Vigilantes

Mike had the entire conversation planned out in his head before he even left the doctor’s office for the second time that day. His original idea was that he’d drive straight home upon receiving his positive test for gonorrhea, but his responsibilities to Billie and his sons demanded his consideration first. Billie was, once again, stranded at the police station since the detectives insisted upon taking him in their car. Then, of course, he had to take Billie and Joey back to the doctor’s office to rescue Billie’s car from the parking lot. It was a lot to take care of for a man who wanted nothing more than to confront his wife about her late-night exploitations of their marital vows, but he accomplished it nonetheless. Billie was, after all, the one he truly loved…not Brittney. If Brittney had been the one left at the police station, Mike would have told her to walk her own damn ass home.

Part of him had always known that Brittney wasn’t faithful, but it was a topic Mike simply wasn’t interested in exploring further. He felt it would make him a hypocrite to ask his wife about it, for he was unfaithful as well. Now, though, he could ignore it no longer. She slept with the enemy and passed along a sickness that could potentially turn serious if left untreated. Brittney could have been considerate enough to tell him about her affair, or affairs, so that her husband could have himself tested sooner. For all she knew, she could have passed on HIV or worse. It was the one thing that bothered Mike the most…her flagrant disregard for his health and safety. Warning him without actually coming right out and saying she was cheating on him would have been enough for Mike to be able to forgive her. Ignoring it altogether caused Mike to wonder whether this marriage was even worth it in the first place.

As he drove his car into the garage of the home he shared with his wife, Mike decided enough was enough. He wanted a divorce. He couldn’t stay married to a self-important liar…it wasn’t a healthy environment to raise his children in. And, naturally, he would make sure she lost the custody battle in every possible way. Mike didn’t care anymore…Brittney brought this upon herself the minute she decided to withhold the truth from her husband.

Unfortunately, though, things rarely turn out the way you plan.

“Mike, where the hell have you been? You were gone for twenty-four hours, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to pick up a goddamn phone to tell me where you were?!” Brittney hissed the minute Mike entered the house. Her whisper was explained by their sleeping infant son in a bassinet in the corner of the living room. Mike snorted, surprised she was capable of taking care of his children on her own.

“So it’s ok for you to disappear for days on end, but it’s not ok for me? Explain to me how that one works,” Mike snapped back, in no mood to be criticized.

“Don’t turn this around and make it my fault. Who is she?” Brittney demanded, her eyes shining with a mixture of hatred and…remorse? Perhaps her feelings of guilt were wishful thinking on Mike’s part, but he’d swear to the end of the world and back that it was there.

“Who? What the fuck are you talking about?” Mike sighed, truly at a loss as to who she was referring to.

“The woman you’re sleeping with. What’s her name?”

Mike stared at his wife, not believing the words that oozed lethally from her mouth. He was the victim of her adultery, yet he was the one being chastised? Hell no, Mike would have none of that. In fact, he managed to grin haughtily, making his answer sting worse than it already would.

“I was at Billie’s last night. I’m not sleeping with another woman,” he scoffed.

Brittney was obviously unable to put two and two together as all malice drained from her face, only to be replaced by relief. Once again, Mike was taken aback by his wife’s actions…or lack thereof. He just confessed to spending the night with Billie, and she didn’t bother considering that it was possible for them to be sleeping together. Mike took this as his advantage, his upper-hand in the argument.

“Would you like to know what I just found out at the doctor’s today?” Mike asked, a slight taunt inflected in his tone.

“Why were you at the doctor’s-”

“I have gonorrhea, Brittney,” Mike interrupted. “Now, would you care to share who you’re sleeping with?”

The color from Brittney’s complexion slowly disappeared, leaving her face a pathetic white doppelganger of her usually rosy self. This was good, very good, for Mike. He waited for her to retort, to defend herself, so that he could continue to fuel his fiery offense. It took Brittney all of sixty seconds to compose herself.

“In my defense, Mike, you’ve been so busy with your new album…and with Billie’s family after Adrienne died…please, don’t be mad…” she fumbled on, still making no concrete defensive strike.

“I understand that, I really do. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t warn me. If you knew the guy you were fucking had something, you could have told me. I wouldn’t have gotten so pissed, but now…Brittney, I-”

“Don’t say it, Mike, please, don’t say it-”

“-want a divorce.”

Brittney burst into tears, turning herself into a useless, blubbering mess. Mike’s goal wasn’t exactly to make her cry…in fact, her sorrow utterly shocked him. He thought she’d be as relieved as he was at the aspect of ending their marriage. Apparently…he was horribly mistaken.

“Just tell me who he was. I need to know,” Mike asked softly, but making no real effort to comfort his soon to be ex wife.

“Nobody I knew,” she sobbed, “just some guy I met at a bar. It wasn’t serious…purely sexual. That’s it. Why are you making such a big deal over this?”

Mike mused for a moment, carefully choosing his words so that she understood exactly the extent of her damage.

“If left untreated, gonorrhea can get into your blood and joints. It could be life threatening, Brittney. Not to mention it could leave me sterile for the rest of my life. What if I wanted to have more kids, hm? When did you plan on telling me?”

“I…I was afraid you’d be mad, like you are now.”

“I wouldn’t have been mad. Disappointed, sure, but not completely pissed off.”

A moment of awkward, tension-filled silence passed between Mike and Brittney as her tears subsided, and they psychologically scrambled for anything else to say. Finally, realization dawned on Brittney’s face…the realization Mike would have liked to see when he told her that he’d spent the night at Billie’s.

“Mike…how’d you know to get tested?” she asked, her voice small, uncertain.

“Billie’s son got it from his girlfriend. The doctor’s office had to test everyone close to Joey in case he wasn’t being entirely truthful…and Billie ended up testing positive. They arrested him, and the police and the doctor’s office forced me to get tested as well,” Mike explained.

“I don’t understand…is Billie molesting-”

“Christ, Brittney, I’m fucking him!” Mike shouted, momentarily forgetting that there was a sleeping baby inches from him. Needless to say, the infant was woken by the frightening noise, and began to voice his discomfort as loudly as his tiny lungs would allow. Mike scooped the child up in his arms and immediately tried to comfort him, his wife gawking at him.

“You…this whole time…you’ve been…?”

“Billie and I have been together since Adie died.”

“That was almost seven months ago,” Brittney snapped, disbelief still written all over her face.

“I know that.”

“I’ve only been with Jeff for three weeks. We’ve only been married since March. Your affair is so much worse…”

“Not at all. I made no effort of hiding the relationship from you. I even tried getting caught so many times…you just refused to see it. Now you, on the other hand, did everything in your power not to get caught, which involved endangering my health. I believe that’s much worse, my dear,” Mike shot right back, declining to feel any guilt whatsoever.

“So this is it? We’re really getting divorced?”

“Yes. Now, you can have the house…I don’t really care. I’ll stay at Billie’s until our lawyers can figure out what to do with the rest of our shit.”

“And Brixton?”

“I’m taking him with me.”

With that final statement, Mike left what will cease to be his home with his son snuggly wrapped in his arms. Brittney didn’t even bother to protest as she watched Mike leave, her singular mistake shattering her whole life to bits. Mike made a mental note of how she didn’t even bother to fight him on who would take Brixton, and he was more certain than ever that he made the right decision on leaving.