Abuse

13

"Where in the hell have you been? I told you to leave and we can get the cheque in the morning. Why did you stay?" Penny asked rapidly to Fin.

"I went out to dinner with him...." Fin said in a soft tone of voice.

"What?" Penny responded in a soft tone.

"I went on a date with him."

"Michael? You went on a date with Michael?" Penny asked while taking Fin's arm and leading them to the kitchen table.

"Yes..."

"What? How? Where? Start from the beginning." Penny stated softly.

Fin started from the beginning of heading to the company, waiting for the cheque to be made, talking to Michael and later heading to the restaurants and finally to Michael's place. Of course he had to include Sebastian calling during the night and how eventually it ruined the mood overalled.

Fin and Penny sat at the kitchen table without saying a word to each other, just pure silence. Fin looked into Penny's eyes and thought he would see disgust, but instead Penny had a look in her eye of love and determination.

"Do you like him?" Penny asked.

"Who?"

"The muffin man dumbass, who else are we talking about..."

Fin took time to answer the question and replied back with a nod of the head. Penny then left the kitchen and headed to her room which she soon came out of in a few minutes.

"I've been waiting for the day to come to give you this. Open it."

Fin stared at the little box wondering what it could be, but decided to just open it. Inside was a flip phone, but not the modern version such as Samsung, but the original kind from back in the days. Fin was confused and looked back up to Penny for some answers.

"My number is already programmed, and I can teach you how to program Michael's to...."

Fin finally caught on that this phone was for safety if he ever wanted to get out of the relationship. Yet Fin never did.

"If you want to leave Sebastian then I'm here for you, or if you want to see Michael again I'm here for you. No matter the circumstances I'm here. I've been trying for the past years to get you away from Sebastian, but if this was the answer I would have already asked Michael to come in the shop frequently." Penny said with a chuckle at the end.

Fin looked back down to the flip phone and thought hard about his life. Leaving Sebastian would be hard and scary considering that Sebastian can literally fool anyone in believing that Fin is suicidal or mentally insane. But on the other side tonight was the very first night that Fin felt at ease and happy. Fin felt . . . free.

Fin looked back at Penny and stood up to hug her, one filled with sincere gratitude and love.

"How do I program the phone?" Fin asked.

And with this I guess I can't really tell what may happen. On one hand this could end very badly for Fin maybe resulting in six feet under the ground or maybe a little hope and Fin may be saved. Well I guess we both will find out, because nobody's story is over until there is blood right? Or atleast death.....

Morning

Fin learned how to make calls and text with the flip phone taking some time to adjust, but finally got the hang of it. Fin was currently sitting on the couch looking out at the town scenery sipping on some green tea. Fin felt at ease in that moment and decided to do something crazy.

"Hello, this is Michael Long. How can I help you?"

"Hey...."

It took a while for Michael to answer, but soon came to it and replied back.

"Hey, what's with the phone number change? Are you okay?" Michael asked.

"This is my new phone....for you...." Fin said in a whisper, feeling that if he said it too loud maybe everything would be taken from him.

"For me? I don't get it..."

"I'm married to a man that abuses me....physically, mentally, and verbally. I can't leave him, because pretty much half of America will know that I am mentally insane because he tells them that. I've tried multiple times and I've always been brought back to him. I can't have friends beside Penny, and that's because she is my boss, I'm not allowed to go out and party by myself or with anyone, But with you I fell something.....I fell the little inkling of freedom with you, and I don't know what this is all leading up too, but I want to see where it can lead to. I know I've been an asshole to you and even last night I just left, but...but....but I think I like you way to much..." Fin released his feelings while also revealing his past and present life to a man that he doesn't know he can trust.

"Would you like to go dancing?"

The question was out, there was pure silence and Fin believed that Michael would for sure bail on him. But he didn't....

"I would love to...."

"Tonight?"

"Sure."

"Send me your address. See you tonight."

"Okay..."

Fin hangs up the flip phone and begins to text Penny's address and lay on the couch. Fin was visibly turning red in the face and becoming a little giggly. And at that moment Fin's phone rang, thinking it was his flip phone. He put it to his face and saw it was blank, and soon went to find his phone and became pale as a ghost when he saw Sebastian's name appear. Fin composed himself and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Fin answered in a neutral tone.

"Now you want to be like an adult and talk?" Sebastian answered.

"I'm sorry about yesterday...I was out of line. You were only checking in on me." Fin responded knowing that apologizing would only help him get back to Sebastian's good side.

"Damn right you should be sorry, because next time you won't be able to beg and apologize." The threat was very much there.

"Now how was your night?" Sebastian asked.

And with that both parties talked about everything that has been happening the past couple of days, with Fin leaving out the majority of events, and not bringing up the certain event of kisses with Michael. They both stayed on the phone to Fin's displeasure and later they hung up the phone. Fin put his phone down and thought that this could have been disastrous if he would have answered the phone and said Michael's name instead of Sebastian and put his regular phone's new ringtone to something catchy so that he knew the difference without having to confirm the right phone by looking at them.

Fin knew this was a bad idea, but deep down he could stand to not know if it was a bad idea or if it was his gut being nervous. Well Fin decided it should be handled a different day, because today Fin just found himself a boyfriend.