Slippery Slope [Vampire!Riley's Dad x Spongebob x Slenderman [Love Triangle]]

Chapter Four - Spongebob's POV

It was a rainy Tuesday. The kind of day Ballora loved. Tuesdays were her favorite day of the week and she adored the rainy weather. Every time it rained on a Tuesday, she'd take the day off of work so she could appreciate it. She worked an office job. A boring, white-collar 9-to-5 job where she managed finances for a large corporation. She told me she was happy there; she earned more than enough to support us and our daughter in our lovely suburban home in eastern Massachusetts. I knew that while she loved us, that wasn't completely true. 

One day I came home from work early and caught her in our driveway dancing. She was so incredibly graceful. Her movements were precise and sharp, yet smooth and emotive. I'd never seen someone dance like that before. She could've been a world renowned dancer if she wanted to. She didn't notice I was there until after I had parked the car on the street and stepped out. She tripped when she saw me.

"Oh, god, Spongebob, I didn't think you'd be home until-" I ran up to her and kissed her. 

"Your feet are so beautifully pointed when you dance, Ballora," I told her. She smiled at me and we went inside. After that, she was more open about her dreams of being a dancer. I knew she'd been dancing for years, but she'd never shown me. She said her father had told her that it was an unachievable dream and so she settled for less. We cleared a room for her to dance in after that. 

I hung up the phone on Slenderman after a short talk. I took a deep breath. I was running late already.

"Alex, let's go!" Alex came running down the hall, her blocky head bobbing up and down. She had her rain boots and coat on. I took her hand and an umbrella and we walked out the door. 

"Are we going to see mommy today?" she asked as I strapped her into her car seat.

"Not today, no. I have plans to see a friend." 

"Oh..."

We arrived at Alex's daycare. She excitedly ran to the door, making sure to splash in any puddles that happened to cross her path. One of the employees greeted me at the door. I checked Alex in at the front desk and hugged her goodbye. I like to think I'm a good father. I try to be. 

I got back in the car and picked up my phone. My heart skipped a beat. Riley's Dad texted me.

I'm leaving now. The new place across from the record store, right?

I had chosen the place. I'm a regular at the record store, so of course I noticed when a new restaurant opened across the street. I tried to reason with myself by telling myself I was just planning this lunch with Riley's Dad because I didn't want to try the new restaurant alone, but deep down I knew that wasn't the case. I was always looking for reasons to try and make plans with Riley's Dad.

Riley's Dad got there before I did. I opened the door of the restaurant and a little bell jingled above me, welcoming me into the little retro diner. The whole place smelled of coffee and maple syrup. Somethin' Stupid was playing over the speakers. The woman standing at the counter smiled and greeted me and I smiled back. I spotted Riley's Dad sitting by himself at a booth, staring down at his phone.

"Hey, Riley's Dad!" I sat down across from him, avoiding the spots of what was probably maple syrup on the booth. He looked up from his phone and smiled.

"Hey," he said. "I'm surprised you came."

"Oh?" I said, curious. "Why are you surprised?"

"Well, it's a Tuesday," he said his words slowly and hesitantly, like he was waiting for me to cut in. "And it's raining... and I just thought that-"

"Yeah. I know," I hated to watch him grasping at words, trying to get his point across like maybe he would offend me if he said the wrong thing. I wish he knew how much I trusted him to never hurt me. "I just... I really wanted to see you." 

The waiter came over before Riley's Dad could say anything else. She smiled down at us and asked for our orders. I got a turkey club; he ordered a coffee. While I was smiling, he barely paid any mind to the waitress. He seemed pensive. She left to go put our orders in and he finally looked up at me. 

"You skipped going to your wife's grave to talk to me?" And there it was. That's what he wanted to say. The truth was, as much as I loved Ballora, she was gone. There's nothing that I could do but get over it. Wouldn't she want me to find someone new? 

"Riley's Dad, don't be like that. You know you're my priority."

"No, I don't! I shouldn't be. There's so many things more important than this, we could do this any day. I don't understand why you didn't just reschedule." He was becoming so upset over this and I couldn't understand what I did. 

"Ballora's gone! I'm over it. You mean more to me than her rotting body ever-"

"I- wha- what the hell is wrong with you?!" Riley's Dad looked aghast, frozen in his seat. 

"What did I even say?"

"A rotting body? That's all she is to you? That's all your wife is to you?" He started to get out of his seat. 

"No, I didn't mean it like that, it's just-" I was now getting up too, trying to block him from leaving so I could explain myself.

"I shouldn't have even come today. Have a nice life Spongebob," he said, pushing past me.

"What??" 

The bell on the door rang again. I was alone, standing next to the booth with a melancholic 50s song I couldn't even bring myself to try to remember the name of playing softly over the speakers. I couldn't ignore the eyes of the restaurant's staff and patrons on me. When I regained enough consciousness to move again, I threw a $20 bill on the table and quickly ran out. 

I got into my car, slammed the door, took a deep breath in-

"FUCK!" I slammed my hand on the steering wheel and screamed at the top of my lungs. I didn't understand. It wasn't even about him. Why did he have to make it all about him? What does my  dead fucking wife have to do with him? I grieved and grieved and grieved until I found a way to accept that she was gone and he walked out because of it. Not even just from the restaurant, from my entire life. I wasn't going to let him get away that easily. As angry as I was with him, I loved him. I couldn't let him go.

I was so overwhelmed by emotions. I simply couldn't bear to lose someone else. Tears hit the steering wheel. They were rolling down my face and getting my shirt wet, but I didn't even notice until I caught a glance of myself in the rear view mirror. I was a wreck. I was bloated from absorbing the water from my tears. 

I didn't cry when Ballora died. At her funeral, when I finally worked up the courage to go see her in her casket and stare at her lifeless face, I felt nothing at all. I swore I loved her so much, why didn't I feel anything when I was staring down at her corpse? Maybe it was all too much. Maybe it hadn't hit me yet. Maybe I loved her too much; maybe I never loved her at all. When the cops called and told me she died, it felt like hearing a friend tell you a musician you liked had passed. Like it wasn't happening to me. 

Of course, I cried later on. Seeing the empty dance room when I got home broke my heart. I was devastated that Alex wouldn't remember her. I missed her meals. I miss when I would walk into Alex's room before bed and find Ballora rocking her back and forth and singing a lullaby. She had such a soft, sweet voice. Every time it rained on a Tuesday, I would spend hours at her grave. I would tell her everything and sob. She was my best friend.

Two weeks ago was the two-year anniversary of her passing, and I decided that I couldn't stand to mourn any longer. I repurposed the dance room into an extra guest room. I put all the items that reminded me of her into a storage unit. I repainted the kitchen walls and rearranged my bedroom and bought a new sofa. I told myself it was different; that she's gone and there's nothing that I can do but try to forget she was ever here. Get rid of the fragments of my life with her to cleanse myself of what tied me to this sorrow. I prayed every day to just forget, and here I am with sorrow equally as intense even after everything.

Maybe she wasn't what tied me to the grief. Maybe it was me.