Narrative

Sherman Dellenbach

Zachary Dilbeck

ENGL 1100

September 22, 2013

Narrative

There I sat, flipping through TV channels and waiting for his call. I looked at the TV, “52, 53, 54…” numbers running through my head. I kept looking at the phone, now the TV, phone, TV, phone, TV…Finally I check to make sure the volume is all the way up on my phone.

            I start to fall asleep full of disappointment, I’m not sure why, because this wasn’t the first time for this to happen. All the sudden it rings, my heart flutters for a second and I waste no time pressing the big green accept button. Who knew that one little button could bring you into a totally different atmosphere where the theme seemed to be nothing but anger.

“WHY DID YOU TEXT ME SO MANY TIMES? YOU KNOW I WAS AT WORK SHERMAN!” Ben snarled angrily.

            My mood had completely flipped from being grateful to hear from him, to upset and angry, ready to throw back a snarky comment.

“I was worried, you said you were going to get off around ten and it’s almost midnight. You told me that if you were ever going to stay late like that again you would text me and let me know you were ok at least” I pleaded.

“I’M TIRED OF YOU NOT TRUSTING ME. YOURE REDICULOUS AND NEED TO CALM DOWN.”

            Little did he know, my OCD was overwhelming me right now. Thoughts were running through my head about something going wrong. Maybe he got into an accident. What if he didn’t make it home? He knew I had panic attacks. He didn’t care. He never understood.

He continued with “I have something to tell you that you’re not going to like.”

“What!?” I replied.

“Tiffany works at Romeo’s with me now.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” I burst into tears. Every little bit of trust that Ben had tried to earn back just went down the drain.

            He had been texting Tiffany behind my back. I asked him to stop talking to her only because the messages that I saw them sending were hearts and flirting back and forth. I had been his girlfriend for almost three years and this is how I was being treated? He promised he would stop. I believed him, that was my first mistake.

I found out later from a reliable source that they were still talking. I confronted him and he gave in and told me he had been lying. Deleting messages so I wouldn’t see, taking different routes to talk to her like Facebook, and who knows what else. He promised he would stop again, and I believed him. The trust in this relationship was no longer there. I kept telling myself that he would stop because he said so just because I didn’t want three years and my first boyfriend to go down the drain.

About a month later, I found out they were still talking. This time, they were sending pictures. Tiffany isn’t the brightest crayon in the box. She does drugs, takes risqué pictures, and has a different boyfriend every week. Why would he want to talk to her? Was I not good enough? I confronted him again. He basically said that he doesn’t care about my feelings and will talk to her if he wants and how he wants. This broke my heart.

My friends could all see I was becoming depressed and not myself. The OCD had taken over. Thought running over and over and over and over in my head about him working late nights with her, training her, talking to her, and sending pictures to her. I wasn’t myself anymore. I didn’t see it, but my friends could. Not once have I cried in school. It seemed like every day I had to hide in the art closet to ball my eyes out hoping nobody would come in.

My art teachers were like my best friends, so they knew what was going on. I would cry on their shoulders, literally, and they would tell me that I need to walk away from the situation. They would say he was an asshole, a jerk, and all these things I knew were true, I just didn’t know any different since I had been with him for basically my whole high school career.

Her first day of work she walked in all “sluted” up with red lipstick and her hair all done. Does she know she’s working in a pizza shop?! This defines the type of person she is. I continued to be Ben’s girlfriend and did nothing but care about him, think about him, and want to hang out with him. I was so stupid. I was so dumb. I was so naive.

I found out that Ben had told her to work there. He probably did it so he could spend time with her without me having a choice or say in the matter. Things started coming together in my head. He lied about everything. When he said he was with his friends, he was actually at a party where Tiffany and drugs were.

I never found any of this out from him. I was always different people telling me they saw him here or there and knew he was talking to her. He was never the one to be a big boy and tell me himself that he had lied and made a mistake. He was always caught and then he came clean.

I gave him one last chance before I left on vacation to admit to the pictures. He denied it again. I knew he was lying. I wondered if there was ever anything he told the truth about. Did he ever really love me?

I left for vacation. He didn’t text me the whole way, except for maybe a one word message here or there. I had fun with my cousins, and I had fun without him. I was reminded of who I was before I started dating him. I was finally happy.

As soon as I returned home, within an hour, I went to his house. I found out he had a party while I was gone, and that was it. I was done. I broke up with him on the spot. I felt so relieved walking to my car. I weight that been on my shoulders for three years was lifted off.

Where are they now you ask? Ben isn’t attending college, working at Kroger, and still the same immature person I knew by blocking me on every social media website possible. Tiffany is still skipping around the high school halls delivering brownies to her boyfriend of the week. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were “special” brownies.  And me? I’m happier than ever attending college, working, and hanging out with my new boyfriend, previously the Romeo’s manager, and also the one that made Tiffany quit.