answer it. He wasn't going to take her advice ever again after his stupid fucking weirdo sister set him on the path to dating that stupid fucking cheater!

Further down. Darker. Darker.

He'd loved Gwen. He had allowed himself to feel that. Then of course just like every other time in his entire life when he'd allowed himself to love it was twisted around and used to hurt him.

He found it almost difficult to get air because his breathing was so shallow. Pain flowed in and out of his chest as his insides felt like they were taking more damage with every wave splashing against the jagged rocky beach of his heart.

How long would it take to pass this time? How long until he could feel normal again? Would it even pass this time or was this it? Was this how he had to feel for the rest of his life?

Texts came but he ignored them. Calls came but he ignored them. All he could do was sit and fully suffer the maximum brunt of his emotions.

The only time David left the house now was to go to work and he spent as little time as he could there. He cleaned his desk and day by day he took out all of his personal belongings. He passed off the work he couldn't do because of his computer and he streamlined his work process. He wasn't getting any guidance from above so he had no idea if this was what he was supposed to be doing or not.

Then a realization came to him that he could really be fired at any moment and as a result he'd have no reason to ever leave the house again. He created step by step instructions for whoever would be working there after him so that they could get a jump start on the workload. Everything was in order the way it was probably supposed to have been from the beginning.

On Friday David put it on his work schedule to come in and try to get something done when almost no one was there in the office but his boss wouldn't allow it. She wanted him to go home and rest. In fact, she told him to take Monday off as well so he could 'get his mind right'. Yeah, it was going to take more than three days to do that if he was honest.

On his way home he walked the long way as always so he could pass the pawn shop.

Pause.

Still.

Shock.

It was gone. The trumpet was gone. David cautiously went into the shop to ask about it but the girl behind the counter just gave him one word answers while she looked at her phone. David tried to get clarification but she was annoyed with him.

"We only have what you see."

Completely defeated David left for home. While David was waiting for the crosswalk sign to turn green he wondered if he could just walk out into traffic. Cars these days were pretty good but maybe some driver would just not have any concern about human life and just run him over because she doesn't want to be late for her next cheating session. Maybe it would be one of those toxic battery cars that were supposed to have all been recalled because they kept exploding. Even as the thought struck him he acted on it, though the world must have had a much more mundane punishment for him than taking his life. A car honked at him just as he was reaching the other side of the street but he wasn't even startled by it.

David walked towards his building completely unaware of all the sunshine and new life sprouting all around him. For him the sun might as well be a black hole and the day might as well be midnight. Then again, wasn't sunlight bad for you? Maybe he should just lay in the sun naked until he got cancer all over his body.

He didn't really have a plan for what to do with the rest of his day once he got back to his apartment. It was likely that he would just lay in bed waiting for the minutes to tick past. He wouldn't eat or use the toilet. He'd just lay there drifting back and forth from sleep to half unconsciousness.

It was all his fault. Some part of his mind was trying to reason with him and say that he shouldn't blame himself because he hadn't done anything wrong but really deep down he knew it was all his fault. He wasn't supposed to trust a woman and it was his own fault for doing so. He should have expected the woman to cheat on him and it was his own fault for expecting that she wouldn't.

Once David was on his own floor he didn't really notice or pay attention to his surroundings. He was sort of just watching his feet as he walked.

"Are you David?" he heard a woman's voice ask.

David looked up and there in front of his door was yet another cheater. Another man might have seen her as classy or sophisticated. Another man might have thought she was cute or admired her blonde hair. Another man might have even looked her body over and noticed her small perky tits trying to show through her top. That would be other men, but not David. David saw a cheater. It didn't matter that she wasn't cheating on David, she must have cheated on someone and therefore he had no time for her.

"Go away." he ordered but she did not comply.

She stood her ground in front of him and she put one of her fingers into his face. "I will not be accused of something I didn't do."

"Lady, do I know you?" he asked without his face showing any hint of a change in his emotional state.

"Allegedly you do, because everyone is saying we fucked. Now I know that not to be true so what the fuck is your excuse?"

David's face revealed nothing to her and all his body could muster was a shrug. "Move."

"No. How dare you tell people a lie about me. How dare you tell my husband that I did such a thing."

Sigh. Was he going to have to put in effort here? He didn't want to put in effort. He wanted to just lay down and let the earth open up underneath him and he could fall into the abyss. "Amanda?"

"YES! Steven's WIFE! Where is my husband?"

"Not here."

"Where is he?"

"Away from you."

"Tell him to come home."

"No."

"Yes. You drove him away from me so now you are going to help me get him to come home."

"No."

"You have to. You lied. You lied about me. That's why he left. Because of you. You owe me. Now call him and tell him that you lied! So he'll come home."

"So you can have him murdered? Pass."

"What the fuck are you talking about. I love my husband. I would never do ANYTHING to hurt him."

"You called the cops on him."

"He was talking about leaving the country and abandoning me. I just wanted him to come home."

"Then why did the police put him in handcuffs?"

"Because they're assholes. Everyone knows they're assholes. We have riots in the streets about it. Get a clue. I just wanted him to come home. I was worried he was in trouble."

"The only one causing him trouble is you. You know he was already planning to leave you. Him thinking that you cheated was somehow the thing that caused him to maybe want to stay with you and work things out. He was already on his way out the door."

"You don't know that. No. You don't know what you're talking about. That doesn't even make sense. Why would he leave me? I admit I was worried when I found out that he'd cheated on me but ..."

"Who told you that?"

"The little bimbo did. I was mad at first but then I saw that he was sorry. I saw that he wasn't going to leave me for her and he only did it once so in my heart I forgave him."

"He didn't know that."

"Because he never brought it up. If he would have confessed to me then I would have told him but there's no reason to bring it up. He had nothing to worry about."

"Clearly he did because he ended up in handcuffs."

"That wasn't my fault. It was yours."

"They were going to kill him."

"I only ..."

"SHUT UP!" he screamed at her to get her to stop talking. "Shut your stupid fucking mouth. You call the cops on someone it isn't like they leave their guns at home. You're a stupid, selfish fucking cheater. It doesn't matter that you're obviously not the woman I had sex with. He was going to leave you anyway and clearly he needed to do that cause you're a fucking psycho who wanted to get him killed. Cops kill all kinds of people, not just black people. I don't need to know who you are. I don't need to know a fucking thing about you to understand everything I will ever need to understand about you. Look at this. What is it?"

"What?"

"Answer me! WHAT IS THIS?"

"A necktie." she cowered.

"Exactly. A fucking neck tie. I have to wear this fucking clown chain around my neck every fucking day when I go into work. You know why? Huh? You haven't got a fucking clue. It's the same reason why men have to wear uniforms. Cause men are different. Every man is different. You put a thousand men into a room and you get a thousand different ideas for how to fix a problem. Men have to be made to conform because if you don't do that they run off into a thousand different directions. So if you announce to a gathering of a thousand men the statement that "all men are like that', they're all going to be scratching their heads wondering what the fuck you're even talking about. Cause men are different and the only way to get men to not be different and to make them do what you want them to do instead of following their own ideas is to give them rules and make them follow those rules. Obviously the rules that the police operate under allow them to kill people so therefore they do it because they're following the rules handed down to them from above. Men know that they have to follow those rules because if they don't they'll be replaced. Not one of us men is special. Not one of us men is irreplaceable. We are disposable and when you called the cops on Steven you were telling society that you wanted him disposed of. You can deny it to yourself in your own diseased head all you want so that you can continue to delude yourself into thinking that you are a good person but if you go ask anyone what it means when a wife calls the cops on her husband they'll all tell you the same thing."

"I did not mean for the police to hurt him. That is a lie. I just wanted to know where he was. You are not a mind reader. Ok. You do not know what I was thinking. Fuck you."

"No, Fuck You. I know exactly what you were thinking and it had nothing to do with Steven's best interest. You're a woman. If I walk into a room of a thousand women and I announce to them that 'all women are like that' then every last one of them will know exactly what the fuck I mean. Won't they?"

"I'm not like that."

"Yes, you are. You all are. Now move from my door. Steven won't hurt you, but I will. And after you call the cops on me instead of cooperating I'll charge at them with a knife and then you can have the pleasure of watching them pretend to be afraid for their lives as they gun me down. Then you'll know exactly what was going to happen to Steven if he would have stayed with you. You'll see exactly what will happen to your son when some woman out there decides that she wants him removed from the earth. That'll show you and hopefully shut you the fuck up."

She moved out of the way and he unlocked his door but before he could enter and slam the door in her face she pleaded again. "Please. Please help me."

"No."

"Can you please just let me talk to him?"

"No."

"Please. I'll lose everything."

"That's a personal problem that has nothing to do with me. I have my own issues to deal with, lady. I live on the ninth floor and I have a window. I have to spend the next three days in here constantly telling myself not to jump. You're problems are nothing to me. Go spend Steven's money and be happy. We all know you women are only happy when men are suffering and you get free money for no work."

He tried to close the door but she pushed herself forward. "Wait. Please wait."

"Go away."

"Are you seriously talking about killing yourself?"

"Are you seriously still standing here and not recognizing the blatant threat of physical violence I pose to you?"

"Oh my ... You, you, you can't just ... You have to help me. Please. For Steven. And for yourself because clearly someone hurt you."

"You did."

"What?"

"You hurt me. You! I don't want to be like this. I don't want to feel this way or think these things. I want to believe that women are good. I want to believe that women are decent human beings. But you're not. You. Hurt. Me. I can only imagine what you did to Steven. And now you're in charge of raising a child. A male child. What abuse is he going to suffer from you? You going to make him wear a dress? No, that would be too obvious. You're just going to blame all your problems on him and make him think that he's horrible when really you're the bad one. Now excuse me. I have three days to not kill myself. Let's see if I'll make it. It'll be fun. Like a game."

He pushed her out the door and then he slammed it in her face. He waited a moment there by the door. He waited for her not to take the hint that he wanted her to leave. He was waiting for her to ring his bell so he could unleash on her again. After a minute of nothing he looked through the peep hole to see if she was still out there. In fact she was and she was on the telephone. So there it was. She was calling the cops. Well, at least then the pain would stop. The pain would finally be over forever.

He looked over at the window. Such a small action and then he never had to think about Lisa ever again. He'd never have to think about Gwen ever again. He'd never have to think about Sandy ever again. Or Heather. Her actions weren't as bad as the others but somehow it still cut just as deep and now that her name was on his mind it was like a knife carving into his chest.

He unlocked the window, opened it, and looked out. The roof of the other building was below him about three stories so if he jumped he wouldn't fall all the way to the street level. He wouldn't die, just get injured.

Ding, dong.

She'd finally rung the bell, he heard. It had to be her because the cops couldn't have gotten here that fast. Then again, instead of her it could be one of his neighbors coming to complain about the noise.

David opened the door without checking who was out there and with no surprise at all it was still Amanda there standing in front of him.

"What?"

"Can I come in?"

"No."

She looked past him over his shoulder into his house and her face flashed alarm. "I really think you should let me in."

"I really think I shouldn't."

"Um, we really do need to talk about all this stuff that you were talking about. Um, maybe I can help you."

"Not interested."

"Really?"

"Really, really. You have nothing I want."

"Well, I beg to differ."

"Women don't beg. You all think you're too good for it."

"Well, I am begging. See. This is me begging. Please let me in."

"The answer is still no."

He tried to close the door but she pushed herself right up onto him.

"You accused me of something I didn't do."

"Next time I see Steven I'll tell him it was mistaken identity."

"But see, no, I don't actually need you to do that."

"I get it. You said you want to help me, as if there was ever any way for you to be able to do that. Really you're still just trying to manipulate me into helping you. Go away."

"You accused me of having sex with you."

"If not me, you had sex with someone. Same difference."

"I never cheated on Steven."

"I don't believe you."

"I never did. I NEVER cheated on him. ... Since we got married."

"Yeah, this conversation doesn't need to happen with me. I sort of have my own thing going on. So if you'll excuse me."

She looked past him again and then tried to stall. "David, can I call you David?"

"I'd prefer you not call me anything and go away."

"David, Steven knows about what I did and I know what he did at his bachelor party. Ok. So we were even and we talked about it and we decided that it was the marriage that really counted, not all the stuff before. I mean, did you know that in some countries all sex is classified as rape unless it's between two people who are married to each other. The marriage is what matters."

"Your marriage is over. You should stop wasting my time and start making arrangements for yourself. Just saying."

"Hold up. Ok. Just wait a second. Steven is my husband and I don't always understand or agree with everything he says but I know he loves me. I don't want to lose him. I'll do anything to get my husband back. Steven had a plan. I don't personally think it was the best plan but it was his plan."

"If you follow Steven's plan then you're not getting him back. Good, glad we cleared that up. Nice talk. Bye."

"I'm not talking about him leaving me. That's your plan not his."

"Not my plan."

"Steven's plan was he was going to forgive me for fucking you. Steven is a good husband and some little college student isn't going to get between me and my husband."

"I'm not a college student."

"He made a mistake to do that with the little sorority girl and he made a mistake in believing your lie but Steven is a good person who was going to take these bad things and try to turn the situation into something good. He wasn't going to give up on me. Now, I think my plan was better but in this case I guess I have to obey my husband."

"Ok. You go do that. Leave me alone."

"You are going to help me obey my husband."

"No. How many times do I have to say it? I couldn't help you even if I wanted to. I don't know where Steven is and I don't know how to contact him."

"I don't need that. I need you to do what you told him you did. You accused me of having sex with you. You accused me of cheating. Well, if I'm going to be accused of it I might as well do it, especially if it's the only way to prove to Steven that he's totally forgiven. I want my marriage. I want my husband. I don't even care if he's fucking a dozen women in an orgy right now. I want him to come home and be my husband. I want him to come home and be a father. Now If I have to suck your dick, ride your cock, and let you fill my cunt with cum in order to do that, well then that's just what I'm going to have to do. So I'm not going. I'm not leaving. You said you fucked me. Man up and put your money where your mouth is."

David rolled his eyes. "I'm not some slut who has sex with random women who show up at my door."

"You accused me by name. You went to my husband and accused me by name. Well, here I am. If you don't actually want to fuck me you shouldn't have opened your mouth."

"You're trolling me with this, aren't you? The second I try to even touch you, you'll accuse me of rape or something." Then just as he was saying it he realized that it might not be a bad way to go out. He gets to one up Gwen by having sex with yet another pussy that wasn't hers and he could demonstrate to this cheater what happens when you call the cops on someone.

"Oh, please. Get over ... Ahem. I mean, I'm not sure of the kind of women you usually deal with but I'm a woman who keeps my word. I've come here to have sex with you. I really desire to have sex with you. I think that is really just in everyone's best interest. You'll really be helping me out. I don't want to go and sleep with some random creepy guy. I can see that you're cute and if I wasn't married maybe you'd be exactly the kind of guy that I'd want to be with. So what do you say? Let's have a good time and bring some happiness into this world. It has to be better than just being alone, right?"