Chapter Two
Part 1
“What the hell is this?” I blurted.
Marcy and Dominic jumped apart. Her face was flushed but went white the moment she saw
Me. Dominic, however, had to hide his puerile smirk by turning away for a moment. Of all the people in
All the world she could have chosen to cuckold me with, Dominic Thomas was the worst. He was such a
Slimy tool – with his slick hair, his silver cross around his neck, his leather jacket. And that attitude?
Forget it. He’d been flouting authority since kindergarten when he told our gym teacher he wouldn’t
Play basketball with the dorky kids. I mean, who did that? At age five? And he’d only gotten worse with
Age. I couldn’t fathom what she was doing with him.
“Mike, I – “
“Marcy, tell me you weren’t just kissing this idiot,” I said, seething.
“Hey, man. Why don’t we all just chill for a sec?” Dominic said, still smirking.
“Get the hell out of here, man,” I said vehemently. “This is between me and Marcy.”
He didn’t move. Instead, he looked at her for corroboration. The closeness between them was
Implicit, and it almost killed me. Like he was going to protect her from me. She was my girlfriend, for
God’s sake. If anyone was going to do the protecting around here, it was me!
“It’s okay,” Marcy said tremulously.
“You sure?” he asked. He was rubbing it in. He just wanted to abase me. I could tell. It was all I
Could do to keep from punching the duplicitous bastard in the face.
“Dude, you better get out of here right now, unless you want the ass-kicking of your life.”
Was that succinct enough for him? Apparently so. He finally raised his hands and acquiesced. I
Waited until he was around the building and out of earshot before I said
anything else. I took a deep
Breath as Marcy eyed me warily.
“What’s going on here, Marcy?” I asked calmly, trying to appear stoic. I didn’t want to come off
As a big baby here. I could handle whatever was coming. I hoped. “How long have you been
Dissembling?”
Marcy hesitated a moment, kicking the toe of her cheerleading sneaker into the dirt beneath
Her feet. “Since the summer,” she said finally, hugging herself.
“Two months?!” I blurted, all the blood rushing to my head. So much for being impervious. I
Couldn’t believe she had been sneaking around behind my back for two whole months! “How? When?
And why him? God, Marcy. I abhor Dominic Thomas! You know that! Did you just do this to hurt me?”
“No!” she cried, her eyes filling with tears. “It just kind of happened. You were off checking
Out schools with your parents and he came into Dairy Queen, like, every day, and we just started
Talking “
I pushed my hands into my hair, my mind reeling. Two months. Two months of guile and
Disingenuous behavior and of me being totally blind. Who else knew about this? How big of an idiot am
I?
////// – –
Part 2
That evening I sat alone in my living room in front of the Yankees pre-game show, wallowing in
Self-pity. I was so angry that I had actually considered going out and scouring the town for a party and
Some random girl to hook up with, but I had never been a vindictive person. That just wasn’t me. So
Instead, I had resolved to repose on the sofa and think about where it had all gone wrong. I had even
Drawn all the curtains over the windows to get it as dark in the room as possible. All the better for
Vilifying my ex and berating myself for my blindness.
Of course, my glass-is-half-full mother had other ideas.
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