Red Wine

15: Tuesdays and Fridays

Twenty year old guy Terri finally decided to give the world of dating a shot. He hasn't dated anyone yet for the last several years of his life, and this was genuinely the first time that he felt happy to have been in a relationship. All this time it felt like women he liked were just so out of reach so he mostly kept everything to himself until his feelings passed - not until he met his current girlfriend now.

Said girlfriend is named Stella, a classmate of Terri in the same course during their first year of college. She was a few months younger, had a few exes before getting with Terri, but they were more of those high school flings that didn't last any longer than a month. Stella actually had a crush on Terri, and the massive explosion of butterflies on her stomach when she got asked out by the man himself.

The two partners were almost inseparable during their first year. There was never a day that you wouldn't see them apart - they both go to school together, eat lunch together, and go home together. It was only the unfortunate decision of Terri that set them apart during their second year of college. Terri didn't feel like the course he had chosen would get him far, hence why he shifted to a different one and started as a first year again. Stella, on the other hand, continued on the same course as now a second year student.

Conflicting schedules between the two lovers were unavoidable at this point; no longer being in the same course and classes means having to meet in the middle in order to get their quality time together. Somehow, they were able to make it work for the first several months into their ongoing relationship, but then came a hurdle by the time Terri became the second year and Stella advanced to third year.

Terri, even before this relationship, has been fond of gaming and certain genres of anime. It was only when he shifted courses did he find himself the friends that he could never hoped to find during his high school days. Finally, some people who actually shared the same passion as him with this specific game! Someone whom he can openly talk about the specific anime genre that he preferred! What better way to spend your time with your new-found friends by playing the game, of course. If there was a window of opportunity to go out of the university for a short while to play - say, the professor was nowhere to be found - then Terri and his new homies would do just that.

Stella wasn't pleased with this 'new behavior' that her boyfriend was exhibiting though. She believes that Terri is wasting his time playing the game with his friends, and that his 'anime enjoyer' friends were obviously trying to waste his time even more. Additionally, with a few friends of the opposite gender interacting with Terri, Stella gets extremely jealous of them to a point of threatening these innocent people behind Terri's back.

During Terri and Stella's second year and third year respectively, the former made it a habit to spend the rest of his Tuesdays and Fridays after class hours with the latter. No gaming sessions with the guys, no chatting with the anime group chat with women in it - just a vanilla Tuesday and Friday with Stella. Nothing wrong with it at first, but even Terri's Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were being sabotaged indirectly - Stella's friends were keeping an eye out for the man by playing the role of 'randomly planted surveillance cameras' all around the university, thus reporting his whereabouts to the girlfriend. She knew Terri would hide secrets from her by sneaking out of the university with his friends to play the game, or still continue to interact with the very same girls that made Stella feel jealous.

Terri isn't pleased with what was happening, but he was powerless against his girlfriend. "You shifted courses so you can do whatever you want, didn't you!", "If you truly love me, then you wouldn't even be talking to other women other than me!", "Why would you fall in love with a jpeg?", "How dare you hide secrets from me!" were all he heard from Stella's mouth. Any attempts to give a rebuttal such as "You're telling me off about keeping secrets and talking to other men when you don't even share how your day went, and you're always talking to guys!" somehow, Stella finds a way to come up with an answer. Terri couldn't.

The man's friends attest to Terri always 'disappearing' during Tuesdays and Fridays, which quickly became an everyday occurrence after a big argument between the two. Even with all that compromise Terri has given to keep their relationship going, Stella was still not pleased. Of course it hurt Terri a lot - she was his first official relationship after all, and it was disappointing and frustrating to see it go in this direction. Terri was left with no choice but to sever his ties with Stella. To the best of her abilities, Stella tried to convince Terri to stay by profusely apologizing to her boyfriend, but Terri refused, finally unshackling himself from the chains that he got bound to.

If you think that was the end of it, even Terri himself thought he was finally done with that relationship, then he was gravely mistaken.

Last time he checked, Terri was still in school and went to take a restroom break in class. Next thing he knew, his entire limbs were tied down to a steel chair, in a dim room smelling like boxes and wood, and a cheshire smile grinning down at him.

"Who said you could leave me, Terri?"