Ronnie opened his eyes as he heard the front door rattle open. Lola walked in with her eyes on the floor in front of her and a Styrofoam box in her hand. As he looked at her, the room began to sway slightly and his stomach sank. Ronnie turned his eyes to the basketball game on television. He knew how much Lola hated it when he was sloppy drunk. Well, she didn't know what it was like to sit around waiting for the mill to call you back. She just stared at him with the disgust in her eyes that she tried so hard to hide. She sucked the life out of him when she stood there the way she always did, silently condemning him. Instead he would sit there and watch the game. They could both just have some peace.
From the outside of his swirly vision Ronnie could see Lola moving deliberately around the kitchen. She called out to him quietly. He readjusted himself in his recliner without looking up, hoping she would catch the hint and leave him be. No such luck. She called out to him again:
"Ronnie…"
He could feel her staring at him; he cleared his throat: "Yeah?"
He didn't look up at her. His eyes burned and he just wanted to close them again. He watched the figures on the television move back and forth across the court. He could hear her talking but he was trying to hard not to look at her to listen to what she was saying. He nodded as she spoke so she would think he was paying careful attention. He reached for his beer on the side table and took a gulp before realizing with disgust it was warm. He looked instinctively at Lola afterwards, catching part of what she was saying:
"I have to be there Monday morning…."
She paused when his eyes met hers and he knew the cat was out of the bag. He missed the side table as he went to set his beer back down and it fizzed loudly when it hit the floor. Lola was making a tomato sandwich and was cutting it in half with their large forever sharp knife. She looked pretty standing there; she looked tired and older than her twenty-five years, but still pretty.
"Where are you going?" Ronnie asked a little too loudly. He rose clumsily from his recliner, needing a cold beer.
"Ronnie, sit down and let's talk about this…"
He was already half way to the refrigerator and he was getting another beer. She already knew he was trashed, no point in stopping now. He stumbled forward knocking over their free standing lamp.
Lola stood directly in his path to the fridge and it wasn't until he was nearly on top of her that he made out the startled look on her face. She cried out when he reached out to move her from his path. He saw her hold the knife out in front of her but he could not stop himself as he moved towards his destination. The knife punctured his chest and everything shattered into a million pieces around him. All he could do as he fell to the floor was call out her name.
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