Chapter 6

   Later that night after the concert was over I was guarding a T-shirt booth as they closed down. I felt Keith again. I looked up and locked eyes with him as he crossed the balcony of the theatre. This time I did not drop my eyes. I was searching his face for answers to all my questions about him. His eyes seemed to call to me. I felt as if some answers would be answered soon. After I was released from my shift I walked in to the security suite to gun down. Keith was in there working on a report from earlier in the evening. As I was getting ready to walk out the door he jumps up from his seat.

   "Do you smoke?" he asks.

   "Yes" I tell him knowing it's my one habit I can't kick.

He walks outside with me. we light up and blow smoke out in the cold silence of the night.

   "How was your night?" he asked.

I laughed. I told him about Karen and the guy who thought he could charm me with his dick in his hand. He listened to me and seemed pissed off at the second part of my story. I shivered, but it had nothing to do with the cold December night, and everything to do with his eyes roaming over me.

   "We need to talk." he said and he turned around and walked back in flicking his cigarette away as the door closed behind him.

I stood there staring at the door he had disappeared behind feeling alone and more confused than ever. What the fuck is this guys deal? He finds me on F******k, sends one message questions, disappears for weeks, then pops back up asking me to dance and telling me we need to talk, before disappearing before I can even respond. Again I'm left thinking what the fuck?

I go to my car hating the fact that I'm going home but ready to cuddle up with my babies. I know I won't get much sleep tonight but that has been the story of my life since Keith Stone showed up in my life. When I get home I sneak into the house hoping my ex is sleeping and doesn't get up to start a fight. I put on my pajamas, bzzz bzzz, my phone vibrates.

"Don't be afraid to talk to me when we pass by each other." Keith wrote. I again left it on read. I crawled into bed and my 9 year old son rolls over. "I missed you mommy." he tells me in his sleepy voice. "I missed you too my boy, maybe tomorrow since I'm off and you don't have school we can go have some fun at the park!" I told him trying to lift his spirits.

   I have been working non-stop trying to get us out of that house and away from my ex. Everybody was miserable and I hated that my kids were so unhappy. The guy was a ticking time bomb and the timer was busted so nobody knew how long until it would go off. I only hoped that my hard work would pay off and get us out of there before it did. I missed my kids fiercely but I knew as long as I was in the house, even my off days were spent on eggshells try to please my ex so he wouldn't lose his shit in front of the kids. We had to leave and soon.

The next day I gathered the kids up and left while my ex was still sleeping. We snuck around the house so he wouldn't wake up and want to come with us. He couldn't accept the fact that we were over. He asked me to stay until he got a job but he refused to apply anywhere. He was constantly trying to get me to get back with him. He would argue with me and threaten to commit suicide. We were miserable. We went to the park and we ran into Karen and her son. Outside of work she didn't seem so bad. She could tell I was tired and stressed.

   "What's wrong, doll?" she asked me.

I looked over at her, she seemed like she just wanted to help or lend an ear. I gave her a rundown of what the kids and I had been putting up with over the past year or so.

   "Oh you can't live that way, come stay with me, we will make it work." She told me.

I barely knew this woman, and couldn't stand her at work, but it was the first flash of light I had seen in a long, long, dark tunnel. I told her I would consider it.

   We finished at the park and headed back to the house. My ex was waiting outside when I got home. I sent the kids inside preparing for an argument. It was a bad one. He tried to cut himself with a knife in front of the kids. I called his sister to come get him. I called Karen and we went to her house for the night. We went to work the next day and informed our lieutenant of what happened. We changed our schedules to first shift and third shift. We had to wait a couple weeks before that went into effect so we hired a babysitter for the kids and started carpooling to work.