My friend Emily and I are at a Borders Books and Music over the holidays, and we're eating lunch at the cafe there. I get up to go to the bathroom, but when I get in there I find that someone has thrown their entire spinach quiche into the toilet. It looks really disgusting, and I have to run out of there before I end up seeing my OWN lunch in front of me in the toilet.
The next thing I know, I'm visiting Chris for the holidays. I'm in his dorm room (which didn't look like his actual dorm room), saying, "I really don't know if it was a good idea for me to come here. You never apologized for anything you did."
He doesn't say anything, and I get on his computer. The first thing that pops up is his e-mail box. There's a whole folder titled "porn," most of which contains porn advertisements. There are a couple e-mails from someone named Meredith, though, and they all start out with "Hey sexy!" I ask him about them, and he says with a guilty smile that he's started up another relationship over the Internet.
I say, "How can you know you really like her when you've only talked to her over e-mail?" He shrugs and says it's just something he felt like doing. I also find out that he has been carrying on this relationship for a while, and that he started it before *my* relationship with him was over.
The next day, we're supposedly at his house in Rhode Island, though the house is actually a strange combination of my parents' house and my apartment. Chris's bedroom is actually my roommate Laura's bedroom. There are a bunch of people there, mostly younger kids, friends of his fourteen year-old sister. They're all having a slumber party. Chris goes to work all day, and I'm at his house all day. I forget for a while that he's even coming back, and I'm also able to forget about all the problems we've had. Instead, I'm hanging around in the living room with Emily, drinking orange juice and watching reruns of Dawson's Creek. Then I go to bed. Chris hasn't come back yet; he's been hanging out with people from work all night.
The next morning, I get up before six because I hear commotion in the living room. I go out there and turn on the light: all the kids from the sleepover have woken up and are sitting around talking. I say to them, "Has Chris left for work yet?" and they tell me he's in his room.
So I go into his bedroom without knocking. He's wearing a polo shirt, and he's putting on boxers when I open the door. This freaks him out. I turn on the overhead light, and I see that he's watching CNN. Bernard Shaw is on, talking about a conflict in Iran.
"I just wanted to talk to you before you left," I say.
"Okay," he says. Still in his boxers, he sits down on his bed, turns on his Playstation, and starts playing a video game. I start talking, saying that he's really hurting me and that I don't think he's cool for going out every night and acting like our breakup isn't affecting him, but he's barely listening. He's really into his game.
Suddenly, the game ends, and the TV screen shows something Chris has made on his computer: a timeline of recent events in his life. There's no mention of me at all, though the most recent item is: "Found out that Lindsey from work is madly in love with me. We go to Florida for nine days, where all we do is have sex."
I start crying, and through my tears I say, "I can't believe you! Did you ever care about me at all?" He just shrugs again and says he doesn't even like Lindsey but he just wanted to go to Florida and get some. I start trying to beat him up, but he's too heavy for me and my arms end up getting tired. I leave the room in tears, and he continues getting ready for work as though nothing has happened.
