You Love Me To Hate You Ch. 01

"Please don't. He's not worth it. You going to jail isn't going to make it never have happened."

"Yeah, whatever," he said. He was biding his time to allow Bryson to be less on-guard and not be watching out for him. He fully intended on making Bryson pay for sleeping with Mia, and he'd just been given extra motivation for breaking up his best friend's family.

"Craig, can we talk please?"

He looked at her sadly and shook his head no.

"I don't think so, Izzy."

She walked towards him and then screamed.

"Damn it, Izzy. There's broken figurines all over the floor."

He rushed to her and lifted her up. The expensive collection was crunching under his shoes. He held her with one arm and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he shook off and flipped the the couch cushions.

Satisfied there was no more glass, he set her down. She was amazed at his strength, and was turned on by the feel of his hand that was inadvertently placed on her butt. He lifted her foot and pulled the shard of figurine out. It was bleeding but wasn't a deep cut so he ran to the bathroom, where he knew they had the first aid kit.

He poured some hydrogen peroxide on her foot, dried it off and put a large gauze pad on her heel. A band-aid would never stay on where she was cut. After taping the pad down, he wrapped it and looked over his work.

"Not professional, but it'll hold."

"Thank you, Craig."

"Just stay off it for a bit. I'm gonna grab the broom."

He was thankful that they had hardwood floors in that room. Sweeping it up would be easier than picking up hundreds of pieces that are too large for the vacuum.

He took a couple of pictures of the room from different angles, he knew Todd would want to see the destruction, then swept everything into a large pile in the middle of the room.

Izzy didn't say anything. She was thankful that he came to help her and wasn't yelling at her. She wanted desperately for him to understand that she was always on his slide, but didn't want to upset him. Her reverie was broken by Craig sitting next to her.

"What a mess. I don't understand why people cheat, but I can relate to your dad's reaction."

"Mom's gonna lose her mind. A lot of those were worth over a thousand dollars."

"I was always afraid to be in this room. I didn't want to trip and fall or something."

"Craig, thank you for coming and helping me. I was afraid of him tonight."

"You're welcome. I may be mad at you but I would hate for you to be hurt."

"Craig, let me talk for five minutes and I'll never bother you again. I've left you alone so you can deal with your emotions, but I have to explain some things."

He picked up the bottle of scotch and asked, "This stuff is expensive isn't it?"

"That's his Johnny Walker Blue. It's very expensive."

"Good. Wait here and I'll give you five minutes. We were friends once and I guess I owe you that much."

"We're still friends," she said quietly as he walked away.

Returning with a glass of ice and a bottle of water, he sat down. As he filed his glass with the golden liquid, he said, "Okay. I'm all ears."

"Craig, I want you to know that if I had proof that she did anything on that spring break, I would've told you immediately. I think I've shown you that I don't approve of what she did when I showed you the videos. I took those videos for you. You didn't deserve what she did to you. I could've pulled her out of that house, slapped her straight and never told you. You would never have known, but I couldn't do that to you. Do you understand?"

He nodded yes and took a drink.

"Craig, telling you that I couldn't go out with you was the biggest mistake of my life. I regret it every day. I've fallen in love with you and it hurts me to see you upset like this. I destroyed my relationship with my best friend for you. I did it because I love you and you deserve better."

"Oh, so I deserve you right? You're better? The one who treated me like shit for years. The one who...who... Never mind. You're five minutes is up. I have to go."

She watched him walk out of the house and broke down into tears.

**********

Craig was awoken by a call from Todd.

"Craig, my dad wants to see you at the house. He said that he needs your help with something. He didn't tell me what though. I'm still in Lake Geneva."

"Okay. I just hope he didn't break anything else."

"Yeah, I talked to izzy. Mom's gonna lose her mind when she sees what he did."

"No doubt. I'll send you pictures of the carnage."

"Sweet, I could use a laugh, thanks. I always hated those damn things."

*********

Craig rang the bell and when the door opened Izzy was standing there.

"Good morning, Craig."

"Todd said your dad needs me for something."

"Yeah. He's out back."

She watched him walk through the house without another word.

He opened the sliding door and saw Izzy's father smoking a cigar.

"You needed me, sir?"

"Craig, yes. Thanks for coming, please sit. From now on, please call me Rick. Izzy tells me we have a lot in common."

"I suppose we do," Craig answered.

"Craig, today that piece of shit is going to get his comeuppance. He's about to learn that you don't mess with another man's wife, or girlfriend."

"What do you have in mind, sir."

"Rick please. We are going to beat the hell out of him."

"When and where?"

"Atta boy. I knew you were a good man. You've proven it time and again looking out for Izzy."

Craig looked at him inquisitively.

"Oh yeah. Izzy told me all about what you did for her at school. That's why I'm giving you this gift today."

"What's that, Rick?"

"Payback and revenge. Let's go for a walk, leave your phone."

Craig noticed that he picked up the baseball bat that he got so much use of the night before and brought it with them.

"Craig, one of the selling points of this house for me was the forest of trees behind my house. I'm sure you know that the whole subdivision is a big circle."

Craig nodded.

"This forest is small, but it's dense. Did you know that it also backs up to that asshole's house?"

"No, sir."

"Yep. He's gonna wish he never moved into the neighborhood."

They walked through the woods and stopped at a clearing.

"You see this here? This is his backyard. I've got almost 100 feet of yard before the trees, he's only got about 50 feet. We came here for his housewarming party a little while back and he told me that he swims 50 laps every morning. You'll also notice that there's no view into his yard from his neighbors on either side."

Craig smiled and said, "Yes. Nice and private isn't it."

"Here," Rick said pulling a couple of large handkerchiefs out of his pocket. "I'm glad you wore a hat this morning. That makes it easier."

Craig tied the handkerchief around his head and turned his hat around, backwards.

Out of his other pocket, Rick pulled out two pairs of mirrored Oakley wrap around ski goggles. They put them on and looked at each other.

"Perfect," Craig said.

"I'd hoped so. Now we wait."

It was only fifteen minutes before Bryson came out of his back door. He stretched, threw his towel on a lounge chair and dove into the water.

"Let's sneak to the side here and get along behind his shed. We'll wait until he's tired out from swimming and I'll jump him as he's drying off. Don't say a word and remember that we aren't here to kill him. I'll do some body shots with the bat and hit his nuts. When he goes down, we kick him good. Got it?"

"Yep. Let's do it."

Everything went according to plan. Bryson had the towel over his face and never saw them coming. Once he went down, they were relentless. They didn't miss an inch of his back, stomach and groin.

Once the deed was done, they sprinted into the woods and made their way back to Rick's house. There was a garbage bag on the table that wasn't there before and Rick filled it with their hats, masks and goggles.

"Put your shirt in here too," Rick said.

Rick led Craig into his garage and told him to get in the car. As Craig did, he saw Rick throw the bag and bat into the trunk and then two bags of golf clubs followed.

Rick sat behind the wheel and started the car.

"Have you ever golfed before, Craig?"

"Yes. I'm not good though."

"Don't worry about it. Right about 20 minutes from now we will be meeting two of my golf buddies on the 10th hole. They used my credit card and paid for our tee time about two hours ago. That's our alibi. They know what that guy did to me and will swear to the cops if needed that we've been with them all morning."

"Sounds good," Craig said, although he was as nervous as he'd ever been in his life. The adrenaline was wearing off and he was worried.

"Izzy will swear that that we left for the course at 6:30. She made us a couple of egg sandwiches for the road and kissed us goodbye."

"Got it. I figured she knew. That garbage bag wasn't there before."

"Right. That girl would do anything for you, son. Treat her right. Oh, grab the shirts off of the backseat please."

They put on the golf shirts and didn't say another word about what happened the rest of the morning.

*********

After golfing and then disposing of the bag and bat in a dumpster on the way back, they pulled into Rick's garage.

"Shit, my wife is back," Rick said.

"Are you going to divorce her?" Craig asked.

"I don't know yet. It's a lot more complicated loving someone for decades than it is dumping a girlfriend."

Craig nodded in understanding and said, "Good luck."

"Yeah, I'm going to need it after last nights activity."

They walked into the house and Izzy met them at the door. She grabbed Craig into a hug and cried into his chest.

Craig softened, remembering what Izzy was going to do for them. He hugged her tightly and whispered, "I love you too."

She sobbed harder and he felt her body shake. He pulled back and lifted her chin with his hand. Leaning down, he kissed her softly.

To be continued...