The Beginning of the End, Part IV

(Ed. Note: Back by popular demand! Actually, back because my friend told me she wanted more of the story, and who am I to argue? If you are unfamiliar with Parts I – III, you will have to go alllllll the way back to June, which I suggest you do anyway, just as a refresher. Even I had to do that. So without further ado, let us continue…)

Well, Mitch wound up fading into my past while Kevin became a permanent fixture in my present. I really couldn’t even imagine my life without him. He always made me laugh, and more importantly, he made me feel special. At this point, I was getting to know him a little more, but there was still a part of his life I felt I didn’t have access to. There were times when he would go out alone, and never tell me where he had been. There were people that would come into the bar to meet him that he wouldn’t introduce me to. And that chick with the dark hair would occasionally still pop up, even after Kevin and I publicly became “a couple.”

Phil’s words would creep into my head every now and then, but I always forced them out. Even with all the mystery, I felt confident in my knowledge that Kevin genuinely cared about me, and figured that eventually all would be revealed. For the time being, though, I just enjoyed being someone’s girlfriend.

On my birthday, Kevin presented me with a beautiful gold necklace with little pearls going around it. I was thrilled, and Kevin seemed pleased. He told me he also wanted to get me the matching bracelet, but that I would have to wait for it. I told him he didn’t have to, and marveled at how generous he was being on my first birthday as his girlfriend. I wore that necklace everywhere, and got lots of compliments on it. The bracelet, however, never turned up. Which didn’t matter to me, anyway, although I DID wonder why he had brought it up if he had no intention of actually getting it… Then one day a few weeks later, while I was at his house, I went into his room to use the phone. There on his nightstand was a whole SPOOL of the chain used for my necklace. I kid you not. You know those kiosks in the mall that let you “custom make” jewelry? He had a spool of chain from one in his room. I didn’t know whether to laugh or be pissed. Obviously, he wasn’t able to GET the bracelet because he didn’t know how to MAKE the bracelet. Lord only knows how he made the necklace. But I didn’t mention it to him – I figured that the bottom line was, “he meant well.”

Ok, I KNOW what you are thinking. “Nobody would ever BUY the whole spool – obviously this guy is a damn THIEF!” And if you are thinking that, you are absolutely correct-o-mundo. But I didn’t care. He stole it for ME, you see. How romantic! Kevin eventually stopped even trying to hide the fact that he was a klepto (at least from me), and I used to laugh at him because he was like a raccoon or a crow – always taking anything shiny and pretty to give to me. But since the good stuff is always locked up, everything he gave me eventually either turned green itself or turned me green. No matter, because whenever that happened, he always replaced it with something new.

Also, as we became closer, I found out more about his mysterious meetings and “friends.” This was because I decided that I would just have to insist on joining him on his little ventures and would stick to him like glue when he was talking to people I didn’t know. What I found out was that Kevin apparently enjoyed to “party.” (For you naïve people out there, of which I am SURE there are several, let me clarify: Kevin indulged in illegal drugs.) Now, I was certainly no angel myself at this point, so that in itself didn’t bother me too much. In fact, I was sort of relieved that the big “mystery” was as innocuous as a little partying. Now that I knew, I was able to join him. A line here, a line there… no biggie. As far as I was concerned, we weren’t overdoing it, and Lord knows we weren’t ADDICTS or anything. It was just every now and then on the weekends. And it was only a few lines of coke. The funny thing was, apparently Kevin used to be in some sort of 12 step program (which he told me was TOTALLY unnecessary, since he was FINE) and now the guy who used to be his sponsor, Craig, would come over and party with us. Craig was a nice guy, and told me a lot about Kevin. And he also told me how much Kevin liked me, and that he really thought I was good for him. That I was such a nice girl, sooooo unlike the other girls he dated in the past. (Hmmmmm, wonder what that THAT meant? What were these old girlfriends like??) Dark haired chick would hang out with us too, turned out her name was Gail and she DID used to date Kevin, but now was with Craig. (Which I thought was odd, because she was like ten years older than me.) She told me she was only stand-offish with me because she wanted to make sure I was “good enough” for Kevin, which apparently I was. So, now there were no more secrets and all was right with our little world.

For the time being, at least. Because everyone knows “a little partying” can take place on a verrrrry slippery slope…