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“Think about it, Jonah.” She crossed her arms. She wore a pink T-shirt that only made her red face even redder.
“Think about what? All the times I had to drive myself to physical therapy because you had a nail appointment? Or all the times I cut myself shaving while you sat in the living room laughing at the dumb memes you spend your life looking at? All the times I needed your help, Wendy, and you were nowhere. And then, on the time when you were there, you made it clear to me that I was a burden—”
“Jonah, you were never—”
“Well, that’s how it felt. And you did nothing to make it feel better.” I was shaking. This was it. I was staring at the end, something I hadn’t done since I was shot in the head.
“We can’t fix this, Wendy.”
Her frills seemed to come down for a moment. “Wait, Jonah, hold on. We can talk things through.”
“No,” I said, feeling more sure by the second. “There’s nothing we can say. It’s over, Wendy. I’m so sorry, but this relationship can’t—”
I felt the crack of skin on my cheek before I registered what happened. The sting came soon after, marking the exact shape of her hand on my face. I was in shock. She’d never hit me before—I never thought she would.
And then I felt the warm drip of blood. I put a hand on my cheek and wiped, revealing a bloody palm. She had used nails. Wendy had been out for blood, and she got it.
“Get out,” she said. “I can’t believe I moved down here for you. I can’t believe I put my life on hold for you so that you break up with me? Well, guess what, Jonah, it’s over just like you said. This is me breaking up with you!”
She was pushing me now, toward the door of our apartment.
“Get out.”
“What… Wendy? Wendy, calm down. This is crazy.”
“Crazy!”
Bad choice of words. Jurassic Park dinosaur was back, except this time she was a Tyrannosaurus rex, ready to bite down on me and tear me in half. I stumbled back and opened the door, stepping into the hallway.
“Wendy, this is our apart—”
“My name is on the lease. Come back tomorrow to get your stuff. I really need to be alone right now.”
And with that, she slammed the door shut, locking it and kicking it for good measure, the cheap wood shaking. I’m pretty sure I heard the frame holding our photo come crashing down.
I stood there in shock. My ears were ringing as if a grenade had gone off a few feet away from me. This all happened so fast, and yet at the same time, it was years in the making. A slow-moving sinkhole that was threatening to consume my entire life if I didn’t make a run for it.
And that’s what I did. I had to. Wendy wasn’t happy with me, and I wasn’t happy with her. The realization had come to me back when I was confined to a hospital bed and she was nowhere around, but it took until now for me to act on it.
I wasn’t sure if it was just timing or if there was another factor that had pushed me to act…
“Everything okay?”
The voice scared me. It was Shirley, our eighty-seven-year-old neighbor who loved taking care of Chibby when I couldn’t. That was another thing: Wendy hated my pet iguana and thought she’d get sick from looking at it, so when I was in the hospital, Shirley was wonderful enough to offer and help.
“Yeah, everything’s… it’s… uhm.” I tried to make sure my face was tilted in a way that she couldn’t see the scratch marks.
She put a soft, wrinkled hand on mine and looked up at me, age and wisdom, but more so love, radiating from her warm face.
“It will be okay, Jonah. It will be. You’ve been through hell and didn’t even come back with a T-shirt. The least you deserve is a happy ending. I believe you’ll get that and more, sweetie. Besides, I strongly believe you’re much too handsome to be sad. So perk up and forget about the troubles that are haunting you now, because the ghosts of tomorrow are much more pleasant. I promise.”
I smiled, something I didn’t think possible with how I felt. “Thank you, Shirley. That sounds… that’s actually pretty inspirational.”
“Is it?” She coughed and smiled. “I’m on some new medical marijuana and honestly I wasn’t even sure what I was saying. But I’m very happy it made sense to you!”
She started cracking up, which got me laughing, something else I didn’t think was possible with the way I was feeling. I wondered if Wendy could hear this from inside the apartment. Wondered if she was already making plans for a girls’ trip to get her mind off me.
