Life After You

Arlene saw Janelle leave the restaurant, her cheeks gleaming with tears. She tried hard not to get out of the car and run back to their table and yell some sense into Pat’s head. She started the car and music to a low volume. Janelle quickly got in and fumbled with her seatbelt.

She wasn’t sure what to ask her friend but she handed her a tissue from her purse and gave Janelle a hug. The tears kept coming, shaking from the pain, and turned to sobbing. Arlene was boiling but she kept to cool to calm Janelle down.

“I can’t believe he came all this way to try and talk to me. I told him I never wanted to have anything to do with him after that night,” Janelle said through broken voice. “He’s a fucking asshole!”

Driving into the night on the local roads, the lights and homes were a blurred by Janelle’s tears. All she wanted to do was get home, get in her bed, and go to sleep for the night. Tomorrow was another day, a new start. The sooner tomorrow happened the quicker this night would be over.

“Sweetie, I know you don’t want to tell me what happened, but I am here for you and I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep some of that bottled up,” Arlene said with some motherly affection. “But if you don’t want to tell me I understand.”

Janelle softly blew her nose and wiped her cheeks. She took a drink of water and sighed.

“Watching Pat get the winning goal for the Stanley Cup was the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. I was so happy, I cried, I drank, I was so proud of him and the team,” Janelle said contently.

She continued “But then that night that they won, I flew back with the family members of his teammates to Chicago. It was a non stop party, as you can imagine, lots of alcohol, and craziness.”

Janelle laughed softly, “It was totally out of my comfort zone, but I had fun with the celebration, until things got out of hand.”

As her voice trailed off, the silence filled the interim. Arlene reached over and touched her friend’s knee. 

Janelle felt the tears come back and the pressure. She had to get this out.

“So we go to a popular club in Chicago and I’m sitting in the corner with some girlfriends of the players at a booth. Pat wanted to dance with his teammates on top of the stage. I was taking pictures of them having a good time.” Janelle explained but then she paused again and started to cry.

Arlene pulled into the driveway of Janelle’s home and shut off the car. She turned to her friend and held her hand.
“I’m looking through the camera as I’m taking pics and I see this girl walk up to Pat. I don’t do anything because I’m thinking it’s a fan who wants his autograph. But it wasn’t.” Janelle said, the last part of it like a whisper.

Janelle continues, “She whispers in his ear and he grins. The next thing I see is their mouths meeting as he makes out with her!” Shaking and crying, Janelle the sadness turns to anger.

“I’m watching this, from across the club, like a fucking movie scene, because it’s so crazy it’s surreal. I trusted him, I fucking trusted him and he does this,” Janelle screams, the rage coming through her voice and tears.

“I waited for the girl to leave and I started walk over. The girlfriends next to me were upset for me but they weren’t surprised. I hated that, that put me over the edge. Just because he was drinking and celebrating he didn’t have to make out with some random chick. I wanted to tell him but then I stopped, left the club, and called a cab back to the hotel,” Janelle told Arlene more calmly.

Arlene nodded and looked at her friend, “I’m sorry sweetie, you know people act crazy when their drunk. I’m not condoning Pat’s actions though, it was wrong.”

She paused and looked into Janelle’s eyes.

“You know what you have to do. You’re a great girl and I think you should talk to him,” Arlene suggested.

Janelle’s body language was already showing uncomfortable resistance.

“Hey, running from it isn’t the best thing either, you need to face it, you need to talk to him about it and if you guys can’t mediate it, then you can move forward.”

Janelle knew Arlene’s words were right and that was the right thing to do, out of respect for herself and for Pat. She wasn’t nervous but she was apprehensive. But she couldn’t forget the look in his eyes after she left the restaurant.

Arlene rubbed Janelle’s shoulder, “You should go inside, take a shower, go to bed, then call me tomorrow, we’ll do brunch and retail therapy!”

After a kiss on the cheek and a hug, Janelle got out of the car went into the house. It was late and the lights were still on. She noted to herself that it was a little late for her parents to be up.

She shrugged it off, thinking they were watching a program and fell asleep on the sofa. She turns her key, enters the home and takes off her heels.

Janelle turns to the sofa to see which one of her parents was asleep. Her mom was on the sofa but she wasn’t asleep. She was talking to Pat and laughing.

“Janelle, you’re home! How was dinner, your boyfriend Pat was telling me all about the Cup finals,” Her mom happily yelled!