Episode 14: Her Tough Decision

I woke up Saturday morning with a headache, but it was because of more than just the slight hangover that I had. My mind was cluttered. Ron lied, so break up with him right? Wrong. It is not that easy. Ron and I have been through a lot. He has helped me through a lot of tough times as I have for him. I know what he did was wrong and I won’t soon forget about it. He will definitely have to do a lot of groveling to get back on my good side, I will tell you that.

I woke up around nine and spent all morning thinking about the previous night’s events. How could he do that to me? Am I that unbearable to be around that he has to lie to me so he can go out with his friends? I do not remember the last time I was this angry.

My phone started ringing around eleven that morning.

“Wow,” said Stacy, picking up her phone to see Ron’s name on the screen, “He is up before noon on a day that he does not have to work. He must know that he really messed up this time.”

Hmph, this time. I don’t know why I even put up with his mess time after time. How much is too much? He is definitely on thin ice. The more I thought about it, the more I started hoping that the “ice” beneath him would eventually break. Does that make me a bad person? Overall, he has been a good boyfriend. I don’t know what to do.

I ignored the call and went on about my morning, cleaning up my apartment and doing my laundry. Then, about thirty minutes later, my phone rang again. Upon inspecting the screen of my phone, I saw Ron’s name again.

“Nope,” said Stacy, shaking her head and walking away from the table in which her phone rested. “I think I will let you suffer a little longer.”

I had not even begun to think about what I was going to say to him. I couldn’t think about the previous night without wanting to smack him right in the face, which is what I probably should have done. That would have served him right. No, I could not bring myself to strike anyone. That just is not me. I am going to have to get over being mad before I can think about what I want to say. Until then, he can wait.

Unfortunately, he had other ideas. I guess he thought that calling every twenty to thirty minutes would help me get over it faster. He was wrong. I eventually switched my phone over to vibrate and he eventually gave up...after calling eight times and leaving three messages. I actually started to feel bad, but all I had to do to shake that feeling was think about the previous night. At two o’clock Lauren stopped by.

“Hi,” said Stacy with a slight grimace as she opened her door to let Lauren in.

“Hey girl,” responded Lauren. “How are you?”

“Been better,” answered Stacy.

“Have you talked to him?” asked Lauren.

“No. I still haven’t figured out what I want to say to him.”

“Still angry huh?”

“Oh yes,” answered Stacy, shaking her head as she grit her teeth in anger.

Lauren saw that Stacy was becoming upset and immediately began to calm her down. “Easy girl,” said Lauren. “I didn’t come over here to stir you up.”

“I know. It just still angers me that he would do that he would lie to me.”

“I never thought that he would be the type of guy to do that.”

“Yeah, well anyway,” said Stacy. “I’m not going to spend my whole day thinking about it.”

“Good for you,” said Lauren. “We are going out tonight. Do you want to come?”

“Yeah, definitely,” answered Stacy.

It was at that point that there was a knock on the door. Puzzled, Stacy walked over and looked through the peephole. Much to her surprise, there stood Ron, holding a dozen roses. Stacy’s anger immediately melted away at the sight. She immediately opened the door.

“Hey,” said Ron with a half smile.

“Hi,” said Stacy, gazing at Ron, dazed with affection.

“Stacy, I am so sorry,” said Ron, genuine sorrow filled his voice. “I have been torturing myself since last night and I couldn’t stand it anymore, so here I stand, throwing myself at your mercy and begging you to forgive me.”

In all honesty, he could have said pretty much anything right then and I would have forgiven him. Although, my decision to forgive Ron and not dump him was not a popular one with the rest of the group. Being my best friend, Lauren felt as betrayed as I did, but she would not be won back as easily as I was. In fact, she would never trust Ron again.

Stacy all but leapt at Ron, throwing her arms around his neck, then kissing him. “I forgive you,” she said, relinquishing the kiss, “but it better not ever happen again.”

“It won’t.” said Ron, reassuring Stacy.

“Good,” replied Stacy.

Lauren rolled her eyes and grabbed her coat. “I’ll call you later,” she said as she passed Stacy and Ron.

“O-ok,” said Stacy, confused as to why Lauren was leaving with such haste. “See you later.”

Ron did not stay long, eventually leaving after twenty minutes. He stopped by Stacy’s on his way to work. Stacy searched for, and found, a vase for the roses and put them in it. After situating the flowers on her kitchen table, she spent the rest of the afternoon finishing her chores. By the time she was done, it was after five.

After eating dinner, Stacy called Joel to see what everyone had planned for the night ahead. Joel told her that they would be meeting at Stratler’s later that evening, then heading downtown. Stacy had planned on riding with Lauren and Brian, but Ron surprised her yet again by switching shifts and getting off to go out with her. Stacy then texted Joel and Lauren to let them know that the two of them would meet the rest of the group downtown instead of at Stratler’s as previously planned.

I was actually excited about going out. Now that things were fine between Ron and myself, I wanted to put the ugly incident behind us.

When Ron got to Stacy’s, the two of them headed downtown to meet up with the rest of their friends. Stacy mentioned that Joel and Katie were having some problems to Ron in hopes that he would not bring it up. Ron brushed off the comments about Joel as he usually did, which caught the attention of Stacy.

“Are you ok?” asked Stacy.

“Yeah,” said Ron. “I’m fine.”

“Then why did you make that face when I told you about Joel?” asked Stacy. “How many times do I have to tell you that we are just friends?”

“Well it sure doesn’t seem that way,” replied Ron.

“Really, Ron?” asked Stacy, starting to become annoyed. “Are you already starting?”

“Starting what?” asked Ron. “I didn’t say anything. You are the one that brought it up.”

“Whatever,” said Stacy. “Can we just have a nice night out?”

“Yes,” replied Ron.

The two rode in silence until the reached the bar in which their friends were at. When they entered the bar, they located the rest of the group and joined them near the bar to have drinks. Everyone was having a good time, except for Joel, who seemed distant.

Joel was miserable. I wanted nothing more than to walk over and give him a hug, but I did not want to remind him of his sorrows. As we moved from bar to bar, Joel’s mood seemed to get worse. Finally he started to bug John for his phone back which I found humorous. He actually started to sound like his old self.

“Give me my phone,” said Joel.

“Nope,” responded John.

“Come on, John,” pleaded Joel. “I just want to check my messages. I won’t call her.”

“Yes you will.”

“Just give me my phone,” demanded Joel.

“Nope.”

It went on like that for a while until Joel eventually stopped, but then, minutes later, he started again. Finally John handed the phone over to Joel, who headed for the door. He stepped out for a minute before coming right back in. After chatting with Jack for a minute, he came over and said his goodbyes and left. I felt horrible for him, but that feeling quickly passed as Ron started at me again and being that he had some drinks in him, he came right out with it.

“Why don’t you just go with him?” asked Ron of Stacy.

“Ron, don’t start,” responded Stacy. “I just feel bad for him, that’s all.”

“Yeah, right,” said Ron.

“Ok, you are drunk,” said Stacy, “so I am going to let this go. I am, however, leaving.”

After saying her farewells, Stacy left and got a cab which took her home.

I know, I know; Ron and I cannot continue on like this. Time and time again, he took me for granted and I was sick of it. I have a tough decision to make...