CHAPTER 2

  His body was frozen to the spot for a few seconds, listening to her moans tore apart every inch of what was left of his mental stability. He pushed the door with a shaky hand and it opened, he sighed. 

    She was screaming now, these were sounds he had never heard before, for Annie had never allowed him to have sex with her. Her excuse had always been, “Come on, Keith, what if things go wrong and you release in me? I don’t think you’re ready for that stage of life. I can wait for you.”

   And he had believed her, even agreed with her. He couldn’t raise a child, by God, he could barely feed himself, but she had lied to him…about being able to wait. A voice started creating excuses for Annie as he walked into the living room. Her clothes were scattered on the sofa and on the other seat, was the man’s clothes.

  Keith sniffled, every step he took towards the bedroom made his heart ache, but he still saw something in Annie. Maybe the sexual pressure had gotten to her, maybe she hadn’t been able to control it at the time things escalated, maybe…

    The door was ajar, and he pushed it open so he could see them. They were naked, and at first, his blurry vision made them appear like two worms entwined, but then he saw them clearly. Annie was on top of the man, her full breasts bounced as she went up and down, groaning and moaning as she kept riding the man called Greg.

He couldn’t hold back the tears, his shattered heart gave way to his rage and Keith, for the first time in years, yelled, “Annie!”

   Everyone froze, including time. For a few seconds, her lulled eyes met his, the stranger beneath her was startled and Keith could only stare at Annie in disbelief.

     “Keith?” Her voice didn’t carry the shock that her face portrayed. She sighed and reluctantly climbed off the stranger, “What are you doing here, Keith?”

  Keith was taken aback by her reaction.

“Come on, Annie,” Greg groaned in frustration, “Are we done?”

     “No, darling,” She replied, making Keith’s blood turn cold, “We just need to get rid of the thrash first.”

 “Thrash?!” Keith exclaimed, “What the hell are you talking about, Annie? I walk into the room and find you in bed with another man and this is how you react? What the heck is going on, Annie? When the did all this happen?”

    “It’s been going on for months, buddy,” Greg, with an imperious look on his face, replied.

Keith’s face went white. It wasn’t a mistake and Annie wasn’t sorry. This was really happening to him right now, the love of his life, naked with another man and showing no remorse!

    “Annie,” Keith called, she wrapped a blanket around her body now and threw a pair of shorts she had picked up from the floor at Greg, “Annie, talk to me. We can still work…we can still do this, this relationship can still work. O-Okay?”

 He started walking towards her, but she stopped him with a raise of her hand, she couldn’t even look at him anymore. Keith’s heart completely sank.

    “Annie, it’s our anniversary…you can’t do this to me,” He stammered and showed her the cake, “L-Look,” He sniffled, his emotions were getting to his head, “I bought a cake…for us to celebrate. Look, Annie, I forgive you…you don’t have to apologize…everything can go back to normal. Just take this from me…” He offered the cake to her and she looked at him. “Please, Annie.”

   She sighed and collected the cake from him with a smile on her face. His heart lightened, everything he had just seen in the past minutes completely forgotten. Then suddenly, she brought the cake out of the box and smashed it in his face.

     “I’m done with you, Keith!” She yelled at him and a mocking laughter erupted from Greg. “You don’t expect a girl like me, who can attract any man I want, to remain with a fucking loser like you, do you? My mother dislikes you, you irritate me now and have completely nothing to offer! Greg works in a huge company and earns hundreds of thousand monthly and you want me to stick with you? Give me a fucking break, Keith!”

    “Annie,” He wiped the smeared cake from his eyes and tried to look at her, but a firm grip suddenly squeezed his arm and shoved him across the room.

 “You heard her, buddy,” Greg said, the humor completely wiped off his face, “Get out of here before I make you.”

  Keith’s blood charred with fury, “That’s my girlfriend, you asshole!” He yelled and rushed at the man.

Greg was almost twice as muscular as Keith was, but all this didn’t matter to Keith in his feat of rage, but it should have. Greg knocked him to the ground with a crushing blow to the jaw and he and Annie laughed as he dragged Keith’s weak body and dumped him outside the apartment.

    “Your bitch is mine now, buddy,” Greg snarled at him as Keith spat out a slurp of blood, “Don’t stick around too long, unless you want to hear her sing like a bird again.”

   He laughed again and slammed the door shut. Their mocking laughter trailed Keith like an ominous shadow even after he had found the strength to pick himself up and drag his body out of the building.

   It was like a nightmare to him, but the throbbing pain he felt on his jaw reminded him that everything was real. He had to get home, back to his little apartment on the shabbier side of town. He had nothing left in his pocket, he was covered in the creamy mess of his anniversary present and now, he had to walk home.

    His body felt like a used punching bag as he groaned and hung onto the handrail. He had been walking for almost an hour and had finally arrived at his room door. He slotted his key in, but the door didn’t open. He frowned and tried the lock again, still no access to his room. At that moment, his phone rang.

   “Hello?”

“Keith Miller, you stinking rat!” A harsh voice came over the line.

He sighed, he’d recognize Annie’s mother’s voice anywhere. “Good evening, Mrs-”

 “There’s nothing good about the evening, Keith!” She snapped, “You must have gotten back to that measly apartment of yours and noticed that it’s locked. I hope you haven’t forgotten that I have been paying the rent for the past year because you’ve been with my daughter. Now, that the circus is over, you better find somewhere else to stay. Moron.”

  And the line went dead.

The color drained from his face as he stared at nothing in particular. Oh no!

   He had nowhere to go now!