It's Like This by Anne O'Gleadra

Author:Anne O'Gleadra [O'Gleadra, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Published: 2014-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

- 12 -

“So things are good, then?” Shona’s asking, frowning at her just-waxed eyebrows in the mirror in an effort to glare the redness away, “With you and the boy?”

“Yes,” I smile. “Things are good. Great, even.”

“Communication’s a beautiful thing,” she spouts obnoxiously, then, turning towards me, “See any stragglers?” She motions towards her eyebrows.

“None. They look lovely, well worth your nine dollars.”

“You’re telling me. So you and Rylan. Happy and talking and rendering me virtually obsolete?”

I shrug. “I’m sure he’ll eventually do something to piss me off and you know I’ll come ranting to you.”

“You’d better.” She watches me for a second, until I start to feel a slight blush creep up on my neck, like there’s something I should’ve noticed but just haven’t.

“What?”

“How did you do it?” she asks, finally, and her voice is muted, especially for Shona.

“How did I do what?”

“How did you manage to bring up in conversation how he pretty much drunkenly strangled you? I mean, that just seems like it could be a touchy subject.”

“He didn’t strangle me!” I protest immediately. “And we didn’t talk about that, like, explicitly.”

“Excuse me?” Shona looks personally affronted, or maybe worse; maybe just furious.

“It didn’t exactly come up. We were dealing with other shit, like Kya and stuff.”

“So when you say you’ve talked about everything, what you really mean is you’re going to keep dodging the ever-growing elephant in the room and he’s just going to continue doing whatever he likes to you, regardless of, you know, your health and continued survival.”

“Jesus, Shona, you make it sound like I’m a fucking battered wife or something!” I’m getting frustrated now. I know she loves me, that she’s just looking out for me, like she always is, but, I mean, Rylan’s and my sex life is something she’s always claimed not to understand, so why is she acting like she gets it all of the sudden?

“Well, maybe you’re acting like one! Like, do you even hear yourself? It’s always, ‘He’s not hurting me,’ and, ‘He didn’t mean it like that,’ and now, ‘We’ve talked about it,’ and then it turns out that you haven’t. He fucking choked you, Nigh. He made you actually fearful for your actual life and he doesn’t even seem bothered or remorseful enough to discuss it.”

“We talked enough, OK, Shone? We covered that we’re in a relationship, and have been for the last three years—”

“Nice of him to let you know,” she bites.

“Well, it was stupid of me not to ask,” I counter.

“I hate how he always makes you feel like you’re in the wrong.”

“He never makes me feel like that!” I can feel the unusual sensation of anger thrumming under my skin.

“Bullshit. You’re Niles. You’ll take whatever shit people sling at you if you think it’ll make them feel better.”

I stand staring at her, lower lip hovering and bobbing like an idiot. I…I just don’t know how to react. Shona sighs and stands up. She walks over and puts her hands on my shoulders.

“I’m sorry, babe,” she says.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.