Mannequin Tears

Mannequin Tears

“How could you do this to me?” Christy said, annoyed more than hurt by her boyfriend’s infidelity.
Tom coughed before putting out his cigarette, “I told you, I didn’t do anything, it was all her.”
“She jumped on top of you?”
“Sort of.”
“Come on, who the hell do you think I am, Forest Gump’s little sister?”
“Ok,” he began, “it was the last party that Sean threw. I was kind of drunk—among other things, and I started to dance with “her,”…..
“Misty?”
“Yeah,” he said, aggravated that she interrupted. “ ‘her.’ We were dancing to some really fast up-beat song, I don’t know, I guess I was getting a little more drunk than I realized, because she was all over me before I could tell her ‘no.’ And I’m a guy, you know, it is difficult for us to say ‘no.’ For one thing, look at me, I’m not the most prettiest subject in the kingdom, you know.”
“You are…were…to me.”
“Right, that is why you always said that I looked dumb in every shirt that I wore, in every pair of pants.” Tom said.
She touched his hand, desperately trying to find some kind of feeling in her heart, something other than anger. “You know that I didn’t mean it. But, come on…continue, I really want to know what the hell happened.”
“First of all, the only reason that you found out about the whole thing was because I let you borrow my phone to take with you to the supermarket.”
She sighed, “Yeah, so?”
“So,” he said, “I know that you have cheated on me many times.”
“Right, sure I have,” she said with affectation.
“I know damn well that you did, and if I just wouldn’t have given you my phone then none of this would have happened. You know, I knew all about you Spring break trip. I saw the pictures. I saw them, you and that Jamaican dude kissing. He was grabbing your tits, too. I saw.”
“That was Tyrone from school, he wasn’t Jamaican, and he wasn’t kissing me, he was telling me something in my ear, plus he didn’t have his hand anywhere near my breasts.”
“Ok, fine, but I know there were other times. Can I continue now?”
“Please do,” she said, lighting up another of her own cigarettes with her pink bic lighter, exhaling slowly, histrionically, as if in a movie.
“Ok, so we were dancing, and then the lights went down and a slow song came on. I think it was R.E.M’s ‘Drive.’”
“That’s not really a dance tune.”
“But, we were dancing to it, kind of. She kept grabbing my ass. It felt….”
“Good?”
“Yeah,” he said, now smiling half-heartedly, “it felt good. Whatever. That’s not the point. The point is, well….then she kept kissing my cheeks. Then she started sucking on my ear lobes.”
“And that was the point you broke down, right?” Christy asked.
“Yeah, because you know damn well that is my weak point. The whole mouth to ear thing.”
She took a drag of her cigarette, “Yeah, I know all about that, remember the one time I made you cum just by licking your ear.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Ok, well, you know that you liked it. And I thought that it had to be me to be the one to give you that response, but I guess I was wrong. So you and this “Misty” girl, at least that is what your I.D. said on your cell, went somewhere and fucked right?”
“No, not really, first we danced some more, and then Pete Libby walked up to us with a plate covered in pills. He said, ‘here have a dose, on the house.’ I asked him what they were, and he said they were E. So, not having ever done that before…..”
“You went ahead and took a pill…dumb ass.”
“Whatever, you probably would have done the same in the situation I was in.”
“I doubt it, I’m not a whore.”
“Yeah you are.”
“No I’m not.”
“But oh, to the contraire my dear. You know that you have a thing for my best friend, Lou, eh? I know that you fucked him a few weeks ago. He told me.”
“Now where the hell did you get that from.”
“I just said, he told me,” Tom said confident that Lou was telling the truth. He had to have been, why would he make up such a lie in the first place?
“No, I didn’t. That is ridiculous. I don’t even think that he’s attractive.”
“And you actually find me attractive?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“Kind of, good answer,” Tom said in low esteem.
“Anyway, let’s not even worry about that whole thing, because it isn’t true at all. In fact, I think that you are probably making it up that he told you that in the first place.”
“No, not really.”
“Yes, really,” she said, “You got to be kidding me, he has a gut.”
“Well, I’m ‘skinny as shit.’ That’s what you said the other night when we were laying there in bed, and then you laughed because you could see my ribs.”
“Maybe I did, but you are a bit um…gaunt.”
“Well, Misty didn’t think so, because after we took the E, she said that she found me irresistible, so we went into the J.C.’s bedroom and kissed a while. She had some weed too, so we smoked and then kissed some more.”
“And then you fucked her?”
“No, I never did that. All we did was kiss.”
“Right. Well, needless to say, this is over. I’m really sick of being cheated on. First it was Stephen, now you. Why do men do this to me? Is there something wrong with me?”
“You are bland and a whore.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m serious. You are all in it for YOU, too. This relationship was centered on you and your friends. Now that I have a few friends of my own…”
“I wouldn’t consider J.C. a friend, or Kieth.”
“They are better friends to me than your friends are to you.”
“Really, how so?” she asked, surprised that he would even challenge the tenaciousness of her friendships.
“Well, for one thing, Carrie always is saying things about how you suck because you have so much money and you always free-load at restaurants.”
“Whatever, they always offer to pay.”
“And Mary said that you were the one who scratched her CD because you were jealous that Joe gave her the flowers instead of you.”
“That was three years ago.”
He sat down on the park bench, pulled out his pack of cigarettes, lit another one, and said, “Well, she obviously is still pissed-off because of it still.”
“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you and her,” she said, sitting down next to him so that she could look him in his green eyes. “You can both go to hell.”
“Alright, then should we just go back home or what?”
“You brought me here because you had something to tell me,” she said.
“Yeah, I was going to tell you that I was sorry, and that it will never happen again.”
“Really?”
“Really, but now, I realize how selfish you are, to think that I don’t deserve any friends. My life does not revolve around you.”
“I know.”
“Yeah, you know everything, right.”
“Well, I am a bit smarter than you are.”
“Just because you have a high IQ isn’t analogous to being highly virtuous.”
Christy frowned, “I am sorry that I have been this way with you, and I’ll work on my issues. You just have to promise me that you will never cheat on me again.”
He opened his can of soda and took a drink. “Listen, don’t turn it around that you are forgiving me, because I don’t care anymore.”
“Maybe you never did.”
“Bullshit.” He said, in obvious defense, “You were my world, you were everything, at one time.”
“Now, what?”
“I’m leaving.”
“Ok, then, go give Misty a call……” Christy said, watching him get up and walk away, but he will be back, she thought. He’ll be back because I’m the only one that really cares about him. I’m the only one who ever will care. Skinny idiot. Then she put her head in her hands and pretended to cry.