Page 1 of Addicted to Love

Pine Grove isn’t exactly a sprawling metropolis, so it shouldn’t surprise me that every man and his dog seems to be inside The Tipsy Cow this Friday evening. It’s a small bar that serves mediocre beer and occasionally has live music, but there’s not a lot of choice around here for places to drink. Mark, my boyfriend, nuzzles drunkenly into my neck, and I shove him away, only for his wet mouth to find my skin once again. I hated when he got like this, all handsy in public.

“Mark, take a chill pill.” I push him away, ignoring the way he hooks his fingers into my jean loopholes and tugs me closer.

“Come on, baby, I just wanna show you some love.”

“And I want to get a drink.” I finally manage to detangle his limbs from my body, and I realise I’m still wearing my name tag from work, reminding me that I wanted nothing more than to go home.

“Grab me a beer while you’re up there.”

As I begin to walk away, I can hear one of his friends whisper, “Dude, why is she even here?”

Did he think I was having fun? Rolling my eyes, I grab my purse and head over to the bar, my sneakers sticking to the floor. Today had been a long one, and all I wanted was to go home, crawl into my tiny bed, in my shitty trailer and sleep. Instead, I’d let Mark and his band of goonies drag me to the bar straight after work. I’d left Pine Grove Galleria, climbed into the back of a shitty Yugo and here I was. It wasn’t like my job at TapeWorld was particularly hard, it’s just today we had to do stocktake and my arms and my back ached from lugging boxes of records and vinyl around. I was in no mood for Mark and his wastoid friends. I can hear them jeering and yelling as they mess around at the table, and I tune them out as I order two beers and grab the cash from my purse.

A pretty blonde woman in a tight black dress and red heels accidentally stumbles into me, making me even more aware of the fact that I’d come here straight from work. My scruffy sneakers needed replacing, but I tried to style it out as a deliberate fashion choice, with my dark jeans and the black T-shirt I’d modified with some safety pins and a few deliberate holes. Being poor sucked, but there wasn’t much I could change about that tonight.

Weaving through the crowd that’s steadily building, I head back to the table. I can hear shouts as I get nearer, and when I finally reach Mark, he’s standing, fists balled up in some jock’s fancy polo T-shirt as they hiss abuse at each other.

“Woah, man, just apologise! No one’s looking for a fight!” another voice calls out, and I inwardly groan. Getting wasted and starting fights was Mark’s favorite hobby these days, it’s like he was angry at the world and needed to get his knuckles bloody to release some of that rage. The slightest thing could set him tumbling over the edge, a routine I knew so well by now.

So why did I stay? Because he was my first boyfriend, the boy who’d grown up in the trailer next to mine and skipped school with me on the days that the bruises were the brightest. He’d taught me how to tie my laces, how to roll a cigarette and how to kiss. He was the only person I’d ever depended on, and I couldn’t walk away from that because he liked to get drunk and brawl.

“What’s going on?” I ask Mark carefully, turning my back to the jock. He wasn’t my concern, I just needed to help Mark chill out before we get banned from here again.

“I got a little something on this dweeb’s jacket. He’s going mental over nothing.” Mark’s glassy eyes tell me he’s too far gone tonight, he’s in a world of his own, balancing on the precipice of insanity.

“Yeah, it’s just beer,” Tate, one of Mark’s friends sneers from where he’s sat. “No need to wig out.”

“That’s not the point, is it?” The guy’s voice is edged with disdain, but it’s low, melodic almost. So he’s a cool guy, huh? “You fell into me. You should apologise.”

Surging forward, Mark growls, “I ain’t apologising to some lame airhead.”

“Mark, just apologise. Please,” I grab his denim jacket, and I’m clutching it tightly, but he doesn’t seem to see or hear me. The fabric is course in my hands as I maneuver between the two of them, hoping to create a barrier. I know it’s no use, but hopefully it’ll make Mark think before he does something really stupid.

“Just listen to your girlfriend. Apologise.” The guy demands, and thanks to Mark’s jostling, I’m wedged firmly between the two of them, the stranger’s body warm against my back as they reach around me to grip onto each other.

“Don’t tell me what to fucking do. Who do you think you are?” Mark’s almost screaming now, and we’re drawing all the attention of the room.

“Just apologise! Are you mental? I don’t wanna fight you.”

I flinch as a vein begins to pop in Mark’s neck. Why was he always like this? Snorting, he all but spits, “Because you know you’d lose, you pussy.”

“Jesus! What is wrong with you, dude?” someone else shouts from behind the jock.

I pat Mark’s chest, trying to reassure him, to remind him that I’m right here and we’re in a public place. “Look, can we all just stay calm and take a step back?”

“I’m not letting go of this fucker. Thinks he can come here and disrespect me, talking smack and telling me what to do.”

“Mark, that’s not what’s happening…” My words do nothing to placate him, and I can feel the stranger shifting behind me, a gentle waft of sandalwood and citrus settling around us. Great, he even smelled like he had money.

Mark on the other hand smells like beer, and grease from the hamburger he ate earlier. “Move, Tammy. Move, before I move you.”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” the soft voice says from behind me. I can feel his breath on the top of my head, making me feel smaller and more boxed in than ever. Why did I feel the urge to lean back into him? Into that cool voice of his?

“There you go again, telling me what to do!” I can feel the fury in Mark’s chest as he inhales before letting go and swinging his fist.

The rich kid releases Mark, moving his hands, and I expect him to try and get in a punch of his own, but instead he grabs my hips and pushes me to the side.

I’m not expecting the move, and I stumble, falling and catching my face on the corner of the table before landing on my knees. But no one is paying attention to me as it becomes a free-for-all, fists are flying everywhere as Mark unleashes his anger on a stranger who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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