October 2013

  Months later, Lars moved in with me. Our relationship was going so well, I thought it would be ok for him to move in. Lars was happy to move out of his rundown apartment that he complained about constantly. It was hard to get apartments in Toronto, and unfortunately, he was one of the unlucky ones who got a lower quality one. I, on the other hand, was lucky. I lived in a small, but cozy two story house. I had saved up a bunch from working and was able to move out of my Dad’s place.  My place was absolutely perfect for me. I grew up in a similar house, so it felt very much like home.

  Lars really enjoyed being somewheres new. He really hated his old apartment, so being at my place was pretty awesome for him. Unfortunately, there was only one bedroom though. We both agreed that sleeping together wasn't something we were ok with just yet, so Lars took the couch whilst I kept my bed. Besides, like my house, the bed was pretty small as well. One of us would've been on the floor each morning if we slept together. And I wouldn't  doubt it would've been me.

  Time flied with him around. We did practically everything together. Oddly enough, the only thing he wouldn't seem to do was make plans to meet up with Diane.  I really wanted him to be able to meet her, like when I first met Diane's boyfriend, Kevin. It was a bit awkward meeting him because I honestly thought he was gay. The poor bloke looked so confused when I pulled Diane aside to ask if he was gay.   What can I say? The long hair and feminine personality threw me off.

  Everytime I tried to get a time arranged for Diane and Lars to meet, Lars would back out.  It was strange to me.  He seemed so excited to meet her before. I was starting to wonder if he was hiding something. I told Diane about this and she saw it as a red flag.  She started worrying about me and how Lars could possibly not be the one for me, but I decided to give Lars the benefit of the doubt.  Who knows? Maybe he had a reason for his behavior.

  Over time, I noticed how much Lars seemed to not like Diane. It was weird seeing as he had never even met her.  But anytime I went to hangout with her, he got right pissy.  Often, he tried to make plans to book my weekends so I couldn't hang out with her. I didn't understand what his problem was with her, but it was starting to get on my nerves. But other than that, Lars and I were still going strong. I figured every relationship had their issues, so this all had to be normal. No relationship was perfect, right?

  One person Lars did get to meet however, was my father.  Dad was visiting me after work and it just so happened Lars was home as well.  I happily introduced Dad to him and the two seemed to get along great.  Of course, Dad just had to bug me about having kids while the two talked.

  “Any plans for kids, hm?” He smirked at me.

  “Daaadd!” I whined.

  “Oh come on! You gotta give your old man some grandchildren!”

  “We haven’t even talked about that.” Lars laughed. “I’m not sure I would ever want kids to be honest.”

  “I definitely don’t want to be the one to birth them.” I groaned.  “If there’s kids in the future, they’re going to be adopted.”

  “I’ll take it.” Dad chuckled. “I’m just teasing. If you don’t want kids… well I guess I’ll just live with it.”

  “You mean sulk in a corner and only leave the corner to go to the ice cream shop?”

  “Oh shush you.” He laughed.  The man made a huge mistake moving into a house so close to an ice cream shop. The two of us probably had ice cream flowing through our veins with how often we used to go.  Heck, I could still remember Mum bothering him when he took me there.  She would claim he needed to stop giving me so much sugar, but he never listened and kept doing it anyway.

-

November 2013

  It was a chilly morning.  Winter weather was starting to kick in, and I wasn’t liking it one bit. My alarm woke me up abruptly and I slapped it off the nightstand.  I didn’t want to get out of my warm blankets, but alas, I had to go to work.  But that didn’t stop me from taking a power nap. I woke up once more to my alarm screeching at me from the floor.  With a grunt, I pulled myself out of bed and checked the time. Unfortunately, I slept in a bit too much, and only had a short amount of time to get ready. Quickly, I got dressed and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Lars was still asleep on the couch, so I did my best to stay quiet so I wouldn't wake him up. He didn't have to go to work until later in the day. He worked as an accountant, and his hours were a bit wonky because of how disorganized the company he worked for was.

  Quietly, I got out the box of cereal and reached for a bowl. I wasn't paying enough attention, and knocked another bowl out of the cupboard. It fell to the floor, hitting with a deafening crash. It shattered to pieces instantly. 

  "Shit." I swore under my breath. I knelt down and started cleaning up the mess, careful as to not cut my hands.

  "What was that?" Lars asked groggily from the couch. He sounded pissed. I most likely woke him up.

  "Knocked over a bowl." I replied. "Sorry if I woke you up."

  "Just clean it up." Lars replied coldly. "Try not to be such a clumsy bitch when I'm sleeping."

  "Hey! I said I was sorry, alright?" I argued. I wasn’t one to be talked down to like that. It was the reason I got in a lot of fights back when I was in school. "You didn't have to go and call me a bitch!"

  "Well, maybe had you not dropped the bowl, I wouldn't have had to call you one!"

  "It was an accident! I didn't do it on purpose!"

  "Mhm, sure."

  "I - Bloody hell!" I yelled angrily, and then stormed out. I didn't care that I had left the mess on the floor. Lars could clean it himself since he wanted to be such a jerk.  He had the time anyway.  I didn’t. I had to get to work. I headed upstairs to finish getting ready, and grab the rest of my stuff. I was starving, but definitely wasn't going back to the kitchen to deal with Lars again. I was going to have to cut through the kitchen to get out of the house, but I wasn’t sticking around. Thankfully, if I left right away, I would have time to pick something up on the way. That was good enough for me. 

  I grabbed my remaining stuff and headed downstairs to leave. But, right at the bottom of the staircase, there was Lars. The staircase was connected to the kitchen, so he was standing close to the mess I made. He was waiting for me. And boy, did he look upset. I had never seen him look so pissed. Even the look on his eyes had completely changed to the point he was unrecognizable.

  "I told you to clean up the mess." He said coldly. 

  "I'll do it later." I hissed back. "I don't have time to do it now."

  "No. You're doing it now."

  "Excuse me? Who do you think you are?? This is my house! Not yours!"

  "I don't care. It's not my responsibility to clean up your mess." Lars said coldly. "So, you're not leaving until you clean it up."

  Frustrated, I made an attempt to push past Lars and head out for the door. It was ridiculous how much like a child he was acting! As I tried to push by him, he got aggressive and grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me to the floor.  I landed right in the mess of the shattered bowl. I mostly used my hands for the landing, so they went right into the shards.

  "Ow!!" I yelped as I felt the shards impale the skin of my hands, and poke me in the buttocks. Shakily, I tried to get up, and get out of the mess, but Lars had me cornered, and there wasn't much space to move around. A bit scared, I looked up at Lars. He didn't look like himself at all anymore. Not even close. The warm blue eyes I grew to love had dulled down, and were now cold as ice. I could feel shivers down my spine just looking at them.

  Due to not wanting to end up in an even worse situation, I started cleaning up the mess. I knew I was already going to be late for work, so I figured it was best to clean up slowly and carefully so I wouldn't cut up my hands anymore. It hurt to do this since my hands were wounded, but I doubted Lars could’ve cared. Once I got it cleaned up, Lars backed off, and went back to sleeping on the couch. Relieved that it was over, I ran upstairs to clean up my bloodied hands. I was shaking from adrenaline and terrified by what just happened.

  The water coming into contact with the open cuts burned. It didn't help that the cuts were pretty deep, and wouldn't stop bleeding. That's when I realized the damage was worse than I thought. Especially since there was one giant shard that just wouldn't come out of my hand.  After playing around trying to wiggle the shard out, and trying to stop the cuts from bleeding, I decided I needed to get some help. The attempts to fix it were pissing me off too much and I had to calm down before I hurt myself more.

  I didn’t want to go to the ER, but I had to.  I just didn’t know how to get there.  Driving would be incredibly painful and dangerous since I couldn’t move my hands properly.  Desperately, I called Diane’s number.  Usually she worked early in the mornings while I went to work more towards the late morning hours most days. I knew she would be at work, but I was pretty sure it was an office day for her, which I knew she would happily ditch if she was allowed to. I thought of calling Dad instead, but I knew he was working and his workplace didn’t usually let him take time off. I grabbed my phone and tried dialing Diane’s number. It was pretty bloody hard trying to use my phone without getting blood on it and using my knuckles.

  It rang a couple times before Diane picked up.

  “Hey!” She answered happily.  I could hear other people talking and the wind blowing on the phone. She was most likely at a site. I really thought she had an office day. 

  “Oh, sorry, you’re at a site aren’t you?” 

  “Don’t worry. The supervisor let me answer. I know you wouldn’t be calling me if you didn’t have a good reason. What’s up?”

  “I, uh, need a drive.”

  “Where? And why?? You sound a bit shaken up.”

  “The ER. I fell and broke a bowl.” I lied. “The shards cut up my hands and there’s one that won’t come out.”

  “Ouch.” Diane sounded a bit concerned. “Just give me a second and I’ll ask my supervisor.”

  There was a silence for a bit before she came back to her phone. 

  “I’ll be there in a half hour.” Diane said. I could tell she was jogging now. She was always in such a hurry. “Just keep the cuts as clean as you can, ok?”

  “Yea. Thanks Diane.”

  “No problem!”

  She hung up and I made another call.  This time to my boss. I quickly let her know I wouldn’t make it into work today and the reason why.  She was understanding and wished me well.  I was thankful to have a boss who wasn’t a douchebag.  Lars had a boss who was a right wanker.  She kept screwing people over and messing with their hours. 

  With a sigh, I tried to clean up my hands again.  Blood was getting everywhere by this point.  I wrapped my hands up and grabbed my stuff.  It was hard trying to get my stuff without properly using my hands, but I managed. I snuck downstairs, through the kitchen and out the door.  I waited on the porch for Diane to show up.  Like she said she would be, she was there in a half hour.  She rolled into the driveway and parked.  

  “Hey!” She waved.  She was still in her work outfit which suited her quite well.  She always looked like such a trooper in it. I saw her park and I got up to go to the car. She got out of the car and opened the door for me.

  “Thanks.” I smiled tiredly as I got in. 

  “Everything ok?” Diane asked as she got back into the car with me.  “You sound awfully exhausted.”

  “It’s nothing.” I sighed.

  “Nothing my ass.” Diane rolled her eyes. “C’mon, what’s going on?”

  “Lars and I got into a fight.” I finally admitted.

  “Oh.” Diane frowned. “What about?”

  “I accidentally dropped a bowl and woke him up and he got mad at me.  I tried to leave it alone but he got even more upset and shoved me.  I fell right onto the shards of the bowl.”

  “Jeez!” Diane looked at me in disbelief. “That’s awful! You really should be careful around him. There’s something off about him.”

  “You find? I think he was just cranky.”

  “Cranky would be an understatement. He injured you! And by the sounds of it, didn’t even care! That doesn’t seem wrong to you??”

  “I don’t know.” I sighed. “He’s usually a really nice guy. Maybe he was just really really cranky.”

  “I’m not gonna change your mind on this am I?”

  “Probably not.” I laughed a bit. 

  She sighed. “Well, let’s head to the ER and get those wounds dealt with.”

  It was a quiet drive to the hospital.  I could tell Diane was worrying.  She always thought there was something off about Lars, and this was only confirming her suspicions.  But she didn’t want to be disrespectful and diss Lars a bunch, so she was biting her tongue.

  We got to the ER and ended up waiting a little over an hour before getting in.  I thought for sure we would’ve been waiting for longer.  But we were lucky.  It was a quick trip in and out.  I got the shard that was stuck in my hand yanked out and the wounds were stitched.  It was a relief to get that over with.

  “Well, where to now?” Diane asked as we exited the hospital. 

  “Back home I guess.” I replied.

  “You’re sure?? What about Lars?”

  I shrugged.

  “How about you stay at my place for a bit? I’d feel a lot safer if you did. Might give Lars time to calm down.”

  Knowing Diane wouldn’t let me go back home anyway, I agreed and we headed to her place.  I guess she took the whole day off so she didn’t have to go back to work.  We ended up spending most of the day playing board games and watching movies. Her husband Kevin came home late that evening and joined us.

  Before long, I had to go back home.  Diane didn’t seem to want to let me go.  She was visibly stressing about it, but she couldn’t hold me back from going home.  So I finally got home.

  The second I opened the door, Lars stopped what he was doing and ran over to me.

  “Robin!” He cried as he threw me into a hug. “I was wondering where you were! I’m so sorry about this morning! I don't know what got into me!”

  I was taken aback and took a couple seconds to respond. 

  “It’s ok, mate.” I smiled a bit.  I had been right and Lars was just cranky.  Diane was just overreacting about what happened.

  “Did you get the wounds fixed??” Lars let go of me and checked my hands. He looked pretty upset to see them all bandaged up. “Those look pretty painful, huh?”

  “Meh, it’s not too bad right now.” I said. “It’ll probably hurt like a bitch tomorrow though.”

  “Well if you need help with anything, let me know.” He sighed. “Again, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “I didn’t mean to yell at you either.” I said. “I guess we were both cranky, huh?”

  “Guess so.”