Mr. and Mrs. Pt.3 : $ Sold Your Soul

I thought I was prepared to start a war against Mrs., but I was all talk and no action. I didn’t do much more than make a few snide, yet clever, remarks via Myspace, roll my eyes, once or twice, when I saw her, and, of course, talk continuously about her inferiority.  I couldn’t stand her, but I didn’t hate her enough to engulf myself into a full-fledge campaign to take her down. I had a life to live, but I still cared about Mister. I was confused, dazed and caught in a world where I really had no significant place; after all, Mister had made that quite clear. However, our last conversation had incited an enormous amount of anger that I’d never seen in myself before.

Up until now my love affairs had been strategic. Never had I ever fallen prey to the usual peer gossip most of my friends had been exposed to, and even if I had, I rose above it. Somehow this situation was the exception. It was like everyone had bought tickets to watch my year-long demise, and occasionally add in their two-cents, which I never asked for, and for the first time their words cut like a knife slicing away my self esteem.

“I mean, Eartha got the body, but Mrs., looks better,” An unimportant spectator once said.

Yes, I heard it all. I recall being told to leave Mister and Mrs., alone and let them be,” by an acquaintance of mine. From the outside looking in I was the mistress. I was the female unwilling to accept the truth that Mister didn’t want me, had never wanted me, and for whatever reason, I just didn’t quite measure up to Mrs., in his eyes.

 What people didn’t see, or know is I wasn’t the mistress, nor was I some crazy girl unable to recognize defeat, but I had been fooled, and somehow gotten caught up in a web of lies, deception and unloyaly. No one saw the long letters from Mister of how sorry he was, the call records of late night intimate conversations, or the connection scented through the air when we spent time together. No one knew how I’d reached out to Mrs, who was also a childhood friend I’d thought I could trust. No one knew anything, yet somehow, their opinions had me standing in the middle of nowhere fighting for my reputation and a supposed love. Hell knew not the amount of fury boiling within me, and on a hot summer night in Youngstown I finally got the release I needed.

Friday Night

It was the night before my graduation party, and I wasn’t enthused about it at all. I didn’t really want to even have it, at this point, but it would all be over soon so I would just have to survive with coke and smile until it was over.

It was about 11 pm. Ce Ce, another friend, and I had been driving around the city all night with nothing to do, and nowhere to go (typical Friday night for teenagers in Youngstown). No one was trying to go home so I made a call.

“Hello,”. Mister said. His voice was groggy, and his sentences slurred, but I ignored it because I hadn’t heard his voice in months.

“What’s up?,”? I asked. “What you doin,”?

“Nothin. Where you at,”? He asked.

“I’m out and about,”. I said. “Where you at,”? I asked.

“I’m over my brother crib, come through,”. He said, and like the fool I was, I went.

Mister and I hadn’t talked for months, yet it was as if we never missed a step. I pulled up in to the address he’d given me , and he was already outside.

“Are you drunk,”? I asked.

His eyes were low; his movements were much slower than usual. And he had a sly look on his face  I was unfamiliar with.

“Are you drunk Mister,”? I asked for a second time.

“No,”. He replied. We both laughed at his blatant lie. I didn’t have much else to do so I had no problem with joining in on his game.

Ce Ce dropped me off, and said she would be right back to get me after she made a personal runoff her own. Everyone was into lying that I night I guess.

I sat on his porch, and we chatted.

“You look nice,”. He said.

I had just come from a party. I wore gold trimmed blue-jean Bermuda shorts, with a white halter top that tied around my waist. I had on gold and straw high-hell pumps with a brown bandana.  I wouldn’t have come by at all if I didn’t already know I was cute.

Thank you,”. I humbly replied.

We laughed and talked for about ten minutes when his phone rang. It was right by me, and he was half drunk so I figured why not answer it.

“Hello,”. I said.

The voice on the other end of the phone was a voice I’d never forget.

“Hello, can I speak to Mister,”? Mrs., asked in a meek tone.

“Yea hold up he’s right here next to me,”. I said. I purposely highlighted Mister’s proximity to me.

“What up,”? He said.“Naw, Eartha over here right now,”.

I didn’t have a shred of respect left for Mrs., but I knew even she wouldn’t stand for such lack of respect. I knew seconds later I would hear her screaming through the phone in a fit of rage for his complete lack of consideration. I knew she and her girls would probably meet me over here in seconds to finish this squabble for good, and I was kind of anticipating it. To my surprise, before I could finish my text to Ce Ce for back-up Mister had hung up the phone amicably with her like all was well in the world.

“Naw, I call you tomorrow. Eartha over here right now,”. Mister said.

I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t know whether to smack him, or applaud him for finding such a cooperative and spineless idiot. Hell, I should’ve slapped my damn self. I didn’t know what to do, so I just played it cool, and continued the conversation like he hadn’t just spoken with public enemy number one.

I had to help Mister get into the house. He was stumbling all over the place. I asked his brother how much he had to drink, and my inquiry was just met with a burst of laughter. Apparently, Mister had drunk so much he was banned from the liquor cabinet for the rest of the night.

“What have I gotten myself into,”? I thought.

We managed to get upstairs into a bedroom with a king sized bed. I laid on top of him, and we kissed for hours, while I tried to get a few questions in about his and Mrs., status.

“So, what’s up with y’all Mister,”? I asked. “Is she who you really want to be with,”?

“Who I’m with right now”? He asked, while placing his index finger on my lips to hush me.He was being allusive on purpose.

We laid there for hours, and talked. I didn’t think he would remember much, and honestly I was just happy to get this one night without dealing with reality. Like that Kelly Price song goes “You belong to me for just one night, as we slept the night away,… as we lay,”.

Saturday Night

 My graduation party wasn’t that bad. I actually had fun, and my friends support made it worthwhile. Mister had come to see me alluding to another night cap, and Ce Ce had her mother’s truck for the night so we could go to the festival. I was excited, and over joyed. Nothing was going to rain on my personal parade.

It was late, and Ce Ce, me and a few of our other friends packed her mother’s small burgundy four-seater, and headed home after the festival  when we  passed Mister’s house.

“Hey ain’t that the Mrs.’ car out front of Mister’s house,”? One of my friends asked.

I looked for myself, and that did look like her car.

CeCe pulled around and we parked next to it.

 To my astonishment not only was It was her car, but they were both sitting in it!!!!

“I called Mister to no avail, but he finally answered for CeCe(as if she wasn’t in the car with me).

“Ummm Mister, can you come out and talk real quick,”? She asked.

Seconds later he and I were face to face.

“What the fuck is wrong with yo ass,”? I asked. I pleaded with him, and I was determined to hold back the tears mounting in me, as an attempt to leach on to the thread of what dignity I had left.

“Did you forget I was just with you last night,”? I yelled.

He just looked at me with this stupid facial expression unable to create the slightest bit of an excuse.

I knew I wasn’t going to get much from him so I hopped back into the truck slamming the door behind me.

Humiliation describes the situation the most accurately. My mind was racing; I thought I had lost the war. My friends, will all their good intentions, advised me on going back to confront Mrs. I obliged.

We rushed back to Mister’s parking lot seconds later. I told Ce Ce to call Mister again, and tell Mrs. to get out of her car. I saw her walking towards the truck, and visions of me running her over clouded my mind. She walked with ease as if she had nothing to fear. I wanted to slap her, spit on her, beat her to smithereens, but due to this thing called class I simply got out the car, and used my wit.

“So yesterday you call him, and I answer the phone. He tells you that you can’t come over because I was over there, and that doesn’t bother you,”? I asked.

“We just talk we aren’t official,”. She said.

“Who gives a fuck if you are official or not,”! I screamed.

“He let another girl answer his phone, and y’all had plans to hang out, and he declined because I was over there,”. I said. “So this doesn’t piss you off,”?

“At first I didn’t know about y’all, but you did. He knew about the both of us, and you knew about me so I look unaware, he looks like a pimp so what do you think that makes you look like,”? I asked.

“STUDID, DUMB cough cough like an IDIOT,”. My friends added from the car while hysterically laughing.

“He asked me not to tell you, so I didn’t tell you,”. She said.

“Mrs, Ive known you since we were like 10-years-old, so when I asked you if y’all talked I thought he was trying to play us both, but you sittin up here lying for him,”. I said.

Mister stood there with his arms folded in between us like a referee. I watched as he allowed me to chew her out, and said nothing. One word from him actually saying who he was choosing could have ended this entire fiasco, but it seemed like he enjoyed it. In reality, I think he was only there to ensure I didn’t take my heel and pound it in her skull spilling blood all over his parent’s driveway.

“If he told you to jump off a cliff right now, would you do it,”? I asked.

“No,”. She said unaware of the rhetorical question I had just posed.

“You know what, you dun sold yo’ soul to the devil to get him, so you can have him,” I said.

I got back in the car after dropping an epic and poetic line as I left my heart shattered heart on that street. My friends were full of excitement praising me for handing Mrs.’, her ass to her on a platter she couldn’t refuse. They were  both dead wrong, but I would’ve traded her my moral high ground to be sitting in that car with Mister any day I heard my friend’s voices, but the sound of my pain pounding through my soul like snare drums drowned out their words . I didn’t need any other confirmation of the inevitable. Mister had made his decision a long time ago.

The next day I was got on Myspace to delete Mister as a friend. It was a small step to deleting him from my life completely. I looked at my messages, and there was his picture with the subject that read “Can we still be friends,”?