Ticking Time bomb

Mary stood right there filled with regrets and loathed the idea of ever being in a relationship again. For the Seventh time David had yet again broken her heart and it was with people she knew. It was always her friends doing her wrong or so she thought, or an apple doesn’t fall away from the tree or so they said.  It was always the same friends getting involved with his guy or vice versa, she had no idea who was to blame certainly not her. But was she innocent in all this? Did she really have nothing to do in all this? Was life just not being fair to her? Why did she have to go through all this? Questions trickled through her mind in no necessary order most of which, she lacked the answers. You can’t trust a female lion to guard your meat, let alone letting your meat closer to pride of them. Mary stood there absorbing it all, carefully focused on the detail like police on a crime scene, taking her moment to throw mean glances and make her presence known. She couldn’t even tell what she felt at that moment.

Sandwiched between her friends was David. “Look who didn’t get the invite, you moron!” she commented sarcastically folding her hands into fist ready to give Janet and Daisy a piece of her mind as well as a taste of her fists. Janet’s face was displaying shock and as she seemed to be gasping for air, disbelief was written all over her face. Daisy on the other hand was barely shaken, this wasn’t her first time being busted in such situation. She was busy trying to figure out if she had worn a bra and which color it was. The room was in a mess and she couldn’t tell if either of the bras on the floor was hers. David clenched his teeth in an attempt to distance himself from all this. He only had his boxers on and there was no way he’d be in a relationship after this. He knew when he could pull his way out of a mess when he was cornered, but this time, he was definitely cornered.

Mary wasn’t supposed to be there that night. She wasn’t even supposed to be in the country. David thought he had this planned out to the last detail and yes there was a party which ended prematurely due to bad weather coupled with the electrical blackout. It was always something with the power and lightning company, either a pole fell, or the transformer blew up. The rain must be the reason she didn’t hear the taxi that dropped Mary, not like taxis made noticeable sounds, especially the automatic ones. Mary stood there barely touched by a single drop of rain. She had wiped her make up though and her hair tied neatly into a bun. She had flat shoes instead of the heels she had left earlier with. Something wasn’t adding up and David couldn’t tell what exactly.

Mary had already made her mind that she’d had enough, she had seen this script many times and she knew how it all ended with her drunk with swollen eyes at a club downtown, this wasn’t going to end that way. This time she was determined. As she charged towards them her fist clinched, rage written all over her face and the backup generator rumbled its last few cycles before going dead. Spontaneously things started flying just like in high school whenever there was a blackout. Dictionary, buckets, brooms and anything that could fly would land into people’s heads. Those who sat at the front had it rough, but this was different. Handbags, water bottles and even a phone were all over the place. Judging from the screams, the handbag landed on Janet who was still having a hard time processing this, while the phone landed on David who cursed in the darkness of the night. The bottle missed a soul and hit the wall.

David was struggling to get his phone which was on the table adjacent to the bed, but the darkness wasn’t doing him any favors. After what seemed like eternity, he found it and turned on the flashlight just in time to intercept Mary’s leather belt directly aiming for his face. How she did that in the dark was something he wondered. He pulled her to immobilize her but for a girl, she was too strong. His head was bleeding and a headache had started to kick in. Janet had found her moment to grasp her little belonging and jump into the rain. It was either the rain or this madness and she was clearly choosing mother nature. Daisy wasn’t done yet; she wasn’t the type to let go easily despite the water bottle missing her by quite a distance. She was still motivated to shoot her shot. Using the light from the flashlight she was able to lock her target.

Mary took a hit but didn’t scream, the pain she was going through internally made her numb to the physical pain, it was simply too much. Janet was still hitting whatever was on her way through the sitting room crying as she moved towards where she thought the door was. Mary was still resilient, this wasn’t going to be easy this time, she wasn’t going to let it happen. In her struggle to break free from David she fell and when her head met the cold tiles she blacked out. As if trying to mock David, the power came back illuminating the extent of his mess. When he saw the blood on the floor he panicked, he had heard stories about prisons, and they weren’t that pleasing, plus the meals were a complete disaster. Out of adrenaline he picked her up into his car and rushed to hospital.

It was quarter to midnight and the hospital wasn’t far from his apartment. On her way out she drove past Janet without flickering. He went ahead to the emergency unit and went ahead to explain it was an accident. Mary was admitted immediately with some few stitches, and they proceeded to do an X-ray check on any fractures. That day David slept at the hospital and spent the rest of the week there. He had some few shirts in his trunk and a man could go for some days without taking a shower. Mary slowly recovered but due to the impact from hitting his head on the floor, the doctor told David that she’d have a short-term memory loss. David made a quick trip home before Mary was discharged and the security guard filled him in on the parts that she missed before helping him to clear the mess. Daisy’s bra was there along with a pair of earing and a ring. To avoid any risk, he cleared everything he wasn’t sure whom it belonged to.

Mary was discharged and he moved back in with David. Although the memories gradually trickled in, she wasn’t sure if confronting him was her best option. That’s how the whole thing began in the first place whereas David knew what had happened but was silently hoping she’d never confront him about it. What was eating David up was why Mary never made that trip in the first place, but he couldn’t even dare ask her about it. That… was their new reality.